Mounting A Monster Epic: ‘Frankenstein’s Costume, Production Design & Prosthetics Team On Realizing Guillermo Del Toro’s “Operatic & Theatrical” World – Crew Call Live

How did Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein differ from all other cinematic predecessors?

Says del Toro’s 2x Oscar nominated production designer Tamara Deverell, it’s the filmmaker’s “desire for us to do something operatic and theatrical.”

Like an abstract piece of art, there’s much to absorb and get wonderfully lost in onscreen in Netflix‘s Frankenstein from its symbolic circular and cylinder motifs (a constant in del Toro’s canon) to its color palette in which red dominates. It’s not your father’s Frankenstein. The source material was a precious one for the 3x Mexican Oscar winner since childhood, his version about the complex relationships of fathers and sons. On today’s Crew Call Live, the movie’s Oscar nominated below-the-line team including Deverell, Costume designer Kate Hawley and prosthetics creature designer Mike Hill (recognized in the Hair and Make Up category), expound on their creative short-hand with del Toro, a process which starts years in advance for the director, particularly on a passion project such as this.

“He comes with his own references and images, whether we stick to them or not,” says Deverell. Caravaggio paintings were a big benchmark in the overall look.

“Guillermo does create character bibles, and a lot is in the script,” explains Hawley about the filmmaker’s attention to detail from background actors’ costumes to props, “All those images in terms of the through lines of religion and mythology, and nature’ it’s all written into the script.”

That Victor Frankenstein’s home and lab, inclusive of vortex funnel, would be in an abandoned industrial water tower — that was already in del Toro’s adaptation. Every detail on screen has a deeper meaning and connection to the characters’ origins, read the color red, which runs throughout the film, represents ” Victor’s childhood brought through his story” explains Deverell. The yellow bands that the Jacob Elordi’s monster wears — a Christ-like significance.

del Toro envisioned Oscar Isaac as a rock star, hence the David Bowie and Prince sensibility in the protagonist’s striped and black velvet flashy get-up, a mix of “old world and bohemian” says Hawley. “He’s a performer: When you see Oscar walk onto the set for the medical lecture theater — that’s a stage.”

Taking the overall visual aesthetic to a whole other realm of luxurious gothic in its art nouveau, the Tiffany’s archive was opened up for the production’s use, a rarity for a Hollywood production. Hawley shares in the video above how that came to be.

Hill reveals how it took ten hours to get Elordi into the creature costume, and how the Oscar nominated supporting actor managed (“one day on, one day off”).

“Sometimes our call time was midnight and we worked the night,” says Hill. It took five people to put Elordi together, and a portable sauna to melt his prosthetics off.

Frankenstein is nominated for nine Oscars. In addition to costumes, production design, hair and make up, and supporting actor, the Netflix movie is also recognized in the categories of Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay (Del Toro), Original Score (Alexandre Desplat), Cinematography (Dan Laustsen), and Best Sound. Frankenstein received a 15-minute standing ovation at its Venice Film Festival world premiere with the applause continuing at TIFF.

In order to realize the depth and scope which went into Frankenstein, check out the following stats:

Frankenstein by the numbers:

3 days shooting in ice fields of Northern Ontario

23 locations in Canada

32 UK set locations

23 Ontario Set Locations

9 long time Del Toro collaborators

119 sets

24 Studio Sets

3178 labor days to build the ship

2830 labor days to build the lab

1200 labor days to build the Tower exterior

6 months to build the ship

15 model sets created

120 construction crew in Canada

24 Set Decorating crew in Canada

1252 Background costumes

53 Stunt costumes

68 unique costumes for main cast

54 prosthetic silicon pieces to create creature

8 people to apply the prosthetics

Prosthetics applied 50 times

10 hours of application for the full body prosthetics