Kalina Ivanov, la maître de la décoration sur ‘The Boys in the Boat’, nous parle de son expérience sur le nouveau drame captivant de George Clooney

Kalina Ivanov, la conceptrice artistique du film « The Boys in the Boat » réalisé par George Clooney, a été confrontée à un véritable défi : faire ressembler l’Angleterre de 2022 au nord-ouest pacifique des États-Unis en pleine dépression. Une tâche complexe mais que cette créatrice de talent était prête à relever.

Ivanov, qui a collaboré avec Clooney sur « The Tender Bar » et contribue actuellement à la création de l’emblématique Gotham pour la prochaine série dérivée de « The Batman » intitulée « The Penguin », est à l’aise dans divers univers, allant des contextes historiques exigeants à la métropole souterraine tentaculaire et granuleuse de DC.

Dans une interview avec The Credits, Ivanov a partagé son expérience artistique et sa vision sur les différences entre l’architecture universitaire britannique et américaine, la reconstitution d’un ancien hangar à avions transformé en chantier naval qui a été utilisé par l’équipe d’aviron de l’Université de Washington, médaillée d’or aux JO de 1936.

Elle a également évoqué son « moment de joie » suite à une suggestion faite à Clooney qui l’a ramenée à ses racines théâtrales. Ivanov est convaincue de l’importance de son métier et s’efforce d’initier les jeunes à ce domaine.

Elle est co-fondatrice de Production Designers Collective, une organisation regroupant 1300 créateurs de talent du monde entier. Issus de milieux variés, comme l’architecture ou le théâtre, ils sont unis par une passion commune : celle du design de production.

Born and raised in Bulgaria, Ivanov’s journey to theatre design was not straightforward. Repressed by the government because of her family’s status, she had a slim chance of becoming an artist. In 1979, her family finally managed to escape to New York. It was there that she declared her ambition of becoming a theatre designer, much to her parents’ shock, and though they were scared, they soon became supportive.

Ivanov got her start at the theatre design program at NYU, which she credits as giving her the foundation to understand design, discipline, and time management; all crucial to her current role.

Entering the world of theatre seemed grand from the perspective of Bulgaria, but she soon found out that the theatre world was quite small, with not many female designers at the time. She worked as an assistant in a Broadway show and met a woman who told her, « You draw very fast. You should consider storyboarding ». She took that advice to heart, teaching herself storyboarding using the Indiana Jones books, which contained storyboards.

Afterward, she earned her way into NYU’s graduate film program. In an especially pivotal moment of her career, Ivanov ended up working on the Silence of the Lambs after meeting director Johnathon Demme at film school.

Working on the film ‘The Boys in the Boat’, Ivanov was keen to get every detail right, given the importance of the film’s setting and period context. From the outset, she took it upon herself to educate her London-based colleagues about the eclectic nature of American university campuses, so different from the uniformity of British ones.

The biggest challenge was in recreating the shell house, the gigantic, airplane-hangar-turned-boat-construction-facility where the University of Washington’s team had built their boats. Without being able to travel due to COVID restrictions, Ivanov relied on photographs and oral history to recreate the place, even managing to adjust the size slightly to fit the boats while maintaining the building’s original proportions.

Regarding her collaboration with George Clooney, Ivanov shared that Clooney’s main focus was authenticity. The director wanted the audience to really feel and perceive the depths of the Great Depression, and to relate to the boys’ struggles and their status as outsiders.

Finally, when asked about a particular detail in the film that she’s most proud of, Ivanov recalled how she proposed using Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ to reflect the boys’ aspirations to be a part of the university and have a better life, as opposed to the original script’s scenario of a straightforward musical recital.

« The Boys in the Boat » is now in cinemas worldwide.