More on Saving Mr Banks 1 Eye for detail

This is from an interview with the director of Saving Mr Banks John Lee Hancock. It shows an eye for detail, which I often lack but on this occasion did notice while watching the film. A eureka moment indeed. This is also a good general point on preparation for anything.

 

I think movies are made in prep. I think a lot of problems that movies have when they’re over budget is because of a lack of prep. Sometimes it’s because an actor’s schedule means that he or she is only available at this time - so we’re going to be shooting in a month. You don’t want to do those movies, because they’re going to fail at some level. Every decision you make in prep, whether it’s the colour of the walls in a character’s bedroom, or what he or she wears, these are all character related, so little by little you’re able to build a character and build a story and support the themes.
I think it’s incredibly important, especially when you’ve got Kelly Marcel, who’s so bright and wrote such a beautiful script. Kelly, she goes "oh god, don’t tell me we’re going through props again," and I go "yes, we’re going through props again!" And then all of a sudden we have something where your props master says "I want you to look at rings for Colin [Farrell]. I have an idea: this is the ring that Mr Banks wore in the actual movie, this pinkie signet ring." And so all of a sudden, we’re going "let’s make this all flow back and forth; let’s make that the ring that Colin wears in the movie." And nobody’s going to ever see it, but maybe you might sense it. And then we said, let’s go one step further, let’s have P L Travers wear it as well - that’s the connection to her father. As though somehow - we’re inventing the story - that this was her father’s ring, and then it became her ring, and in the process of her making the movie, it became Mr Banks’ ring. That’s a little, tiny victory. A Eureka moment.