Designing for Film

So, a while back Peachy asked me what an Art Director does.  There are many kinds of art directors, in print, marketing, and the entertainment business.  I am one who art directs film mainly and the occasional commercial and music video.

I collaborate with the entire film crew in creating the environment or scenery for the film.  The “look” of the film is generated through discussions and design meetings with the director, cinematographer, and costume designer.  Some production designers or art directors with bigger egos love to say, “We are in charge of everything you see on screen but the clothes on the actors…”  

I have production designed and assisted on projects of all kinds of scales, from designing full on villages and streets from scratch to painting a chosen location on smaller gigs.  The looks are made possible by collaborating with art directors (take the ideas/designs of the production designer and communicate it to all other departments...make sure the it comes out well and on time), set designers (design all scenery that is to be built), set decorators (look for the right furniture, lamps, flowers, curtains, etc.) and prop masters (everything the actors touch, like a mug, cigarette, gun, a pen, etc.).  There many other hard working art department crew, but then the list will be really long! Or, when I am on a smaller film, I sometimes do it all in order get more control over what I am designing ^_^

Above is one part of the job, but my favorite is the time spent collaborating with the director and cinematographer.  Depending on whom I am working with, there is usually long conversations analyzing the scrīpt and characters, exchange of research (artwork, photography, paint colors, a piece of music, a film, an actual location to visit, etc…anything inspiring.)

Once someone asked me, “So you can pretty much just look up the period the film is set in and you’re set right?”  

No…there is so much more and sometimes I don’t get to all of it.  I ask myself, “How long has the character lived here, what’s in this space, what's their financial situation, what are their habits, what colors are the walls, do we want to be colorful or monotone because of a mood the director wants to create?”, on and on and on. It is like being in a good English class and analyzing the crap out of the material and picking at it with your colleagues.

For example, on Kit’s film, I was lucky. I not only had Kit, but T was a friend of ours so I can approach him directly with some questions here and there casually about his room.  His character smoked a lot, so I had 3 ash trays for his bedroom alone.  And the ash trays were from the street markets and dollar stores of Kowloon, because his character can't afford expensive stuff.

However, the preparation process varies, some directors allowed us lots of preparation on our own, very few meetings all together, then when we get on set, it just all comes out.  It really depends on the project and all art directors have their own working habits.  Like performing a piece of music, every time is different.