Carpenters building scenery at the UFA Studios in Berlin, 1928. (Photo by E. O. Hoppe
Erich Pommer, Producer – Metropolis, The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari, Dr. Mabuse, Die Niebelungen, Tartuffe, Faust, The Blue Angel, Liliom
Obsessed With Film
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Blog Archives
Mozart Wasn’t A Hummer
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Sketch for Rosemary’s Baby by Richard Sylbert
“When I began working in the industry, you made all the illustrations, you drew up the plans, you decorated the sets, you picked all the locations. Today most designers on a big production will have dozens of people working for them. The most I ever had is six. Imagine Mozart saying to somebody, ‘I have a great idea for a piece of music, but I don’t know how to play the piano. Let me hum it for you.’ The fact is Mozart was the finest pianist of his day. Most production designers today are hummers. They have ideas but can’t draw a 1/4 inch plan. They have no idea how to commit to details.”
Richard Sylbert, Production Designer – Chinatown, Reds, The Manchurian Candidate, The Graduate, Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?
Just Shoot It
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Scene from Days Of Heaven – directed by Terrence Malick – Production Designer Jack Fisk – cinematography by Nestor Almendros
“It’s one of those foolish truisms that a lot of what is perceived as great cinematography actually is really good production design or really good location choice. Often it’s that easy – it’s so damn good, just photograph it.”
Stuart Dryburgh , Cinematographer
The Unfortunate Truth Of The Matter
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Rooftop studio of Lubin Pictures in New York, early 1900's
“The more successful the art direction, the less likely it is to be noticed. Only when it fails, only when a set looks like a set, does the work of this much-overlooked department become apparent. Set Design, set construction and set dressing are items taken for granted by audiences. Unhappily, they are often taken for granted within the industry itself. . . Art Direction, or production design, determine the look of a picture almost as forcefully as the lighting. For it dictates the atmosphere – and atmosphere, particularly in the films of period reconstruction, is tremendously important.”
Kevin Brownlow, “The Parade’s Gone By”
The Motion Picture
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“The motion picture offers incomparably the greatest field to any creative artist of brush or blueprint today. It is the art of the 20th century and perhaps the greatest art of modern times.”
Production Designer Joseph Urban, 1920
still from Treasure Island, 1920
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