Making The Witcher

209 00:11:09,458 --> 00:11:12,833 and-- and changing the world as we know it. 210 00:11:14,250 --> 00:11:16,666 [DeMayo] It's really just a refugee situation. 211 00:11:16,750 --> 00:11:19,666 All these creatures and beings from another universe 212 00:11:19,750 --> 00:11:23,083 got dumped on this Continent that's not theirs, as refugees, 213 00:11:23,166 --> 00:11:25,875 and the humans were the ones who were barbaric enough, 214 00:11:25,958 --> 00:11:26,916 war hungry enough, 215 00:11:27,000 --> 00:11:30,666 and also co-opted magic from the Elder Races, 216 00:11:30,750 --> 00:11:35,416 to actually take the Continent over and push the elves out of their lands. 217 00:11:36,416 --> 00:11:37,791 In a strange way, 218 00:11:37,875 --> 00:11:41,916 all the inhabitants of this world are the guests in this world. 219 00:11:42,000 --> 00:11:43,416 Something was here before. 220 00:11:44,125 --> 00:11:45,541 We don't know the details, 221 00:11:46,041 --> 00:11:48,541 but monsters, dwarves, humans, 222 00:11:48,625 --> 00:11:50,291 they-- they all came later. 223 00:11:52,666 --> 00:11:56,333 Because we were looking holistically at the world we were creating, 224 00:11:56,416 --> 00:11:59,333 I took on the creature concept design 225 00:12:00,000 --> 00:12:02,208 and for a large number of the creatures, 226 00:12:02,291 --> 00:12:05,333 got to, kind of, do the initial concept design for those 227 00:12:05,416 --> 00:12:08,666 that then was handed off either to prosthetics, 228 00:12:09,208 --> 00:12:11,458 uh, to create physical creatures, 229 00:12:11,541 --> 00:12:13,500 or to VFX, um, 230 00:12:13,583 --> 00:12:17,583 to then create the three-dimensional models or the animated versions. 231 00:12:18,125 --> 00:12:21,750 [man screaming] 232 00:12:21,875 --> 00:12:24,875 And then, a lot of the creatures that we were involved with, 233 00:12:24,958 --> 00:12:29,750 eh, were a combined effort with the visual effects department 234 00:12:29,833 --> 00:12:31,375 because, sometimes, 235 00:12:31,458 --> 00:12:35,583 it was a creature that was entirely drawn 236 00:12:35,666 --> 00:12:37,500 by the visual effects department 237 00:12:37,583 --> 00:12:40,750 but certain parts of it were built by us 238 00:12:40,833 --> 00:12:44,875 so that there could be, like, physical contact, uh, with the actors. 239 00:12:45,333 --> 00:12:48,583 Sometimes it was fully built as a creature. 240 00:12:49,083 --> 00:12:52,708 One of the most interesting things about doing some of the creature creation 241 00:12:52,791 --> 00:12:55,791 was working with Tomek Bagiński and talking back and forth 242 00:12:55,875 --> 00:12:58,166 about Slavic mythology and fairy tales 243 00:12:58,250 --> 00:13:00,916 and bringing certain elements into the creatures 244 00:13:01,000 --> 00:13:03,375 that are true to those stories. 245 00:13:03,458 --> 00:13:04,625 [basilisk snarling] 246 00:13:04,708 --> 00:13:06,416 -[Geralt grunts] -[basilisk roars] 247 00:13:06,500 --> 00:13:08,875 We talk about monsters a lot in Witcher world, 248 00:13:08,958 --> 00:13:11,375 but actually, in the original books, 249 00:13:11,833 --> 00:13:14,625 Witcher is not fighting with monsters that often 250 00:13:14,708 --> 00:13:17,208 because this is the moment in the history of the world 251 00:13:17,291 --> 00:13:19,791 where the monsters are 252 00:13:20,333 --> 00:13:23,250 pushed from their natural habitats by people, 253 00:13:23,750 --> 00:13:26,541 and, at some point, we realized 254 00:13:26,625 --> 00:13:30,125 that maybe the monsters are the ones who need protecting. 255 00:13:31,041 --> 00:13:33,375 [loud roar] 256 00:13:38,541 --> 00:13:41,708 [Hissrich] The stories take place in a place called the Continent, 257 00:13:41,791 --> 00:13:43,208 capital C, Continent. 258 00:13:43,291 --> 00:13:46,958 It is a big world that we will continue to explore all through the series. 259 00:13:47,750 --> 00:13:53,500 I think the thing that was most intriguing about this project is world-building. 260 00:13:54,333 --> 00:13:57,333 Um, this was a real opportunity 261 00:13:57,416 --> 00:14:00,666 to create an environment from the ground up. 262 00:14:01,541 --> 00:14:04,958 And for a production designer, that's, you know, that's gold dust. 263 00:14:07,000 --> 00:14:10,500 We wanted to give the Continent a slightly more global feel. 264 00:14:12,583 --> 00:14:16,666 In many ways, the Witcher world has a very European basis 265 00:14:17,291 --> 00:14:18,541 and we felt, 266 00:14:18,875 --> 00:14:21,708 discussing this very early on, that we wanted to grow that-- 267 00:14:22,416 --> 00:14:25,708 that world with influences from lots of other places, 268 00:14:25,791 --> 00:14:27,666 lots of other cultural references. 269 00:14:29,500 --> 00:14:33,250 We looked to, you know, Japanese architecture, 270 00:14:33,333 --> 00:14:36,291 Indian architecture, Middle Eastern architecture, 271 00:14:36,750 --> 00:14:39,166 where we could give the Contin