Written by Katherine Severin. Photo by Ally Abruscato.
The duo that brought the world of Barbie to life, production designer Sarah Greenwood and set decorator Katie Spencer, were honored yesterday with the Outstanding Achievement in Production Design Award during the Savannah Film Festival’s screening of “Barbie.”
These two brilliant women worked together on several notable films including “Beauty and the Beast” (2017), “Sherlock Holmes” (2009) and “Atonement” (2007). Their most recent project, “Barbie,” was a stunning display of how art can transport an audience to an imaginary world.
After the film, they were joined by Variety senior artisans editor, Jazz Tangcay, on stage for a Q&A, where they delved into the research that went into designing Barbieland. “One of the first things we did was define what ‘doll’ meant,” said Greenwood. “It really was about playing with the real dream house. Once you start to understand what it’s like to be [a] toy, that’s when we started to understand what this world had to be.”
It was amazing. The pink would glow when the doors opened and light would come streaming out of the soundstage like something out of a sci-fi.
The lack of walls in the Dreamhouse allows for beautiful camera shots, choreography and storytelling throughout the film. However, building a house without walls posed one of the biggest challenges for the production design team. “There was a question of the camera looking at the house going down, going up, and through the other Barbie houses and what the shots be like looking back down and around,” said Spencer. “It was fundamentally a very odd thing to learn the absence of two things was as important as what you put in the space between them.”
What about Weird Barbie’s Dreamhouse? Well, Greenwood explained that just like how Weird Barbie was created from a regular Barbie, so was her house. “It started off as a dream house but then got crushed a bit and wonky a bit,” said Greenwood. “There was not a single right angle in [Weird Barbie’s] house. It was fun.”
During the panel, we never found out if this production truly caused a pink paint shortage but the duo did touch on the color palette. If you have ever had to paint something, you know that picking the right shade or tint of color takes a lot of effort. The pair started off with over 70 shades of pink and managed to work their pickings down to 12 different shades. A lot of consideration was put into how those selected pinks affected the other colors used on the set as well as the skin tones of actors. Greenwood said much of the set had to be wrapped in gray felt during filming to create a neutral bounce for lighting. Spencer added, “It was amazing. It was on a soundstage on the south side of London in the winter, which is usually very dark, but the pink would glow when the doors opened and light would come streaming out of the soundstage like something out of a sci-fi.”
Barbie’s world of pink is no small feat for this incredible duo. Everyone can agree that they deserve every bit of recognition for their work on “Barbie.”
