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How Wes Anderson uses miniatures

In order to go big, sometimes filmmakers go small.

By Edward Vega
Part of 2023’s big summer movie season, explained

Miniatures in movies are way more common than you expect, and one of the most stylish filmmakers keeping them alive is Wes Anderson.

A movie crew with cameras and props is working around a miniature train model outdoors in the desert.
Filmmakers prepare the 1/8th scale train model for Wes Anderson’s latest film, Asteroid City.
Courtesy of Simon Weisse/Focus Features
A man with a remote model controller leans over a miniature yellow passenger train, making sure it’s in position.
Wes Anderson’s latest film, Asteroid City, uses miniature models, including a train, to create its look.
Courtesy of Simon Weisse/Focus Features
A transparent, boxy model spaceship is held up on a metal frame, with lights and cameras around it.
A miniature spaceship model from Asteroid City.
Courtesy of Simon Weisse/Focus Features
A man stands peering over the edge of what looks like a vast crater in the ground, but the edges of the photo reveal it to be a miniature set.
Simon Weisse, prop and model maker, stands behind the crater model he worked on for Asteroid City.
Courtesy of Simon Weisse/Focus Features

A black-and-white photo shows a man’s face looking out of a miniature moon with a telescope attached.
A completely normal and not terrifying visualization of the man in the moon.
A Trip to the Moon (1920)

Miniature use dates back just about far as the movies do, with filmmakers like Georges Méliès using them in the 1920s.

Star Wars was revolutionary for visual effects, but the limited computer technology of the 1970s meant filmmakers had to get creative. To pull off their ambitious vision, the team at Industrial Light and Magic built intricate miniatures of ships, trenches, and more for the original Star Wars.

In the 2020s, our computer technology is better than ever. And yet, even today, miniatures still get used. Just look at The Mandalorian, Blade Runner 2049, Harry Potter, The Dark Knight, and more.

Two men are finding the right camera angle, one standing on a box, to shoot views of the large pink Grand Budapest Hotel miniature set.
Filmmakers work on the hotel miniature for the movie The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Courtesy of Simon Weisse/Focus Features
A woman stands on a table among miniature buildings about her height, made to look like vintage skyscrapers in a city.
Filmmakers work on miniature sets for Asteroid City.
Courtesy of Simon Weisse/Focus Features
A man and a woman use sculpting tools to create textures in a miniature set depicting a construction site in a European city.
Filmmakers work on a miniature set for the Wes Anderson movie The French Dispatch.
Courtesy of Simon Weisse/Focus Features
A man adjusts the front of a miniature house, on a miniature street, with a miniature hearse in front of it.
Filmmakers work on The French Dispatch.
Courtesy of Simon Weisse/Focus Features

In order to go big, sometimes filmmakers go small. Check out Vox’s latest video to learn more about miniatures from one of Wes Anderson’s model makers, Simon Weisse.

You can find this video and the entire library of Vox’s videos on YouTube.

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2023’s big summer movie season, explained

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