The Hound of Baskervilles: Lenfilm, behind the scenes

[mightymads]

Igor Maslennikov, director:

Shooting the part with the Hound was a terrible hassle. At first we decided to daub the dog with phosphorus as Doyle had written. We consulted dog handlers about it, and they said we were crazy because it would be harmful for the dog’s power of scent, no dog owner would allow it, and besides the dog would lick the substance off.

Then we thought about using blue screen for special effects. The dog’s owner was dressed in a special blue costume too. The dog didn’t recognise his owner in that weird attire and attacked him. The man was taken to the hospital while we had to brainstorm again. Then someone from special effects suggested that we try Scotchlite tape which is usually used for traffic signs to make them glow.

We obtained the tape and plastered it on the dog. The result wasn’t scary at all, but rather funny: it wasn’t an eerie night monster—it was a character from Brazilian Carnival. We took the tape off and made from it a vest and a mask.

The scene where the Hound attacks Sir Henry was also difficult. The dog’s owner doubled as Sir Henry. This time the dog did recognise him and wouldn’t attack him so the director said they had to make the dog angry. The prop master loaded a rifle with bubble gum, but the casting specialist, a kindly lady, made a terrible row, saying that it was barbaric. The director agreed to try it on himself first, and when a bubble gum bullet hit his leg, he shrieked at the top of his voice. The bullets were cancelled.

As a result, in the scene where the Hound is shot from the guns, it was actually a piece of plywood pulled out from under the dog’s feet so that he stumbled.

By the way, the dog had a sweet tooth: he ate Solomin’s cake with the box it was in. (Source: 221b.ru)



Concept art by Igor Maslennikov

PS I came across an interview with the director of New Russian Holmes where he explains his take on the Canon and the choices he made for his adaptation. If anyone's interested, I can translate and post it later :)

Comments

[sarahthecoat]

wow!

[mightymads]

Poor dog had a lot to endure :)

[sanguinity]

Oo, I'd love to see the director's commentary on this adaptation!

Once upon a time I liveblogged the Lenfilm HOUN, and I think this is as good a place as any to quote out my impressions of what they did with the Hound, because I thought it was extraordinarily effective:


...So, in my head, the Hound always looked a bit like what we see in Granada (or more recently in BBC and Elementary): very clearly a black dog, but glowing green all over. I always assumed that Watson’s bit about flame bursting from its mouth was best explained by phosphorus paint dissolving in its saliva and then being flung about. And in all these adaptations so far, it’s always clearly been a dog, sometimes glowing and sometimes not, and whenever they ask, “My god, what is it?” I’m always sitting there going, “Dude, it’s a dog. We’re both looking at the same thing. You can’t possibly tell me you don’t know a dog when you see one.”

Whereas this production decided to eschew what Watson described the Hound as looking like, and instead tried to recreate what Stapleton supposedly did: they put glowing paint on a black dog.

And the effect is… Look, okay, I grew up out in the woods, in a place with little to no ambient light, and I’ve spent a lot of time in the backcountry at night since then. I don’t get wigged by the dark, and I know what animals look like in the dark. (Not just the little ones, either. I’ve even been stalked by a mountain lion at night, which btw is not an experience I’d recommend.) But if that came at me in the night, I’d have not the faintest idea what I was looking at, beyond the facts that 1) it was covering ground fast and easy, 2) it had eye-holes that spent more time facing me than not, and 3) an animal in the dark looks nothing like that.

That thing looks like a disembodied, floating…. maaaaaybe an animal skull? Kinda? It’s completely unclear what that is. The way that it glows, it’s impossible to make out any contour or texture to work out what it might actually be. Furthermore, since it appears to have no contact with the ground whatsoever, it’s difficult to get a bead on how far away it actually is, let alone how big it might be.

And yet it is damn clear that whatever that thing is, it can see better – and move faster – than any human facing it can. If that thing was coming at me in the dark, I’d have no idea what the fuck I was facing. That thing is confusing and freaky and disorienting.

Also, shooting it is going to be a bitch and a half, because the glowing not-a-face is distracting, and the center of mass is absolutely invisible in the dark.

Anyway. Yes. I’ll never imagine that scene in the novel the same way again.

[mightymads]

The interview will be posted in a few days then :)

I went and read your liveblogging about the HOUND, it was fun! Left a comment there.

[sanguinity]

I'll look forward to that! I've always had a number of questions about the cross-cultural aspects of that production: what was the influence of Russian stereotypes of the English, say, and how Soviet censorship came into play.

[mightymads]

Both Livanov and Maslennikov mentioned that it was “playing a game of Englishness”, i.e. they created an image of English people according to stereotypes: stiff upper lip, primness, and all that. For me it’s especially annoying in The 20th Century Begins. I think they overdid it there.

Another cultural aspect that jumps to mind is “Eastern colonies”. When Watson returns to England from Afghanistan, the mention of Afghanistan was censored due to the Soviet-Afghan war which was taking place at the time.

[tripleransom]

Please do translate! I've long wished for a translation of Maslennikov's book.

Although I found the new series utterly unwatchable, I'd be interested to hear what the guy had to say as well.

[mightymads]

Will do :) I looked up his book, Baker Street at Petrogradskaya. The most interesting parts about the tv-series are already available on 221b.ru. The rest of the book is about his life and other works, so...

[tripleransom]

OK, I haven't been back there in a while.

Some people there gave me a hard time several years ago, because of my pidgin Russian. They made it pretty clear that non-fluent people weren't welcome, but I'll check it out if it's translated.

[mightymads]

Oh, I’m very sorry for the unpleasant experience you had D: Unfortunately, it’s not translated, but if you’re interested in any parts from it, let me know.

[tripleransom]

I'll do that. That's where I had the problem before. I used my limited knowledge + Google and asked questions, because Google sometimes returns results that are pretty strange and I guess they didn't like it that I did it that way.

LOL - I learned Russian in high school many years ago and my vocabulary tends to be slanted toward tractors and Masha's new tablecloth, rather than useful things like demonic hounds and waterfalls.

There are always trolls in whatever language. But if you will help, I'll give it another go. I''d like to see what he has to say.

NB: I don't mean that everyone was rude, but I was definitely made to feel unwelcome by a few.

[mightymads]

You’re right, there are trolls in any language. Definitely lots of Russian-speaking ones (rude to their fellow countrymen as well).

I didn’t know whether anyone would be interested in reading the interviews unabridged, so I made a compressed version, also omitting the parts which made me uncomfortable (e.g. where Maslennikov treats Doyle not quite respectfully).

I’d be glad to help. Guess some parts can be translated verbatim and some compressed. Let’s see what we can do :)

[mightymads]

Omg, the Hound in the cartoon is really scary and cool! While in the movies it’s sort of underwhelming, the cartoon Hound is close to what I imagined reading the novel. Were you and your brother not scared when you watched it as children?

[mightymads]

I can imagine that it was terrifying for children! I’d be scared myself as a kid >.< Very cool representation of the Hound indeed.