Creators of Worlds: The History of Production Design for Motion Pictures

1.5 units

There are many cases where fictional architecture influenced real architectural tastes, which can be seen especially during the Art Deco era of the 1930s and with the use of midcentury modern architecture in the 1950s. When we watch films we forget that someone designed the Millenium Falcon, the lairs James Bond villains inhabit, the houses, newsrooms, hotels and dance halls, and the creepy castles where monsters lived. We forget that practicing architects were lured to the movies by Hollywood, Bollywood, British Film studios, Toho Film and others with their high pay scales. Although production designers for the most part come from graphic arts and stage backgrounds, they designed some of the most influential – and visible – architectural ideas of the past 100 years. The course would discuss outstanding designs which will attune the student to the use of color, pattern, texture and materials in a built environment, while highlighting the importance of lighting to set off a superior design. The course may be useful in terms of sparking ideas in the students, or as a new and different way to watch movies, or for a career, for well-paying jobs are available in this field. My bachelor’s degree was in filmmaking, so this topic has been a lifelong preoccupation. The course would cover the history of production design from silent films to Barbie and Oppenheimer.