Spotlight Production Design

Although it may not seem like it, the production design by Art Director Stephen H Carter of Spotlight was beautifully thought out.

Put simply it was the story and its telling that was important; the design needed to support that by disappearing into the background. It was done so well.

The tones of the entire movie were kept the same throughout. Colours were muted in both costumes and sets, and sometimes one blended into another. When Mark Ruffalo's, Mike Rezendes, meets Mitchell Garabedian (Stanley Tucci) early on in the film, his rumpled shirt almost matches his surroundings.

Of note was a scene with a choir in a church...

Taken from a still of the trailer

Everything has been thought about here. Red is such a strong colour but it is handled beautifully. The curtains and flowers are deep shades of the colour, while the children in the choir and even a high number of the congregation are wearing burgundies. Everything has been done to avoid distracting the eye. No colour jarred throughout the whole film. Perfect.

On a side note, Stanley Tucci's wig was superb. It was so well done that you could even see where touches of his scalp seemed to peep through in what was slightly thinning hair. Brilliant.

The Big Short

Visually, The Big Short drove me nuts. The costumes where fine, the sets were fine, but the wigs and hair!!! Good grief, what was going on there?

The condition of Christian Bale's hair was explained away because his character (Michael Burry) cut his own; OK, fair enough, but it was so obviously a wig. This was a man who cared little about his appearance, and yet his hair never grew, it never changed, and it never got overly long before he hacked at it with nail scissors or whatever was to hand.

Steve Carrell for some reason had streaks. I can't imagine Mark Baum, a man who wore cheap looking checked blue suits and had little patience for anything, sitting in a hairdressers enduring the process of having highlights put in.

Finally, and worst of all was Ryan Gosling. His hair colour was so obviously out of a bottle, and done minutes before filming started. You could almost see the staining on his hairline and scalp.

Although there were a number of moral questions I felt the film raised (and they are not for here), I enjoyed the film; but visually, I was tormented by hair! On the other hand, Brad Pitt's do was just right, untouched and left natural, just as his character, Ben Rickert, would have left it.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Design

Well, no surprise, really, that I went to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens - erm, twice. I loved it the first time, and took the opportunity to look at the design the second time.

The original 3 films were made in the late 70s and early 80s when colours on film didn't jump off the screen and throttle you like they did in Episodes 1, 2 and 3. These later 3 films were garish, over designed and over stuffed with CGI. They didn't feel anything like Star Wars - 'nuff said about them.

My eye was lead through the movie by the story, and not distracted in any way by over the top design. It was back to basics for Episode 7. The muted tones and colours that were used in Episodes 4, 5 and 6 were used again hauling you straight back into the Star Wars universe. Visually, it didn't feel like an almost 40 (40!!!) year break. Models were used for ships, and only touched up with CGI while the movement of some of the creatures harked back to what could be done in 1977 - slightly jerky, and puppets.

The opening text at the beginning of the film shoogling as it had in the original (it had been created by printing onto clear plastic and then scrolling it passed the camera) was a lovely touch.

The costumes were beautifully simple - not a distracting pattern in sight - all the design work seemed to go into the helmets. Rey's costume alone, although seemingly very straight forward, had little details like the thick stitching up the seams on her top giving it a home made feel. The breakdown on her costume alone was handled with care and a delicate hand. (What's breakdown? It's the skill used to make a costume look as though it has had a history - dirty, darned, patched, loved, handed down, just unfolded after being taken out of a box.)

What a joy.

The Good Dinosaur

I'm not discussing the plot here, just the design. This post may contain spoilers...

As an artist I found the opening scenes breathtaking. I was stunned at the realism and detail in all the backgrounds. I felt I could drink the clear water in the river near the farm and the mountain that was so important in the story was waiting for me to climb it. The artwork was awesome in the true sense of the word. It was a showcase for what can now be done in animation.

 

However, I found the contrast between the environment and the dinosaurs too great. Arlo and his family were too cartoon like to sit comfortably in their surroundings and I wonder if it would have been better to step back a bit from the background detail, adding less there while adding a little more realism to the characters.

There were other details in the film, that I loved. When you first meet the T-Rex family - pseudo cowboys - you can see where every part of their characterisation has been thought through. The father's eyes are so shaded by his brow, it's as though he was wearing a stetson. When they ran after their cattle, they gave the wonderfully clear impression of moving their hind quarters like the back end of a horse, while their upper bodies remained as relaxed and rhythmic as any rider. They were a joy to watch.

The reintroduction of Thunderclap and his fellow pterodactyls was inspired - a reverse shark fin coming down through the clouds above. I could hear the Jaws music. Brilliantly done.