The Revenant‘s Production Designer Jack Fisk on Filming in the Great, Deadly Outdoors
Production designer Jack Fisk has worked with some of the greatest living directors over his long, distinguished career. Terrence Malick, David Lynch, Brian DePalma, Paul Thomas Anderson, and now, Alejandro González Iñárritu. The privilege of working with an auteur goes both ways in this case; these directors have sought out Fisk because he, like them, is an artist.
Fisk's work on Anderson's There Will Be Blood might be the closest antecedent to his incredible work designing
Brooklyn’s Production Designer Francois Seguin’s Period Perfection
Though the romance film is about as out of vogue as ever before, it’s a testament to the work behind director John Crowley’s Brooklyn that the quiet Saoirse Ronan-starring love story has become an Oscar favorite since its premiere at Sundance earlier this year. A respectful return to the traditions of melodrama, Brooklyn is stuffed with astonishing performances and masterful design, causing many critics to take note not just of the affecting emotional qualities,
Sandy Powell & Judy Becker on the Costumes & Sets Behind 1950’s Period Wonder Carol
Carol, a beautiful adaption of Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Price of Salt, about the evolution and dissolution of a relationship between two women in New York in the early 1950’s, opens today. Cate Blanchett stars as the title character, a lovely housewife in a convenient marriage (Kyle Chandler is Blanchett’s cuckolded husband) who embarks on a relationship with a younger store clerk, Therese (Rooney Mara). The film was directed by Todd Haynes and shot on a tight budget,
The Real Locations Used to Bring The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 to Life
To bring the Capitol to life in the final installment of The Hunger Games, director Francis Lawrence and production designer Philip Messina knew they needed to up the ante and look beyond Atlanta, where much of the production had previously taken place. They found locations in France and Germany that provided the unique combination of both futuristic and historic backdrops necessary to create the wartime metropolis that serves as the setting for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay: Part 2.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2‘s Production Designer on Creating the Capitol
Translating descriptions in a book to physical places for a movie is a tall challenge, one that risks leaving faithful readers disappointed. Production designer Philip Messina performed that translation four times in a row for Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games series, culminating with The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2.
The movie takes place as the rebel forces, including heroine Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), storm the Capitol and seek to kill its leader,
Oscar-Winning Production Designer Adam Stockhausen on Bridge of Spies
Oscar-winning production designer Adam Stockhausen (who we previously interviewed for his work on Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel) discusses his work on Steven Spielberg’s latest film, the Cold War-era Bridge of Spies, which is based on real events, and how you tackle such a well-documented period of history.
I understand Steven Spielberg is big on authenticity, particularly with this kind of true story.
HBO’s New Vinyl Trailer is Fast, Dirty, and Smashes You Over the Head
Back in September we interviewed Boardwalk Empire’s production designer Bill Groom, who was nominated for his fourth Emmy in a row for Terrence Winter’s prohibition era gangland drama. When we spoke, Groom was hard at work on HBO’s and Winter’s next big project, Vinyl, starring Boardwalk Empire alum Bobby Canavale as Richie Finestra, a hard charging music executive in 1970’s New York.
Building Life on Mars With The Martian’s Production Designer Arthur Max
Arthur Max has worked with director Ridley Scott as the production designer on everything from Gladiator to Prometheus. He talks to The Credits about working closely with NASA to create the (largely) scientifically accurate world of The Martian and how his work, and Hollywood generally, have a surprising history of influencing America’s space agencies’ designs.
The Martian is a sci-fi movie,
The Good Wife Set Decorator Beth Kushnick
Beth Kushnick has been a set decorator for approximately three decades. From the mid-1980s to the early 2000s, she worked on countless films including Jumanji, Private Parts and Frequency.
In the early part of this century, she moved predominantly to television where she worked on several programs — including 3 lbs., Law and Order: Trial by Jury and Canterbury’s Law —
Hollywood vs the Elements: Top 5 Challenges of Shooting Everest
In 1996 two expeditions set out in an attempt to reach the summit of the world’s highest mountain, when they were hit with a deadly blizzard. Everest tells the story of their bid for survival in some of the harshest conditions nature has to offer. Here are some of the difficulties the cast and crew of Everest faced in an attempt to authentically recreate the ordeal:
- Lugging equipment up mountains
Boardwalk Empire’s Production Designer on Building Havana & Atlantic City
Bill Groom is a three-time Emmy winner as production designer on HBO’s series Boardwalk Empire. He’s now been nominated a fourth time for his work for the last season of one of the most ambitious mob-centric TV show in history. Centered on the rise of gangster and would-be credible businessman Enoch "Nucky" Thompson (Steve Buscemi) in prohibition-era Atlantic City, Boardwalk Empire offered a panoramic vision of the power players vying for control of the liquor trade and more, from Chicago's Al Capone to New York's Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky.
Mad Style: The Man From U.N.C.L.E’s Production Designer Oliver Scholl
Guy Ritchie’s latest film The Man From U.N.C.L.E. is a remake of the 1960s TV series, starring Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer and Alicia Vikander. The spy film, set at the height of the Cold War, is a stylish ride, shot through with humor. The Credits talks to production designer Oliver Scholl (Jumper, Edge of Tomorrow) about how to achieve a stylish, rather than stylized look,
Meet the Crew That Worked on Both Jurassic Park & Jurassic World
Universal's new Jurassic World is being heralded as a proper folllow-up to Steven Spielberg's 1993 classic Jurassic Park, the film that raised the bar for what CGI could accomplish and blew the minds of kids and adults alike. When director Colin Trevorrow took the helm of Jurassic World, the first film in the franchise in 14-years, both he and executive producer Steven Spielberg wanted to recapture the magic of that first film.
How’d They Film That? Avengers: Age of Ultron Production Designer Explains
You might imagine when you see Avengers: Age of Ultron that nearly everything is CGI. Yet Joss Whedon, when at all possible, wanted practical effects and real sets. Much like JJ Abrams has reportedly done on the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Whedon prefers to build as much of his world “in camera” as he can.
What does “in camera” mean? It’s the question we asked production designer Charles Wood (Thor: The Dark World,
Stormtroopers, Snoopy & a Virtual Reese Witherspoon: Highlights From the 2015 Creativity Conference
Stormtroopers, Snoopy and a one-on-one audience with Reese Witherspoon—the 2015 Creativity Conference was manna for film buffs, tech geeks and policy wonks alike. The stormtroopers, unusually accommodating, were on hand to help conference goers create the ultimate selfie (the James Bond gun barrel backdrop, where one could get their photo taken against the iconic opening montage in the opening credits to Bond films, was also pretty awesome), ditto Snoopy, who offered as many fist-bumps as he did hugs.
Go Back to the Future With the Live Stream of 3rd Annual Creativity Conference
In Back to the Future Part II, Marty McFly's trip in the DeLorean took him all the way to…October 21st, 2015. If that doesn't make you feel old, we envy you.
Today at the 3rd annual Creativity Conference, held at The Newseum in Washington. D.C., Microsoft researcher Sidhant Gupta and a former studio technology executive and indie filmmaker Howard Lukk will explore the zany, futuristic world of 2015 that Marty McFly encountered, one that revealed all sorts of surprising innovations —
Making It: Ruth De Jong’s Designs on Paul Thomas Anderson & Terrence Malick
Ruth De Jong never thought she would end up working on movies. She wanted to be a painter.
But now, a decade into her career as a production designer and art director, she’s tallied up credits on films like The Tree of Life, To the Wonder and Knight of Cups from director Terrence Malick, and There Will Be Blood, The Master and Inherent Vice with Paul Thomas Anderson.
2014 in Review: Lensers, Designers, Makeup Artists & More – PART II
The end of the year brings a few reliable reactions; promises to do x, y and z more consistently in the new year, reflection on all that you accomplished (and failed at, and regretted) this past year, and 'Year in Review' lists. Yesterday we published Part I of our look back at some of the filmmakers we interviewed in 2014. On Monday, we published an interview with cinematographer Robert Yeoman, looking back on his work in Wes Anderson's
Paul Thomas Anderson & his Team Tweak Los Angeles in Inherent Vice
There can be few novelists more daunting to adapt for the screen than Thomas Pynchon. The worlds he creates, with their sprawling casts and Ouroboros-like narratives, present major problems for any filmmaker looking to keep his or her film coherent and under nine hours. Paul Thomas Anderson, the man who riffed on Upton Sinclair's "Oil" and turned it into the mesmerizing There Will Be Blood, is as good a candidate as you'd likely find to handle such an assignment.
The Imitation Game’s Production Designer Maria Djurkovich – Part II
Yesterday we published Part I of our conversation with production designer Maria Djurkovich, whose work on The Imitation Game would have made its’ genius subject, Alan Turing, proud. Benedict Cumberbatch's phenomenal turn as Turing has understandably garnered much of the press, but if you were to look closely at every frame of the film (and, preferably, be able to pause it), you would begin to see how Djurkovich put in a superstar performance herself,
