In this British radio interview, artist Ali Bannister explains how she and her horse paintings literally became part of the War Horse film. Ali served as the film’s “equine artistic advisor” according to the credits that roll at the end of the film: makeup and hair for the horses was her concern.
The horses had to look like they were in a war, or in a rainstorm, and all the Joeys had to look just exactly like Joey was described originally in the book version of War Horse: a bright bay with four white socks and a white cross-shaped star on his forehead!
Imagine having eight horses with varying amounts of white (or not) on their different-coloried bodies. Now imagine that each and every one of them has to have the same length of mane, falling just so, and the same tail. The forelock has to be the same length and when there were multiple takes of an action shot, sweat would need to be added or subtracted and mud reapplied because, as all horsemen know, mud changes color as it dries.
Why go to all this trouble? Because there are people like you and me in the audience.
Ali’s drawings are featured several times in the film. Photography wasn’t a portable pastime yet in 1914, so to record the war, artists went to the front. In War Horse, Captain Nicholls, played by Tom Hiddleston, is an officer and a gentlemen, and also a talented sketch artist; and while it looks like the actor is actually drawing, the sketch on the paper was created by Ali Bannister, and Captain Nicholls is just shading in the horse’s ears.
On the sketches in the portfolio open in front of Captain Nicholls is a drawing that Ali did of an American off-track Thoroughbred named Jaguar Hope. He was owned by Lexington, Kentucky photographer Wendy Uzelac Wooley, of the Racehorse to Show Horse blog, who commissioned Ali to paint his portrait. Unfortunately it wasn't the top one, but we know it's there! (Ali Bannister Flickr photo)
Spielberg’s lucky day was the one when Ali Bannister walked onto the set. I’m sure you will appreciate her artistic skills when you see the film–in the horses and the art!
Special News: Ali has set up a special site for her art from War Horse, including her now-famous portrait of Joey for author Michael Morpurgo, which has been made available as prints. Be sure to visit www.warhorseart.com!
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All content © 2011 Fran Jurga and EquiSearch
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[...] Dan said that “backstage” in London, Sultan had enjoyed another reunion, with equine makeup artist Ali Bannister from the War Horse crew. (See yesterday’s post for more about Ali.) [...]
I laughed out loud when you said, “Because there are people like you and me in the audience.”
I’m so glad they were looking out for our “interests.” Ali and her team did a great job matching up the Joeys.
Yes, they did a wonderful job of making the horses look authentic to the situations. Too bad the sound people could not be deterred from their hysterical obsession with adding the idiotic TV horse noises to every scene. The only production I have ever seen that accurately portrayed horses as the mostly silent animals they are is Buck.