What's up YouTube Alex Killian here
today I want to talk about an area of filmmaking that rarely gets enough
credit: art direction. Art direction and production design are
really the unsung heroes of any good film. Now in larger scale productions the
art director has a bunch of people working under them and the art director
works under the production designe,r but for a smaller scale "indie" sort of
things like something you or me might be making, usually production designer and
art director are synonymous and it's just one person doing all of those jobs. More than any other aspect of filmmaking,
art direction is responsible for creating the world of your film and good
art direction gives everything on the screen meaning, helping the audience get
to know the people, places, and style of the film more and more with every frame. I really started to realize the massive impact that art direction has on films
when looking through some of my favorite frames from movies. Now there's a number
of things that make these frames beautiful to look at; the lighting, the
composition and cinematography, the story that informs those images, but what makes
them really captivating and just fun to look at is the art direction. The
locations, the color, the setting, every little detail in the background. Art
direction helps you to be economical with your screen time and it comes
particularly in handy when you're trying to introduce a character and their world
in a short amount of time. Instead of writing a bunch of clunky,
expositional dialogue to introduce your characters to the audience, you can just
show the character in their space, actually bring the audience into their
world. Think about it, if you look around your bedroom, office, whatever room you
spend most of your time, there's tons of little details and things that all tell
little stories about you and how you live your life. And it's no different for
the characters in your film. Art directors create characters and stories,
but instead of doing it with words like a writer, or a composition like a
cinematographer, they use objects, settings, colors, and little details. I
think the reason art direction is underappreciated
is that if it's done correctly, it's somewhat subconscious. Now, some people
notice art direction in a film more than others, but whether or not your audience
is explicitly aware of the work you did on art direction in your film, they're
getting a lot of information about your characters and world subconsciously,
whether they realize it or not. We notice more than we realize we notice and that
information helps us to determine what we're looking at and how we should feel
about it. And believe me, the more time you spend on your art direction, the more
your audience will know your characters and the more immersed in your story they
will be. So! Speaking of art direction, it just so
happens my good friend Garrett Ball is in town. Garrett is a scenic artist
working in the New York area and he just got off of charging his second feature
film, welcome Garrett to the series! G: Hi Alex, thanks for having me. A: Great to have you here, man. G: Pleasure. A: So I thought it would be really
cool to hear from Garrett about some stuff about what he does and some tips
he has for art direction being someone working in the industry. So tell us a
little about what you do. G: I, as the scenic artist communicate with the production
designer and the art director to set a look for each location and stage that
we're going to. It will start off with draftings of measurements of each
location, what colors we want to use on the walls, and if there are any special
scenic elements; like signs, rocks, props, or other large scenic pieces. A: Very cool.
So, I figured Garrett would have some good insight on art direction,
specifically where to start with art direction, if you've never done it, if you
know you need to give your film a look, but not really sure what that entails. So,
what you got?! I guess I have a few tips for starting filmmakers who are
beginning to think about art direction in their movies for the first time. Art
direction provides a context for your story, it lets your viewer place the story in a certain place and time. It also provides
an emotional tone for the work and a visual aesthetic. Art direction can range
from huge ideas like creating a whole new alien world for your story, but art
direction is just as important in more realistic or depictionalistic pieces that you might not expect. Even contemporary films with fairly
straightforward locations, there's a lot of art direction going along under the
surface that provides an underpinning of emotional and realistic context, almost
like a backing score or a soundtrack to your film. A: So, when deciding what your
visual aesthetic is going to be for a film, what are some places you can start
with that? G: The first place to start for probably everyone is script analysis;
getting to know the script, finding its emotional features and deeper motifs. The
second thing you want to think about is where you want to set this and when. You
want to be able to give your viewer a frame of reference to be able to place
your story in a context that they can relate to other things. I think people don't exactly appreciate how ethereal art direction is and how intangible it
can be. It's a lot of trying to come up with an emotional vocabulary and a
abstract idea of what you'd like the piece to be and then you start to narrow
in from there; where, you can start finding colors and picking a color
palette for your piece that will guide you in making decisions as you go, or you
can find reference images that help you capture an emotional aesthetic that
you're looking for. One of the joys of art direction is
being able to work a little bit more subconsciously with your viewer.
Sometimes small things like putting various pieces of red in the background
will help the audience feel more anxious, or nervous, or give them a sense of
danger, and they don't even know why, but just because you're guiding them with a--
A: With cues? G: Sure, with subtle visual cues. A: Mmhmm, subconscious cues. That's pretty crazy. G: Party on, Wayne. A: Party on, Garth. A: Well thank you so much for coming on,
Garrett, loved having you here. G: My pleasure.
A: If you want to check out Garrett's art or his work on Broadway and film, you
should check out his website: garrettscottball.com, link will be in the
description below to check that out! G: Always good seeing you. A: Good to see you man. That's all for this one guys, thanks so much for tuning in! If you enjoyed
this episode, I would very much appreciate you throwing me that like,
subscribe if you haven't already, and I will see you next time. :)
