Art Direction in Film and Television--history

Film art and production direction is a direct descendant of stage design and the very first art director was a craftsman. In many ways, I find stage design a more compelling medium due to its direct interaction with the audience and a greater impact and a awe arising out of usage of multimedia and unusual distortion of space and reality. The special effects—educated audience is more likely surprised by the miracles arising in real space than in the so commonly manipulated world of film, unless the film itself brings with it an element of tangibility.

While much even of the more contemporary stage design s

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The first successful film utilizing modified stage effects was the German expressionism film Cabinet of Dr. This was also the first film to use the special effects technique by combining models with full-sized actors and party built sets. Nearly six decades later, expressionistic designs of the big budget comic book films like Batman, Batman Returns, and Dick Tracy, too use the technique of image distortion. An excellent example, typical of the genre, is the confrontation of two enemies, one bathed in electric light standing in the middle of the hallway, another showing simply a dark silhouette again a natural light setting, all of these framed by the hall. The beautiful sets of Brazil are designed by Norman Garwood, and every scene of that film is filled with displacements and terror due to their illogic. Typical of the noir tradition, there is a very strong use of dark and light. Designed by Patricia Norris, who is usually a costume designer, many theatrical effects into the film, combining it with the nostalgic, almost timeless scene. Office workers watch Casablanca on tiny television screens inserted into their video display terminals mounted on manual typewriters. There are many examples of this high special effects horror film genre, but the quintessential one seems to be James Cameron’s Aliens, the sequel to Ridley Scott’s Alien.

It spawned a whole new genre of fantasy and alternate worlds. Brazil, another amazing neo—noir science fiction is set “somewhere in the twentieth century”, it is neither nostalgic not futuristic, but both. in 1930’s was the master of “crazy house” skills. His video Closer set a trend in a wide range of media, starting with the title sequence for David Fincher’s Seven (for which the song was also used as background music), which, in turn, heavily influenced the graphic design, illustration, and film culture for years, and still does to a degree.

Common topics in this essay:
Theatre Images--they, Peter Lamont, Caligary Metropolis, Space Odyssey, Neuromancer Bladerunner, Life Death, Patricia Norris, Metropolis Sams, Little Caesar, California Depression, science fiction, art direction, stage design, special effects, horror film, film genres, music videos, film noir, heavily influenced, world art,

Approximate Word count = 2421
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)

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