Grant Major: Oscar-winning designer...

Interview – 2012

Production designer Grant Major has worked on many major New Zealand films, including An Angel At My Table, Heavenly Creatures, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Whale Rider, and King Kong. In 2004, Major won an Academy Award for The Return of the King.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Major talks about:

Working with Jane Campion to design the decade-spanning An Angel At My Table
Creating highly detailed sets for Heavenly Creatures
How the scale of The Lord of the Rings trilogy changed over time
The challenges of creating the hilltop Edoras set for The Two Towers
Trying to find the right "feel" for the look of Whale Rider
Why King Kong was a true production designer’s film
Working on American superhero movie Green Lantern

This video was first uploaded on 31 July 2012, and is available under this Creative Commons licence. This licence is limited to use of ScreenTalk interview footage only and does not apply to any video content and photographs from films, television, music videos, web series and commercials used in the interview.

Interview, Camera and Editing – Andrew Whiteside

The main house in the middle of Whangara . . . It was a little cottage which wasn't big enough for us to film in, and besides which, someone was living in it. So I ended up building the interior again on the stage here. And that was one of the nicest jobs actually, because when you go into someone's house it's like a window into someone's soul in a way...

– Grant Major on 2002 movie Whale Rider, directed by Niki Caro

Grant's Full Profile