Design For Life
Going further behind the scenes on the production of Xena, Kate Barker investigates the work of the production designers in New Zealand, whose job it is to turn the visions of the writers and producers into a reality.
Official Xena Magazine: Issue 09
Even in ancient times, the world seemed like a pretty big place.
However, in just a few short years, Hercules went on legendary journeys through Greece, Atlantis, 18th Century France, the Wild West, an alternate universe and the Elysian Fields...
Not to be outdone, Xena and Gabrielle have travelled the length and breadth of the Earth, visiting places such as China, India, Alrica and World War Two Macedonia, not to mention a fair amount of dreamscapes and religious surroundings as well. Both the shows have been to 20th Century Los Angeles, too, which is a long way from the shores of ancient Greece.
These heroes sure do get around, and this is an impressive feat considering that pretty much every land visited by Hercules, Xena and their fellow adventurers is in reality no more than a basic set in a little corner of West Auckland, New Zealand. Through the genius of the production department, one distant land can easily become another with a couple of props here and there or a different coat of paint.
Take the Indian village, for example, which was used extensively in the Xena episodes Devi, Between the Lines and The Way. This particular set - which includes several buildings, two streets and an alleyway - took 10 people an estimated six weeks to build. Once the original episodes requiring its use were completed, the set remained, and with a few minor alterations, it was turned into a Greek marketplace (complete with casino) for the Hercules episode Love Amazon Style.
The Indian village is just one of over 15 free-standing sets housed on a block of land known as Lion Park. The area was once a West Auckland safari park catering mainly for tourists, but was leased by Pacific Renaissance for the filming of Xena and Hercules, and has also recently served for filming on the new adventure series Jack of All Trades.
These sets at Lion Park are continuously being altered and manipulated so that they can be used over and over again, thus saving time, labour and, most importantly, production costs. “They’re constantly being mucked around with,” remarks Rob Gillies, production designer on Xena. “Nothing’s ever finished.”
Along with construction manager Phil Chitty, Gillies represents an important link in the set designing line. “It’s an endless chain,” Gillies explains of the process. “Big Rob [Tapert, executive producer] has a bright idea, and he colludes with his colleagues, the scriptwriters, and they make it even brighter. Then they dish it all out onto us, and in terms of script paper, it rains down on us like confetti.
“I read it, then Phil reads it, then we cover it in insane scribbles that pass for drawings. It’s only when we come here and are confronted with the reality of it...”
As Gillies talks, we are standing in the middle of an empty warehouse, soon to be a full-blown ready-to-shoot set. “This is as bad as it gets,” Gillies assures me, “compared to where it's all done and looking good, and the actors are all in their costumes and the whole look’s complete. This is the reality of our world.”
This time last week, says Chitty, the reality was completely different. “Last week, this whole thing was actually a shootable, Xena-type set. It was a big dungeon.
Later, the room will be used for the newest production, Cleopatra 2525. It's hard to imagine, though - right now, it's just a whole lot of empty space.
Compared with constructing an entire village, one room doesn't seem that much work. However, even the indoor sets are moved around and recycled as much as time will allow. Gillies and the team are responsible for that, too. “I take a calculated punt on how much time there is to do something,” Gillies says. “Then the time and the money determine what we can do. It’s the money in the sense of how many people can work; if they say we've got a week to do it, it’ll be a week. If we’ve got a fortnight, it'll be a fortnight. We always run to our maximum allowed time, mainly because we have all the other things going on at the same time. That determines the level of detail you can get out of it.”
This “detail” often includes the quirky little anachronisms that have given Hercules and Xena much of their light-hearted flavour. Gillies points out that like everything else, this is truly a group effort. “I design - I do all the scribbles - and I work with the producers and directors, who tell us what to do for each show. Then they get the props list and add all this stuff to it, and get a flavour. They make everything with a liberal amount of care and attention. We have a system where people can come in and add their little things, and that’s what makes it work.
“All I do is throw a ball up in the air, and then along come the [set] dressers and the art director on the set, and they add all their stuff as well. So I like to think that we’re sort of jamming on a theme... like a little band at a wedding.”
“It’s like a conga,” Chitty chips in.
Gillies agrees. “Like a conga gone wrong, at a party…”
Together, Gillies and Chitty make a great double act. Having worked together before, they have ended up side-by-side here too, simultaneously dressing sets on Hercules and Xena while both shows were in production. With a wink in his eye. Chilly quips, “we’re cross-dressers!”
Even though Hercules has now wrapped, most of the remaining sets - especially those out at Lion Park - aren’t going anywhere in a hurry. As both Xena and Hercules inhabit what Gillies calls “the same pre-Hellenic funky world”, it’s easier to utilise the philosophy of recycling that comes with this job. “We’ve got a lot of stuff now,” he explains, “because we never throw anything away. That comes from the mentality that we are very small here [in New Zealand], so we always recycle. We’ll pull the nails out of something and clean it up and use it again.
“We’re continuously recycling, reworking sets to accomplish the new things that we need to accomplish. I never want to throw anything away! In our world, we use everything. It’s a recycled world.”
So even the props get recycled, too? Gillies nods. “Even if they’re bent swords, they’ll come back and go into the Bent Swords box to be used for any bent sword episodes that might be coming up.”
This production team is also responsible for the design of Pacific Renaissance's other new half-hour series, the futuristic Cleopatra 2525. “For Cleopatra it’s easier,” Gillies says. “There’s a lot more recyclable things we can use. In the future, there’s likely to be a lot more industrially-made stuff, so it’s easier. We can recycle industrial waste from the world we live in; that’s saving the planet as well as saving the budget!”
Gillies and Chitty obviously love their work. After all, they are the people who get to invent the world that millions of people get to see. “Our area is the world of inanimate objects and settings,” says Gillies. “We play with all the things in that world, and it can be a little anachronistic, but it’s interesting. Then along come the characters and populate it and bring it to life. It’s great fun.”
It certainly sounds like great fun. Luckily, the audience gets to enjoy the finished product: the result of a very talented bunch of people setting the scene for more adventure.