Heralded as one of the most innovative and original filmmakers of our time, M. Night Shyamalan’s films have touched hearts and minds of all ages with universal themes such as “ghosts and family” in “The Sixth Sense,” the world of comic books and mortality in “Unbreakable,” and aliens and faith in “Signs.” Now, with “The Village,” Shyamalan continues to connect with audiences, taking them on a journey to explore how fear can affect a community. Philosopher Bertrand Russell said, “To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.”

With this type of thinking, even in times of fear, daily life can continue. Fathers talk with their daughters. Sons fall in love. Friendships grow closer. The exceptional Oscar-winning/ nominated ensemble cast of “The Village,” which stars Joaquin Phoenix, Bryce Dallas Howard, Adrien Brody, Sigourney Weaver, William Hurt, and Brendan Gleeson, embrace M. Night Shyamalan’s storytelling, and thus “The Village” is his most intimate and emotional film accomplishment to date. How many times have we heard a parent reassure a child that “there is nothing to be afraid of?” But do these parents speak the truth? In M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Village” the fear of the creatures in the woods, or as they are referred to as “Those We Don’t Speak Of,” threaten their community and the safety of the children.

In “The Village” the elders of the town have made a choice to co-exist with their community inside an isolated village. Cutting themselves off from the rest of the world, their fear of the creatures, and what other evils may exist beyond their town borders, gives them motivation to stay in tact and safe with their loved ones.

We can’t ignore fear. We live with fear every day. Whether it be creatures in the woods, or in our modern society, the uncertainty of the safety of our own children the moment they leave the house to go to school. Fear surrounds us daily as we watch the network news and hear of child abductions, enemies of war, or terrorism. In the words of Franklin D. Roosevelt, is it true that “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”? Or does society show us otherwise?

What do we do to maintain our sense of community in times of fear? The people of “The Village” bonded together and went to great lengths to keep their community safe and protect themselves from their fears. Says M. Night Shyamalan, “In our contemporary world I often ask myself how far would I go to protect my children? Would I move to a farm in the middle of nowhere and live like the people of ‘The Village?’ We like to believe we would, but how many of us have? What sacrifices are we truly making to better our situation?”

In times of crisis, community can be what helps us to survive against fear. Says producer Sam Mercer, ‘The Village’ isn’t that different from neighborhoods of today. When fear begins to threaten and take hold, people reach out and turn to one another for support. It is that sense of community that builds strength.”

Shyamalan continues, “Fear doesn’t necessarily need to be something we are afraid of. Sometimes it just lets our imaginations run wild. I hope through ‘The Village,’ audiences are able to explore a world of fear and how, even in the midst of chaos, you can find a way to cope.”

The process of storytelling has always been the most important thing about filmmaking for M. Night Shyamalan. Shyamalan credits cinema audiences as starved for a challenge, and enjoys giving them what they want through uncomfortable suspense. Shyamalan captures the attention of the filmgoer by holding back information until just the right moment.

Says Shyamalan, “When I write I gravitate toward having a streamline of suspense. I like to surprise people and that just feels natural. At the same time I try and give humanity to my stories. Hopefully audiences leave with something to think about that is worthwhile.

“‘The Village’ is different from my previous films. I think it is me growing up and evolving as a filmmaker. I wanted to write about innocence. ‘The Village’ is set in the late 19th century, after the civil war and before industrialization when it was a simpler life. When it wasn’t about money or greed. People spoke without sarcasm and you could hear the truth and sincerity in their voices,” says Shyamalan.

Shyamalan continues making films in and around his home in a Philadelphia suburb. “I’ve kind of fallen in love with the simple life and slowing things down. Life can get so crazy. You forget what is important and you begin to fixate.”

Writing “The Village” was a long process for Shyamalan. Continues Shyamalan, “I keep this book of story ideas that I am constantly adding to. Details of ‘The Village’ characters kept presenting themselves and before I knew it, organically, one sentence turned into two, three, four pages, and over time grew into a full length screenplay.

“It was new for me to include elements of romance in my writing along with the unknown supernatural elements that audiences have enjoyed in my past films. This movie is ultimately about the power of what love can do to create things, and what it can overcome,” says Shyamalan.

Producer Sam Mercer, a collaborator with Shyamalan previously on “The Sixth Sense,” “Unbreakable,” and “Signs,” comments, “One of the amazing things about Night as a filmmaker is he writes and directs very visually. When you read a Shyamalan script you can picture every detail of the story. His imagery and dialogue enable audiences to instantly become part of his imaginary world in the most intelligent way.”

Before the cameras roll, Shyamalan prepares his well-thought-out imagery by working with storyboard artist, Brick Mason. The pair typically spend a few months framing each scene through illustrations. Much of their brainstorming for “The Village” was done at Shyamalan’s office in Pennsylvania. Associate producer Jose Rodriguez, who is part of Shyamalan’s company Blinding Edge Pictures, adds, “When you look at Night’s framing in his films, everything means something. He doesn’t shoot coverage on a set just to have it. He knows what he wants ahead of time and uses minimalism to achieve it.”

Audiences worldwide have embraced Shyamalan’s storytelling. Perhaps it is because he is a fan of films himself and speaks often of seeing films for the first time and getting excited. With “The Village,” Shyamalan continues his tradition of telling stories that make a difference and resonate in audience’s memories long after the lights come up in the cinema.

Continues Mercer, “People can look at themselves in Night’s films, and that is what makes them so accessible. Though ‘The Village’ is set in 1897, it very much deals with universal themes of today like love or fear.”

Start Of Production
Echoes of the sound of applause ring through a deep farm valley in southeast Pennsylvania. Faces of “The Village” cast grin from ear to ear with excitement and anticipation as they see the sprawling fortyacre “The Village” set for the first time. The hard working art department and construction crew proudly listen to the sound of their continued applause. After two and a half months of round the clock efforts by these talented film craftspeople, filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Village” has become a reality.

Only a week away from the start of filming “The Village”, the cast now stand in the middle of a beautifully authentic 1897 town they had only thus far imagined when reading M. Night Shyamalan’s screenplay. Shyamalan gives them a guided tour of “The Village” grounds explaining the layout of the cabins, the meeting hall, the schoolhouse, the watch tower… He passionately describes what scenes will take place where with contagious enthusiasm and verve.

The actors disperse and explore “The Village” on their own. Sigourney Weaver and Joaquin Phoenix tiptoe in awe through the house where their mother and son characters live, caressing the handmade props that laden the living room. Adrien Brody reflects on the porch of “The Village” meeting hall overlooking the rolling green vista. William Hurt and Bryce Dallas Howard stand close, not unlike their father and daughter characters, and stroll down the dirt path to their large white house that looks out into endless woods. Now not only do the sets feel genuine to the point of disbelief, but so does the closeness amongst the actors.

During pre-production, the principal cast of “The Village” underwent a late nineteenth century “Boot Camp” – a historical immersion into life in the past, and the skills needed to survive. Wearing their period wardrobe, the cast began to get in touch with their senses, a necessity needed to survive in typically harder historic times.

During the casting process, Shyamalan was upfront with the actors. If they wanted to be in “The Village,” they had to commit to three weeks of boot camp prep time prior to shooting. Says Shyamalan, “I wanted to form a real community of people where they needed to rely on one another for survival. I didn’t just want to do my version of this movie. I wanted to be surprised. I wanted to be entertained. I wanted to come to work and not know what was going to happen, and the only way that is going to happen is if the actors are in it with me, standing right beside me.”

The cast visited living history farms in Pennsylvania and dabbled in everything from skinning and tanning to candle-making to blacksmithing to wood chopping, and even butter churning and shearing sheep. Sigourney Weaver was overheard renaming the art of plowing “surfing on dirt,” which she thoroughly enjoyed.

During this historic immersion, the cast bunked together in wood cabins and tents in a remote and rustic communal setting. This retreat location is used in present day as a camp for the Girl Scouts of America organization.

No detail was spared. Even the food at “boot camp” was prepared and served family style. The chef, every night prior to dinner, would pick two cast names out of a hat and those picked would help to prepare the evening meal for the entire group. Everyone participated and shared the tasks and chores. Physical tasks weren’t the only things to be mastered by the cast as they prepared for filming. Shyamalan felt it important that the cast understood what it was like to live in a close-knit, isolated community. Shyamalan says, “No matter how independent we are or think we are, people need people and a sense of community. We crave it. Crave to be part of something bigger than us.”

Lectures were given to the cast by people who had lived in a communal setting during their lives, and even a psychologist came to talk with the cast about post traumatic stress that can occur when violent acts happen. An expert on “utopian communities” from Princeton University also shared his knowledge with the group.

Says producer Sam Mercer, “During this prep period, the cast began organically taking on their personas of their characters. Joaquin would become this slight loner from the group like his Lucius character. Adrien would be more loose and frantic like Noah’s role. William, who plays town leader, Edward Walker, would give advice and lead the group. The comfort factor was so established for the cast that when the cameras rolled it already felt familiar and cohesive.” Adds associate producer Jose Rodriguez, “These A-list actors were suddenly at the mercy of the elements. No five-star hotel to run to. The challenge of the day shifted to things like if I want to be warm I have to make my own fire. Night was right there with the actors during this boot camp process, rehearsing and discussing their characters.”

Comments Joaquin Phoenix, “Life and survival was difficult during the late 19th century but people seemed content and happy in “The Village.” Boot camp was an opportunity for us to leave our creature comforts behind and go into the woods and be together. The bonding that happened was real. We became a community. Hopefully that will be seen in the finished film.”

It is rumored among the actors that one night at boot camp Joaquin shared with the others that he truly does fear dark woods. So in the middle of the night he said good-bye to the other cast and ventured out on foot into the dark forest, facing his fears, only to return at sundown.

Continues Adrien Brody, “By going to boot camp for ‘The Village’ as actors we had a free moment to find who you are with no judgement from the outside world. It is the first time I think in years that I have been away from my cell phone, not dealing with my everyday things, and at the same time was surrounded by others with the same goal.”

Adds William Hurt, “I found it so refreshing that Night required this unusual upfront commitment from all the cast during prep. It’s like you are always panting for this. We actors are the best we can be when we are working with each other. What are we together if we are not sharing together? Our collaboration is what makes ‘The Village’ a true community.”

It was no small task building “The Village” set where Shyamalan’s characters would come to life. In the two months the construction crew worked around the clock, creating a picturesque nineteenth century town nestled in a lush private twelve hundred acre valley.

The twenty structures that make up the immediate forty-acre town include a meeting house, school house, bakery, forge, livestock barn, greenhouse, graveyard, watch towers, and many homes for “The Village” characters. The extreme summer heat made the work conditions difficult, but the builders persevered despite losing a week to an intense hurricane storm.

“I knew it was a little unrealistic what I wanted our production designer, Tom Foden, to accomplish in such a short time. But the set had to feel real, like a community, for the story to feel real. They far surpassed what I imagined. “The Village” set location felt right out of a painting or photograph of the era,” says Shyamalan.

Many of the designs for the buildings in “The Village” were inspired from early American paintings.

Constructing the design of these 1897 homes of “The Village” with techniques of that time period would be too time consuming when you are working against tight deadlines in order to be ready for filming. Production designer Tom Foden and art director Michael Manson and their construction team had to come up with some movie magic of their own to save time but not sacrifice authenticity.

“Night was very open allowing our art department team to take liberties of how we saw “The Village.” It was one of those rare opportunities for us to let go of ourselves in the design process,” says production designer, Tom Foden. “We took leaps into ‘The Village’ characters history and lives, believing as if we too were residents of ‘The Village’.”

Many of the homes look as if they were built with exterior intricate rock walls. In actuality, a rock formation mould was taken from a number of historic homes, just down the road from the set, and replicated in plaster to create realism. These faux rock plaster moulds were then painted different earth tones to simulate natural rock variety. The result is so seamless that even when you look up close it is hard to tell the rocks are not real. The meeting hall in “The Village” is a good example of this technique.

The interior spaces of the period cabins are small which could make it difficult to fit an entire shooting crew inside. The art department anticipated this challenge and therefore built most of the cabins with removable “wild walls” so that Shyamalan and his director of photography, five-time Academy Award® nominee Roger Deakins (“A Beautiful Mind,” “The Man Who Wasn’t There”), could accommodate the complex and intricate camera angles they need.

Most of the homes in “The Village” are fully functioning houses on the ground floor complete with chimneys and front and trap doors that open and shut. Because modern equipment did not exist in the nineteenth century, the house roofs could not be as evenly straight as that of today. So much to their dismay of the builders of “The Village,” the central structural beams had to be cracked to create the look of a slightly crooked roof.

“Because the houses were built with real foundations, the characters also had a real foundation to grow from. This attention to detail in all the sets that were built added and enhanced our characters as having real foundation,” says Brendan Gleeson who portrays August Nicholson.

“When I first saw ‘The Village’ I could imagine living there. It sent a chill down my back because it looked like the most heavenly peaceful place filled with light. I wish we could live here all the time.” says Sigourney Weaver.

In addition to the natural growing long grass fields, Foden and his team of greensmen, including Jimbo Breen who was responsible for the giant crop circles in “Signs,” planted some large Ash trees that are a centerpiece in the town. Shyamalan requested that the trees in “The Village” be bare and stripped, much like the innocence that is lost by the characters throughout the story. The exterior shooting schedule was juggled around until the leaves on the trees began to fall.

The interiors of “The Village” homes are filled with authentic period antiques that we found in the same region as the set. The Brandywine Valley is thick with history, and many in the art department felt it an advantage to have “The Village” filming in an area that already had such strong roots in the nineteenth century. It made it much easier to find items such as drawers, tables, chairs, rugs, linen, bowls, bottles, candlesticks, etc. to dress the sets with, or these original antiques would be reproduced so authentically that in many cases it is hard to tell the difference between the old and the new.

All the set dressing featured in “The Village” had to reflect this period piece. Even the baked goods and food featured throughout the story were made with cooking techniques of the era. In Lancaster County, nearby the set, a bakery was found who specialized in historic cooking methods of the past. Again, nothing spared to contribute to the authenticity and realism of “The Village.”

A functioning film set obviously uses electricity and water to keep it going. Cables, generators, electrical outlets, water taps, and other necessary modern conveniences had to be disguised and hidden underground when designing “The Village.”

It was important to Shyamalan that every detail of “The Village” set be authentic. The animals featured in the film were no exception. The art department constructed a barn for Steven McAuliff and his company Animal Actors, Inc. to provide around one hundred and twenty-five animals for “The Village.”

McAuliff and his team researched intensely to find out which animal breeds would have existed in this era. They typically began their seven-day a week work schedule at 4:30 AM by feeding the Devon cattle. This particular breed of cattle could provide milk or meat, and even be trained to pull a plow, essentials for sustaining a self-contained community.

Also featured are Horned Dorset sheep. Modern day sheep do not have horns because they are not predatory, but in the nineteenth century they did. Shyamalan specifically did not request horses in the film because he felt this would suggest that the townspeople would be able to venture in and out of “The Village” which would mean that the community wasn’t self-contained.

Chickens, Duroc pigs, and goats can also be spotted roaming the village.

Outfitting The Village

In 1897, it took five days to spin enough linen on a spinning wheel to make one shirt. Women and children typically did the spinning, and men would do the weaving on a loom. Men that were weavers could not do other laborious chores so their hands could stay soft and smooth. These are the kind of things that Oscar –winning costume designer Ann Roth (“Cold Mountain,” “English Patient”) and her team had to think about when designing and dressing “The Village.”

“I wanted the clothes in ‘The Village’ to be a non-event, and I mean that in the most positive way. The costumes had to simply look as if the townspeople had made the clothes themselves. They didn’t have access to fine laces or European textiles. That was a hard task to achieve,” say Roth.

In her initial discussions with Shyamalan, it was important to them both that the clothes be created either from materials available in “The Village” such as linen and wool, and also to mix in some cotton fabrics that would have been brought to “The Village” when it was first conceived.

“The people of ‘The Village’ were not great dressmakers. I didn’t want their clothes to be couture work. They live in the country, they work on farms and their clothes had to reflect their isolated and hardworking lifestyle,” continues Roth.

A number of different screen patterns were made by the costume department and then painted on to natural linen and then aged, or broken down. These screen patterns were made with simple techniques like potato carved stamps or gluing seeds on a roller being dipped in dye.

These patterns, many of which tie-in to a nature theme, are seen on the principal cast and the background players to give a feel of cohesiveness to “The Village” community. This continuity ties together the landscape and the costume into the beautiful symbiotic relationship that needs to coexist in order for an isolated village of this size to function. The costume department had to work with the type of natural dyes that would have been available drawn from plant life in “The Village.” Rusty and muddy browns, tans and beiges, moss greens were the predominant colors used in constructing the costumes. This color palette included muted colors with the exception of Bryce Dallas Howard’s character seen in brilliant hues of blue and indigo to show off her vivacious and capable personality.

In addition to their everyday outfits, most people of the era had one Sunday best outfit. For women, when these dresses wore out they would then make them into a pinafore. Fabric was never wasted, even being used for curtains, house linens, or re-cut to make clothes for a child.

There is original antique vintage clothing featured in “The Village.” Roth hunted for such items in Italy, England, and Los Angeles as she prepped for “The Village.” It was difficult to find clothes specific to 1897. There is a large base of 1860’s clothes because of the civil wars, and the 1900’s are easy to find as well because the industrial revolution was beginning. The costume department integrated these pieces of authentic clothing with their own reproductions so that it melded into one costume that felt fresh yet period. Four staff seamstresses churned out costumes while a staff of three would take any costume for “The Village” and break it down to age it authentically with a worn in look.

Many of the accessories of the characters wardrobe were made from scratch by the costume department. All the shoes for “The Village” were handcrafted in Italy. Two hundred petticoats were made from fine cotton. Hats were handmade and were important to “The Village” as so many of the people worked outside in the elements.

Because the couple of hundred extras cast in “The Village” will be seen so often on camera throughout the story, Ann Roth made the decision to dress all of them as if they were principal cast. All the extras had multiple costume changes and multiple outfits, highly unusual for a film.