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Was the moon landing fake3/17/2023 ![]() People all over the country got involved in this film. "I've never worked on costumes to this extent before. "We had to manufacture a lot of the fabric," Zophres says. Nailing the accuracy of the space suits and understanding how they were made was critical to making the film believable, and to bringing its world to life on screen in effect, they became a part of the world-building. "There's a couple documentaries and archival footage that we watched over and over." NASA served as a consultant on the film, and allowed the team to look at space suits from the archives and take measurements, though they couldn't touch them. "As the missions progressed, they got more interested in documenting through photographs and film," Zophres explains. Months before any space suits were sketched or vintage wallpapers swatched, Zophres and Crowley were poring over NASA's photographs, documents, film footage, and archival items, and taking trips down to the space agency's headquarters in Houston. ![]() Throughout both preparation and production, NASA proved to be an indispensable resource not only for the production team but for the costume designers as well. "It was another incredible example of going to NASA and asking, 'I don't suppose you have a detailed map of the moon?' and then they come back to you with 28 maps in immense detail that show the paths they walked and everything!" "You have to sit with those ideas until you sort of find a process that allows you in." The film was shot in Atlanta, whose surroundings are largely filled with lush greenery and endless trees, explains Crowley, "but I went to our locations department and said, 'Dumb question, but I don't suppose you have a large quarry around here?'" Much to his surprise, the crew found him a five-acre gravel quarry that they sculpted into a massive dust bowl by peppering the set with rocks and craters just as they appear on the lunar surface, using the precision of a Japanese gardener. "There's always one thing on a film that requires you to think outside the box, and beyond a sound-stage solution," Crowley tells AD. "But I know if we could get the distance between the forest and the end of our five-acre quarry, and let it go into the shadow, then it was just a matter of altering the shots that you need to alter." Image courtesy Universal Pictures and DreamWorks Pictures. "We created this giant dust bowl that gently rose to obscure the trees in the background, which were then lowered in post with visual effects," Crowley says. But for Crowley, there was one hurdle that plagued him most: How do you fake the moon? For Chazelle to bring that vision to life, the director enlisted an all-star team that included production designer Nathan Crowley and costume designer Mary Zophres, who spent months diving into NASA's archives, visiting the base, and meeting with Armstrong's family, among other laborious preparations. The film begins in 1961 when Neil can barely break into orbit, and follows him through to the Apollo 11 lunar landing in 1969, capturing the development of NASA's space program and the emotional toll Armstrong's unrelenting quest took on his family. Sure to be among the films recognized for stellar-or maybe interstellar-production design is Damian Chazelle's First Man, a biopic that chronicles Neil Armstrong's obsessive quest to walk on the moon. With the Golden Globes firmly behind us, all of Hollywood has eyes on the forthcoming Academy Awards, the nominations for which are to be announced on January 22.
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