Alfred Sole, production designer - interviews and links

[redwinter101]

This is a fantastic 10 minute interview with Alfred Sole, discussing the Moonlight sets, the look he was going for, the reasoning behind placing such emphasis on the home as sanctuary for Mick and Josef, the overall aesthetic, noir - and much more. It really is a treat. There are also some lovely slow tracking shots of the sets. (We'll forgive him for getting some dates and details wrong - and for somehow believing there was no angst in Moonlight. )

Click on the pic for the link:



Red

[r1015bill]

Oh dear! We must all be trying to bring it up at once and breaking it. I'm getting a 500 error.

I did have better luck if I RIGHT clicked on the picture and choose Open in a New Window.

[redwinter101]

Oh dear. I'm sorry you're having trouble. I checked again and got an error the first time, but it played fine second time.

However, I've uploaded it so it can be downloaded if you still can't get the first link to work.

Download link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=T1HLRXH7

Red

[wpgrace]

OMG that is cool!!!!

Yeah, he missed the angst somehow , but I get what he's saying. These are not goth vamps. They are modern. They move with the times... adapt or die.

I love the comment about they have lived long enough to be sophisticated, to appreciate nice things. And there IS an element of materialism... "that's all that they have." Aside from their memories and their abilities, yeah. Each other and their stuff.

I LOVE how Josef's place is about integrating his different eras... appreciating the antiques, the art, and the modern. But Mick's place is about a sanctuary. Good stuff. Not all that showy, but good, quality stuff, to surround him, to soothe him, to protect him.

And LOVE that he thinks of the vamps as up high, above it all... with the rat race going on below them.

He so succeeded in all this. Cos this is exactly what we all "got". He's good. One of the other tragedies of the untimely cancellation, to me, has always been that those amazing sets never got their due in the industry. Cos those sets were as much characters on that show as Mick and Josef were.

[librarian_7]

Red, thanks so much for the download link. I adore being able to save stuff like this!

I have to agree with grace about Mick's loft being his sanctuary, but I've always thought it was a little sterile. Dead branches and hard crystal fireplace and all...and perfectly preserved, as Mick was himself. I'd love to have seen some little changes as the series went on, and Mick's heart was awakened from solitude to passion.

Lucky

[wpgrace]

Red, thanks so much for the download link. I adore being able to save stuff like this!

I have to agree with grace about Mick's loft being his sanctuary, but I've always thought it was a little sterile. Dead branches and hard crystal fireplace and all...and perfectly preserved, as Mick was himself. I'd love to have seen some little changes as the series went on, and Mick's heart was awakened from solitude to passion.

Lucky

I like that idea, tho I think that that might not have happened until season 2, Lucky.
He toyed with himself, with the idea that he might feel love, all thru season 1. But he didn't really admit it, even to himself, until those final minutes. So I don't think he'd've changed his space until that point. It would've seemed threatening to him to do so, I think. Playing with fire. Inviting bad luck and disappointment. More regrets. Opening himself to heartache. The very things his loft was supposed to protect him from.

I also would have realllly looked forward, in season 2, to seeing what they WERE gonna do with Josef's office. He was redoing it, by necessity. But given that opportunity, what changes was he gonna make? How would it reflect HIS next phase of eternity???

They were so thoughtful in creating these spaces to begin with, I would've LOVED to have seen how they perceived our beloved vamps changing, again, over time.

[allegrita]

Thank you so much, Red, for providing a download link for that wonderful video! Alfred Sole is such a fascinating guy. I loved what he said about the wooden screens, the patterns of light and shade... His vision of the vampires perched above the rest of the world, looking down on it, really worked for me. And as he said, Mick and Josef were well off... and they could afford quality and even luxury, if they wanted it.

And yet, later in the series, we saw the less successful vampires, too: Leo, who looked like he lived under an overpass somewhere, and even Logan, who lived in a basement. Not "looking down" at all. I'm not sure Alfred Sole was involved with the show during the last four episodes, but I liked the contrast between the "have" vamps and the "have nots." That worked for me.

I agree that Mick might have started "waking up" his loft in the second season. If he and Beth did indeed try to make a go of their relationship, I can see her bringing some of her love of living things into his sterile environment. (I thought it was very telling that Human Mick brought in food and more food, and yes, candy for his jars... but no living things. He still hadn't really accepted life, and a week of humanity didn't give him much time to adjust.

[wpgrace]

Don't you find it interesting, tho, that sterile as Mick's loft was, that THAT was where he and Beth spent time together?? He didn't hang out at her ShabbyChic beach apartment. Life and light and all of that... he didn't ever seem all that comfortable, or even to belong, there.

I do seem to recall too, right after the Big Damn C happened, that someone somewhere posted that the alternate ending for Sonata was a shot of Mick and Beth in his freezer. Her all wrapped up, of course. (I seem to recall some comment that CBS had nixed the scene...).

So, supposedly, even if they had showed them "sealing the deal", it was gonna be at his place.

[allegrita]

The freezer snuggling was brought up by Ethan Irwin and Kira Snyder at the Moonlight Con in 2008. Ethan had proposed it as a scene-ending image, but it was nixed by someone (I can't remember if it was CBS, or Harry and Gabby, or Joel...). Anyway, I do think you're right, Grace. Somehow I don't see Mick fitting in at Beth's place. And if somebody was gonna give up their apartment (if they did move in together), I'm pretty sure it would be Beth putting all those birds and botanical prints into storage. But she'd make the loft a livelier place, I bet...

[francis]

At least she got rid of that hideous porcelain dog under Mick's staircase by having Shepard throw her into it.

[redwinter101]

I agree about Mick's apartment having elements of austerity, even sterility, but it always felt to me like his home. What to someone else may have seemed cold or deliberately stylish, to me felt like a gradually-constructed, multi-faceted home. He was comfortable there (even though sometimes, apparently not comfortable enough to take his coat off, but I digress). There was such a great mix of styles - this was a collection of pieces that were put together because Mick wanted them there, rather than because they portrayed something specific.

My favourite things were the chairs: compare the chairs in the kitchen/diner, in front of the bookcase, the armchair, the sofas, the office chairs (Mick's and the guest chairs and sofas) and I see items that have been bought over the years and kept, even when added to or when more were needed, because they were comfortable. I see comfort all around Mick's home and that's what makes the freezer room so genuinely austere to me. This is the only place that is purely functional - everywhere else is somewhere Mick enjoys spending time - not there.

Red

[librarian_7]

The freezer snuggling was brought up by Ethan Irwin and Kira Snyder at the Moonlight Con in 2008. Ethan had proposed it as a scene-ending image, but it was nixed by someone (I can't remember if it was CBS, or Harry and Gabby, or Joel...). Anyway, I do think you're right, Grace. Somehow I don't see Mick fitting in at Beth's place. And if somebody was gonna give up their apartment (if they did move in together), I'm pretty sure it would be Beth putting all those birds and botanical prints into storage. But she'd make the loft a livelier place, I bet...

And bizarrely enough, they said it was nixed because someone thought the idea of Beth wrapped in a down comforter, snuggled up next to Mick, was too chaste. Which frankly makes no sense, unless they really were hoping to do something a lot more overtly sexual.

Lucky

[librarian_7]

I agree about Mick's apartment having elements of austerity, even sterility, but it always felt to me like his home. What to someone else may have seemed cold or deliberately stylish, to me felt like a gradually-constructed, multi-faceted home. He was comfortable there (even though sometimes, apparently not comfortable enough to take his coat off, but I digress). There was such a great mix of styles - this was a collection of pieces that were put together because Mick wanted them there, rather than because they portrayed something specific.

My favourite things were the chairs: compare the chairs in the kitchen/diner, in front of the bookcase, the armchair, the sofas, the office chairs (Mick's and the guest chairs and sofas) and I see items that have been bought over the years and kept, even when added to or when more were needed, because they were comfortable. I see comfort all around Mick's home and that's what makes the freezer room so genuinely austere to me. This is the only place that is purely functional - everywhere else is somewhere Mick enjoys spending time - not there.

Red

I always thought the most homelike area of his apartment was the bookshelf nook...but maybe that's just me.

Lucky

[wpgrace]

Oh I agree that Mick's home was HIS home. He was utterly at home there. My kids woulda tore that sh!t up in 10 minutes flat and then he'd've lost his vamp temper and done em in like Tejada.... but once again I digress...

To HIM, its fabulous mix of eras and styles was, no doubt, meaningful and certainly comfortable and comforting and lovely and safe and home. And Beth apparently felt at home there too. As I said, they didn't hang out at her place, with all it's flowers and padding and pillows, and she didn't seem fazed by that. (Her stuff probably gathered dust bunnies... cannot IMAGINE a speck of dust at his place.)

And that fireplace, well, we alllll felt the warmth and love that emanated from that marvelous little touch.

Tho I also gotta say, that library nook, that did seem warm and comfy and like the place he really did sit and read or stew or ponder or whatever he did when he wasn't drinking from his stash, watching Beth on the computer, or working out with his punching bag.

[redwinter101]

Here's a Q&A with Alfred Sole (from Monsters & Critics):

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/small ... _questions

Red