Bury Me with Love
'Häät ennen hautajaisia' - Feature Film
My first time as a Production Designer for a Feature Film was for a romantic comedy about a wedding planner Joanna who gets a cancer diagnosis with 1-2 years life expectancy and decides that the final wedding she is going to plan will be her own. Joanna end up falling in love with a funeral parlor owner Sakke and has to try to balance her cancer treatments, busy work schedule and personal life turbulence.
This feature had two months of prep time before just 15 shooting days. We ended up having to also deal with covid cases and short delays to filming, but in the end we managed to get the job done without any major alterations.
Joanna's home
The main character Joanna's home was set in an older block of flats in Helsinki. In reality the apartment was home to a family of five. The aim was to strip the location of as much colour as we could, and only use soft shades of gray, beige and white in the dressing to reflect Joanna's mental state. She is a very practical and career oriented woman, so the home only had necessary items present and very limited decorative elements. As she battles with her cancer diagnosis in the film, a stockpile of various medicines took central stage in her kitchen.
The location was a block of flats from the 1950s. Above the apartment before dressing, below after.
Pekka and Anneli's Home (Joanna's parents)
Joanna's parents Pekka and Anneli are a retired couple living in a small detached house in an older neighborhood. This charismatic house only required light dressing changes downstairs, and a huge transformation upstairs. In the story Anneli is a vibrant and energetic lady while her husband Pekka battles with depression and withdraws into his study to ponder life and death. Warm tones and soft furnishings were added to the downstairs living and dining room to reflect that this area is Anneli's domain. Upstairs a bedroom was converted into Pekka's office, with books, archives and personal memorabilia cluttering every surface.
The locations is a traditional wood clad detached house. Above is the location before set dressing, below the final set.
Food Lovers & Drop Dead Gorgeous Weddings
Joanna's wedding planning business Drop Dead Gorgeous Weddings and her best friends' Paula and Elli's catering business Food Lovers were located next door to each other. It took us a while to find an appropriate locations, but finally we managed to land a small cafe and a photography studio next to it for this location. In the movie we never see inside Joanna's office, instead we see her mostly working from her car or at Food Lovers. Therefore we didn't need to dress the inside of DDGW, only add the logos on the windows and dress the windowsill and Joanna's car. We also added logos on the windows of Food Lovers and dressed the interior to have a more refreshed and calm mood. A colour palette of terracotta orange, sage green and light beige was used for the look of Food Lovers.
The location was a little cafe just outside central Helsinki. Above location before dressing, below finished set.
Elli and Paula's Home
Elli and Paula's home needed to feel warm and homely as a contrast to all the hardship and darkness going on in Joanna's life. I chose a rich colour palette of warm tones such as turquoise, brown, red, green, yellow and orange. An eclectic bohemian mood was achieved using real plants, mixed furniture in mid century modern styles, wicker, and a lot of textiles. The action took place in the living room as well as the kitchen area.
The location was a downtown Helsinki fifth floor apartment. Above location before dressing, below finished set.
Sakke's home
We searched a long time for Sakke's home. As he lives together with his father Taavi, the house needed to be appropriate for a successful older businessman who has established a chain of funeral homes in his prime, a legacy now passed down to his son Sakke. Taavi's character also went through several rewrites, which altered his personality along the way. This location also had to have a space to film the therapist's office in due to scheduling challenges. We selected a house of very different architecture to that of Joanna's parent's home, a darked, more masculine atmosphere and formal furnishings.
The location was a 70's detached house. Above the location before dressing, below the finished set.
Kumpula Funeral Parlor
A real funeral parlor was used for this set, with minimal changes to the location. Above the parlor before dressing, below the finished set.
Therapist
This location was situated in the same house as Sakke's home. The blue wallpaper sets this room apart from the rest of this location, allowing us to make it appear as if it was located somewhere else. The vibrant furniture were replaced by lighter, airier furniture and the colour palette was more uniform in beiges and whites, making the blue wallpaper less dominant and more of a feature.
This set was dressed into the same location as Sakke's home. Above the location before dressing, below the finished set.
Hospital
During the film Joanna visits the hospital and a doctor multiple times as she receives her cancer diagnosis and gets various treatments. We dressed one room to look like a doctor's office, another to look like a cancer treatment space and a third one to look like a nurse's room where various tests and treatments can be performed.
A University of Applied Sciences building was used for the hospital location, since due to covid no real health care facility allows film crews in their premises. Above are some class rooms before dressing, below the finished sets. We filmed on one corridor and three separate classrooms.
Church
A church plays a big role in Joanna's quest to get married quickly. She and Sakke meet with the priest in the church office multiple times, and get married here. We made small changes to the office dressing, and added nice flowers to the wedding scene.
Above the church before dressing, below the finished set.
Restaurants
The film features two separate restaurant scenes, one for Joanna and Sakke's first date, and one for their break up date. In a sense their relationship begins and ends over lunch.
Ansa and Oskari's Wedding
The film features two weddings. The first wedding takes place at the start of the film, and it is where Joanna and Sakke first meet each other. Sakke's sister Ansa is getting married and Joanna is the wedding planner. The wedding's theme colour was hot pink and the style a little bit tacky, as if Ansa is living out her childhood princess wedding fantasy and Joanna has tried her best to make that happen. We see the main hall of the wedding where guests are enjoying their food, as well as the backroom where Elli and Paula from Food Lover's catering are preparing food and drinks, and Joanna is trying to sort out a situation where the lights have gone out in the venue due to an electrical issue.
The location had a fantastic big old green electrical panel which is featured in a scene where Joanna is trying to get the lights back on and the bride is panicking about her wedding being ruined due to the electrical issue. A fake door was created for the location, since in the scene Joanna kicks a panel loose and crawls into the locked room where the electrical panel is located.
This location was a large old villa in Espoo. Above the location before dressing, below the finished set.
Joanna and Sakke's Wedding
The second wedding of the feature belongs to Joanna and Sakke. Their colour palette and aesthetic was a lot more muted and grown up, soft pinks, whites and greens. We used real flowers to add a layer of softness and romance to the space.
The location for the second wedding of the film was an old villa in Helsinki. Above the location before dressing, below the finished wedding set.
Graveyard
At the end of the film it is revealed that Joanna has passed. Sakke can be seen placing a candle on her grave, where the inscription is written in comic sans (a purposeful joke in the film). The gravestone was custom made, as the inscription had to be in this specific font and the 'stone' was actually wood for easy maneuvering.
