OVP: Best Production Design (2012)
The Nominees Were...
Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer, Anna Karenina
Dan Hennah, Ra Vincent, and Simon Bright, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Eve Stewart and Anna Lynch-Robinson, Les Miserables
My Thoughts: Yes, I'm aware that it's called Production Design now, but I'm still going with Art Direction for the title, as that's what it is to me. Coming off of the high of Cinematography and the brilliance of Jacqueline Durran in Anna, we are now merely at your run-of-the-mill for Oscar-a lineup featuring some strong work, but none that are truly majestic. That said, it's still worth our time to investigate the nominees, as there are some strong contenders to explore.
One of the best would be those behind Lincoln, who manage to create the most lived-in of all of the worlds. You can practically smell the wood from the desks, the aged papers on Lincoln's desk. I think the best art directors and set directors are people who create something that is not only eye-catching, but also looks like real life (unless that's not what they're going for, but even castles and spaceships have clutter). Lincoln, like 2011's Tinker Tailor knows this, and stuffs us with detail and beautiful drawing rooms, making both a Civil War army camp and the White House look authentic, and of their time.
The Hobbit is the other really great entry in this collection. Like Harry Potter before it, The Hobbit is on some levels borrowing from previous installments in the Tolkien movies, but it still manages to dazzle. I love the way that they subtly freshen up the furniture, place more emphasis on the sheltered Bilbo rather than the adventurous Bilbo we've come to know in the Ian Holm creations, and still had time to create a bustling under-city world with the Goblins and the mountain of gold that Smaug calls home. Art direction is one of the few categories that I feel visual effects can lend a hand to without taking away any credit from the art directors (or stealing credit on either side), as they both lend to each other so well. The Hobbit, with its combinations of green screen and reality make that meld hum nicely.
Les Miserables doesn't quite hit the heights of the other two, but it's not that it's lacking in grandiosity or even some cleverness. I love the workhouse where Fantine starts her descent, with its minimalist stairs and uniformity. The film has a great feel for period France and doesn't have too much of the luxury that say, Anna Karenina has to fall back upon, and so they have to impress through large streets and that awesome aqueduct? (not sure what it was) that Javert jumped into in his final moments. Overall, it was handsome, and solid, but it didn't impress or leave much of an impression (except maybe the elephant), and it gets a so-so from me.
The art/set/production designers from Anna Karenina would get such a higher score for me if Joe Wright had made the transforming stage concept a little less subtle. I get what he was trying to accomplish, but he is too inconsistent on when the "stage is set" and when reality has sunk in, and by the end of the film it seems as if he's abandoning the pretense all-together. I did love the movie's beginning, though, and they definitely made the sets work within the course of the movie, even with the muddle-it looked like exactly what Wright would have wanted us to see. The set occasionally transforming into reality with little warning to the audience, and you spend a good chunk of time questioning whether what we are seeing is real or actors-have we stumbled into a French Lieutenant's Woman situation here? Much of the credit for the success of the device (and it does succeed more than it fails), goes to the art directors, and I am glad for this nomination, likely due to the Costume/Art Direction branches at the time sharing ballots (they don't anymore), which has caused Costume-heavy films in the past to bleed over to Art Direction and vice versa.
The final nominee, I feel even weirder about than Silver Linings Playbook for Editing. What am I missing with Life of Pi for Art Direction? Honestly-it takes place on a raft. A surprisingly well-stocked raft, and I like the little remote station that Pi creates, but it is a raft nonetheless. I don't see anything remotely special in the film's other sets-the home of the adult Pi, the zoo in India, to persuade me that this was anything other than a gimme nomination for a Best Picture nomination, and with a lot of strong contenders in other films, that's unacceptable to me.
The Hobbit is the other really great entry in this collection. Like Harry Potter before it, The Hobbit is on some levels borrowing from previous installments in the Tolkien movies, but it still manages to dazzle. I love the way that they subtly freshen up the furniture, place more emphasis on the sheltered Bilbo rather than the adventurous Bilbo we've come to know in the Ian Holm creations, and still had time to create a bustling under-city world with the Goblins and the mountain of gold that Smaug calls home. Art direction is one of the few categories that I feel visual effects can lend a hand to without taking away any credit from the art directors (or stealing credit on either side), as they both lend to each other so well. The Hobbit, with its combinations of green screen and reality make that meld hum nicely.
Les Miserables doesn't quite hit the heights of the other two, but it's not that it's lacking in grandiosity or even some cleverness. I love the workhouse where Fantine starts her descent, with its minimalist stairs and uniformity. The film has a great feel for period France and doesn't have too much of the luxury that say, Anna Karenina has to fall back upon, and so they have to impress through large streets and that awesome aqueduct? (not sure what it was) that Javert jumped into in his final moments. Overall, it was handsome, and solid, but it didn't impress or leave much of an impression (except maybe the elephant), and it gets a so-so from me.
The art/set/production designers from Anna Karenina would get such a higher score for me if Joe Wright had made the transforming stage concept a little less subtle. I get what he was trying to accomplish, but he is too inconsistent on when the "stage is set" and when reality has sunk in, and by the end of the film it seems as if he's abandoning the pretense all-together. I did love the movie's beginning, though, and they definitely made the sets work within the course of the movie, even with the muddle-it looked like exactly what Wright would have wanted us to see. The set occasionally transforming into reality with little warning to the audience, and you spend a good chunk of time questioning whether what we are seeing is real or actors-have we stumbled into a French Lieutenant's Woman situation here? Much of the credit for the success of the device (and it does succeed more than it fails), goes to the art directors, and I am glad for this nomination, likely due to the Costume/Art Direction branches at the time sharing ballots (they don't anymore), which has caused Costume-heavy films in the past to bleed over to Art Direction and vice versa.
The final nominee, I feel even weirder about than Silver Linings Playbook for Editing. What am I missing with Life of Pi for Art Direction? Honestly-it takes place on a raft. A surprisingly well-stocked raft, and I like the little remote station that Pi creates, but it is a raft nonetheless. I don't see anything remotely special in the film's other sets-the home of the adult Pi, the zoo in India, to persuade me that this was anything other than a gimme nomination for a Best Picture nomination, and with a lot of strong contenders in other films, that's unacceptable to me.
Other Precursor Contenders: The Art Directors Guild Awards separate their categories into Fantasy, Period, and Contemporary nominees (similar to the Costume Guild), and so we have all five films nominated. The Period Film award went to Anna, with Argo and Django joining Lincoln and Les Miz amongst the also-rans. In the Contemporary category, with none of the Oscar nominees included, Oscar-winner Dennis Gassner's Skyfall bested The Impossible, Flight, Zero Dark Thirty, and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. And proving that apparently I know nothing, Life of Pi took out The Hobbit, as well as The Dark Knight Rises, Cloud Atlas, and Prometheus. BAFTA cut The Hobbit from their lineup in favor of Skyfall, with Les Miz taking the award (one of the few categories therefore that the Oscar winner took none of the major precursors). For sixth place, Django probably makes the most sense on-paper (with its Civil War surroundings), but I'm guessing that Skyfall, which could have been the tenth place finisher for Best Picture, may have also been the just miss here.
Films I Would Have Nominated: Skyfall and The Dark Knight Rises both merit mention, but it is Prometheus, with its brilliant ship design and catacombs of an alien sanctuary, who lets world-creation hit a whole new level of the imagination. I didn't love the movie (liked a lot), but I'm desperate to return to it based on the magical surroundings it invites.
Oscar's Choice: Despite precursors pointing to either Anna or Lincoln (or, to my chagrin Life of Pi), the Academy decided to throw one tech award bone to Spielberg and company and gave Jim Erickson his second Oscar.
My Choice: Going in I was debating whether Lincoln would be toppled as my favorite, but it doesn't appear that way, as I leave even more impressed by it. The Hobbit comes second, followed by Anna, Les Miz, and a distant fifth in Life of Pi.
Films I Would Have Nominated: Skyfall and The Dark Knight Rises both merit mention, but it is Prometheus, with its brilliant ship design and catacombs of an alien sanctuary, who lets world-creation hit a whole new level of the imagination. I didn't love the movie (liked a lot), but I'm desperate to return to it based on the magical surroundings it invites.
Oscar's Choice: Despite precursors pointing to either Anna or Lincoln (or, to my chagrin Life of Pi), the Academy decided to throw one tech award bone to Spielberg and company and gave Jim Erickson his second Oscar.
My Choice: Going in I was debating whether Lincoln would be toppled as my favorite, but it doesn't appear that way, as I leave even more impressed by it. The Hobbit comes second, followed by Anna, Les Miz, and a distant fifth in Life of Pi.
What did you think-did you also like the surprise of Lincoln, or were you hoping for a frontrunner? Do you understand what I apparently didn't about Life of Pi? And as we leave the visual tech categories, what win was your favorite/least favorite?
Also in 2012: Cinematography, Costume, Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Animated Short, Live Action Short, Previously in 2012
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