Watch How Babylon Showcases an Amazing Set Design by Florencia Martin

Damien Chazelle’s epic film Babylon takes place in 1920s Los Angeles and features Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie. Paramount Pictures released a Production Design Featurette detailing the rigorous process of creating a mesmerizing set for the film’s period and story.

Babylon will explore the outrageous ambition and excess of the rich and famous, from their rise to fame and recognition to their downfalls. Audiences will experience the corruption and depravity of Hollywood’s early beginnings.

Coming off of Bullet Train, Brad Pitt enters the center stage in Babylon alongside Margot Robbie (The Suicide Squad), Diego Calva (I Promise You Anarchy), and Jean Smart (24). Tobey Maguire (Spider-Man: No Way Home) returns to our screens, and Don’t Worry Darling’s director, Olivia Wilde.

This period comedy-drama film is set in the Golden Age of Hollywood. Before this pivotal era in filmmaking, silent films were the norm in the industry. However, moviemaking would never be the same as films began adding innovative soundtracks and technicolor to their movies. 

Babylon’s production designer, Florencia Martin (Blonde), claims that Damien Chazelle wanted the set to be as historically accurate as possible. Martin had delved deep into her research to understand how Los Angeles looked during its time.

“Florencia had an insane challenge with this movie. Not just re-creating Los Angeles, but within that, re-creating each studio experience and, within that, re-creating each of the fictional movie sets. You’re talking about sets within sets within sets,” comments Chazelle.

The film’s production design team constructed half a dozen silent-era stages built close to each other. In addition, Martin made a cohesive set design where multiple sets ran simultaneously, fabricating a “chaotic immersive world depicting how silent-era films were produced.”

She stated that Babylon was “an actual living, moving, kinetic thing while we were making it.” Diego Calva, who embodied Manny Torres in the film, sent her a wholesome letter, thanking her for “creating such an immersive world for us to play in.”

Martin adds: there are two worlds in this film the impoverished and the rich. She believed that color was significant in differentiating these worlds. Chazelle couldn’t have agreed more. The film’s director wanted bold color choices while still staying loyal to the era.

“Babylon is at the scale of these mythical movies you’ve heard of in the past,” Martin claims in the film’s featurette.

Babylon is a complex visual masterpiece with layers of expertly crafted set designs. The scale of the film is mesmerizing. Babylon will be released to theatres on December 23. Watch Babylon’s production design featurette and the film’s vibrant trailer below.