Art Direction and Production Design

Edited by Lucy Fischer

SERIES: Behind the Silver Screen Series

Rutgers University Press

How is the look of a film achieved? In Art Direction and Production Design, six outstanding scholars survey the careers of notable art directors, the influence of specific design styles, the key roles played by particular studios and films in shaping the field, the effect of technological changes on production design, and the shifts in industrial modes of organization.

The craft’s purpose is to produce an overall pictorial “vision” for films, and in 1924 a group of designers formed the Cinemagundi Club—their skills encompassed set design, painting, decoration, construction, and budgeting. A few years later, in recognition of their contributions to filmmaking, the first Academy Awards for art direction were given, a clear indication of just how essential the oversight of production design had become to the so-called majors. The original essays presented in Art Direction and Production Design trace the trajectory from Thomas Edison’s primitive studio, the Black Maria, to the growth of the Hollywood “studio system,” to the influence of sound, to a discussion of the “auteur theory,” and to contemporary Hollywood in which computer-generated imagery has become common. By 2000, the Society of Motion Picture Art Directors became the Art Directors Guild, emphasizing the significance of the contributions of art direction and production design to filmmaking.

Art Direction and Production Design is a volume in the Behind the Silver Screen series—other titles in the series include Acting, Animation, Cinematography, Directing, Editing and Special/Visual Effects, Producers, Screenwriting, and Sound.

This terrific book depicts the production design of movies so that it is actually 'seeable.' Always reflecting the enormous changes in technology, the audience and the industry, the continuity of the art form comes to the foreground. Rick Carter, Academy Award–winning production designer of Avatar and Lincoln

This illuminating study of design in film examines the evolution of an often-overlooked role and the chemistry of knowledge, skill, and collaboration required to create visually compelling cinema. Rosemarie Knopka, Librarian & Archivist, Art Directors Guild

This terrific book depicts the production design of movies so that it is actually 'seeable.' Always reflecting the enormous changes in technology, the audience and the industry, the continuity of the art form comes to the foreground. Rick Carter, Academy Award–winning production designer of Avatar and Lincoln

This illuminating study of design in film examines the evolution of an often-overlooked role and the chemistry of knowledge, skill, and collaboration required to create visually compelling cinema. Rosemarie Knopka, Librarian & Archivist, Art Directors Guild

LUCY FISCHER is a Distinguished Professor of English and Film Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. She is the author or editor of nine books, including Body Double: The Author Incarnate in the Cinema (Rutgers University Press) and Teaching Film.

Introduction
Lucy Fischer

1. The Silent Screen, 1895–1928
Lucy Fischer

2. Classical Hollywood, 1928–1946
Mark Shiel

3. Postwar Hollywood, 1947–1967
Merrill Schleier

4. The Auteur Renaissance, 1968–1980
Charles Tashiro

5. The New Hollywood, 1981–1999
J. D. Connor

6. The Modern Entertainment Marketplace, 2000-Present
Stephen Prince

Academy Awards for Best Art Direction

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Notes on Contributors

Index