Oscar 2011 - Art Direction

I'm not really in the mood for writing ... It seems I have to deal with some older liver issues these days (no, it's not excess vodka) and I probably should be sleeping at this hour (in case it's not obvious this intro should work also as a disclaimer on this entry's quality :-p). But, I pretty much made the plan on how many nomination categories I can cover this year. Somehow either I did succeed in watching too many movies during the winter holidays or the Academy wasn't flexible enough in choosing the titles, and it seems that if I really want to stick to the plan I should at least have two entries/week. Let's see if I can manage ...

So, if last time I suppose that VFX was quite clear in what it means, on Art Direction I should probably say a few more general words. Art Direction = Production Design + Set Decoration - it's a 2 in 1 category. Production Design refers to the general visual aspect of the movie and covers pretty much all starting from the location settings to the paper drawn concept art about a scene. As far as I know, and I hope I'm at least a bit right, the production designer works as a "link" between the director, or more exactly the director's vision and what I mentioned above. Meaning applying it in practice and also coordinating other departments for doing so, like vfx, costumes, etc. The idea is to obtain a consistent look & feel for the movie and not to get into situations where the vfx crew dreamed green aliens and the director wants blue ones. The Set Decoration relates with effectively constructing the scenery for the filming location = decoration, props, etc and is of course in tight relation with the Production Design. Ok, I think it's enough as a quick description ( and I don't know what else to write :) ) so let's get to the nominations ...

"Alice in Wonderland" - if last time I said that on VFX is ok, on the art direction for my taste at least it's not. It looks excessively colored for me and not very consistent/unitary as look even for a Tim Burton movie (why am I not surprised that it has the same production designer as "Avatar"). Well, again like last time, also this part is pretty much in the same semi-chaotic tone which makes the subject lose itself among the rest. The idea of Alice being back to Wonderland to save it from the Queen of Hearts is present actually all the time, but somehow it seems that it should be written in a corner of the screen just to be sure that you won't forget it even if you have it in front of your eyes. On the set decoration part, almost all of the job was done on the pc, so it goes to the vfx section ... One clip with one of the few scenes that might have some real decoration/props:

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1" - it's the opposite of Alice. If on VFX was bad here is quite good. And that's probably because they managed to keep the same Art Direction crew since the first HP. You can see that the whole series has quite the same visual look & feel, with some variations given by the cinematography (were unfortunately they didn't keep the best name they had on the list). The dark tone in the scene composition is kept and the tension created is completed by the chosen locations, which are quite various, and I always liked that. I really think that the Art Direction part is the best aspect from the last Potter. But it has some serious competition at this category. Anyway if it keeps the line for Part 2 maybe it can grab an Oscar. Until then, one clip which explains the "Deathly Hallows" from the title and also carries us a bit through the settings present in the 7th HP:

"Inception" is the serious competition I was saying above and also from my point of view the Oscar favorite. I'm still keeping some more detailed thoughts about the movie for later entries, maybe the last one :) (Like I said I have written last summer a detailed post in Ro but I'm too lazy to translate it or even re-read it). On today's topic, for the set decoration the things are made quite simple usually, and this keeps you on the real side of the movie which gets into the other/dream one by applying vfx to an apparently normal scene. The locations also help on the transition quite a lot not only directly but as a feeling also, you have a diversity in choosing settings which actually brings you closer to the base idea of "everything is possible in a dream". You get from indoor to outdoor, from sun to snow, etc. More on this in the next clip:

"The King's Speech" got lots of nominations this year, but I'm not very sure how many will turn into an Oscar. It's a movie with a subject that covers the first years of George VI as the monarch of United Kingdom. It seems that the guy had quite some issues with public speaking - more exactly a stammer, and he went through some therapy for a pretty long time, being helped by a former Australian actor - this being the main topic of the movie. More on the subject in future entries. About the Art Direction, I would place it at the same level with Alice but not because I didn't like the result here. I just find it too .. common. Yes, we have what is wanted - the period is surprised quite well, but this in not the first movie to do that, and I can't say it has anything special in achieving this. I recall now about "Atonement" which was also nominated for this category some years ago, and it's not very far, as many many other UK made films. They have quite an experience on recreating early XX century, or the Victorian age. But this is actually what makes that the final look to lose itself among many other titles. Besides that, 90% of the movie scenes are indoor which also diminishes the value on this category reported to the other nominations (well .. except Alice). Some idea about the decoration and also the ambiance of that time is discretely surprised in the next sequence:

I think "True Grit" is somewhere between "King's Speech" and "Harry Potter" for the Art Direction. I'm not getting into details about the movie - it's a western about which I've written around a month ago on my blog - more there. Well, I'll probably write a few general lines when I'll get to Best Picture category. For the moment, considering the genre, we have the same characteristic as in "King's Speech" = the movie must give a feeling as close as possible to a past time, in this case probably the end of the XIX century, but .. we have something extra - quite many outdoor scenes. Well, there isn't the diversity met in Potter or Inception but we have night scenes, day scenes, forest scenes, cave scenes, field scenes = we are pretty much carried through all the wild west terrain forms :). How they managed to recreate also the air of the old west town .. see below:

Next time .. I think I'm gonna take a break from the visual stuff and get to the sound ;)