Constructive Concepts: A conversation with production designer John Stoddart

Bruce Beresford and John Stoddart

“I was always interested in drawing and painting as a child,” states John Stoddart. "I grew up in Sydney and there wasn’t much theatre at that time.  There were no film schools so architecture was the closest thing with an artistic background that I could find.  I don’t think I was aware of the theatre until I came to London.  I had been to some plays in Sydney but not many.  I became more interested during the 1960s and I had no knowledge of opera which I specialized in the theatre.”  The trip to England led to an encounter with another Sydney University graduate who would become a frequent collaborator.  “I worked with various architects for five years.  I was able to branch out on my own.  I met people in the theatre and also made some small animated film which started me off meeting Bruce Beresford [Last Dance] at the British Film Institute; he was running the experimental film fund then.”  Stoddart observes, “Meeting Bruce helped a lot because I had to design his first major production [The Adventures of Barry McKenzie] and none of us knew anything about making films.  It was fairly successful so I went on from there.”

Working with Bruce Beresford has not change much over the years.  “Bruce has a great sense of humour and we’re friends so we trust each other,” remarks John Stoddart.  “He likes directing opera as well.”  The production designer and director are creatively in sync with each other. “I discuss things with him especially with the theatre.  We usually agree.”   Like cinematographer Peter James (Driving Miss Daisy), Stoddart was part of the production crew assembled by Beresford to bring a science fiction tale by Philip K. Dick to the big screen.  “I worked on Total Recall for about 11 months then suddenly a few weeks before we started shooting Dino De Laurentiis [Manhunter] ran into a financial crisis and the whole thing was closed down in a couple of days.  I made models and built sets for it; that was a great disappointment for me.”  The cinematic adaption would have been different from the version starring Arnold Schwarzenegger [The Terminator].  “It was more realistic and fantastic in a way.  We built models of greenhouses which were on Mars because there was no atmosphere so everything had to be enclosed.  I was pleased with the design.   It had a rather retro look about it.  We built a model of the Sphinx.”

“It happened suddenly,” recalls John Stoddart as to his involvement with The Mosquito Coast(1986) which was the first of three films he made with Peter Weir.   “Peter called me from Belize and said that he had a difficulty with the production designer that he had been working with.  Would I be interested in taking it over?  A week later I was on the plane with my art director, assistant art director and a few other people. There were meetings in Los Angeles and then we went straight to Belize.” Making the situation more difficult was the lack of time for pre-production.  “The construction crew had already started the work so when I arrived in Belize not knowing anything.  Jerry Hellman [Midnight Cowboy] asked me, ‘What’s your concept for this?’  Peter called to tell me that he changed his mind about a location they had found and asked me to find another location.  We had to hack our way through the jungle and by some sort of miracle found a palm tree and a river in front of it.”

“My art director, assistant art director, and I were put into a hotel which was actually a brothel,” recalls John Stoddart.  “We started to make various models. Peter came and looked at some of them and Harrison [Ford] came.  We were nervous.  Peter wanted him to be happy with the way things were going and he was happy so we had no trouble after that.”  Few words were conversed between the Hollywood star and production designer.  “I didn’t have very much to do with him.  It was rather strange in a way.  Peter said, ‘I don’t want you to talk to Harrison if you can avoid it.’  Half way through the shoot I was standing next to Harrison and he said to me, ‘I believe we’re not supposed to be talking to each other.’  He must have got the same message from Peter.”  Co-starring as the son of Harrison Ford (Raiders of the Lost Ark) was River Phoenix (Sneakers) who later died tragically from a drug overdose.  “He was a nice boy.  I sure he would of [eventually won an Oscar].”

“Our American construction crew was fantastic,’ states John Stoddart.  “They brought in a lot of local labour. They worked hard seven days a week and got it all done.  Peter wasn’t there all the time but he is particular about certain things.  There were a few changes that had to be made.  We got there in the end.”  A giant ice machine needed to be built which was nicknamed ‘Fat Boy’.  That was happily blown up in the end.  It didn’t really function.  We had to build a lot of other props that were functional such as water wheels.  We had clever people working on it.”  Stoddart notes, “The one that Peter always liked was the small raft.  I did sketches and showed them to Peter and they weren’t quite right but suddenly I thought, ‘How would you do it?’  I made it out of branches. It was the sort of thing Allie Fox [Harrison Ford] could build.  It worked perfectly.”