WAR HORSE Production Notes

WAR HORSE (2011)PRODUCTION NOTESAtherton notes. "In contrast, the British soldiers are outfitted with replica 1908 Patten swordsand the officers with 1912 Patten swords. To keep the sabers light, we made them from bambooand then chromed them."While safety was the priority, the cast was swept away by the pageantry. "There is somethingquite heroic about men riding into battle on horses. It must've been a pretty awesome sight in1914, with all the incredible sort of purpose and pomp that went with it," says BenedictCumberbatch.It was also a sobering experience for the young actors. Recalls Tom Hiddleston: "Steven gaveme the most amazing note during the cavalry charge. He said, ‗Give me your war face at the topof the shot, but as you feel the camera move across your face, I want you to de-age yourself by20 years. When you see those machine guns, you're 9 years old. I want to see the child in you.' Ithought that was one of the most astonishing acting notes I've ever been given. He captured theloss of innocence that came with that charge.""WAR HORSE'S" VISUAL CHARACTER: LANDSCAPEIn "War Horse" there are equine characters and human characters, but a third type of character isequally important: the landscapes, which span from the jaggedly romantic farmlands of Devon tothe shadowy skies and battle-scarred earth of the war's No Man's Land. For Spielberg each ofJoey's stops on his travels, from farm to forest to trench, offers another chance to bring theaudience into the vast breadth of what he experiences—much of which lies beyond words.To forge a world that is painterly in its expression but starkly real in its impact, Spielberg workedwith an artistic team that has long been part of his creative process, including cinematographerJanusz Kaminski, production designer Rick Carter and costume designer Joanna Johnston."Janusz, Rick and Joanna were really enabled to shine in this film," says Kennedy. "The extentof the research that Rick and Joanna conducted for the sets and costumes, finding examples thatwe haven't seen before in movies, was quite remarkable. And Janusz managed to graduallyevolve the look of the film from lush, pastoral beauty to the horrors of war in a brilliant way. Thecombination of their talents gives the film a unique, authentic look that is very extraordinary."Kaminski, an Oscar® winner for "Saving Private Ryan" and "Schindler's List," was compelledby the visual ambition of the story, to which he knew Spielberg would aspire to bring the precisemix of stylistic elements most suited to it. "This is a quintessential Spielberg movie," thecinematographer says, "with great emotion, great action, great characters all combined in anintimate story to which Steven brings a great scope of storytelling. ‗War Horse' is very much oldfashionedfilmmaking, and nobody makes movies like this anymore but Spielberg."Having worked together for so long, Spielberg and Kaminski have an unspoken language witheach other. "We both have a similar take on how to tell stories," Kaminski notes. "He works withthe actors and the verbal language and I work with the shadows and the non-verbal and it's ablast."Kaminski goes on: "We have very little conversation about what the movie will look like. We© 2011 DreamWorks Pictures 16