#Mara LePere Schloop

[greedandenby]

Interview with the Vampire S01 production design visuals by the awesome Mara LePere-Schloop and her incredible team

Long post!

The Dubai penthouse research board is just so aesthetically pleasing!

Also finding out that the entire backlot set is now rotting in a landfill like our trashboy Lestat made me incredibly sad.

From the super interesting IFF Webinar.

All credits to Mara LePere-Schloop & AMC.

[nalyra-dreaming]

Have you seen the original timeline that was in the bts Mara shared in her interview? Louis and Lestat met in October 1910, first night together January 1911 and Louis' turning in March 1911. Then in 1x02 they went for a train trip where they met Sofia, a female opera singer and had a threesome with her! In 1x03 there is no mention of Antoinette, Claudia's turning was set in July 1917 after Louis and Lestat were back from the trip and they found all Storyville and the Azalea closed and boarded up and Louis kills Anderson and not Fenwick. I think it was the original draft when s1 was supposed to cover the entire season.

It’s realllyyyy interesting!!

I can‘t really wrap my head around all of the changes yet (some make sense to me, some do not?! 😅) but I agree, they had probably simplified some things for a one season run… nonetheless, that one season was supposed to have 15 episodes iirc, (couldn’t find the source I remember a really old article, but the oldest I could google just now says 8) , 8, so… some of these changes… are really interesting.

Maybe we’ll get a recount after season 2 as per to the why ;)))

[fire-gift]

Levan Akin and Mara Lepere-Schloop!!

[crazykuroneko]

Some crumbs on IWTV from Mara's (production designer) Zoom Talk today.

The talk event:

@Carmillamurray on Twitter (or @penguinsandbats) is kindly sharing points Mara said on IWTV in her talk. You can read them under this thread. It's still on going as I'm writing this

Bonus:

this part made me giggle

[la-femme-au-collier-vert]

IWTV Set Design

So the 1947 movie posters in Prague that I’ve been able to identify include Le Cafe du Cadran involving a wife’s affair with a young violinist, Quai des Orfevres which includes one Inspector Antoine, and Monsieur Vincent is about St. Vincent…de Paul. I’m deceased 💀

*morts sans sepulture is about a group of imprisoned resistance fighters struggling not to give up information about their leader to the Nazis.

credit to @criminalbiskitt on twitter for the image

[bivampir]

the holy trinity of interview with the vampire (Carol Cutshall of Costume Design, Mara LePere-Schloop of Set Design, and Selina van den Brink of Set Decor)

[soitamulle]

sad to travel so soon out of prague

on the train ride i sketched levan for comfort

[lestatdelioncoeur]

Production Designer Mara LePere-Schloop details her work on Interview with the Vampire.

[nicodelenfent]

1132 Rue Royale + artwork

AMC's Interview With the Vampire, set design by Mara LePere-Schloop, set decor by Selina van den Brink.

List:

Robert Henri, Mildred-O Hat (Undated)

Edvard Munch, Starry Night (1893)

Edvard Munch, Weeping Nude (1913)

Edvard Munch, Self Portrait (1881)

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Bouquet in a Theater Box (1871)

George Bellows, Stag at Sharkey's (1909)

George Bellows, New York (1911)

George Bellows, Forty-two Kids (1907)

George Bellows, The Cliff Dwellers (1913)

George Bellows, Paddy Flannigan (1908)

George Bellows, The Lone Tenement (1909)

Edgar Degas, Dancers (1899)

Edgar Degas, After the Bath: Woman Drying her Hair (1898)

Jean Beraud, Backstage at the Opera (1889)

Vasily Alexandrovich Kotarbiński, Roman Bacchanal (1898)

Édouard Manet, Berthe Morisot with a Fan (1872)

Egon Schiele, The Artist's Sister Melanie (1908)

Egon Schiele, Portrait of Erich Lederer (1912)

Egon Schiele, Krumau on the Molde (1912)

Egon Schiele, Self Portrait in a Jerkin (1914)

Egon Schiele, Kneeling Girl with Spanish Skirt (1911)

Egon Schiele, Church in Stein on the Danube (1913)

(Dubai penthouse edition)

[nalyra-dreaming]

Levan Akin posted something from the Dubai set on his IG story!!!!!!!

Totally agree with the assessment, too 😅

[squirrellypoo]

Mapping the Rue Royale Townhouse

Photos from Alfonso Bresciani for AMC

Around episode 2 or 3 I started to struggle in mapping the layout of the townhouse’s rooms in my head - how many pianos do they have? What orientation is the bed to the coffin room? Where are the fireplaces located? I like to build maps in my head to orient myself (no surprise that the 3D render is my favourite part of any Grand Designs episode) so my first port of call was to look at the floorplan of the original 1132 Rue Royale, the historic Gallier House.

This is a real life historic house that you can visit, and Anne Rice has said it was the inspiration for Lestat’s townhouse in the book, as well as being used for all the exterior shots in the tv show.

But then I was watching a presentation on YouTube by the show’s production designer, Mara LePere-Schloop, and she actually shared the floorplan used to build the townhouse set! I excitedly took a screenshot (again, apologies for the quality, which was limited by the video quality) to compare against the original Gallier House. Even though the actual house is on two levels with a central staircase, the set is built with both levels side by side, with a partial staircase in between for ease of production. Even with this key difference, they were surprisingly faithful to the layout of the original house, even where they didn’t need to be.

Case in point - there’s a door leading from the coffin room to the landing, which makes sense in Gallier House as the coffin room is a sitting room. But seeing as how the coffin room is meant to be secret in the show (concealed behind a hidden door in the bedroom panelling), there’s no real need to have a door there, especially when it’s barely concealed by tapestries and furniture on the show (and burst through during the episode 5 fight). I’m not even going to mention the failings of the New Orleans police department in not noticing it during their search in episode 5!

Another feature from the original house that was replicated on set are the steps leading down into Claudia’s room from the landing. The placement of Claudia’s room is where the bath and slave quarters were in the original house, and appear to be an extension, where the difference in levels necessitating a few steps would make sense. But there’s no real need for these when you’re building a set from scratch, and I kinda love that they kept them in even though there was no real need for them there (if nothing else, it meant we got to see Lestat prance down them to throw open her coffin lid in episode 5!)

And the final original detail that they didn’t really have to replicate (but I’m very glad they did!) was the incredible aperture skylight on the landing above the piano. Apparently Mara was so taken with the one in Gallier House on an early visit that Rolin Jones (showrunner) found a way to incorporate it into the script, meaning we not only got to see Lestat closing it in episode 2, but Claudia using it to self-harm in episode 4.

I absolutely love the detail and thought that went into the Rue Royale townhouse, from the design to the furnishings to the artwork but also that they built a near-realistic townhouse on set - it brings a level of realism to the show that wouldn’t be present if it was filmed in a series of disconnected, 3-walled set rooms.

[loumands]

Oh to be a production designer telling Sam and Jacob to come and lie down in sample coffins together to make sure they both fit

[idontwikeit]

omg i keep wondering did you painstakingly illustrate the rue royale townhouse or did some other insane person do it first and you manage to unearth it? either way just to reiterate you're a genius <3

Oh no no I found the floorplan for the gallier house from here since I figured there has to be one with Production Designer Mara LePere-Schloop used them in her video:

It got all the detailed floorplans and mouldings, writers and artists will probably find it helpful!!

[la-femme-au-collier-vert]

Reading through the references post, it makes me wish AMC did a history documentary based on the Immortal Universe they created, going in depth on the details and historical references (new Orléans culture, racism, dubai, the city of the doges (Armand), roman perceptions of homosexuality, Ukraine/early migrations...,the impact of nazism and racism in the USA and Europe, childhood/preteens historical status, the development of black culture and bourgeoisie... ).

Thought of vikings doing history documentaries with the cats and with a mix of exercepts and academics. It would be a great way to enrich this universe (pretty sure Sam Reid /Jacob Anderson would love to comment and interject 😂)

Omg I’d love that! They really should- Carol Cutshall and Mara LePere Schloop would have great insight. I have a list of the same for Season 1 here as does @savage-garden-nights here (she includes links to free versions of pdfs, which I chose not to based on the difficulty of translations and which version might be referenced best) if you want to read more. Basically, it’s a who’s who of literature as we attempted to pull apart the script by its inspirations.