To make the building look appropriate, as a piece of architecture, that was a real challenge
The first real challenge was to make a very, very tall building with a pearl at the end, and not make it look phallic. The second is that, because it is so overbearing on the skyline, it's so prominent – and believe me I had no delusions about the fact that it was going to incite the ire of many of my architectural peers – I did want to try to give it some kind of real character.
Unlike The Towering Inferno, or unlike even Die Hard to a degree, but especially Towering Inferno – the building is a character in the sense that its destruction is not due to the architect's negligence or the corruption of a contractor, or something like that. This building is actually really cool, it's a strong character and it's trying to fight and preserve itself, while Dwayne Johnson is trying to fight and save his family.
So the desire on a dramatic level is to make the building a character that you're rooting for.
Dan Howarth: So how did you go about doing that?
Jim Bissell:It was something that I think that many architects do in their work, and they've stolen it from us – dramatic designers – is that they give their building a narrative and a context. The narrative and context that we tried to give our building, The Pearl, were based on cultural icons of the area, as well as myths of the area.
In the preliminary research that we did, we discovered the myth of The Dragon's Pearl, which has to do with the region around the Pearl River, very close to Hong Kong.
In that myth, you begin to see that the pearl is the pearl of wisdom. The dragon is the river itself, snaking through the area. And the dragon has a greater and more transcendent meaning: the dragon that is celebrated in Asian culture as one of strength and courage and fortitude, and resilience.
So this is what we started basing the design on, which was for a self-sustaining building. We wanted to design in artificial rice paddies that were also very decorative, that grew food for the residents. All the energy that was needed to power the building was self-generated through tidal generators, solar panels and the double-helix wind generators that became the eye of the dragon.
The desire on a dramatic level is to make the building a character that you're rooting for
And that the parts were all part of the dragon. Dramatically, we used the singularist forms to try to articulate this strength and elegance as the dragon reaches up out of these rice paddies and holds the pearl of wisdom in the sky. Also, the tail of the dragon scoops and is a cultural centre, where the concert halls are etc.
As this singular form reaches up, right in the centre – which is where our action takes place – is a 30-storey atrium. That's sort of the belly of the beast.
The atrium was very useful for us, because rather than having Dwayne Johnson dangling constantly on the outside the building, in jeopardy, now he was on the inside of the building. And you can see the fire leach around these floors and terraces of the 30-storey atrium.
这个虚构的摩天大楼是由Bissell和他的团队设计的，以满足电影的叙述／The imaginary skyscraper was designed by Bissell and his team to satisfy the narrative of the movie
Dan Howarth：珍珠塔被认为是世界上最安全的建筑，但显然不是这样。发生了什么吗?
Jim Bissell：在整个建筑中都存在着用于灭火和安全的冗余系统，还有一个非常腐败的组织，他们试图利用建筑来挟持建筑的所有者和开发商——他们是我们的英雄之一——人质。
顺便说一句，设计一座具有真正力量的建筑的另一个原因是，它反映了开发这个建筑的中国人的性格。我们想确保这些关联是好的。
所有这些事情可能导致火灾，但是，我不想放弃太多的故事——他们找到一种方法，非常巧妙地利用道恩·强森（Dwayne Johnson）的角色进入大楼计算机系统并关闭这些系统让他们不工作。
如果你能捕捉到眩晕的感觉，那真的很令人兴奋
正是由于道恩·强森（Dwayne Johnson）和大厦主人的智慧，他们才最终扑灭了大火，我们最终看到他们将重建家园。所以这座建筑幸存下来，将成为英雄。
Dan Howarth：你提到了《火烧摩天楼》，还有许多其他的动作和惊悚电影以摩天大楼为中心。是什么让高楼大厦成为这类电影如此受欢迎的题材?
Jim Bissell：它的高度。相信我当你站在那里，如果你能捕捉到眩晕的感觉，这真的很刺激。这是发自肺腑的，你仍然坐在自己的座位上，而不是坐在过山车上或从天上掉下来，你是在看着别人这么做。但是你的神经细胞在加班。这是很有趣的。
我的女儿是电影艺术系的助理，她参加了演员和剧组人员的放映，她一直坐在座位的边缘。她看过模特，看过片场，她知道发生了什么。但她的手心仍是汗涔涔的，看着道恩蹦蹦跳跳，她一直都很兴奋。
Dan Howarth：所以这是关于捕捉不安的感觉，在屏幕上?
Jim Bissell：我想是的，这是为了制造一种乐趣；一个替代刺激。
Dan Howarth: The Pearl is branded as the safest building in the world, but obviously that's not the case. What happens to it?
Jim Bissell: There are redundant systems for fire suppression and for safety all through the building, and a very corrupt group who are trying to use the building to hold the owner and the developer of the building – who's one of our heroes – hostage.
Incidentally, another reason for designing the building to have a character of real strength is that it reflects this Chinese character who develops the building. We wanted to make sure the associations are good.
There are all these things that could cause the fire to be contained, but – I don't want to give away too much of the story – they find a way, very deviously, using Dwayne Johnson's character to get into the computer systems of the building and shut those systems down so they don't work.
If you can capture that feeling of vertigo, it's really quite thrilling
It's through the cleverness of both Dwayne Johnson and the building's owner that they're eventually able to put the fire out, and we see in the end that they will rebuild. So the building survives and will be a hero.
Dan Howarth: You mentioned The Towering Inferno, and there have been many other action and thriller movies centred around skyscrapers. What is it about tall buildings that make them such popular subjects for these types of movies?
Jim Bissell: It's height. You get up there and believe me, if you can capture that feeling of vertigo, it's really quite thrilling. It's visceral and you're still sitting in your seat, rather than riding around on a rollercoaster or dropping out of the sky, you're watching somebody else do it. But your neurones are working overtime. It's pretty interesting.
My daughter, who was an assistant in the art department on the movie, went to the cast and crew screening and she was on the edge of her seat the whole time. She'd seen the models, she's seen the sets, she knew what was going on. But she still had sweaty palms and she was having the thrill of a lifetime watching Dwayne leap around
Dan Howarth: So it's about capturing the feeling of unease you might get from being so high up, on screen?
Jim Bissell: I think so yes, it's about creating a bit of a joyride; a vicarious thrill.
摩天楼导演罗森·马歇尔·瑟伯（左）和制作设计师Jim Bissell／Skyscraper's director Rawson Marshall Thurber (left) and production designer Jim Bissell
Dan Howarth：有趣的是，在这些电影中建筑物是如何扮演角色的。这座建筑本身就扮演着一个角色，并且是一个非常关键的角色。它的设计和造型可以是好的也可以是坏的。
Jim Bissell：这是真的。我和一位记者讨论了她写的一篇文章，关于为什么坏人总是居住在当代或现代建筑中。有趣的是，特定类型的建筑如何代表特定的性格。
Dan Howarth：这座建筑是基于任何现存的建筑或建筑风格吗?
Jim Bissell：我们受到了圣地亚哥·卡拉特拉瓦（Santiago Calatrava）, 扎哈·哈迪德（Zaha Hadid）的影响——你可以看看那栋建筑，发现它有很多当代建筑的影响。
但与此同时，它坚定地建立在试图以一种优雅的方式捕捉这条龙的性格。这就是我们把它塑造成一个角色的方法，避免了明显的把它塑造成特别的男性化。我想，那些美妙的弯曲的形式使它更女性化。
Dan Howarth:It's interesting how buildings can play characters in these movies. The building itself plays a character and a very pivotal one at that. The way it's designed and shaped, it can either be a good guy or a bad guy.
Jim Bissell:It's true. I had this discussion with a journalist about an article she had done about why the villain always resides in contemporary or modern architecture. It's interesting how certain types of architecture represent certain characters.
Dan Howarth: Was the building based on any particular existing structures or architectural style?
Jim Bissell: We were influenced by [Santiago] Calatrava, Zaha Hadid – you could look at that building and see that it has a lot of contemporary architectural influence.
But at the same time, it was solidly based on trying to capture, in an elegant way, the character of this dragon. That was our solution to making it a character, and avoiding the obvious footfall of making it extraordinarily phallic. Those wonderful sinuous form make it more feminine I think.
閱讀更多 專築網 的文章
