For Damien Chazelle’s “Babylon,” the extravagant new epic set in the silent era of Hollywood, an astonishing 120 locations were used. They included a dusty, undeveloped Wilshire Blvd.; mansions and castles with nocturnal parties inside; beautiful theaters, movie sets and studio back lots; and a war movie battlefield. Many of these can be glimpsed in the exclusive video (above), which highlights the enormous ambition and scope of production designer Florencia Martin (“Licorice Pizza,” “Blonde”).
She remembers the experience, as repeated by “Babylon” star Diego Cala, as akin to building a sandbox for the film’s actors, including Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt, to perform.
“The movie was alive and moving and kinetic while we were making it,” Martin explained to TheWrap. “Truly, this experience was so epic and we had so many sets to build, then shoot, and then move on to the next one. Diego Calva sent me a lovely message after watching the movie, where he said, “Thank you for creating such an immersive world for us to play in.” That’s really what we felt we were doing.”
In the article, Oscar winner Chazelle (“La La Land”) notes: “Florence had a crazy challenge with this movie. not just recreate [1920s] Los Angeles, but within that, recreating every studio experience, and within that, recreating every fictional movie set. You are talking about sets within sets within sets.”
In a historically accurate sequence told through Chazelle’s favorite long takes and 360-degree pans, audiences are fully immersed in an open-air movie set, complete with half a dozen silent-era sets. , all built a few meters away. Martin and his team recreated everything from scratch in the desert town of Piru, California. “I was completely devastated,” he says in the video, “and what Hollywood and the studios looked like in the silent era.”
And that was just the first week of production in the summer of 2021. It was also just the first of 120 locations that Martin and his team would create or modify for the film. As he says in the short film, “‘Babylon’ is on the scale of these iconic movies you’ve heard about in the past.”
For much more, including looks at actors Pitt, Robbie, Calva, Jean Smart, Jovan Adepo and Tobey Maguire, check out the video above.
“Babylon” opens exclusively in theaters on December 23.