Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘Ballad of a Small Player’ follows the story of a gambler named Lord Doyle, who is on the verge of breaking down. He has been experiencing a consistent losing streak, which has resulted in him losing all his money and incurring a huge hotel bill that needs to be paid off before the authorities are called. At the same time, his past crimes catch up with him, which means he must come up with a substantial amount of money at once to resolve his problems. When he runs out of luck in all casinos, he is advised to try his hand at Rainbow Casino, and this is where his story takes a turn. SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Fictional Rainbow Casino is a Mix of Sets and Real Locations
Rainbow Casino in ‘Ballad of a Small Player’ is a fictional location that originates from Lawrence Osborne’s novel of the same name. It is an integral location in the story because this is where Lord Doyle comes across Dao Ming, a loan shark, who changes his life, for better or for worse. Given the significant role gambling and casinos play in the story, the filmmakers opted to use real locations. They filmed on the floors of real casinos. They used real locations, such as the Wynn Palace, Casino Lisboa, and the Grand Emperor Hotel. The cast and crew were allowed to film in the casinos as long as they didn’t disturb the business, especially when it came to the important clients of the place.
The filmmakers took advantage of the late hours when there was still a crowd, but not so many that it made filming difficult. It was a challenging feat, but they managed to pull it off. While some of these shots were used to portray certain sections of Rainbow Casino, the filmmakers likely resorted to creating specific sets to film the more tense scenes. Two major scenes that take place in Rainbow Casino are at the beginning and the end, when Lord Doyle goes to play baccarat with Granny and when he returns to give Dao Ming her share of his winnings. Both of these scenes have no crowd in the background, and due to their profound relevance to the movie, it would make sense for the filmmakers to use sets where they would have no time constraints and more flexibility compared to what they had in real casinos.
With the blend of real locations and custom sets, the filmmakers were able to portray the casino in authentic Macau fashion. To get the sense of the place, director Edward Berger and cinematographer James Friend visited Macau about six months before the filming commenced. They wanted to “soak it in through osmosis, the vibe and the scale of the place.” Friend told Netflix Tudum that the visit led him to realize that the casinos were so vast that they felt like “cities in their own right. And they go underground. It’s quite a breathtaking environment and lends itself beautifully to filmmaking.” He and Berger used this experience to create places like Rainbow Casino, which serve the plot while also presenting an authentic portrayal of a Macau casino to keep the audience immersed in the city, which becomes a character unto itself in the movie.
Read More: Where Was Ballad of a Small Player Filmed?
