Categories One-by-One: Production Design

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Okri
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Re: Categories One-by-One: Production Design

Post by Okri »

I think Anna Karenina takes it. I will admit to flat-out loving the concept and movie, but ostentatious and showy beats out lived and realistic every day of the week and twice on Sundays.
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Re: Categories One-by-One: Production Design

Post by Big Magilla »

I think Les Misérables and Anna Karenina will duke it out for the Bafta, but Lincoln will take the Oscar.
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Re: Categories One-by-One: Production Design

Post by The Original BJ »

It's possible that I'm just holding out hope for my clear favorite of the nominees here, but I really think Lincoln at least has a shot at winning. There are a ton of sets in that movie -- spatially it covers a lot of ground -- and all of them are stuffed to the brim with bric-a-brac and details. And I like what dws said -- the sets just felt so REAL, like people actually lived and worked in those environments. Also, given Lincoln's hefty below-the-line haul, wouldn't it seem likely for it to pick up a prize somewhere down ballot? This seems to me like its best hope. (Then again, The King's Speech had exactly the same tech nominations Lincoln does, and couldn't pick up one of them. And I recall I incorrectly predicted that for this category in its year, so maybe I should learn my lesson.)

But Anna Karenina definitely provides pretty serious competition, though I think its win is less assured than in Costume Design. It certainly fits the "most beautiful" qualification, and it too features quite a number of locales, many of them imaginatively stylized. Although I once again agree with dws -- the conception of this story as stage play is such a gigantic conceptual miscalculation in my book, it's hard to separate the gorgeous production design from the ludicrous way it's used. Though I don't expect voters to have the same problem, I do think Best Picture pull is a more of a factor here than in Costume Design, and Anna Karenina does lack that.

From a strictly set design standpoint, I was WAY more annoyed with what was going on in Les Mis, which is basically the opposite of Lincoln in my opinion: there's no way those sets suggest anything remotely resembling reality. Only in the movies does a gritty French street look so meticulously lush. And I thought the barricade was just silly-looking, and really undercut the gravitas of the story -- it's hard to believe such an epic confrontation took place around a couple of chairs and tables thrown into a pile. I definitely wouldn't be shocked if it won -- it's certainly a "big" design project -- but I don't think it's as strong a candidate as the other two films.

I can see why the production designers went for Life of Pi. Some of its sets -- the animal menagerie, that gorgeous pool in the early flashback, the island -- were impressive, and visually the movie is utterly eye-popping. But I agree that there's a bit of "what are we honoring here?" with respect to this nomination, and a win would really seem like piggy-backing on the likely trophies for Cinematography and Visual Effects as part of overall visual achievement. I guess Avatar sort of won here that way, but even then there was an entirely new world designed. I don't think a movie that mostly takes place on a rowboat in the middle of the ocean is going to have quite the same pull in this category.

I rate The Hobbit least likely to take the prize. It isn't unimpressive work -- Middle Earth remains a lovingly designed world -- but this entire project just reeks of warmed-over leftovers, and I can't see voters feeling eager to reward this franchise again given the other options. Plus, even the exceptional work on the first two Rings movies couldn't win here, and if voters only like Middle Earth's sets when attached to an 11-category sweep, I think The Hobbit is really out of luck.

Not sure I've decided on a final prediction, but it'll probably be Lincoln or Anna Karenina.

Most deserving omittee: The Master, which features sets that somehow feel both lived-in and realistic AND completely alien and artificial, a perfect match for the movie's thematic dualities.
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Re: Categories One-by-One: Production Design

Post by OscarGuy »

Although Set Decorators have long been a part of this category's naming and honoring, production design itself is more than just creating sets and designs for sets. Production design incorporates the entire visual look of the film. Concept art, set designs, environs, everything comes together to form the whole of the production design.

So, think of the mysterious island, the sinking ship, the use of space on a small life boat and the accompanying construction of a separate raft. The luminescent krill. Everything in Life of Pi is part of a cohesive design whole. If you pull your concept of art direction out of the box and look at the overall visual look and feel of the film, you can see why Life of Pi not only is a nominee, but I feel is running second only to Anna Karenina and could very well win the award. This, I believe, is one of the reasons they changed the name from art direction/set decoration to production design.

That being said, The Hobbit was, to me, the surprise nominee of this bunch. I had expected it more likely in Costume Design than production design. I really don't think it has much of a shot (though, there's Radagast's forest cabin, the storm-drenched mountain pass, the ruins of Dol Guldur, the city of Dale and the Lonely Mountain dwarven refuge. There's more than just the Shire, Rivendell and the goblin caves on display in the film, so I think people are taking their dislike of the film and making it seem like a smaller achievement than it really is. Regardless, I don't think it has any chance of winning.

Lincoln seems to dingy to win, too lacking in vibrancy, but that didn't stop Sweeney Todd from winning this award. That said, I think Lincoln has competition that's too strong for it to win.

Les Miserables also has the dingy and its sets are quite impressive in places, but you wouldn't always know when they flit by so fast and are often framed-out by incessant close-ups. I think Les Mis has a better shot in costume design than production design, but I could be sold on its chances here as well. After all, production design and costume design all-too-frequently go to the same film.

Which brings me to the film I think will win Costume Design being the lead contender for Production Design. I have seen all five films nominated and Anna Karenina is the most opulent, but it's also the most creative. As much as I like the painterly designs of Life of Pi, Anna Karenina's theatrical conceit is used magnificently. Not only do the sets look authentic, but when they give way to equally-authentic sets, the effect is mesmerizing. There's also a mix of dingy in there as not everyone can live in relative beauty, but overall there are more distinct locales and sets (yes, physical sets) than any of the other films, which might give it a leg up.
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Re: Categories One-by-One: Production Design

Post by Sabin »

The last time I lost both Art Direction & Costume Design was when I predicted There Will Be Blood for the former and Atonement for the latter. They both lost to contenders that could arguably claim to feature the most art direction and the most costume designing.

The Hobbit might be a bigger contender if Peter Jackson hadn't compressed the films as much. Life of Pi spends the majority of its time at sea and that film feels like it has more set variety than The Hobbit. I don't understand Life of Pi's nomination either. Like Avatar, it incorporates visual effects into the look of the film so much perhaps voters were tricked into thinking that whale jumping over the boat was a set.

I am the resident Lincoln defender amongst my friends. A win is possible, but I think it would be a likelier winner had the film actually been about the life of Abraham Lincoln and not the determination to abolish slavery.

So it's between the two films I haven't seen. I have no idea how ridiculous Joe Wright's conceit of theatricality is in the context of Anna Karenina, just as I can only imagine how much Tom Hooper's lensing detracts from the contributions of his production design. Currently, I'll predict on a split between the two with Les Miserables taking production design.
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Categories One-by-One: Production Design

Post by dws1982 »

I would eliminate The Hobbit first. It's not entirely fair, but lots of voters will be thinking about Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy when they see this on their ballot, and while I think that won't keep it from winning in a weak makeup field, I do think that it will hurt it in a stronger field like this. What are the two biggest, most memorable sets in the film? I would say Bilbo's house in the Shire, and Rivendell, both of which were featured in the original trilogy, which was honored in this category. Beyond that, it's an outdoor film, for the most part. The Goblin Cave was impressive, but I really do think the sets are going to have a “been there, done that” feel.

Life of Pi has a solid shot at winning several technical awards, but I think this the one it is least likely to win. To me, there's nothing really notable about the sets—the ship, the contemporary home, the home in India, and the boat are all fairly standard. I'm still at a loss to explain its nomination. I guess, maybe if the voters just automatically pick it below the line, it might have an outside shot at winning. But I don't expect things to go that way.

Lincoln would be my choice of the nominees. I loved the way it was—like the film in general—less opulent and eager-to-impress than you would expect. Everything really does feel natural and lived-in. That place where James Spader and his guys operate really does look like a seedy, possibly dangerous hole-in-the-wall; The White House holds more sadness and disappointment for the Lincoln's than anything else, and that's apparent in the way it's designed (and photographed—but that's another category) here. But “less opulent...than you would expect” isn't the type of thing that helps a movie win here. I give it an outside chance in case Lincoln unexpectedly sweeps, but I don't expect that to happen.

Les Miserables has some good sets, and they are opulent and quite eager-to-impress. That one set, where a lot of the action takes place—you see it in the pullback at the end of “One Day More”—is, I'm reasonably certain, a ripoff of a set from King Vidor's War and Peace, but it is a well-designed film. I think it has a pretty decent shot here, although some of the complaints about Hooper's direction—the off-kilter angles, the constant close-ups—may hurt it a bit here.

I really think this is Anna Karenina's award to lose. The theatrical concept means that it uses the sets and production design in a very unique way. It's something you hardly ever see in movies, and it has the uniqueness plus plenty of period opulence on display. I can't deny that the production designers did a really good job with what was probably a strange, difficult job. BUT the production design—or, more specifically, the way it ties into Joe Wright's concept and the way he uses it—is a large part of the problem, as far as I'm concerned. I could never vote for it. Still, I think it'll win quite easily.
Last edited by dws1982 on Fri Feb 01, 2013 6:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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