T H E! N E S T
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One of a number of early pre-production marker renderings for the sunset sequence, this particular image was also used for Irish Film Board pre-publicity. As soon as The Nest went into post-production it was replaced with the 'primordial' sunset image which can be seen on The Nest homepage and on all of the production's publicity material.
HAL 9000/Radio
The radio in The Nest could be described as another of the film's characters', representing technology and hinting at the evolution of technology from Stone Age to Space Age and beyond.
Since The Nest is part homage/response to Stanley Kubrick's '2001: a space odyssey' hotel rooms Dusseldorf(1968), a proportion of The Nest's pre-production design work had to reflect this. The radio was one of the more difficult elements in that it had to function superficially as a radio and, at the same time, hint at the future existence of intelligent, digital life. A HAL9000-type radio seemed the perfect solution.
In the film, the radio provides voiceover material (A reading from the early english novel, 'Robinson Crusoe', and an interview with a philosophising astronaut) that subtly reinforces the abandoned baby's predicament and the audience's growing sense of isolation and unease.
The HAL9000 radio design evolved whilst storyboarding was in progress. The storyboard panel above represents one of the later designs, stripped down to the basics and kept as simple as possible so that the audience would focus on the radio voice content.
Various storyboard shot set-ups determined many of the radio's features - the simple rectangular shape fits well into the film's 1:1.85 screen format and the central globe or 'eye' was given a red 'pupil' to focus audience attention. The radio also acts as a time-piece, the shadow in the central, circular area moving in relation to the sun's position as the day progresses.
Sharp members of the audience may also note that the sun's position in the sky indicates that the film is set in the Southern Hemisphere - The Western coastal desert of Namibia to be precise - and not Dublin's famous 'Bull Island', a world famous sanctuary for the world's migrating birdlife, otherwise known as Dollymount Strand.
A more finalized rendering of the radio. An aerial was later added. The colour of the radio was changed from red to white to reflect the 'space technology' design brief. The manufacturer's name in the top right hand corner of the radio was changed in post-production from JCN to NCN - the original 'JCN' is a '2001: a space odyssey' in-joke that was considered too juvenile for 'The Nest' and so was dropped in favour of a more sinister and anonymous logo.
Once storyboarding was completed the various scenes in the film were layed out and tested. This is a mock-up of one of the baby buggy/radio set-ups. Many subtle perspective drawing systems were employed to enhance the psychological 'feel' of the The Nest. In this set-up, as with many scenes in the film, the horizon line is positioned low in the composition allowing the sky, seagulls and cloud formations, composited later by Lightstream CGI, to play a larger visual role.
The low camera positions throughout The Nest (except for one notable exception) denies the audience a full view of any given location, adding to the sense of claustrophobia in the film. The cutout, photocopied sketch of the baby buggy was used to fine tune the buggy's position in the picture frame.
All artwork copyright© 2000 Owen Fitzpatrick - All Rights Reserved