Tom Hanks hands husband and wife team, Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo their Oscars for Best Art Direction

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Dante Ferretti was the only winner to thank his crew, let alone any below-the-line crew. Films get made on the backs of their crew and I was so pleased to see that Dante respects his crew enough to thank them. It was lovely to see him win his 3rd Oscar for his staggering work on Hugo which topped my list for best production design this past year. For once the Academy had it right. Below is Dante Ferretti’s acceptance speech:

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“Thank you to the Academy for this prestigious award. A great thank you goes to the producer Graham King and Tim Headington. To all my art department. But the most of all my very special thank you to a eccezionale of director who guide us through this wonderful journey, Martin Scorsese. Thank you, thank you, thank you very much. Grazie, Martin.”
– Dante Ferretti, Production Designer

“This is for Martin and for Italy.”
– Francesca Lo Schiavo, Set Decorator

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For a list of all the nominees and winners of the 84th Academy Awards, click here.

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Were you happy with Hugo winning the Academy Award for Best Art Direction? Did you enjoy the Oscars?

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Rose XO.

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10) MONEYBALL

Director: Bennett Miller

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9) MARGIN CALL

Director: J.C. Chandor

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8 ) BEGINNERS

Director: Mike Mills

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7) MELANCHOLIA

Director:  Lars von Trier

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6) CAFÉ DE FLORE

Director: Jean-Marc Vallée

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5) HUGO

Director: Martin Scorsese

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4) SHAME

Director:  Steve McQueen

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3) MIDNIGHT IN PARIS

Director: Woody Allen

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2) DRIVE

Director: Nicolas Winding Refn

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1) THE TREE OF LIFE

Director: Terrence Malick

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Honorable Mentions: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Bridesmaids, Young Adult, Take Shelter, The Descendants, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Artist and Monsieur Lazhar

Movies I have yet to see thus didn’t make it on the list: A Separation, Margaret, Le Havre, Weekend, We Need to Talk About Kevin

Worst Film of the Year: New Year’s Eve

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What were your favourite films of 2011?
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Rose XO.
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After some long and hard deliberations I have pared down what are, in my opinion, the top 10 best production designed/art directed films of 2011. In the end, given the subjectivity of film in general,  all this means is these were my design favourites. Going through the many films I had on my list I was awestruck at the diversity, styles and overall quality of so many of the films. 2011 was really a banner year for production design the way I see it. Last year, I found it easy to just do a top 5 but this year I found it impossible not to do a top 10 and I easily could have made it a top 20.

So I just want to say to everyone who worked on these films- Bravo! Sincerely, you all deserve a pat on the back and a bottle of booze on me. I have the utmost respect for you all. Those who work in the art department know how hard it is; we know these sets don’t come together like magic. It’s an intense endurance run to the finish line mustering up every skill you’ve ever learned on a whim. It’s a hard gig but thrilling if you can get it.

To all those past, present and future working in art departments all over the world to make visions come to life- I salute you. You truly make movies better and don’t let anyone tell you differently.

Cheers & Enjoy!

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10) THE HELP

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Production Designer: Mark Ricker | Art Director: Curt Beech | Set Decorator: Rena DeAngelo | Director: Tate Taylor | DOP: Stephen Goldblatt | Costume Designer: Sharen Davis

The Help Trailer

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9) SHAME

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Production Designer: Judy Becker | Art Director: Charles Kulsziski | Set Decorator: Heather Loeffler | Director: Steve McQueen | DOP: Sean Bobbitt | Costume Designer: David C. Robinson

Shame Trailer

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8) DRIVE

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Production Designer: Beth Mickle | Art Director: Christopher Tandon | Set Decorator: Lisa K. Sessions | Director: Nicolas Winding Refn | DOP: Newton Thomas Sigel | Costume Designer: Erin Benach

Drive Trailer

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7) THE DESCENDANTS

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Production Designer: Jane Ann Stewart | Art Director: T.K. Kirkpatrick | Set Decorator: Matt Callahan | Director: Alexander Payne | DOP: Phedon Papamichael | Costume Designer: Wendy Chuck

The Descendants Trailer

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6) THE ARTIST

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Production Designer: Laurence Bennett | Art Director: Gregory S. Hooper | Set Decorator: Austin Buchinsky & Robert Gould | Director: Michel Hazanavicius | DOP: Guillaume Schiffman | Costume Designer: Mark Bridges

The Artist Trailer

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5) MIDNIGHT IN PARIS

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Production Designer: Anne Seibel | Art Director: Jean-Yves Rabier | Set Decorator: Hélène Dubreuil | Director: Woody Allen | DOP: Darius Khondji & Johanne Debas | Costume Designer: Sonia Grande

Midnight in Paris Trailer

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4) THE TREE OF LIFE

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Production Designer: Jack Fisk | Art Director: David Crank | Set Decorator: Jeanette Scott | Director: Terrence Malick | DOP: Emmanuel Lubezki | Costume Designer: Jacqueline West

The Tree of Life Trailer

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3) TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY

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Production Designer: Maria Djurkovic | Art Director: Tom Brown & Zsuzsa Kismarty-Lechner | Set Decorator: Tatiana MacDonald | Director: Tomas Alfredson | DOP: Hoyte Van Hoytema | Costume Designer: Jacqueline Durran

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Trailer

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2) HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 2

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Production Designer: Stuart Craig | Art Director: Neil Lamont & Gary Tomkins | Set Decorator: Stephenie McMillan | Director: David Yates | DOP: Eduardo Serra | Costume Designer: Jany Temime

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 Trailer

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1) HUGO

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Production Designer: Dante Ferretti | Art Director: David Warren | Set Decorator: Francesca Lo Schiavo | Director: Martin Scorsese | DOP: Robert Richardson | Costume Designer: Sandy Powell

Hugo Trailer

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Winning by just a hair Hugo took my top spot due to complexity of 3D, different time periods done to superb perfection as well as the overall romantic and lush look of a film in love with film.

Which were your favourites in production design this year?

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Rose XO.

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A meme is “an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture.” A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices in this case being the “What People Think I Do” meme. I found it particularly interesting when I started seeing the art department taking part as I do believe people really don’t know what we do. Even major producers don’t know what we do. So I compiled 5 of the memes I felt most related to the art department below:

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You can also check out this Set Designer ‘What People Think I Do’ Meme here.

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Did you see any other ones that you liked? Luckily these memes are dead as they are getting old but what did you think of the meme?

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Rose XO.

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Martin Scorsese at work on the set of The Departed

“Cinema is a matter of what’s in the frame and what’s out.”

-Martin Scorsese

From the mean streets of New York City to the days of Christ in desolate landscapes to the vast beauty of Paris in the 1930′s, let there be no question that Martin Scorsese is a master of visual storytelling. Great filmmakers don’t stop telling the story on the page, in the camera or in the cut, they continue to use the tool of environment and space: production design. Often times in Scorsese’s films the environment is another character. New York City is his most prominent character no matter which decade he sets his story.

The quote above is an important one for me and one I use very often when designing a film. What you have in the frame is as important as what you leave out. Everything you have in the frame is part of telling the story. It’s the details of the graphics in Travis Bickle’s apartment which were written into the script to the branded poker chips which you may have not noticed in Casino to the tiny tools dressed on the desk in Hugo’s living space, that make Scorsese’s worlds all-encompassing and believable. In a Scorsese film the one thing you can always count on is that every detail is accounted for.

Now obviously Scorsese himself does not implement these details but he demands the very best from his crew. Luckily, success has awarded him the opportunities to work with the very best in Production Design. His work with Production Designer Dante Ferretti is particularly epic and their collaborations together always leave me breathless. Hiring the right people, as they say, is half the battle.

So here now are those worlds. I warn you there are spoilers and violence ahead. Enjoy!

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Mean Streets (1973)

Art Department Unknown

Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974)

Production Designer: Toby Carr Rafelson

Taxi Driver (1976)

Art Director: Charles Rosen | Set Decorator: Herbert F. Mulligan

New York, New York (1977)

Production Designer: Boris Leven | Art Director: Harry Kemm | Set Decorator: Robert De Vestel & Ruby R. Levitt

Raging Bull (1980)

Production Designer: Gene Rudolf | Art Director:  Alan Manser (L.A) & Kirk Axtell (L.A) | Set Decorator: Phil Abramson & Frederic C. Weiler

The King of Comedy (1983)

Production Designer: Boris Leven | Art Director: Lawrence Miller & Edward Pisoni | Set Decorator: George DeTitta Sr. & Daniel Robert

After Hours (1985)

Production Designer: Jeffrey Townsend | Art Director: Stephen J. Lineweaver | Set Decorator: Leslie A. Pope

The Color of Money (1986)

Production Designer: Boris Leven | Set Decorator: Karen O’Hara

The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)

Production Designer: John Beard | Art Director: Andrew Sanders | Set Decorator: Giorgio Desideri

Goodfellas (1990)

Production Designer: Kristi Zea | Art Director: Maher Ahmad | Set Decorator: Leslie Bloom

Cape Fear (1991)

Production Designer: Henry Bumstead | Art Director: Jack G. Taylor Jr. | Set Decorator: Alan Hicks

The Age of Innocence (1993)

Production Designer: Dante Ferretti | Art Director: Speed Hopkins | Set Decorator: Robert J. Franco & Amy Marshall

Casino (1995)

Production Designer: Dante Ferretti | Art Director: Jack G. Taylor Jr. | Set Decorator: Rick Simpson

Kundun (1997)

Production Designer: Dante Ferretti | Art Director: Alan Tomkins | Set Decorator: Francesca Lo Schiavo

Bringing Out the Dead (1999)

Production Designer: Dante Ferretti | Art Director: Robert Guerra | Set Decorator: William F. Reynolds

Gangs of New York (2002)

Production Designer: Dante Ferretti | Art Director: Stefano Maria Ortolani | Set Decorator: Francesca Lo Schiavo

The Aviator (2004)

Production Designer: Dante Ferretti | Art Director: Robert Guerra & Claude Paré | Set Decorator: Francesca Lo Schiavo

The Departed (2006)

Production Designer: Kristi Zea | Art Director: Teresa Carriker-Thayer | Set Decorator: Leslie E. Rollins

Shutter Island (2010)

Production Designer: Dante Ferretti | Art Director: Robert Guerra | Set Decorator: Francesca Lo Schiavo

Hugo (2011)

Production Designer: Dante Ferretti | Set Decorator: Francesca Lo Schiavo

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What is your favourite Scorsese film? Why does it resonate with you?

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Rose XO.

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NOTE: Our apologies to subscribers who may have received an email of this post last week while it was in progress. We value your time and are working to make sure that never happens again. Thanks for your patience.

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In August of 2011, I went to the AGO here in Toronto for an exhibit on Abstract Expressionism. The Rothko‘s were even more transcendent than I ever thought they could be and I also found a couple of artists to admire that I hadn’t heard of before. I subsequently wrote down their names and pieces and finished the exhibit reinvigorated that life is indeed beautiful. I then went down the magnificent staircase of the Frank Gehry-renovated building to the main floor and decided I wanted to see more art despite quickly running out of time before the museum would close. I decided I was going to look for the abstract lithographs they had mentioned in the exhibit. On my way to the lithographs I took a wrong turn. The best wrong turn ever.

I went into a large room after being struck by the brightest most beautiful cubist painting I’d ever seen. I looked at painting after painting; drawing after drawing all the while thinking to myself, ”Why have I never seen any of these before?”. I didn’t realize it was an exhibit at that moment of just one artist so I kept looking at the labels on the wall. Suddenly I realized every single magnificent piece of artwork in those two large rooms was created by an artist I’d never heard of– Kathleen Munn. It was then and there I decided I had to know everything about her. Luckily I turned around and behind me was a huge biography on her life and artwork. Duh.

So who was this mysterious Kathleen Munn?

Kathleen Munn was born in 1887 in Toronto, Canada. At a young age her grandmother, an amateur painter herself, recognized Kathleen’s talent for art. By 1912 she was sent to New York City to study at the Art Students League where the Modernist movement was developing all around her. She became inspired by Post-impressionist artists like Paul Cezanne and Henri Matisse and began to delve into landscapes with a post-impressionistic spin later exploring a more modernist artistic approach. In 1920, Kathleen took off with her sister and traveled to Europe to take in the masters and this is said to be where she began her quest to express spiritual and religious stories through modernist techniques and applications.  In 1928 she was invited to show her piece, Composition, with the Group of Seven in Paris and it was during this trip that she became heavily influenced by Cubism having gained more exposure to Picasso and Braque. She spent the subsequent years doing what she considered her best work: The Passion Series, depicting the death and resurrection of Christ. She never felt fully comfortable being completely abstract and felt art should express a larger purpose. In 1939, the public still unresponsive to her output and obligations to the family business forced her to give up on her artistic aspirations.

Despite showing with the Group of Seven, the conservative Toronto art scene did not know what to make of her artwork given how unique and disjointed it seemed in comparison to popular Canadian painters who mostly painted landscapes. What is special about Kathleen is that she was the first to embrace Cubism here and one of the first to grasp Modernism at all in Canada. Instead of changing her art in order to be accepted she continued to explore new concepts including ‘dynamic symmetry’ and Denman Ross’ colour theory.

The more I read about her the more I liked her. She did not enjoy the status quo and she was downright obsessive to learn new and better methods as witnessed in her notebooks. The one thing the Toronto critics did admit is that she was highly skilled and had mastered technique.

I left the exhibit promising myself to go back and see it the next weekend. Unfortunately, I (like always) was too busy to go back before the exhibit closed but I find myself thinking about her and her artwork often. So often that now 6 months later I felt the need to write about her. But that’s what good art does. It envelops you.

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“Art is an adventure not a habit.”

 –Kathleen Munn

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The Dance | c. 1923 | oil on canvas | 61 x 76.2 cm

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The Crucifixion (Passion Series)

c. 1934-1935 | pen and black ink over graphite on wove paper | 57 x 77.2 cm

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Last Supper | c. 1938 | graphite on paper | 38.7 x 49.5 cm

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Untitled  | c. 1926-1928 | oil on canvas | 37 x 60 cm

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Untitled (Cows and Chickens) | c. 1916 | oil on canvas | 76.2 x 101.7 cm

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Untitled (Female Nude in Forest)

c. 1923 | oil on canvas | 54.5 x 45 cm

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Untitled (Deposition) |  c. 1926-1928 | oil on canvas | 41.2 x 55.6 cm

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“I am very hopeful that some day my art will be rediscovered.”

- Kathleen Munn

(Written in her notebook the same year she passed- 1974)

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Do you have an artist, obscure or otherwise, that you haven’t been able to stop thinking about since you discovered him or her?

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Rose XO.

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Sources: The Art Gallery of Ontario, The National Gallery of Canada, Eclectix Arts, The Toronto Star, ARToronto.ca and Wikipedia

Note: I could not find titles or information on some of her work. As I find out I will update this post.

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It’s been a busy January but here is the best of what I’ve found for you the last couple weeks in the social media universe. This is the best time of year to find great information on art direction so please take a look and I think you’ll absolutely be inspired. Feel free to peruse our Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr or our Google + Fan Page for more art department and film related goodies! Circle us on Google + and we’ll be sure to circle you back.

I think my parents made this.

• Rare Color Photos from the Depression Era -> Wowzers these are awesome. An amazing reference for any Depression era period piece. I’ve bookmarked these for my own art dept use.

• Production Designer, Stuart Craig and Set Decorator, Stephanie McMillan on a decade of designing ‘Harry Potter’ -> I have the utmost respect for this team. I can’t imagine working on what essentially is one story broken into eight parts over ten years. It’s quite an endurance challenge but well worth the journey.

• Eiko Ishioka, Tarsem Singh’s Costume Designer, Dies at 73 -> The costumes she designed for Dracula and The Cell haunted my dreams. She was a legend in her own right. 

• Observations on Film Art- TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY: A guide for the perplexed -> I’ll admit it. I didn’t quite get the film upon first viewing but I still liked it. I should have brought this trusty guide to the theatre.

•  Those of you who’ve seen Girl With The Dragon Tattoo may have noticed the stunning minimalist Villa -> While I watched Girl With The Dragon Tattoo I did wonder to myself if it was an art dept design/build as it was so completely gorgeous but it pre-existed. I want to live there.

• Production Designer Anne Seibel Talks ‘Midnight in Paris’ and Woody Allen -> Honestly, what a dream project that must have been.

• ‘Confessions Of A Designer’, What Goes On In A Designer’s Mind

• A Typographer’s Letter to Brad Bird -> Hilarious. I can almost hear the writer seething. Verdana!?!? How dare you Mr. Bird. How dare you!

• The Future of Motion Capture Explained by Jon Favreau and Michael Bay. Very funny. I too think inanimate objects are next for motion capture. If only because now they’ve planted the seed in Michael Bay’s tiny brain.

• Frustrating. How will we know which works in the public domain are re-copyrighted thus not available for Film & TV? 

• The Lush Costumes and Art-Deco Set Design of The Artist -> It’s fascinating to see how one designs for Black and White with tones rather than colour.

• A look at how they made the cover of Icon Magazine -> Seriously. I need to try this.

• From Concept to Completion: 50 Examples Of Logo Design Process -> Fantastic reference and inspiration for logo design.

• Production Designer or Art Director: Hollywood’s design credit dilemma -> Damn you TinTin. You have exposed our dirty secret. Now I suppose we may actually have to deal with this longstanding problem. Imagine that.

• 8 Movie Special Effects You Won’t Believe Aren’t CGI

• The 30 Harshest Filmmaker-on-Filmmaker Insults in History -> As I always assumed: Vincent Gallo is not only a shitty filmmaker, he is also a shitty person.

• Check out the vehicle design for Captain America

• 41 Most spectacular dream bedrooms ever -> I want them all. I need to buy a 41 bedroom mansion.

• Quentin Tarantino reveals his favourite films of 2011 -> I think he purposely tries to frustrate me. He’s all over the map. Our Idiot Brother? Really?!

• The Time-Traveling Art Direction of Midnight in Paris -> Some of the best production designer reference photos. I love the way she laid out her concepts. Old school for the win.

• Set Design Magazine -> I love this brand new blog that started this month. You should take a look if you have any interest in the technicalities of set design.

That’s all folks. Did you find any great links or inspiration this week?

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Rose XO.

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[UPDATED FEB 26th: Winners listed with an * in red below]

At 8:30am EST this morning the Academy Award nominees were announced. Hugo led with 11 nominations followed by The Artist with 10. Noticeable snubs included Michael Fassbender, Ryan Gosling and Michael Shannon among others as well as their amazing films Shame, Drive and Take Shelter. Most shocking of all was the Best Picture nomination for Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close as the film has not been all that well-received.

I personally was sad to see The Tree of Life snubbed in the Best Art Direction category as I think Jack Fisk brings with the goods each and every time and still hasn’t won an Oscar for his beautiful and restrained work but it was such a tight category this year. Overall I’m pleased with the craft categories but they really missed the mark with the major categories. They do this every year so I’m not sure why I’m surprised. I like to look at the positive though: At least Robert Stromberg will not be winning an Academy Award this year and with any luck nobody will pull out a hat to put on their Oscar. I could not have handled a threepeat.

I was also very pleased to see French Canadian film Monsieur Lazhar nominated for Best Foreign Language Film as well as Polish & Canadian co-production In Darkness in the same category. I don’t say it enough but I am very proud to be Canadian.

The 84th Academy Awards will be presented on Sunday, February 26, 2012. Here is the full list of Oscar nominees:

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Here are a few of our favourite links from this week. Feel free to peruse Art DepartMENTAL’s Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr or our Google + Fan Page for more art department and film related goodies! Circle us on Google + and we’ll be sure to circle you back.

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• Director of Photography Bradford Young talks about the cinematography in Pariah.

• Vanity Fair takes a closer look at the costumes and tattoos in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

• Version 2.0 of Fontbook‘s iPad app is available and contains samples of over 620, 000 typefaces!

• Design Museum unveils Designs of the Year 2012.

• Popular Mechanics has chosen their 10 best visual effects scenes of 2011.

• The American Society of Cinematographers has publicized the list of nominees for its’ 2012 Outstanding Achievement Awards.

• Costume designer for W.E., Arianne Phillips, discusses Madonna, costumes for biographical films, and the Oscars.

• The Atlantic‘s article on SOPA and the movie industry is an engrossing read.

• Take inspiration from these minimal work stations.

• Film production bingo hits close to home:

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How was your week? Did you find any great links or posts?

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Alison

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Today’s inspiration post is all about the gorgeous and elegant design of Christian Dior.

“Christian Dior (21 January 1905 – 23 October 1957) was a French fashion designer, best known as the founder of one of the world’s top fashion houses, also called Christian Dior.

On 16 December 1946 Dior founded his fashion house, backed by Marcel Boussac, a cotton-fabric magnate. The actual name of the line of his first collection, presented in early 1947, was Corolle (literally the botanical term corolla or circlet of flower petals in English), but the phrase New Look was coined for it by Carmel Snow, the editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar. Dior’s designs were more voluptuous than the boxy, fabric-conserving shapes of the recent World War II styles, influenced by the rations on fabric. He was a master at creating shapes and silhouettes; Dior is quoted as saying “I have designed flower women.” His look employed fabrics lined predominantly with percale, boned, bustier-style bodices, hip padding, wasp-waisted corsets and petticoats that made his dresses flare out from the waist, giving his models a very curvaceous form.

Initially, women protested because his designs covered up their legs, which they had been unused to because of the previous limitations on fabric. There was also some backlash to Dior’s designs due to the amount of fabrics used in a single dress or suit. During one photo shoot in a Paris market, the models were attacked by female vendors over this profligacy, but opposition ceased as the wartime shortages ended. The “New Look” (a name given it by American fashion-magazine editor Carmel Snow) revolutionized women’s dress and reestablished Paris as the center of the fashion world after World War II.”

Source: wikipedia.org

Some of Dior's sketches

Dior's "New Look", 1947

"Junon" dress, fall/winter 1949-50

"Eventail" dress, Fall-Winter 1956-57

From Christian Dior's autumn/winter haute couture 2011 show

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“Zest is the secret of all beauty. There is no beauty that is attractive without zest.”

- Christian Dior

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Do you have a favourite design by Christian Dior? Who’s your favourite fashion designer or fashion house?

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Alison

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