Craftspeople Behind Key Roles in 'The Odyssey' Quietly Make Their Move

Production designer Alan Mirozhnik, production designer Ruth De Jong and editor Jennifer Lame are part of the team that helped bring Christopher Nolan's expansive adaptation of 'The Odyssey' to the big screen. The three talented artists will be honored with the Variety Creative Collaborators award at the Middleburg Film Festival on October 16.

Craftsmen Ellen Mirojnik, Ruth de Jong and Jennifer Lemm played key roles in Christopher Nolan's epic and will be screened at the Middelburg Film Festival.

Set and costume designer Ellen Mirojnik, production designer Ruth DeJong and editor Jennifer Lamm are part of the team that helped bring Christopher Nolan's sprawling adaptation of The Odyssey to the big screen.

The talented trio will be honored with the Variety Creative Collaborators Award at the Middleburg Film Festival on October 16.

It was a huge and historic work both in the process of making the film and in the box office success. The film was the first to be shot entirely on Imax 70mm. RELATED STORIES Let's Get Physical: Key Takeaways from the IRL Advantage, Experience and Culture of Diversity at Charlemagne's Summit on Mental Health, Social Media, and Prioritizing Real-Life Connections: 'You Have to Weed Your Garden Constantly'

The film was shot over 91 days on 2 million feet of IMAX film. Popular in Variety

De Jong scouted locations all over the world. He found a 5th-century fortress in Italy that stood approximately 1,030 feet above sea level and became Ithaca. He also designed several Trojan horses, each approximately 35 feet tall. The beaches of Essaouira, on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, were the site of the discovery of the Trojan horse and the boat for Odysseus' journey to Ithaca. Troy, in terms of numbers, was an incredible achievement - it covered more than 2.5 acres, or more than 110,000 square feet, large enough to house an additional 2,000 machines and more than 60 structures. It's an achievement De Jong is proud of. "Designing 'Odyssey' in six countries, managing the art departments of each country at the same time, all the while traveling with just carry-ons," he says.

However, the film also shot scenes in Los Angeles.

"Shooting on special sets in Los Angeles for 'Odyssey' meant we had access to our old brilliant crew," says de Jong. "Honestly, whenever I'm lucky enough to shoot in Los Angeles, and work with some of the best crews in the world, I'm less worried and worried because I know they're going to do it. They really are the best of the best."

"With a very ambitious film like 'Odyssey' — where I have to manage so many locations, so many sets all over the world — my stress level is completely reduced because I know I have an L.A. crew on my side," he adds.

Mirojnick had crews around the world moving with the production. "Each costume was the most difficult because we first had to break down the myths — the familiar images we've inherited — before we could build our own world," says the costume designer. Odysseus is the main focus of the film and his costume had to create a visual language that every other character could draw from. Once we knew who Odysseus was, every other costume had to belong to the same world, yet reveal a different relationship to power, identity, and myth.

With Nolan shooting so much on camera, editor Lemm found that some scenes fit together easily. Consider the Circe scene where she turns men into pigs.

"It's all [practical] special effects," he says. Samantha Morton, who played Circe, used animatronics and other effects to turn the men into pigs.

"It's all there, so we can cut it like a drama scene," Lemm added in an interview for the book Filming Odyssey: Inside the Making of Christopher Nolan's Modern Epic.

In contrast, the Cyclops scene was a real mystery, a combination of shooting in a Greek cave, stage work in Los Angeles, puppetry and Bill Irwin as the one-eyed giant. This was the scene Lem had been working on since he arrived in Greece. His skill helped create a scene filled with fear and pity and was key to building the characters of Odysseus and Aurilochus and moving the story forward.

The Middleburg Film Festival runs from October 15-18 in Middleburg, Virginia.