Behind the scenes with miniature unit supervisor Simon Weisse.
One of the landmark scenes in Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme is the moment a giant model dam is revealed, and then blown up. Miniature unit supervisor Simon Weisse was responsible for this miniature build, which also included a moving train, boats and cable car. For the explosion, a second ‘proxy’ dam was constructed and rigged with a water dump tank, in collaboration with special effects supervisor Gerd Nefzer. Visual effects then seamed both dams together.
In starting its hero dam build, Weisse’s team started with illustrations from concept artist Turlo Griffin drawn on black paper with white chalk. “He would consult with Wes and production designer Adam Stockhausen and then begin those amazing chalk drawings,” says Weisse. “Then he’d scan the whole thing into Photoshop. Because he’s been working with Wes for so long, he knew what it was going to end up being, in this case, a model. So, he already thinks about how it’s going to be built by us.”
From Griffin’s front, top and side view drawings of the dam, the next step was the construction of a scale maquette made of styrofoam and cardboard. A 3D model was also part of the process. These early stages helped establish how ‘deep’ the model would be—Anderson wanted it to be relatively narrow, but Weisse noted there needed to be a train, conveyor belts and the cable car built into the model which would require something deeper. “There were also needs for special effects with the water system and the pipes of smoke,” says Weisse, “so we found a compromise and everybody was happy.”
The decision to build a second proxy dam for the explosion moment came about given the needs of the hero model, advises Weisse. “We were building the hero model and it had to be so strong because it moves forward on the stage. We thought, ‘Well, how are we going to explode this?’ It was easier to consider a second proxy one, rather than building a second hero, and then combining them.”
For the proxy model, the same shape and contours of the hero model were followed, but in a more simplistic fashion. The water explosion would occur in the center ‘concrete’ part of the dam, and so particular pieces were built for this area that allowed for multiple takes. “This concrete section was pre-cut,” outlines Weisse. “We experimented with white and pink styrofoam, but they did not work—with the pink styrofoam, all you would see was pink, but you would never in real life have pink concrete. Eventually I found gray polystyrene in Poland. It was the only place where they sell that kind of gray polystyrene.”
With the special effects team led by Nefzer, Weisse embarked on a series of tests on the proxy model in terms of pre-cutting, painting and hiding the cuts. Special effects then constructed the dump tank set up on the backlot at Babelsberg Studio (the main miniature had been filmed inside a studio building).
“Gerd built a huge tank, which also had a special rig that allowed for the water to slide up,” explains Weisse. “We shot three takes. It was amazing the way the water cannon was rigged in front of the camera so that it looked like the water was coming down and hitting the lens. It was such a good collaboration with Gerd.”
In a previous befores & afters article, we broke down how Freefolk combined the hero and proxy model for the final explosion shots. Weisse’s first time seeing the result was at the film premiere. His reaction? “Well, it’s always difficult to know what to think after working for months and months on a miniature. But this worked, it looked great.”
befores & afters spoke to Simon Weisse at the VIEW Conference 2025 in Turin.
