Guillermo del Toro: Crafting Pinocchio

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Church Set

ShadowMachine. Church Set. 2019

Brass, steel, plywood, MDF, plyurethane resin, polystyrene, and epoxy. Courtesy Netflix Physical Assets & Archives. Installation view of Guillermo del Toro: Crafting Pinocchio, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, December 11, 2022 – April 15, 2023. © 2022 The Museum of Modern Art. Photo: Emile Askey

Director, Guillermo del Toro: The church is one of the central sets in the movie. We wanted to do a church that felt handmade by members of the town. But also, you're going to see little details on the stained glass windows from Pan's Labyrinth.

Co-Production Manager, Curt Enderle: For me, it’s always reference-based. And you know, we found these images from medieval churches that had essentially monsters in the stained glass, and they were this close to something that Guillermo would do anyway. I was like, "What if we just incorporated some of his monsters?"

Art Director, Rob DeSue: We had to put something in the window. This just helped us solve that in a subtle way and so the pale man is up there.

Curt Enderle: We very much wanted everything to feel like it’s all part of a cohesive world. And so we had developed color palettes in terms of how, not necessarily different sets would feel, but definitely elements of our world.

Guillermo del Toro: Most of the movie is imbued with the greens, very saturated golds. We wanted it to feel very candle-lit, very fire-lit. It’s a very warm movie.

Director of Photography, Frank Passingham: With something like the church, you're really looking at creating an environment that is real. So, a lot of the lighting is naturalistic. But then we sort of boost the colors, just to convey the emotion and to help to tell a story.