{"id":20374,"date":"2015-02-06T16:49:23","date_gmt":"2015-02-06T15:49:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brabbu.com\/blog\/?p=20374"},"modified":"2015-02-07T20:38:02","modified_gmt":"2015-02-07T19:38:02","slug":"elle-decor-exclusive-interview-with-scott-baker-50-shades-set-designer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brabbu.com\/blog\/2015\/02\/elle-decor-exclusive-interview-with-scott-baker-50-shades-set-designer\/","title":{"rendered":"ELLE Decor Exclusive Interview With Scott Baker, Fifty Shades Set Designer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

How cool can be the job of setting the sexiest movie of the year? For design geeks, C. Scott Baker\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0has the coolest job in the film industry. BRABBU<\/strong><\/a> agrees! He\u2019s known for Alice in the Wonderland, Avatar and Bridesmaids sets.\u00a0In a few days we all can see his work in the hotly-anticipated Fifty\u00a0Shades of Grey movie<\/a><\/strong>, out on Valentine\u2019s Day. Baker<\/a>\u00a0is currently working on the third installment of the Divergent triology, Allegient, but he took some time to tell to\u00a0ELLE DECOR\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0what it was like to design for the movie version of\u00a0E.L. James<\/a>\u2018 beloved naughty novel about the extreme love affair between high-powered CEO Christian Grey and college student Anastasia Steele. BRABBU shows you everyhing!<\/p>\n

\"ELLE<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO:\u00a0See inside Christian Grey\u2019s apartment in \u201cFifty Shades of Grey\u201d<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"ELLE<\/a><\/p>\n

ELLE DECOR<\/a>:\u00a0Had you read the book when you were approached about the project?<\/p>\n

C. Scott Baker<\/a>:\u00a0I actually read the script first. Often when a book is adapted into screenplay a lot of things have to be glossed over or skipped, and I didn\u2019t want to taint my idea of what the idea of the vision of the movie should be. I read the book after.<\/p>\n

ED<\/a>:\u00a0How did you get involved with the movie?<\/p>\n

CSB:<\/a>\u00a0I\u00a0initially spoke with [Production Designer] David Wasco in July of 2013, and we went back and forth on the phone for a bit. I was excited to work with him. He and his wife [Set Decorator Sandy Reynolds-Wasco] are phenomenally talented.<\/p>\n

\"ELLE<\/a><\/p>\n

ED:<\/a>\u00a0How do you approach the design process?<\/p>\n

CSB<\/a>:\u00a0I would say one of the most important things is to understand who these people are who are going to inhabit the spaces you\u2019re designing. One of the things I do is write a design brief, get to know the characters, and do a little psychological study about who they are. Often the sets can become characters in their own right, so it\u2019s important to understand the backstory of the spaces you create. Christian is very interesting and compelling character. Understanding who he is and what they story is saying about his person informs his environment.<\/p>\n

\"ELLE<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO:\u00a0Valentine\u2019s Day Best Gifts: 50 Shades of Grey Inspiration\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Fifty Shades of Grey Movie set decor\"<\/a> ED<\/a>:\u00a0What kind of feel did you want for Christian\u2019s apartment?<\/p>\n

CSB<\/a>:\u00a0Definitely an incredibly modern \u2013 I wouldn\u2019t say cold, but impersonal \u2013 controlled environment. The interesting part was creating enough clues to his personality in the design so it doesn\u2019t feel completely static, like a model house. [Director] Sam [Taylor-Wood] is an artist, and she was particular about what kind of art Christian would have. Everything on screen is a very deliberate choice.<\/p>\n

ED<\/a>:\u00a0What about the Red Room of Pain?<\/p>\n

CSB<\/a>:\u00a0The color is a lot stronger there than in other rooms. The main thing is we wanted it to feel both sensual and masculine \u2013 the things he likes in his heart more than the projection he wants to portray. It was very important that we got it right, and it was the longest design work on the movie from beginning to completion. I think the time we spent paid off. I don\u2019t think anyone is going to be disappointed.<\/p>\n

\"ELLE ED:<\/a>\u00a0How did you make sure you got it right?<\/p>\n

CSB<\/a>:\u00a0A couple of advisers in the BDSM scene were brought on to work with the director and production designers. We were very interested in making sure we weren\u2019t doing things that the [BDSM] community would flag as wrong. We wanted it to feel authentic.<\/p>\n

ED:<\/a>\u00a0Was Christian\u2019s home a set or was it in an apartment building?<\/p>\n

CSB:\u00a0<\/a>Those were all sets we built on a soundstage. His apartment and living room and kitchen were on one stage, the bedroom suite on another, and the hallway to redroom and Ana\u2019s room on another. \"ELLE<\/a><\/p>\n

ED<\/a>:\u00a0How do you make a room sexy?<\/p>\n

CSB<\/a>:\u00a0As a designer, I feel that design is very sexy, but a lot of people may not have the same response when they see something well designed. Modern design is typically a very reduced style, I think when it\u2019s done well it\u2019s sexy. Most of the choices in his apartment were made to reflect his character more than make a particular design statement. In the red room we used leather tiles on the floor, which is a little unexpected. If I had his apartment to design for myself or a client, I would have made very different choices. But you\u2019re designing for the camera instead for a client, so there\u2019s some freedom and restrictions there. The most interesting spaces to me are ones that lead your eye.<\/p>\n

Are you curious about Fifty Shades of Grey Playroom?
\nWe are! Don\u2019t loose the opportunity to know more in the next articles<\/p>\n

Source:\u00a0Elle Decor<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How cool can be the job of setting the sexiest movie of the year? For design geeks, C. Scott Baker\u00a0\u00a0has the coolest job in the film industry. BRABBU agrees! He\u2019s known for Alice in the Wonderland, Avatar and Bridesmaids sets.\u00a0In a few days we all can see his work in the hotly-anticipated Fifty\u00a0Shades of Grey […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":275,"featured_media":20407,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[148,4863,418,4748,4865,4853,4864],"class_list":["post-20374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-brabbu","tag-christians-apartment","tag-elle-decor","tag-fifty-shades-of-grey","tag-fifty-shades-set-designer","tag-interview-with-scott-baker","tag-red-room-of-pain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brabbu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brabbu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brabbu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brabbu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/275"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brabbu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brabbu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brabbu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brabbu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brabbu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brabbu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}