Production Design — Arthur Max and Donald Graham Burt
Many of us have directors whose films we prize and anticipate their upcoming projects. The strength of their filmmaking can give audiences an assurance of quality storytelling and visuals across their filmography. But it would be misguided to believe that the vision in a filmic back catalogue is solely accomplished by the director. For film enthusiasts and dedicated buffs a director can be synonymous with their many collaborators, whether they are actors, cinematographers or composers to name a few. Audiences will associate Martin Scorcese with actors Robert DeNiro and Leonardo DiCaprio, Quentin Tarantino with actor Samuel L. Jackson and editor Sally Menke, and Steven Spielberg with composer John Williams. Our conscious recognition of these pairings reveals the importance of professionalism, camaraderie, and the cumulative strength needed to bring films to the viewing masses.
Where the partnerships of directors to actors and composers is more widely identified the contribution of a recurring production designer is comparatively underestimated. For 20 years director Ridley Scott has leaned on the talents and dedication of production designer Arthur Max to realize the contemporary, the distant past and the speculative future. For the last 10 years director David Fincher has trusted Donald Graham Burt to create the modern and period spaces of his emotionally intense narratives. Prior to his work with Ridley Scott, Arthur Max had also collaborated with Fincher on the psychological thriller Se7en and the home invasion thriller Panic Room.
In studying the results of these two production designers with their respective directors the parallels and contrasts in their work showcase the breadth of knowledge and skill demanded by filmmakers to bring form and authenticity to the screen. Donald Graham Burt’s work as a production designer before partnering with David Fincher will not be examined, but his accomplishments on films such as the Mike Newell-directed, undercover FBI drama Donnie Brasco cannot be overlooked.
Period Film by Donald Graham Burt
David Fincher’s films have featured biographical stories based in both recent history and through several decades of the 20th century, exploring themes of obsession and self-destruction. In Fincher’s introspective 2007 film Zodiac the investigation and pursuit of a mysterious serial killer by the police and employees of the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper begins with a violent shooting on the 4th of July in 1969 and ends with an enigmatic whimper in 1991. Production designer Donald Graham Burt was tasked by Fincher and the production to recreate in exacting detail the real locations seen in the film as they transform over the decades though age and interior design fashions. Period details were so extensive that the exact model of typewriter used by journalist Paul Avery, played by Robert Downey, Jr., was obtained, and hundreds of reprints of date specific newspapers were made to loan the film a hyper-real fidelity to the factual events presented on screen. The extreme level of detail was intended to give the actors a heightened feeling of living through the periods depicted in the film, more than only approximating the past for the viewer’s suspension of disbelief.
For the semi-biographical story of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in Fincher’s 2010 film The Social Network the exacting precision of Zodiac was less necessary. The film spans only several years and is still recent enough to be considered contemporary, but because of the technological nature of the story, the rapid change in computing power and proliferation of electronic devices since Facebook was created care had to be taken that no anachronistic mistakes would appear. Thematically the production design is used by Burt and Fincher to reflect the changes in status and fortune as Zuckerberg’s digital empire begins to grip the world. The historic institution of Harvard university is presented as holding onto antiquated concepts of class and social standing as seen in the fraternity housing of the Winklevoss twins, in contrast the dormitory space of Zuckerberg and his friends where real innovation is beginning to take form. As the success of Facebook continues Zuckerberg’s growing contempt towards his friends happens in the large and impersonal spaces of Facebook headquarters and legal boardrooms — Zuckerberg has become the institution.
Science Fiction by Arthur Max
30 years after having made Blade Runner director Ridley Scott returned to the brooding and horrific universe of his first science fiction film Alien with the spiritual prequel Prometheus in 2012. Scott called for the visual design of the film to echo the feel and aesthetic from the original 1979 film in both the human and extraterrestrial spaces. In the story the titular ship is a more sophisticated and state-of-the-art vessel than the Nostromo of Alien, while maintaining many of the architectural forms and designs by concept artist Ron Cobb. Arthur Max’s production design had to preserve the established style while creating a more scientifically-based environment for the Prometheus crew that reflects the extraordinary nature of their mission. In contrast to the human elements of the film the alien Engineers’ aesthetic conveys a dark, nightmare world where humanity doesn’t belong. Taking design concepts from H.R. Giger’s work on both the first Alien film and Alejandro Jodorowksy’s abandoned Dune project the mysterious spaces of the Engineers are expanded upon as the crew of the Prometheus explores the ancient site found on planet LV-223. The imagery of Alien worked as the foundation for the aesthetic that was continued and developed further to reveal the greater depths and origins of the xenomorph mythos.
Where Prometheus had greater opportunity for invention and creativity the fictional near future of Scott’s 2015 adaptation of Andy Weir’s The Martian required a more grounded approach to the visual design. Unlike the interstellar exploits of Alien and Prometheus the scientific accuracy and realism depicted in The Martian had to be communicated through the familiar design of modern space flight technology. The Ares spacecraft and the living habitat on the surface of Mars mirror the functional and practical design seen in the International Space Station and the decommissioned NASA space shuttles, although their scale is increased and floor space is more actor and film crew friendly. The Mars rover driven by Mark Watney is also an evolution of the Lunar rover and the concept Space Exploration Vehicle for potential future NASA missions. The audiences identification to present day astronautics and space technology provides The Martian with an authenticity that heightens the hardship and danger Watney experiences over several years as NASA on Earth and the Ares crew in transit struggle to come to his rescue.
The high concept horror of Prometheus and the tangible reality of The Martian were brought into form by Arthur Max’s production design. Both films demonstrate the creative and narrative considerations of how visual design can depict the human and the speculative in science fiction storytelling with incredible variety.
Arthur Max and David Fincher on Se7en
The unnamed city in David Fincher’s sophomore feature is a dark entity where people are consumed by sin — a place its inhabitants accept has always been this way and will never change. The narrative’s sense of dread and nihilism is expressed through the spaces of the city, where murders by a religious zealot are investigated by the film’s protagonists, whose moral ideals oppose one another.
The production design captures the thematic concepts of degradation and moral decay through the dilapidated and neglected homes of several victims tortured and murdered by the mysterious John Doe. Another crime scene is found in the apathetic, excess wealth of a lawyer’s office who has been punished for greed, and a basement brothel that is scene to a particularly brutal murder features dark walls bathed in vibrant red light — a symbolic descent into hell. In contrast the only levity in the design of the film is found in the warmth and supposed safety of police detective Mills’ home with his wife. In the context of the story their home is the exception to the grim reality of the city, but it is also established that the happy couple have just moved in and are unprepared for the dark forces that are within reach.
The apartment of John Doe is depicted as a stream of consciousness. The intense anger, religious fervour and dedication to his purpose is reflected in the mass of notebooks that document his obsession, the neon red cross hung over the bed, and the bathroom transformed into a home-made darkroom. The darkness in John Doe’s psyche permeates the space he lives and the spaces of the city where he strikes.
Donald Graham Burt and David Fincher on Gone Girl
The intricate plotting and scheming by characters in the film adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl doesn’t take place in an unnamed city of vice, but in the suburbs of Missouri. Unlike the expressionist design of Se7en the spaces in Gone Girl disguise the dark and volatile nature of the characters Nick and Amy Dunne; on the surface their marriage and life together is happy, but as the plot intensifies this superficial construct begins to collapse. Where in Se7en people are being corrupted by the city’s dark underbelly it is the darkness of people in Gone Girl that infects and penetrates the wholesome image of middle America. A shocking and bloody incident in a late scene highlights the thematic reversal of extreme violence happening in a mundane and innocuous space that will be uncomfortably familiar to audiences.
For the purposes of production practical exterior locations were blended with film set interiors on stage for greater creative control. While principal photography in Missouri was ongoing the art department responsible for building matching sets was provided necessary data weeks earlier in preparation for the production’s eventual move to stages; visual effects also allowed for a more seamless integration between the two stages of production. Depth of research was also demanded by Fincher to best capture the cultural and stylistic aesthetics of the characters and their real life locations.
The level of detail, research and development displayed by Arthur Max and Donald Graham Burt cannot be wholly acknowledged by or encapsulated for the viewer. Nor is it the intention of a production designer to have their work consciously recognized as serving the character, themes and narrative of a feature. Like all aspects of the visual language in filmmaking the invisible hand of the artist facilitates the viewer’s acceptance and belief in the cinematic illusion. Production design is most powerful when it exists unseen.
Special mention:
Arthur Max’s production design on historical films directed by Ridley Scott, including the Roman epic Gladiator and the holy crusades of Kingdom of Heaven.
Recommended viewing:
(Arthur Max as production designer)
Se7en (dir. David Fincher, 1995)
Gladiator (dir. Ridley Scott, 2000)
Panic Room (dir. David Fincher, 2002)
Kingdom of Heaven (dir. Ridley Scott, 2005)
American Gangster (dir. Ridley Scott, 2007)
Prometheus (dir. Ridley Scott, 2012)
The Martian (dir. Ridley Scott, 2015)
(Donald Graham Burt as production designer)
Dangerous Minds (dir. John N. Smith,1995)
Donnie Brasco (dir. Mike Newell, 1997)
Zodiac (dir. David Fincher, 2007)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (dir. David Fincher, 2008)
The Social Network (dir. David Fincher, 2010)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (dir. David Fincher, 2011)
Gone Girl (dir. David Fncher, 2014)
Sources:
Production Design in the Contemporary American Film, by Beverly Heisner
Art Direction and Production Design, edited by Lucy Fischer
Production Design: Architects of the Screen, by Jane Barnwell
Perspective — March/April 2015, “Research. Process. Success.”
Perspective — November/December 2015, “It’s Not Rocket Science (oh, wait yes it is)”
Zodiac Deciphered documentary
(note: this is only a partial list — additional information was obtained from further books, documentaries and articles but these details weren’t available at the time of writing)
Coming soon: Mud on the Lens — Artifice in Cinematography
