I'm Rick Carter I was a production
designer on Forrest Gump and I'm gonna
give you a one scene breakdown of when
Bubba and Forrest come to Vietnam my
process I would guess is is a collage
artist I do little sketches I do a lot
of research for this particular movie
this was reflective of my own life and
times I'm basically for us age so I knew
about the era that we told the story of
the Vietnam era the civil rights era the
growing up in the 60s the first thing is
that you're getting a wide view of what
you think is rice paddies and the
silhouette of the Huey's the Huey's are
very iconic you immediately know that
you're in Vietnam
the first thing that I would say about
this frame is that it's an iconic image
from Vietnam because it basically gives
you the silhouette of the Huey and Dale
died who was the military advisor on
this he's the one who helped us set up
the camp to be exactly the way it would
be in this kind of context all of this
kind of profits that you see here or the
equipment they have here every aspect of
this is based upon the way it would be
in a real camp in Vietnam because Dale
die had had that experience he'd also
been the advisor on platoon and a number
of movies had portrayed the Vietnam War
up to that point I think the main part
that makes you feel like you are in a
place that could be Vietnam is basically
the horizon here of what you think is
rice fields these are not really rice
fields this is a Delta that actually
floods so that it actually has this kind
of a look but the idea was to keep it
very simple now they told us that
Vietnam was going to be very different
from the United States of America except
for all the beer cans and barbeque it
was a joke is it looks like it could be
a barbecue in South Carolina because
that's actually what it is once we found
where we could build forests house then
we had to branch out from that area
fortunately we were able to find places
even close to where the house was and
then many others in that local area that
we could stage as Vietnam so Forrest and
Bubba have now landed and now we're in
the camp and what's the first thing you
see is the ultimate product placement in
Vietnam Coca Cola Budweiser Falstaff
beer and we've got a very basic
situation here where we're setting up
things that you can identify with as an
audience as little tableaus you know the
barbecue the card game the beer that
hanging out and these walkways which
basically take you throughout the scene
because this part would all be flooded
and then in the background in addition
to this was just like I think this is
one of the outhouses with the water that
would filter down here is to actually
then have these helicopters going
through so there's
lot of activity in the frame but all of
these this one and all of these are
actually put in later with computer
graphics we had to actually bring in
palm trees to the battlefield and this
set so that there was more that would
convey that tropical feeling of being in
Vietnam and that's a big deal actually
because you've got to bring in you know
full-scale palm trees either forklifts
or a crane and then dig around for the
base to get them in there and to make
sure that they're gonna stand up one of
the things that is very important in
scenes like this is to give a sense that
this isn't designed it actually is a
place that you really would see people
in an organic way I immediately drawn of
course to the characters but also this
sign here it's something that said
specifically later Forrest says I don't
may not know a lot but I think that we
had some of America's best young men
here along with all the you know the
just the setup of the camp with the you
know you've got the tents and you've got
the radio here so everybody you know is
a Tablo on one level or another is
actually relating to something whether
it's something they're eating drinking
plain or in this case listening to music
and remember in this sequence you're
hearing music in the background so that
radio is actually giving you a source
for that music that you're actually
hearing this is all if you've noticed so
far from their point of view as they
move forward so it's it's it's personal
to us you're just moving into the scene
towards the first encounter with someone
who's going to be as important as
Lieutenant Dan is to forest and to us
just trip all the time
you must be my FNG the most important
thing in this frame is this it's a
toilet paper now this is pretty
important too because that that that
cigar sets up lieutenant Dan's character
but the toilet paper gives him urgency I
mean literally and now the first thing
out he comes upon these two guys and
this is the introduction you know
obviously - Forrest and Bubba but the
things that are really the details here
are the cigar the toilet paper his dog
tags and I think that that's what makes
that shot actually work the rest of it
is you know you know you're in a camp
socks I'm very aware as a production
designer that the reason people go to
movies is who's in it and what's it
about and the background actually is the
background and if you know that people
are working hard to create a background
that takes you out of the movie so
actually it's a magic trick
to do something that people don't notice
because it's feels like it's the right
thing to be there just happens to be the
exact right place for those scenes to
take place otherwise it can look like
this it could just be a blank wall but
everything you see in the frame is
actually either going out somewhere or
putting something there sometimes it's a
small detail it can just be this guy
reading the hot red magazine having a
beer you know we do certain things we
might bring in this palm tree we bring
in this tropical foliage but really the
idea is to give a overall feel with the
vehicles the movement the people that
you are somewhere that you believe
you're supposed to be he was from a long
great military tradition somebody and
his family had fought and died
in every saengil so this is the four
shot montage to depict what forest knows
later about Lieutenant Dan the simple
way to do that of course his number one
to have the person who is dying in each
war looked like Lieutenant Dan because
it's played by the same guy but he's
also fallen in the ground in iconic
locales that you actually could
recognize as being part of the war that
the people would actually know about
sort of through collective memory this
would be Valley Forge Washington crosses
a Delaware in the winter and that's why
it's no these are just actually shot as
it turned out on a rooftop with four
different tableaus where Gary could then
fall into and actually die the four
times that he does when he was
representing his ancestors we move on to
the next American War which is the
American Civil War and Lieutenant Dan is
a northern fighter and he's dying as a
cannon down in here in this scene you've
got World War one and you've got the mud
of the trenches and the battlefields in
France and you've got always indications
that there's other people around who
who've died even though he was a very
very quick hit as a flamethrower there
was a lot of interesting properties that
went in just to give you a little hit
but none of it is actually designed to
look absolutely real in this frame it's
a it gets closer and it's a bit in a
sense more personal died on the beach
d-day
it's probably a stunt pad underneath
this as I remember so he can fall but
you don't want everything to shake like
that it was it was very simple setup and
it was actually I think all of these
were done at night it's a succession of
images that are that are not designed to
be so heavy that it takes you out of the
movie it's a part of forests memory to
tell you this but it was actually
something he could never visualize other
than this kind of very simple way like
you're almost looking at a textbook of
somebody telling you that we fought in
four wars what did they look like
boys are hungry we got steaks burning
right over here
two standing orders in this platoon one
take good care of your feet to try not
to do anything stupid lieutenant Dan's
gotten to where he needs to get and it's
a place it's totally open at the center
of this camp all the privacy you know is
broken down between everybody and that's
part of this whole scene which is these
guys are all becoming friends we have
the graffiti in the background I
remember this flag here as the Vietcong
flag so you know lieutenant Dan's point
of view would be that belongs on the
outhouse and we have actually a southern
flag back here in this type of case
because we have so much research we can
get photographs of what things look like
and then make them look very real to
what they would have looked like
particularly in this case so we do a lot
of construction I don't personally do
most the drawings at all there's great
people who know how to do that and then
the carpenters are fantastic at being
able to follow those and make it come
alive and the painters bring it alive to
make it look like it's old and it's got
the graffiti and the touches it's really
a step-by-step design process from an
idea to then sketching it up and drawing
it up to something that could be built
and then laying it out in a location or
on a soundstage or perhaps in the
digital realm if it's CG and that's
essentially the components that go into
the production design so after we've
left the camp this is our first major
establishing shot we were following the
river we're continuing on our path
through Vietnam through forest life and
what we did is of course we brought in
the extras and the cow and the people
are all here and all this is brought in
to look like it's part of the the
farming everything from here on up is
actually digital so this is actually a
village that was constructed by ILM in
the computer as where the mountains to
give you a type of topography that
actually looks like a part of Vietnam
and overall it's basically now bring you
out from the position that we were in
which was the very intimate entrance
into a camp and now when you get out
into this shot you're in the real kind
three of Vietnam water is basically this
metaphor for the reflection that the
entire story is because it's a
reflective story about a personal life
and a cultural history and the river or
water runs through it you see it for his
house you see it questioned you see and
throughout Vietnam and all the sequences
there's kind of a sense of being by and
on the river of life to tell this story
and so here it is in this particular
shot right here so that's just one scene
breakdown for Forrest Gump it's one
small part of obviously a big canvas
that tells the story of forests through
those life and times every single shot
is created with the idea to tell a story
and this is just one part of it