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IV
Art Direction
An account of some oj the innumerable problems ivhich
coijfront ike man responsible for the building oj film
"sets": contributed by the well-known Art Director
who has worked at the A. S.F.I, studios at Wenibley.
by O. F, WeRNDORFF
MUCH of your entertainment in the cinema depends on the work of the Art Director. I always think of art directors that the less you hear about them the better they are. Good art direction must give you the atmosphere of the picture without being too noticeable. The best " sets," in my experience, are those which you forget as soon as the film is over and the lights go up again in the theatre. The first essential in the film is the action of the characters. The art director's job is to provide them with a background — and a background it show'd remain at all costs.
But have you ever thought of the man who provides you with all the realities and unrealities that you see on the screen, quite apart from the acting and dialogue ? Have you ever thought of the almost unlimited imagination and experience of life which he must possess ?
He must be as much at home in the luxurious palaces of the rich as in the bare and squalid houses of the slum dwellers. He has to design and build the glades and woods of the fairies as well as settings in old and forgotten periods, their furniture and their dresses. He has to create the background and the general atmosphere of, modern industry, with all its machinery ; and the complicated apparatus of the present and even the future, whenever author and director demand such scenes for the story and action of a picture.
A.U this is his business, and all this
knowledge can be obtained by study. But there lies the difficulty. Filmmaking is a quick business and involves doing the best possible in the shortest possible time. In most cases, the art director is faced with the problem of inventing, designing, and building his sets overnight, spending a minimum of both time and money.
Of course, most difficulties, although apparently insuperable at first, are eventually overcome by much brain work, and after heart-breaking arguments with the producer, the director, and dozens of other collaborators.
There is one collaborator whom it is impossible to " get round." Pitiless,, hard to please, ever critical, possessed of an eye clearer and sharper than that of any human being, the camera is the task-master for which the art director has to work. Hundreds of optical and physical principles of the camera have to be taken into consideration and everything must be arranged so that, on the screen, every detail shall look as if seen through human eyes.
Now, the human eye is even more wonderful and complicated an optical instrument than the lens of the camera. For example, if you enter a room and glance round it, you immediately, though subconsciously, get a full impression of its character. If you fix yout eye on one paint you never lose consciousness of the general surroundings. This is due to the construction of your eye and the speed of the process of " seeing."
The eye of the camera is different.