Reverend Mother Ramallo
Lady Jessica and grandson Leto
A Navigator
A Heighliner spaceship folding space
THE SPACING GUILD
The Navigators of the Spacing Guild are the most mysterious players in the Dune saga. The Guild was the second mental-physical training school established after the Butlerian Jihad. (The Bene Gesserit was the first.) The Guild managed to use Spice to learn how to manipulate space and time and achieve faster-than-light travel. As a result, the genetically manipulated Guild Navigators were able to step in and do what computers had done, before they were outlawed. They are the only ones who have this ability and therefore control interstellar space travel. It is a secret they jealously guard and use to maintain an important position of power in the Imperium. When contracted to move a ship a vast distance through space in days (where other methods would take years), the travelers they transport are sealed in their vessel and never even see the Guild Navigator that controls their vessel.
A Spacing Guild Representative
Spice, which is found only on Arrakis, is vital to the Guild's mastery of space. Spice has qualities vital to unleashing certain mental abilities and affects the space-time awareness center in the brain. One can only assume the vast quantities of Spice that are ingested by Guild Navigators to perceive space-time in hyperspace in order to move interstellar ships vast distances in short periods of time. Its use in space travel is what makes the Spice such a vital, sought-after organic compound of incredible valuable.
In Frank Herbert's novel Dune, the Spacing Guild is mentioned but they remain a mysterious off-stage presence. In the book, when the House Atreides is transported from Caladan to Arrakis, it occurs between chapters. This would not have been as effective on screen. What follows are four pages of the visual effects storyboard from the mini-series, which demonstrates how a Guild Navigator (portrayed as being an alien-looking being with some general human characteristics) navigates a Heigh-liner between the stars. It's a scene not found in the novel.
A Navigator puppet
Left: Miljen "Kreka" Kljakovic; middle: John Harrison
PRODUCTION DESIGNER MILJEN "KREKA" KLJAKOVIC
The Production Designer on "Frank Herbert’s Dune" is Miljen Kljakovic, better known as "Kreka."
"In August of 1999, Kreka joined me in Los Angeles," said director John Harrison. "We sat outside in the hot California sun for two weeks thinking about life on Dune, what kind of place it would be, how people would survive there. What would they eat? What kind of tools did they use? Herbert created this wonderfully complex universe of the ancient and the futuristic, of the feudal and the corporate. How were we going to manifest such a complicated vision?
Production sketch by Kreka
"Every day we would talk and speculate. Kreka would draw and sketch until we finally had a workable scheme for the entire production. Kaitain where the Emperor lives, is very art nouveau, very elegant with lots of golds and purples. The planet Geidi Prime where the Harkonnen live has red as its predominant color and is also defined by the jagged angles of its architecture that suggest one might actually hurt oneself brushing up against it. Arrakis, or Dune, is a desert world, of course. The palace in the city of Arrakeen is this elegant Moroccan-style palace which has stood for centuries in the middle of nowhere. The way Kreka designed it, you feel that it is an ancient place. Kreka crafted a very stylized look for each of the planets."
Production sketch by Kreka
Kreka also worked closely with cinematographer Vittorio Storaro to coordinate and compliment in the sets the thematic color schemes Vittorio would be using for the lighting. The alien realms of the miniseries allowed Kreka to use his imagination to its fullest when it came to designing the sets. He also designed something different for each of the palaces.
A Space Guild representative in the Emperor's library
"When you say a palace you usually think about big, huge columns and very ornamental lighting," he said. "But for this mini-series I wanted to do something really strange. So in the palace on Arrakis, the columns contain lights inside a special glass because I didn't want to put the usual chandeliers or other lights."
He takes pride in the level of workmanship his crew displayed on the mini-series. Pointing to a wall, he said, "This wall is plaster, but when the painters finish their job it will be very detailed and beautiful. It will look like a palace, not a set."
Actress Julie Cox (who plays Princess Irulan) experienced Kreka’s imaginative realm of "Frank Herbert’s Dune" from the inside.
A set under construction
"As an actress, you're always imagining places like this," she said. "Working on sets this beautiful, is inspiring. It can only make you feel like you are that character, and you can believe that this is where you live. This is who I am."
Kreka’s credits include Time of the Gypsies (1989), Delicatesse (1991), Arizona Dream (1993), Underground (1995), Rasputine (1996), The Brave (1997) and Species II (1998).
John Harrison and Theodor Pistek
THE COSTUME DESIGNS OF THEODOR PISTEK
Comments by John Harrison
"Frank Herbert’s Dune" is not off the rack in any way, shape or form. The various factions are very well defined in Frank Herbert's book. I wanted to make sure that in our mini-series each one of those ‘tribes’, if you will, had a distinct look and identifiable style that would immediately tell an audience, "I'm with the Imperial family." Or "I'm with the Atreides family." Each very highly stylized. Theodor Pistek’s wardrobe design by itself tells you something about each of the characters.
Fremen musicians
Pistek is a Czech national treasure. He's one of the country's premiere artists. He’s designed costumes for feature motion pictures as well as hundreds of stage presentations; in fact he won an Academy Award for his costume design for Amadeus.
A Sardaukar guard
Interestingly, he had never designed for a science fiction movie, and had actually avoided it. When we first met, he was reluctant to work on "Frank Herbert’s Dune." His prior work has been mostly period drama, like Amadeus. He really didn't want to create the kind of futuristic look that we've all become accustomed to in science fiction. I wooed him by saying that this mini-series was more of a period piece than a futuristic drama. Even though it's set twenty-three thousand years in the future, the intergalactic society has reverted to an almost medieval type of civilization. We therefore wanted to avoid the tight-fitting spandex or the clean shapeless wardrobe that we see so often associated with current sci-fi. To some degree, I wanted our costume designs to be more retro.
A senior advisor to the Emperor
Pistek and I sat down and started talking about the different styles that I wanted. I gave him very broad ideas. I'd give him examples; metaphors for what I would think the individual family or tribe would be like. And in a global sense, I’d talk about the feudal nature of one society in the story as opposed to the high tech characteristics of another. Pistek would then go off and draw. The first set of designs that he showed me were almost dead on for so many characters. In fact I would venture to say that the first set of drawings that he did are all in the miniseries.
Feyd, Emperor Shaddam IV and Princess Irulan
After Vittorio Storaro arrived we discussed Pistek’s designs with color in mind because Storaro is incredibly sophisticated in his view of the use of color as a psychological tool. With Pistek's designs and Vittorio's suggestions for color, we came up with what I think are really memorable looks for each family. For example, we decided that the Imperial family would resonate in gold and violet, and not-quite blues. The Imperial wardrobes are very ornate and ornamental. To create an intimidating look for the Emperor's Sardaukar guards, Pistek turned to ancient Japanese Samurai warrior garb for inspiration. Spiked, metal-plated body armor complemented the Far Eastern-style cut and jet black cloth. "I feel like a human Humvee," one Sardaukar soldier told us.
Chani
T
he Atreides wardrobes are very functional and very chameleon-like. The earth tones of the planet Dune were our inspiration for the Fremen. I always had a very industrial, almost Blakeian vision of what the Harkonnen world was like. So, Pistek designed all of the Harkonnen costumes with a lot of edges and red tones, which make for a very uncomfortable feeling.
Pistke's design for one of the Lady Jessica's gowns
One of the biggest problems that we had was the design of the Stillsuits that the Fremen use to recycle the wearer’s bodily fluids. We had to find a way to adapt what Herbert described to fit in with the over-all Fremen thematic and at the same time they had to appear practical. I think we came up with something that is very effective.
Pistek's butterfly gown for Princess Irulan
Each principal character had multiple wardrobes in addition to costumes for the attendants, family, guards, soldiers and extras that were all around every one of those individuals. For example, the Emperor had five costumes. Princess Irulan had half a dozen. The Fremen in contrast, had only the same outfit all the time, because it was their desert wear, with the exception of their Stillsuit. Duke Leto had several different wardrobes. Because Paul is Atreides, then he becomes Fremen, and then becomes the Emperor, he had a good half a dozen or more wardrobe changes. Baron Harkonnen had six. Then there were all the costumes for minor characters like a Water Master with the Fremen, or a smuggler with Gurney Halleck out in the desert, or an Atreides lieutenant, or a Harkonnen soldier. There were differences between the Imperial Guards and the Sardaukar mercenaries.
One of Pistek's finished costumes
In the end, Pistek and his team created hundreds of original costumes, all changing in a recognizable pattern with the flow of the story. At times, this visual feast is almost overwhelming, as in the final act of the drama where every major character is represented during the final confrontation between Paul Atreides and the Emperor. But the way Pistek’s designs integrate themselves into the completed look of this production is both masterful and seamless.
one of Pistek's many dresses for Princess Irulan
Matt Keeslar who plays Feyd Harkonnen said, "You can tell that Theodor Pistek wants to fully realize each of the characters within their costumes, and each of the people in the movie. Even if they're only extras who have one line, their costumes have been specifically tailored to fit them as part of his vision. It's pretty exceptional. I've never really worked with a designer who was that determined to be that specific."
Pistek (right) watches Alec Newman (left) getting fitted into a Stillsuit
Lady Jessica and Alia (Laura Burton)
Three designs for the Guild Navigator
A Guild Navigator puppet
THE MECHANICAL EFFECTS
GREG NICOTERO: KNB FX GROUP
Sandworms and The Guild Navigator
The flesh and blood of KNB Effects Group is Robert Kurtzman, Greg Nicotero and Howard Berger. The company was formed in 1988 and has major credits on many feature films including: Spawn, Wishmaster, From Dusk 'Til Dawn, Army Of Darkness, Dances With Wolves, Misery, Eraser (where they did the alligators), and The Green Mile (the execution scene).
On "Frank Herbert’s Dune" the KNB Effects Group was responsible for all of the puppet creature effects, including the Guild Navigator and the non-CGI sandworms.
Greg Nicotero says, "I have a long history with Richard [Rubinstein] and John [Harrison] because I worked on Day of the Dead in 1985, where Richard was the producer and John was the first A. D. When John got his feature directorial debut from Richard and Paramount on Tales From The Darkside: The Movie, he hired KNB to do the effects.
The sandworm operating crew; note the levers and cables going into the water
"We spent a lot of time sitting with John and going through the script and fleshing out designs for the Guild Navigator and sandworms. We probably did thirty different Navigator designs and tons of worm designs, not only artwork but three-dimensional sculptures, as well.
"One of the difficulties we faced was that once we got the ‘green light’ and started working on the designs, John left for Prague. So we really didn’t have access to him because he was half a world away, as was Kreka, the production designer.
Another challenge facing KNB was in the construction of the stunted adult worm puppet. The scene in which it was being shot required that the puppet be in waist deep water with several actors. This meant that the puppet could not be electrical, so KNB created a fully mechanical puppet with gears, cables, and levers that was operated by five offstage puppeteers.
A sketch of the Guild Navigator puppet and puppet masters
A section of the sandworm skin; note visual effects "green screen" far left
"The stunted adult worm was a tricky puppet to make because it had to be able to work underwater as well as out of water. Further complicating matters was that we had to send videotape to Prague showing what we were making in order to be certain that it was exactly what John wanted in terms of what it could do. When the sequence began, John wanted to see the worm moving just a little bit under the water before two Fremen enter and grab it. Chani then wades in and sticks a bag over the worm’s mouth and the sandworm vomits ‘The Water of Life’ into the bag. In addition to having to move realistically underwater, once the two actors grabbed it, the worm had to start thrashing around like it was trying to escape, and finally it had to open its mouth and vomit! It was a tremendous challenge for us. We ended up only spending a day and a half shooting all the puppet scenes in Prague, which is really amazing if you think about how complex it is to shoot effects using puppets. That was actually the only time that we were physically on location with the rest of the crew.
A Guild Navigator puppet
"The other worm puppets were for the different physical actions of the worms, including moving underneath the sand, the heads bursting out of the sand, and the heads going back under the sand. All of the puppets actually had skins made from foam latex, but the internal mechanisms were tubes that were segmented."
Everything took time to make. "The stunted worms took two and a half months to make. The Guild Navigator about a month and a half, and the large worms took about four months.
"We also made a full size section of the large worm for the actors to stand on in front of a blue screen so that they could composite in the background later on. It had the wormskin hard plates and little soft fleshy areas so that the Fremen could throw their grappling hooks up and hook onto it."
Paul Atreides and Fremen on a sandworm
KNB did the rest of its work on "Frank Herbert’s Dune" at their Los Angeles studio where they shot the other worm puppets and the Guild Navigator.
Referring to the navigator Greg said, "It was really a challenge to create this unique looking humanoid character. It has these super-evolved lobes that almost looked like wings, but really were enlarged lungs because it had been living in the Spice gas for such a long period of time and had evolved away from human form."
Three views of a sandworm showing the scale to a Havester and Paul Atreides
The small adult sandworm puppet in its shipping crate
Four preliminary sandworm sketches
Riding a sandworm
Ernest Farino and Jacob Schwarz
VISUAL EFFECTS COMMENTARY
by Ernest Farino,Visual Effects Supervisor
"I've always felt that visual effects are like cinematography or music or any other aspect of making a film. They're one of the tools that help tell the story. So they have to be realistic, but of course, interesting, exciting, and dramatic," said "Frank Herbert’s Dune" Visual Effects Supervisor Ernest Farino. Farino is both Visual Effects Supervisor and Second Unit Director on location in Prague. His duties included overseeing and coordinating the different people who were working on the large variety of special visual effects which would enhance the live action photography in telling the story of the mini-series.
Ernie Farino received an Emmy nomination for "Outstanding Ach
ievement in Visual Effects" for his work on the HBO mini-series From The Earth To The Moon. His other credits include Starship Troopers (1998), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Cast A Deadly Spell (1991), The Abyss (1989), and the original Terminator (1984). He's been a fan of special effects since childhood when he was inspired by the likes of Ray Harryhausen (Jason And The Argonauts) and Willis O'Brien (King Kong). It was inevitable that he would contribute to the history of special visual effects himself, and on "Frank Herbert’s Dune" he oversaw the work of dozens of visual effects technicians.
The Secrets of Frank Herbert's Dune Page 4