The Venice “miniature” set is replete with windowsills holding pots and plants, balconies, gondolas, bridges, gutters, tables, chairs, lamps - even clothing hanging in windows. This all served to establish a critical sense of scale to the set.
Alongside the Venice models, the New Deal Studio team constructed a one-foot-deep, 170-foot-long canal holding 42 tons of water. The canal was used as a scenic backdrop and for specific stunt sequences in which the ‘Nemobile’ races down a towpath as buildings collapse behind it in a domino effect. Two miniature versions of the car were built for this sequence: One is a full steering, radio-controlled, free-motion vehicle with working headlights and taillights. The other is a cable-pulled car traveling up to 38 feet-per-second, used for high-speed driving shots though the crumbling Venice miniature set. Puppets of the actors inside the car are animated with radio control transmitters.
Achieving such complex miniature sequences involved increasingly demanding and resourceful methods. Filming models requires compensatory increases in the frame speed and in the physical movements in front of the camera, in order to create the illusion of mass. Achieving the necessary speed of movement was challenging with some of the larger models. In addition, the miniature effects team had to synchronize the various miniature model and prop movements to within specific moments in a scene.
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