San Sebastian-Bound ‘Secaderos’ Showcases Creature Designed by Oscar-Winning ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ Team (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Anna Marie de la Fuente Vying for the Premio Kutxabank at the San Sebastian Film Festival’s New Directors sidebar, “Secaderos” (“Tobacco Barns”), the feature debut of Rocio Mesa, includes a beguiling creature of the woods that was designed and created by the Oscar-winning team behind Guillermo del Toro’s 2007 “Pan’s Labyrinth.” For make-up and special effects whizzes David Martí and Montse Ribé of DDT SFX, it was the script that convinced them to board this small-budgeted film by a novice filmmaker. “Only once in a very long time does a script like this land in your hands; it somewhat reminded us of ‘Pan’s Labyrinth,’” said Martí, who added that they also boarded it as associate producers.

Inspired by the works of Hayao Miyazaki and Jim Henson, they fashioned a tobacco leaf-covered creature that would move with a system of levers and monitors inside it.

Martí volunteered to man it, enduring the scorching heat of Granada in the worse summer month of the year, August. “We couldn’t use real tobacco leaves as they would change color and were too heavy, so we hand painted each leaf out of fabric that was 80% silk and 20% cotton,” said Martí of the long process. “I had a harness on my shoulders and used the levers to move the creature’s face and head, we had never designed anything like this before,” he said, adding that they were working on four different projects at the same time. “Working with the creature, or as we liked to call it, La Nico (“Nicotine, Nico for friends”), was truly magical thanks to the wonderful team at DDT.

They come from working on blockbusters, but they had the humility and compassion to know how to adapt to a small shoot with limitations,” said Mesa who also spoke of dangerous hurricane winds and a