LUCA
Daniela’s first Production Design job was on the Pixar film Luca (2021). She teamed up with director Enrico Casarosa to capture the rich visual language of a fictional 1950s Italian Riviera where sea monsters and humans struggle to coexist.
— THE CINQUE TERRE —
Land and Sea
Our team traveled to Italy to immerse ourselves in the world we were about to design. Because it’s a period film, we had to study the ways of life of these isolated fishing villages before they became the famous tourist spots we know today. The towns were shaped by two elements: the land and the sea. Steep slopes were painstakingly terraced for agriculture by generations of villagers beginning in the 10th century. The sea provided the towns with the remainder if their food source, with long lines of fishing families that went just as far back into the centuries. Those were the two ways of life in these rugged towns: farming and fishing. Life was hard so the people here were strong and sturdy, with strong and sturdy bodies and characters.
— Designing for Sea Monsters and Humans —
The Human World
At the heart of the human world is the fictional fishing village Portorosso, situated in Liguria, on the Italian Riviera. The tone of the film is light and playful, seen from the point of view of children who have the most incredible summer together. Set in a fictional 1950s, the film allowed us to dig into the design and color palette of the time period, while taking many creative detours to enhance its language.
The Sea Monster World
The sea monster farms lie deep under Isola Del Mare, an island just offshore of Portorosso. The color design is inspired directly by the deep emeralds and aquas of the Ligurian Sea, while the sea monster designs echo the shapes of creatures found in Carta Marina maps.
