Tour the Home Alone House: Part 1, Main Floor [CG Tour]

today we're going to tour the home alone house just as it was in the movie but without any actors getting in the way [Music] hi i'm marina coates welcome to behind the scenes where we get up close and personal with all your favorite tv and movie homes today we're going to explore every nook and cranny of the home alone house and we'll have the production designer john muto along for the ride to provide interesting stories and insights only he could provide let's get started we'll begin by putting a persistent rumor to rest here is the real life house used for the exterior shots on home alone but how much filming actually took place in the interior of this home according to john muto the production designer and dan webster the art director no scenes were filmed inside the house in winnetka illinois only exterior scenes were shot there all of the interiors of the house where built sets constructed at a high school in northfield illinois including the basement the first floor the second floor the attic and even the interior of the backyard tree house so that rumor is now laid to rest before we even take one step inside of the home let's first look at an overhead view of the main floor to get our bearings we saw a lot of the entryway in the film that of course is right here the placement of the other rooms are as follows the living room is here that's where kevin decorates the little tree that he cut down the den is here where kevin watched angels with filthy souls while devouring a huge bowl of ice cream on the other side of the entryway is the dining room and behind the dining room is the breakfast room and to the right of the breakfast room is the kitchen where much of the action took place as we watched the movie one thing that helps us know which room we're in is being aware of the walls it's pretty easy to know when you're in the entryway or the kitchen or the breakfast room but as for the others if you see this wallpaper you're in the living room if you see green walls you're in the den and if the walls are red you're in the dining room easy right when you're in the dining room you'll notice that there is a room just beyond this one but that's never shown to us in the movie from the exterior on the real house it appears to be a sun room and this is where that room is on the overhead view one of my favorite features of the dining room is such a simple thing but very clever inside of the china cabinet the glasses have ornaments placed inside of them and when they backlit the cabinet it created a bluish-green luminous glow such delicious detail let's take a tour of the entryway and dining room now [Music] we got to see a lot of the entryway and stairs in the movie but now we'll hear some of the behind the scenes stories from john muto but we built the whole staircase on the stage you know and we distorted it so that you could actually you know slide on a sled down the stairs and just make it out the door in the entryway there's a vestibule between the front door and the stairs since none of these interior scenes are actually shot on site when you see people coming in the front door how did they make the outside look so real the shots at the end where they are all coming in where you're seeing out the front door one of the things you do in this kind of movie you you take a picture of the outside and you blow it up giant it's like 10 feet tall and 30 feet long and then you put it outside the windows at the right distance so that it looks like it's real out there it sure makes it believable in the back of the hallway we see an arch and a room beyond maybe a bathroom to the right is the entrance into the breakfast room on the stairwell we see family portraits and on the landing there's a beautiful palladian window with a webbing detail in the mullions there's also room for a small table and a painting let's have a closer look around this area now [Music] the living room on this end we find a piano in this corner and a red wing back chair here this is the area in the home where kevin makes it look like there's a party going on to scare off the intruders harry and marv on this end of the room is the fireplace with a comfy chair on one side and kevin's little tree on the other hanging from the mantel are seven stockings there are five kids in the mcallister household buzz played by devin retrey megan played by hilary wolfe linny played by angela gothels jeff played by michael morona and of course kevin played by macaulay culkin he was he was a nice kid chris and i would chase him around the hallways he was he had a bicycle and we had skates he was smart and funny and everyone liked him i don't remember anyone ever complaining about him all of the other kids we saw milling about the home and there were a lot of them were cousins now let's tour the living room later on we'll get a full tour of the entire main floor all in one spoop [Music] we all know this room kevin sank down into that cushy leather chair with a huge bowl of ice cream popped in the movie his uncle warned him about angels with filthy souls and began to indulge in every child's fantasy home alone with no restrictions and no one to boss him around the movie he watches looked so real that many people including myself believed it was a real film but it was actually just a fake movie made specifically for that scene in home alone that was just a super simple set it was one of those things just seemed very obvious what it needed to be it was sort of like sam spade's office now it's a neat little scent on this end of the den we see a desk and a red sofa with a large window behind it where kevin spies the burglars harry and marv about to break into the house this is also the window we see kevin peeking out of at the very end of the movie watching his elderly and previously feared neighbor marley played by robert's blossom tenderly reconciling with his estranged son before we take a little spin around the room here are some of the pictures of the set taken by john muto now we'll tour the den and then we'll head on to the kitchen [Music] me me [Music] you filthy animal i've had some viewers ask where the traps were in the house so let's go over the main floor ones now as joe pesci's character harry walks into the dining room he first runs into a sticky film and then a fan blast feathers all over him that took place here the red-hot doorknob that burns harry's hand took place here kevin placed his little trucks and tanks and cars here the pile of christmas tree ornaments were under this windowsill and in the kitchen which will soon be touring kevin had the bb gun out the dog door here as well as the fire crackers in the pot and the fire on the head trick was there too john muto explains why kevin's character was able to get away with doing these kinds of things without the audience turning on him what i was trying to create was something that was worth defending the movie starts when he said this is my home i have to defend it so it had to be something that's worth defending i think we can all agree that this was a home worth defending there is something about this home that just resonates with so many people it's one of the most beloved movie homes of all time maybe because it takes us back to our childhoods that's a common comment i get about my tours people enjoy the nostalgia and they like being transported back in time to their youth to a simpler time in their lives that's why i think this movie home is so popular why it strikes a particular chord it takes us back to the magic of our childhood when people ask me about about all the stuff about the house it's it's really what i wanted where i would want to live if i was a kid and i think it was the same for chris the director and and julio the uh the director of photography it was like our childhood dream of how we wished we should we lived we just did everything we could to support that you know notice when planning the design they didn't just say well what's popular now that wasn't even part of the process it never is for good set designers instead it's always about creating a mood and telling the story of the people who live there this should also be true in your own home instead of thinking about what is trending and what's popular now use design to create a mood and tell the story of the people who live in your home you your family all great design is personal i have another show on this youtube channel called cinematically inspired design where we learn how to do just that to use the design secrets from the cinema to help you tell your story and create the mood you want in your home we take our cues from the cinema because they are the masters at it that's what they're all about now back to this cinematic masterpiece let's look at an overhead view of the breakfast room and kitchen to understand the layout better this is the breakfast room the room where these scenes took place adjoining the breakfast room is the kitchen which on its own comes in at 477 square feet one of the biggest surprises for me that i hadn't caught in the movie was that the kitchen has beams on the ceiling down the center of the kitchen is an l-shaped island john muto explains the choice behind the shape of the island the kitchen the kitchen is an interesting example of how you have to design for the movie because we knew that the bad guys were going to stick their head in the dog door and kevin was going to shoot him so when you think about it the only way you could really shoot somebody is if you're laying on the floor and thus was born the long l-shaped island to allow kevin enough room to lay down another interesting thing about the island since the entire home is done in christmas colors red green and gold i had assumed the tile in the kitchen was green but one of the first things i learned from dan webster was that the kitchen tile was actually blue ponder on that one for a minute another surprise i discovered two window seats along this wall you can see one of them in this shot but today you'll get to see them in all their glory as we walk through the kitchen and breakfast room one of the reasons i love to create these tours is that we often don't get to see very much of the homes during the movie we certainly don't get to pause and look around there's too much action going on in front of the set design the camera whizzes by actors are in the way scenes flash by too quickly here we get to just enjoy the incredible set design at a leisurely pace we get to just explore the rooms and really discover why we fell in love with these homes in the first place [Music] [Music] coming up the full tour you'll notice as we take the tour and as you watch the movie that the colors used are all christmas colors red green and gold that includes the wallpapers and even the costumes i asked dan webster the art director about this he said the heavy use of wallpaper was because for much of the movie kevin is alone in the house and only about four feet tall so with pattern on the walls it was made more visually interesting than shooting against plain painted walls andy added they were in constant touch with the costume department and provided them with swatches of paint colors and wallpaper so that they were in sync works beautifully one thing i want you to watch for in the full tour is what i call the million dollar view a gorgeous view that we actually didn't get to see in the movie these four rooms all line up with their wide french doors all perfectly aligned because of that we get a stunning view that we never got to see on the show what adds to the intrigue are the layers of christmas colors and patterns there's the red in the dining room then a large print damask wallpaper in the entryway then another christmassy wallpaper this time with cream dominating and then the bookend is the green den at the end and to add further to that we see the small christmas print on the drapes at the end of this row up against the green wall perfection i asked john muto if it ever bothers him that he goes to so much trouble to design a set and then it just gets taken down at the end well you know um that's the thing that people often say they say how do you feel when they tear apart your set this the set once it's on film you can't get rid of it it's always going to be there forever you know so it's really more permanent than a real house now let's take the tour [Music] do [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] coming up in part two we'll run into even more surprises so you can cross going upstairs off your bucket list we'll tour the parents bedroom and bathroom buzz's room the attic and we'll even get to see kevin's room and how do we know what kevin's room looked like by asking the designers of course we'll also learn about a fascinating scene involving the basement heater that didn't make it into the final film but as for today that's a wrap see you next time on behind the scenes 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Channel: Marina Coates - Mockingbird Lane

Views: 290,267

Keywords: catherine ohara, macalay culkin, mcallister, kevin mcallister

Id: 5GByoLZIzlM

Length: 20min 33sec (1233 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 11 2021