The Best Day on the Set of "Saving Mr Banks"
Monday, May 18, 2020 at 1:40PM Costume Designer Daniel Orlandi is guest-blogging all day!
by Daniel Orlandi
I had been preparing for the high-pressure two days of shooting at DisneyLand for several months. There were about 800 extras including 250 kids that had to be costumed and the research had been surprising. People used to actually dress up for a day in the park back in 1962. We had everyone in colorful 1960s California finery. When dressing extras I like to give everyone a character — so no souvenirs or T shirts! We found a website where people posted their old personal photos of Disneyland. That was invaluable.
We also had to dress the park employees. Recreating Disney’s 1960s walk-around characters proved even more challenging...
I had assumed they would have those photographs in the Disney Archives. They did not. The park costume department was not at all helpful. As a matter of fact they quoted $160,000 to make just 1 retro Mickey Mouse costume. Only after I sent that estimate to the producers and studio executives we we allowed to make them ourselves!
Once we started the work the Park people wanted to be involved in the character-making. There were some tense moments as they had to approve every step in the manufacture of about 12 Disney characters. But our sculptors did an amazing job and they looked gorgeous. The park and film archives do not actually interact much with each other. After we wrapped I heard there was a big battle over who got to keep the 12 characters we had made — I still don’t know who won!
Director John Lee Hancock with the stars
1962 park characters we had to recreate
Our director John Lee Hancock (who is a favourite of mine) wanted everyone to be on set and ready to shoot the very moment the sun came up. That way we could get as much done as possible before the park actually opened. (Disneyland doesn’t close for anyone — Just a pandemic.) So we had to start dressing the extras at 2AM with the little kids coming in last.
We costumed the families of many of our crew members to work in the scene which made the day so much more fun. With hair, makeup, and costumes done, We assembled everyone on Main Street with Emma and Tom walking on set to do the scene just before sunrise. It was such a proud moment for me when Emma Thompson herself called me out my name; She pointed to the costumed crowd and said “Amazing!”
So many of our crew on Saving Mr Banks had grown up going to Disneyland and were reminiscing at what it was so like the first time they were kids at the park. At 11:00 AM when they opened the park, it was quite a sight to see the contrast of people today and our 1960s dressed up crowd was remarkable.
We actually shot the park scene on the morning of Election Day. My crew and I went back to the hotel bar to watch the (second) historic win of Barack Obama which made it an even better ‘best day on set.’
Previously
• Five Things I Learned from Bob Mackie
• Costume Sketches
Reader Comments (6)
What a lovely post! Captures the real excitement, challenge and camaraderie of filmmaking.
Thanks for the post most people don't realized how much work it takes just to shoot something like this.
Jaragon -- totally. It's amazing to me how much work every department has to do, sometimes for scenes that flash by in a second. At least this is a crucial part of the movie getting the weeks and weeeks of work.
I love the apple dress in the top photo, and it's for an extra. Wow.
Nathaniel- what most people don't realized that making movies is very hard work.
Ha, I have worked in the archives of a major studio for many years and have NO problem believing what you have written about the turf battles over costs, and the "legacy" of maintaining the work. The lower the stakes, the bigger the battle, eh?
And I for one loved this movie and the incredible recreation of such an important time period. Hats off, truly.