The Life of Production
Ani Karoglanyan
The Art Institute Hollywood- California
In 1905 the movie theatre came to life. Going to the movies is a cultural “thing.” We go socialize, we go to get our minds off of things, or we go to spare some time. Movies are used to bring books and visions to life, allowing the viewer to be a part of the film by taking us to any time period, location, or world they’ve never experienced first hand. Production design is the essential creative tool for creating a world for the movie to be based off. It used to be just a service for the basics of the story and location, but quickly it grew as a form of art. During the Great Depression, filmmakers were heavily influenced by the way…show more content… Ensuring that the design of a period creates an intriguing world through the story by styling the characters to fit in the world they belong in. Take the two Oscar winning The Great Gatsby for example; Catherine Martin (the production designer), was influenced by the Art Deco style for the Great Gatsby. Her focus on this design style was to create a glamorous world in the 1920’s, yet showcasing the difficulties of the time of the Great Depression. Immediately when we see the bright yellow shiny new car in a desaturated and dirty town, we separate the two parts of this world. “Visual ambiance of the film may enhance its emotional dimensions, nonverbally further the plot, draw character profiles, and in enumerable ways add to the content of the film” (Heisner, 2011, p. 2). Architects were hired to help with the physical sets, to ensure that the structure of the set was safe for the actors. “However, these originators of art direction were not exclusively from the theatrical or architectural professions, as painters, sculptors, commercial artists, contractors and builders, decorators, and more than a few disillusioned thespians contributed to the creation of this profession” (Whitlock, p.9). The Art director made sure that the characters felt apart of the film. If they did not, they would not be able to act, or portray the feeling of the film. Without the costume designer, the worlds would not make sense…show more content… Lowering budget costs by hiring less construction workers, we are hiring 3D modelers. 3D software such as Maya, or Z-Brush are tools used in the industry to create mock ups or actual scenes. Without the utilization of CGI, Avatar (2009) or the Harry Potter series would not be imaginable. Using “Green Screen” technology, different computer generation characters, and new motion capture animation technology that they have been developing for months was an ambitious task for creating the world of Avatar. “To film the shots where CGI interacts with live action, a unique camera referred to as a "simulcam" was used, a merger of the 3-D fusion camera and the virtual camera systems. While filming live action in real time with the simulcam, the CGI images captured with the virtual camera or designed from scratch, are superimposed over the live action images as in augmented reality and shown on a small monitor, making it possible for the director to instruct the actors how to relate to the virtual material in the scene.” (James Cameron, Director, 2010). Avatar was filmed in over 8 locations, yet some locations they visited were replicated on screen with photo realistic CGI during post production (web.archive.org). In my opinion, Avatar was an exceptional film. Watching the movie in 3D made viewers in the theatre feel apart of this unimaginable world. The colors, the lighting, the characters, the
