Taking Direction
Haven't posted in the last two days because I've been busy meeting with two directors
about being the production designer on their movie projects. Production designing? What? I know, a lot of people don't even realize there is such a person working on a film, or when they see the name in a credit roll they're not really sure what the title means. If someone asks me what I do for a living and tell them I work in the movies as an art director, I don't have to explain what my job is - most people have some idea. But, if you tell them you're a production designer, they look at you with a blank stare.
Production designers were art directors back in the old days in Hollywood. But, as the
art director became more and more responsible for the overall look of a film, the title production designer became the norm. The P.D. designs the look of a picture in consultation with the director, then relays those thoughts and ideas to different departments. The designer works closely with the director of photography, as well as the costume designer, to try and keep the movie visually cohesive. The designer has overall responsibility for the art, set decorating, locations and prop departments, and each of those has a department head; it's one huge organizational flow chart of responsibility. Most P.D's. come up through the ranks as art directors who oversee the art department, but set decorators and even construction coordinators have become production designers.
I am in the transition period of moving up from an art director to a production designer.
It takes time, tenacity, luck, people willing to give you a break (and a little talent) to make the leap. One of the meetings was with a director I've known for a while who would like to give me the opportunity to make the move. The other director doesn't know me at all, but the producer is someone I've worked with before and he's also trying to help me make the jump up. If neither project comes together, it will simply be the way of the world in Hollywood, but it was great to sit down and get to conceptualize a film from a new perspective.
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