Passengers was filmed in Atlanta, GA in 2015 at Screen Gems Studios and Pinewood Studios in Fayetteville, GA. This film offered a unique challenge for Bryan A. McBrien, Greens Consultant and owner of Cinema Greens. He was tasked by the esteemed Production Designer, Guy Hendrix Dyas to create a Garden of Eden on a space ship. Portions of The Starship Avalon were built on sound stages in Atlanta with the upper decks being added in post production.
Featured Product - Handbuilt Pin Oak Tree
The storyline includes a scene where we see the Cinema Greens handbuilt Pin Oak tree that Chris Pratt's character (Jim Preston) planted into the deck of the spaceship. Later we see that tree again as a 90 year old oak tree. Cinema Greens ownder & Art Director Bryan had extensive conversations with the Oscar Nominated Art Department about how a tree of that size would be on a space ship, went over topics like where the soil and water come from, and how do you plant tree on a metal, fabricated spaceship? It was all laid out when viewers accompanied Preston into the ships holds, essentially a modern day Noah's Ark, which Cinema Greens, lead by Bryan McBrien created.
Human exploration and expansion needs workers, materials, and genetic stock in order to survive building a new civilization on a predetermined, barren planet.
Featured Fabrication - Plant Pods
The Passengers ship, Avalon, was filled with thousands of pods that preserved plants, animals, and other genetic material that would be essential to their survival. The pods seen above were custom fabricated and crafted by the Cinema Greens mold shop. To make these complex plants Bryan washed the roots of ligustrum saplings and carefully placed them in the glass pods and filled with an inert gel. The actual plants were assorted artificial's that were embedded in the same gel and then the two halves were married to look like a fully rounded pod.
Featured Fabrication - Garden of Eden
Bryan still jokes that the Garden of Eden set at the movies finale, featuring Andy Garcia, was one of the most creative sets he was responsible for with the shortest amount of screen time. In order to create the topography of the set, over 200 tons of plaster sand was brought into the spaceship where a bobcat would do the initial spreading of the soil. The greens crew then hand raked each hill and valley to match Dyas vision. Once the topography was established and firmed up, we brought in 4,000 square feet of artificial turf which had to be muscled into position, stretched and seamed to create the base for the actual set dressing.
At this point, we cut in the "stream" which actually worked by placing a heavy pond liner along the length of the pond and then covering it in tons of pea gravel. With a base top build on, Bryan and crew started digging live plants along the edges of the ship walls to create a green backdrop for the room and bringing artificial bushes, flowers and grasses into the streams banks. By layering live and artificial plants we were able to achieve a very realistic and colorful palette for the films Director Morten Tyldum, who early on referenced Monet's paintings of Giverny. On the 2nd floor of the ship, Bryan used camphor vine and french-purple Wisteria draped along the walkways and bannisters to showcase how lush and happy the vegetation was in overtaking the ships surfaces. The Art Department and Guy Dyas were nominated for Best Achievement in Production Design at the 2017 Academy Awards in Hollywood, CA.