again it comes back to that question you know how do you organize and manage and then delegate the
work flow for your departments and the aspects of the process and of that process what gives
you the most pleasure I mean you're dealing with history you're dealing with the reality of many
years later trying to recreate it you're working in real environments and obviously working in
real sets there's no dancing candelabras here no it's it's all it's all very real but real
for its time so what's your process of breaking that down and then figuring out how to go about
making it well I think I mean there are polar opposites in a way but you know that I suppose
the one the connection is the fact that you know they're both very known subjects you
know the animation and Winston Churchill story and with this one it was because it is such a
known subjection this is such a known period and it's it was it was it was a fascinating script
in so much as it was a it was it it was a part of something that I didn't know I never knew that we
were so in such desperate straits you know that was an incredible thing and you know the thing
that was the appealing was the fact that you know it was it was I mean it was interesting because
the script in some ways was quite dry there was a lot of kind of gray men in gray rooms and what it
ended up being was something really quite dynamic and you know that that is to be put at the door of
Joe as a filmmaker and you know so that was the challenge was to do was to do something with it
that just kind of gave you a kind of an undercut something something that we hadn't necessarily you
know overly seen before and you know our for us you know from a visual point of view was to kind
of get into the get into the fingernails of of what was going on at the time and how you know we
were coming out of the depression we were coming out of the first world war and we were deeply
unprepared to be stepping into into this you know so from a from a visual point of view from for me
you know as a counterpoint of the you know the two films that it's a counterpoint to us is something
like downfall of Valkyrie where you looked at say Hitler's bunker you know and how sharp and
hard and brash and you know there's something much kind of soft and warmer and make doing mend
and chaotic you know and it is genuinely was genuine is kind of chaotic as that and out of
that came this incredible you know for the whole war you know how did that how did that get kind
of managed from that world it's incredible to see I mean you really captured the claustrophobia of
the bunker underneath the war room and and how they really pulled it together and and you're
right it's nobody knew what dire straits there were I don't think that that was ever addressed
in history so really fascinating to see that but now I know that here in the states when we have
to recreate the White House there are millions the most photographed building it did you find enough
historical research of like Parliament and and all the specifics that are I was fascinated of course
by the details because we're all manic about the details and actually was Parliament build
or was at a location that was a build and it was interesting because it was we did have a kind of
permission we shot the real exterior of Downing Street and we were given permission to shoot in
their houses what has a parliament we did shoot in the Great Hall and things like that but when
we actually came to look into exactly what we could shoot in Parliament you couldn't sit down
that was one of the rules is a bizarre rule that that nobody but the kind of right honourable bum
can sit on that seat so that was it you know you know it's a bit of a snare that was that was it
that was a bit of a there's a problem there voted in a majority for them but so Joe rightly fought
very hard for us to get a bit of an extension on our budget to be able to build that but in
fact that is the correct that is correct whereas the house of our houses of parliament now House
of Commons had a direct hit in 1941 and is rebuilt and is rebuilt it's lighter in color and the seats
are green and it's you know it's bit simplified in its detail so we were lucky enough to then go
back and to create something that was much more suited to as well to the look and feel of our
film as a platform of being the kind of reality of what it was like things but I read somewhere also
the the mace that is present is only present when the Queen is not present is that correct
or something it's there are things like that I mean the Queen really can't go into the House of
Commons so much she has to stay in the House of Lords really apart from when she opens it
but it's interesting we had I suppose the House of Commons is the most exact replica of anything that
was done on that film so whereas everything else was sort of it was just more evocative of what it
would have been like at the War Rooms which was a big set build and the original war room still
exists below Downing Street but they are different in a way in the layout because the way Sarah and
Joe work it's it's it's like 360 very sort of movement through the sets and everything like
that but there was a lot of detail in there a lot of layering a massive graphics job as well
for the graphics team and so that that was a big that was a big deal but Downing Street which is
you know our White House is it was again that was built in a derelict house in Yorkshire so
so it feels like it but it's not it's it's not it yeah and you chose not to restore it right there's
that it was a little more attention well I mean interestingly so we went you know we went round
Downing Street it was amazing access and Eric Foner our producer new David Cameron and at the
time you know the but by the time came to shoot it we had to resume so but we were still given access
which was incredible so so we went there and we were with the historians we were given everywhere
could go everywhere and we were with you know for about three hours wandering around with Gary and
Joe and everybody and looking at all of this and what was incredible was Downing Street it was an
absolute dump I mean it was a you know it was it was you know being the home of the British
prime minister for 200 years and what happens is they come and go quite quickly and they take
they take their furniture so but generally because they've all been kind of quite rich and partial up
to you know so they bring in the furniture from their country houses and then when they leave
they take the furniture except they leave the rubbish so there's this really weird collection
of stuff you know really bad stuff and you know it's it's the leftovers from all these maybe I'm
doing the leftovers when the Churchill's moved in but yeah but that's the whole thing and also
the whole thing was it was falling down it was it was because there was never the time to renovate
it and it was it was unsafe you know and they the historian told us you know that when they
had parties in the back rooms that the floors are so rotten that when there was more than 20 people
in one room they'd have to slightly kind of split the parties up and move them around because it was
that rough and so you know obviously there's a lot of cool stuff in there about but what
was great was it kind of fell in with our kind of telling of the story you know that Downing Street
was on its uppers everything was on its uppers the you know book in Pais was on its uppers you
know it's kind of like you know it felt it felt in need if I didn't kind of need of love and things
and so the being able to create it and not being specific you know there's a staircase isn't inside
the front door and you know but it felt like down the street so we found this derelict house
Georgian house in Yorkshire and in the middle of an estate and they allowed us to do what we do
not walls down is that but so yeah so we create we were allowed to create are down our Downing
Street and you know and very much with Joe and the way he shoots in mind you know that there's a 360
sets it's space its movement and connections and that's what we did yeah well I say Bravo
can we cue up Dunkirk please