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Locations, Real & Otherwise |
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| Memoirs of An Invisible Man takes place in San Francisco, where the production filmed on location for two-and-a-half weeks. "San Francisco is a romantic city in which mist and fog create the effect of obscuring things that you know are right in front of you," says producer DAN KOLSRUD. "It’s a kind of metaphor for Nick’s own invisibility. Also, the city looks great on screen, which was a big factor in our choice." One of the problems encountered by the production involved the legendary changing weather of the Bay City, however. Perched atop specially constructed scaffolding on the roof of a high-rise office building, the cast and crew weathered several nights of cold air and heavy rainfall. While rain can often be written into a film’s story when it occurs, such was not the case with Memoirs of An Invisible Man. Because the Invisible Man’s outline becomes visible when rain falls on him, it was crucial to the story line that his scenes be shot under dry conditions unless specified otherwise. For a few days, filming was done virtually between raindrops. In addition to several locations used in and around both San Francisco and Los Angeles, certain sets required the special controls of a soundstage. For these, a variety of stages at the Warner Bros. Studios lot in Burbank, California were used. The most impressive was production designer LARRY PAULL’s semi-invisible Magnascopics Building, created on Stage 16. Stage 16 has a unique pit area, often used as a water tank for underwater scenes so the floor-to-ceiling dimensions of the stage made it the right choice for the huge Magnascopics set constructed there. The challenge presented to Paull was to create a six-story building, simple in form…and to make part of it go away. After a lot of testing and experimentation, Paull and his team, which included Academy Award-winning set decorator RICK SIMPSON, came up with a sculptural design concept whereby they added layers of settings beyond the initial area where the action takes place. Structural steel cables, rarity in set construction, were attached to the permanents of the stage and covered in black velvet to hang the various floating floors of the building. "We wanted to create interest way out there, not just in the foreground," Paull explains. "As you cut away part of each floor, you see a building articulated so carefully that it shows all these different levels and different holes—the negative and positive spaces in the building after the explosion has occurred." Paull concludes, "To make this work is the most important visual task of the whole film, because if it’s not set up right and the audience doesn’t buy the partially invisible environment, then they won’t accept the fact that Nick Halloway is a man who is invisible." Director Carpenter was very happy with the finished product, likening it to being inside a Salvador Dali painting. "One thing about the set that was so unique," he says, "is that when you look at it, it’s a building that’s half-visible, half-invisible and it’s disorienting to the eye. That’s exactly what the scene would be, because the audience is discovering what the scene should be, because the audience is discovering what the main character is discovering—that he’s in this incredible nightmare and he’s invisible. The building is partially there and partially not there—kind of like what happens to Nick’s life." |
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About the Story... |
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About the Production... |
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Creating an Illusion... |
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