The behind-the-scenes production of Pan's Labyrinth

Creative Background

Del Toro has always been interested in the Spanish Civil War and the Franco dictatorship. In 2001, he wrote and directed "The Asylum", which told a strange story that took place in an orphanage at the end of the Spanish Civil War. For this "Pan's Labyrinth", del Toro originally planned to create a new creation based on "The Devil's Nest", but at the time he was busy directing "Blade Runner 2", so the idea was shelved. "Pan's Labyrinth" came to life in his mind, and he decided to change his original intention and write "Pan's Labyrinth" as a fairy tale.

Del Toro and Alfonso Cuaron discussed the idea of ????creating the film together. As a friend and collaborator who has known Del Toro for more than 20 years, Cuaron liked his creativity very much, and Several other producers in the production company also actively agreed, hoping that Todd Toro could shoot the film without any restrictions on his creation.

Del Toro is known for compiling notes and sketches about the film before filming. He once threw the notes on "Pan's Labyrinth" that he had compiled over the years in the back seat of a taxi, thinking that all his work had been wasted. But unexpectedly, the taxi driver realized that this note would be very important, and after many twists and turns, he found Del Toro. Del Toro regarded this as a blessing of luck and became more determined to complete the film.

The filming process

The preparations for the film were completed at lightning speed. Everything was in place in just three months in 2005, and the scenery and character design were very detailed. It has been started a long time ago, and a lot of content was added after the script was completed. It is worth mentioning that del Toro’s visual style in this film was deeply influenced by painting and illustration. He said: “I like Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac, The work of illustrators such as Dulac and Kay Nielsen, especially the style of Leckheim, plays an important role in "Pan's Labyrinth""

Director of photography Guillermo. Guillermo Navarro and production designer Eugenio Caballero worked quickly with the director to complete the set design in a day or two. This was a complex process that included puppets. , traditional makeup and CGI, etc.

Pan's appearance is unforgettable. The costume is made of sponge material and the horns are made of fiberglass. Doug Jones spent up to 5 hours putting on makeup every day. During the performance, Jones was only responsible for the movements of the lower half of Pan's head, while the movements of the eyes and eyebrows were completed by a puppeteer outside the camera. It took Doug Jones five hours to put on the intricate Pan costume, and he could only see through a small hole near his nose to determine where he was.

The film started shooting in June 2005. The entire film took 11 weeks to shoot, and the filming locations included Madrid and its suburbs. Because that summer was the driest year in Spain in the past 10 years, the filming of the film was also affected a lot. Del Toro recalled: "As far as the eye could see, everything was drought and brown. We had to shoot near shady areas, and even there the plants would only survive for a few weeks. During the filming, many green spaces were gradually being destroyed. Die from drought.

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