Céline Desrumaux, the production designer on the animated film Over the Moon, revealed she was heavily inspired by the album cover of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon.
“I was taken by the design,” Desrumaux told IndieWire. “I could see the inky black darkness for the animation with that simple prism of white light and refracted colors.” She added that, during the early stages of designing the film, director Glen Keane said he had “no idea what Lunaria looks like, but that it needs to be as bold as that cover.”
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Desrumaux explained that during their conversations about Lunaria, she thought, “God is creating his own kind and that everything should be formed from her tears.” She added, “And we expanded from this, developing color and lighting and even the [glowing, gummy-like] characters of Lunaria. They are a reminder of her sadness.”
Keane was quick to embrace Desrumaux’s concept of connecting Lunaria to the emotions of protagonist Chang’e. “What Céline brought was her deep study into China and the little water town [Wuzhen] we visited together. She pointed out the white walls, and I said, ‘Yeah, they’re white,'” Keane recalled. “And she said, ‘No, they’re not white! They’re green and blue and gray and brown!’ She went on about the colors and the reflected light. It was so harmonious with the elements.”
As production on Over the Moon progressed, Keane encouraged Desrumaux to check out the work of painter Joan Miró, who worked with the movement of abstract shapes in her paintings. “The way Miró did his paintings, it feels like music, and it’s full of childlike wonder,” Keane explained. “She made it all come together, and the day she showed me [the first concept] of Fei Fei standing in front of Lunaria with crazy, glowing colors, radiating light, made me laugh and then cry.”
Another one of Desrumaux’s less obvious inspirations was the concert hall for the Philharmonie of Paris, where Chang’e performs the original song “Ultraluminary.” Desrumaux shared, “The curvy shapes of the balcony are really close to our aesthetic of the buildings in Lunaria, and it really gives the feeling of floating elements.” She added, “The Private Chamber of Chang’e is a good example of [the] marriage between the Lunarian aesthetic and the inspiration from Chinese culture.”
The Over the Moon production designer concluded, “We tried to keep the environment vivid and Lunarian, but we populated it with [round, spherical] props infused by Chinese culture.”
Directed by Glen Keane, Over the Moon stars Cathy Ang, Phillipa Soo, Robert G. Chiu, Ken Jeong, John Cho, Ruthie Ann Miles, Margaret Cho, Kimiko Glenn, Artt Butler and Sandra Oh. The film is currently available on Netflix.
Source: IndieWire
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