‘Greatest Foe’ (2021) | Production and Costume Design
‘Greatest Foe is a dark comedy surrounding the main character Frank, an unsuccessful writer turning 30, who decides to look for inspiration for his book where the greatest author ever lived. After checking in to a Bed & Breakfast in this small town, he finds out he's not the only one trying to overcome writer's block in town.'
Set Build
Initially, at the beginning of the production, we had plans to build a set for the Inn reception. These plans fell through a few months before planned filming due to Covid regarding access to our university facilities.
Initial Set build sketches and planning.
When producing the concepts for production design within 'Greatest Foe,' I looked for inspection within programs like 'The Tales of the Unexpected,' 'Withnail & I,' and 'Black Books.
Prop Making
Throughout the pre-production process of ‘The Greatest Foe’ I built and designed multiple props, including the sign for the inn, books and a grave.
Karl Weber's "The Monocle"
This book is that of the famous writer that Frank has made this trip to feel closer to. Frank buys a fresh copy of this book before his journey, but in the woods, one day he comes across 'The Imposters' copy of the book, which has been heavily annotated and studied, making Frank feel inferior.
I made these books by purchasing two green vintage books, which I then laser cut my book design onto.
Frank Newham & Karl Weber Headstone
Within the script the headstone is seen within the cemetery that frank visits , where the famous writer Karl Weber is buried. When he first looks at the stone he sees Webers name and the phrase “gone but never forgotten’ but when he looks again he sees his own name reflected back at him and the phrase “gone but always forgotten'“. When shooting the scene the shots only included a wide of the stone and then a close up, we decided to find a stone that we liked in Nunhead cemetery to use for the wide shot and then create headstone like boards with the writing on for the close ups, this was done to save on budget swell as time. We used the headstone that we would use for the wide shot as reference for the one I created.
In addition to the props shown above I also created smaller document props like train tickets, hotel reservation slips and online maps.
