Hands of Hollywood (1929)

Sets DESIGNING OF SETS Art Director The art director is now one of the most important and most highly paid individuals in the picture industry. He designs sets and settings: settings are artificial gardens, forests, swamps, tropical islands, etc. The qualifications are many and varied. He must be both an accomplished architect and a skillful artist, designing sets with his own hands. He must have original ideas and know how to harmonize them with the drama of the story. He must have a thorough knowledge of motion picture photography. He must apply this knowl' edge not only in designing gorgeous sets but also in designing a hovel, a slum scene or a lowly cabin, so that the camera can discover, even in these humble settings, pictorial beauty. Ordinary architects usually specialize in one type of structure, e. g., office, home or church, but the art director may be called upon to design sets for all of these types, and many more, in the same picture. He reads the continuity and determines from this the type and quantity of sets necessary for the picture. He must study the period of the story, the country in which it is supposed to take place and the social station of the characters involved. The salary ranges from $150.00 to $1000.00 per week. Some particularly gifted and famous art directors have received more, but they are the exceptions. Draftsmen work in the art department making blue prints from the art director's set designs. The qualifications and salary are the same as those of ordinary draftsmen. BUILDING OF SETS After the art director has designed the sets, the draftsmen make blue prints from these designs. These are given to the stage manager. The stage manager, after studying the dimensions of the sets, and the amount of stage space they will occupy, consults the produc [43]