Hello again!

I'm glad you've come back to read more.  Here's a what's on my mind today.

Let's get into it, shall we....

I just recently watched a semi-rough cut of a short film I worked on.  And, it's always interesting because you never really know what it's going to end up being.  You may make a greatly detailed set giving insight into the character and the story.  You spend a good amount of time turning your friends' home into the home of three adventurers who are always getting themselves into perilous and yet wacky situations.  You find some really great stuff, and you try to set it up so that it will be showcased in the final film.  Then the director and director of photography decide their shot list.  And, after that the editor takes the footage and edits together the final product.  Then you watch it and find that a wall you spend hours loading up with artifacts and trophies is only shown for about a tenth of a second.  And then sometimes you wait a year before you can even see a cut of the project you've worked on.
This reminded me of another story told by a production designer/art director from the old school of art direction who worked with the great Alfred Hitchcock.....

I recently re-watched one of my favorite films Vertigo (1958) after watching a documentary about art direction in films.  It is a great documentary, and I've actually watched it three times now.  The name of the doc is Something's Gonna Live (2010), and I highly recommend it not just for aspiring production designers but for anyone who is a fan of film, especially classic films.  The documentary profiles the careers of mainly three production designers/art directors and the cinematographers they worked with (the topic of the difference between a production designer and an art director I will save for a whole other post.  There was a time when the terms were interchangeable, and it's a really interesting topic, but it will have to wait).  It gives an interesting insight into the relationship between cinematographer, director and production designer, sometimes known as the holy trinity of filmmaking.  It was really helpful for me to hear what other working relationships were like after working on a few projects with different DPs and directors.  On one project, I was not involved in the process at all of what was being framed in the shot.  There was no dialogue really between the director, the DP and me.  And, I began to feel like a glorified Art PA.  However, on another project I had multiple meetings with the director and the DP.  And, we would screen films that we were influenced by even furthering our dialogue of what we wanted the visuals of the film to encompass.

I found it comforting to know that production designers working with the biggest directors on classic, iconic films have the same problems as people like me who work on smaller productions.

The main focus of Something's Gonna Live is Robert Boyle, production designer on such films as North by Northwest (1959), The Birds (1963), and Marnie (1964).  He was also Art Director on In Cold Blood (1967) and Cape Fear (1962).  Another production designer that worked with Robert Boyle and also Hitchcock (notice a pattern here?) was Henry Bumstead.  And, he is my favorite designer that is featured.  It also helps a little that he was one of the art directors on Vertigo.  I mentioned that it is one of my favorite films, but it is a little bit more than just that.  I happened upon Vertigo one day on TCM.  My dad is an avid fan of classic movies, especially westerns, and he is responsible for me becoming interested in film.  I started sitting with him and watching whatever he was watching.  Eventually, I started watching movies on TCM on my own instead of Saved By the Bell, and other things normal ten year olds were watching.  On one very special day, this movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock was coming on.  And, I had never heard of it before, but it was directed by Hitchcock, and he was supposed to be one of the best directors, even though I really didn't know what that meant exactly.  So, I watched Vertigo and fell in love with film.  I wanted to live in the San Francisco of 1958 that Hitchcock and Bumstead created.  I wanted to be Kim Novak in her grey suit set and drive around a big green Jaguar.  I knew I wanted to somehow be involved in that process.  I just didn't know how yet.

Now back to the documentary, Henry Bumstead talks with Robert Boyle about what it was like working with Hitchcock.  He relates what happened on the set of Vertigo, and I found it to be really interesting.  He recalls that when he would ask Hitchcock his opinion on things, he would be indifferent and already working on his next project.  Also, he talks about one of the great sets he put together for the main character Scottie's (played by James Stewart) apartment.  There was so much detail and thought put into Scottie's apartment, things like what hobbies a retired police officer would have.  Bumstead thought he would be a stamp collector and dressed the set with a lot of great items a stamp collector would have.   He recalls that he doesn't even know if any of the stamp collecting detail can be seen in the final film.

It's kind of sad, but it makes sense to me.  There are so many factors involved with making a film, everyone working on it has there own idea of what it should be.  Ultimately, it's up to the director because he has the final say.  And, if that director isn't willing to give up the slightest amount of control or trust the people they have working for them to make the right decisions, it ends up being less of a collaborative effort.  Is that a good thing or a bad thing?  I think it depends, but ultimately I think that you can't be obsessed with having complete control of a project.  A whole work is only good if it's sum parts are good as well.

Well, that's all for today.

Until next time
--A