Mockup of instead spread of vintage passport
The script in this episode of What We Do in the Shadows called for a go bag that included a map and a passport with her new identity, Sally Rhubarb. We knew that it was meant to be an older passport, as the go bag had been hidden in the wall for a long time, but no specific dates or countries of origin were scripted. It so happens that I possess a number of documents belonging to ancestors of mine, including three passports - a 1924 Rhodesian passport, a 1920 French passport, and (my personal favourite) a 1919 British passport that unfolds into a single large piece of paper. I brought all three in to the production office, they were shown to the production designer and the director, and the 1920 French passort belonging to my great grandfather was selected to be the basis for my design, though we would transform it into a completely fake American passport. This involved translating everything to English and making some adjustments to the content.
My great grandfather's French passport
The more challenging aspect was that Nadja's alter ego, Sally Rhubarb, has blonde hair, and we didn't have time to arrange a photoshoot with the blonde wig. So this involved taking a photo from a previous photoshoot and editing it both to look like it was shot in the 1920s, and to adjust the hair colour. I will say, I'm grateful this was always intended to be a sepia-toned photo, as that made turning black hair blonde a much more forgiving process!
It was also necessary to edit the position of her body, as the original photo (far left) was of the actress crouched down with one shoulder raised up.
I printed several copies of approved passport pages onto a heavyweight brown craft paper, cut them to scale, and stitched them together with a pamphlet stitch and waxed brown thread. The portrait photos were printed on satin photo paper, cut and glued into the passports, and then the Scenic department aged them down significantly.
Sally Rhubarb passport after aging
