The office building where Iron Sky: The Ark is being produced is located in the heart of the old international business district in Beijing, Saite. In this area, the first foreign companies built their offices, and many main roads pass the area, serving loads of traffic and business.
The office is owned by the main investor of the film, the Jiabo Cultural Development Group, a media company doing films and TV-shows. Located in the spot of an old Banana night club, and fully renovated for its’ use as a production company office, the building serves several different functions in its’ four floors. Our production offices are located in the third and fourth floor.
The director’s office is a small but efficient one. Here, our first, second and third ADs work in scheduling the film and planning the details of the execution of the actual shoot. On the walls we have spread the production schedule, concept artwork and of course, our posters for earlier Iron Sky films. This is where my office is, as well.
Next to the director’s office lies the production team. Consisting of production workers dealing with agreements and money, and their assistants, this team makes sure the whole process flows smoothly.
On the second floor, the costume department has overtaken a chunk of tables. Slowly the walls will be lined with designs for the main cast, secondary cast and the extras. A team of six people work currently at the costume department, but when they start to actually sew the costumes and put them together, they’ll need much more and much bigger space.
Next to it, the art department, manned by some ten to fifteen people, vigorously work concepting, drawing, planning and creating the world, sets and VFX environments of the film. New concept art gets lifted on the walls every day, and artists create everything from props to big constructions right here. We also have another team, led by the production designer Gordon Lee, working further away from the offices at his own place.
Finally, producer Max Wang’s office is the place where they key decisions are being made. Whether its’ meeting the main members of the cast, or talking with VFX team (as in the picture here) or just discussing the script, here’s where we can always find producer Max, whose thunderstorm of ideas sweeps over the production team in an instant, leaving everyone scrambling to make sure things progress quickly and efficiently towards the production.
I myself live in an apartment few blocks away. Going back from work in the evening with my skateboard is nice, passing ancient Chinese medicine store, restaurants, McDonalds’ and bunch of banks, the area is great to live in and as its’ not as busy here, few streets in from the main streets, it’s also nicely secluded from the buzz of the downtown, which still can be seen from where we live.
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