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"The Set Design of Parade's End, HBO's New Miniseries\nHBO's latest miniseries is poised to become the new most-talked-about British period drama\nNo stranger to period films, Martin Childs notched an Oscar for Best Art Direction for his work on Shakespeare in Love(1998). \"I looked at a great deal of art and photos of the period as a starting point,\" he notes of his preparation for Parade's End. The dozens of sets and locations proved to be a challenge: \"I wanted to create sets the audience will readily remember and identify, but which do not dominate or overwhelm the story.\" Shown here are Christopher Tietjens (Benedict Cumberbatch) and his wife Sylvia (Rebecca Hall).\nFor Sylvia Tietjens (Hall), Childs wanted to \"recreate an outwardly ravishing, enviable world, an authentic vision of England.\" Childs and set decorator Barbara Herman-Skelding chose authentic reproductions of William Morris wallpapers for many of the rooms and worked closely with the costume department to ensure her extravagant gowns would not blend or fade into the furnishings.\nDue to budgetary constraints, Poeke Castle in the town of Aalter, Belgium, stood in for Scotland. Childs transformed the extraordinary window-filled ch\u00E2teau the color of \"a deliciously apt oxblood-pink\" into General Campion's headquarters. Built in the middle ages, the castle sits on 135 acres and was once the gathering spot for Flemish knights.\nChilds notes of the neoclassical ch\u00E2teau, \"It was the rare occasion when one can use both the interior and exterior [for filming]. It was completely unfurnished, so we brought some antiques from the U.K. and found other items in local Belgian antique's shops.\" British actor Roger Allam holds sway over an antique desk as General Campion.\nFor the film's war scenes, Childs took his cues from \"every war movie from All Quiet on the Western Front [1930] to War Horse[2011].\" The famous World War I self-portrait by Sir William Orpen Ready to Start, along with the work of British war artist Paul Nash, also inspired the battle scenes. The designers used a more subdued color palette and CGI techniques to create the stretch of trenches in no-man's-land, along with authentic World War I weapons borrowed from Belgian museums.\nIn creating a set for a German spa hotel, Childs incorporated a standing bear holding a menu as a touch of whimsy; research uncovered a German penchant for taxidermy at the time. Decorative woodwork and bordered wall tiles complete the space used for this scene, which was filmed in a privately owned castle in Flanders, Belgium.\nFor the rectory of Reverend Duchemin (Rufus Sewell), the designers used dark woods and leathers to create the contemplative feel of a study. For inspiration, Childs referenced a compendium of Edwardian interiors by Nicholas Cooper called The Opulent Eye: Late Victorian and Edwardian Taste in Interior Design: \"Every page seemed to have aspidistra, potted palms, and gloom,\" the designer explains. \"I wanted his office to be the place of an eccentric intellectual who traveled well, so we decorated it with a Buddha and Oriental bookends.\"\nThe stately Baroque manor Duncombe Park in Helmsley, North Yorkshire, doubles as Groby Hall, the country home of the Tietjens family. Built in 1713, the estate was designed by amateur architect William Wakefield; it received a late-Victorian makeover in 1879 following a devastating fire.\n\nClick here to watch the trailer for Parade's End."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.architecturaldigest.com/gallery/parades-end-hbo-set-design-period-drama-slideshow>