Categories One-by-One: Production Design

[anonymous1980]

I did hear one Gold Derby-ish pundit voice what might be an objection: How do you know what's CGI and what's production design? The answer is, you don't -- anymore than you do with every other film in the category.

I'd like to answer this question. Even sets that are CGI has to be designed by the production designer. It still has to be sketched out in a piece of paper or designed in a computer. The VFX and animators may input the one's and zero's in but the look is still the production designer's work. My take on this is that modern-day CGI technology is the equivalent of matte paintings from the films of the past. No more, no less.

[Okri]

I mean, The Hurt Locker is a lower budgeted movie, but it's also a war movie and they tend to do well in the sound categories, regardless of how well they are received.

I've just seen Avatar: The Way of Water and I'm basically of the opinion that it's really most worthwhile as a production design showcase.

[Sabin]

Mister Tee wrote
Not many people seem to be heavily considering Avatar: the Way of Water, which, truly, baffles me....

I guess I just think Avatar is close to the obvious choice, and it puzzles me that so many in Oscar world seem to be skipping over it. We'll find out if they see things more clearly, or if I do.

I mean, I can tell you my rationale. The Oscar for Best Production Design may not be synonymous with Best Costume Design but it's pretty uncommon for a film to win the former without being nominated for the latter. In fact, the last time a movie won Best Production Design without a Costume Design nomination was (oh look!) Avatar. Before that, it was Pan's Labyrinth. What both of those movies have in common is they both won Best Cinematography. Avatar: The Way of Water is up for neither. To find a movie that won Best Production Design without a Cinematography or Costume Design nomination, you have to go back to The Madness of King George. Now, I have no idea what contributed to that film's victory but I have to imagine the fact that only one film was nominated for Production Design and Costume Design the year and it was a Woody Allen movie probably turned the category into something of a free for all. Before The Madness of King George, it's Batman, a feat that was so sui generis it couldn't be denied. My point is, it's a rare occurrence.

I'll throw out another couple of reasons. 1) It's entirely possible that if the ballot wasn't extended to a mandatory ten that Avatar: The Way of Water might have been the first to miss the cut. Would anyone be so bullish to predict it had it missed the lineup? And 2) the first Avatar underperformed a bit at the Academy Awards, picking up three Oscars out of nine nominations but missing out on what seemed like easy wins like Best Sound Mixing and Sound Editing (despite its cachet of creating specific new creature sounds) to a significantly lower budgeted film like The Hurt Locker. I just wonder if enough voters like Avatar films.

Anyway, my take is that it's an unlikely winner. That said, something has to win. This category is a total free for all so it's totally possible that it might take up a plurality especially considering that the line between Best Production Design and Visual Effects has blurred so significantly as you mentioned.

I'm actually wondering if the smart money might be All Quiet on the Western Front.

[Mister Tee]

The nominees:

All Quiet on the Western Front
Avatar: the Way of Water
Babylon
Elvis
The Fabelmans

What do they like in this category? Well, years back, they used to prefer period/historical to fantasy, choosing Gandhi over Blade Runner, Howards End over Bram Stoker's Dracula. But not so much in this millennium, with the first Avatar, Alice in Wonderland and Mad Max: Fury Road all winning recently.

Lately, especially in the expanded best picture era, it seems to help being a best picture nominee -- only Alice in Wonderland and The Great Gatsby have taken home the trophy without that distinction.

Odd, perhaps un-noted fact: four directors with films nominated here -- Cameron, Chazelle, Luhrman and Spielberg -- have all seen prior films win this award post-2008. (3 of them had seen earlier films take the category, as well.)

Because I have to start somewhere, I'll say I don't think The Fabelmans has much chance of triumphing. It's sort-of period, but not far back enough for the design element to really jump out. And it just doesn't have any of the gaudiness that catches voters' eyes.

All Quiet on the Western Front wouldn't be an ignoble choice, but it, too, doesn't seem the sort to win the category -- a place they passed on 1917, for instance. It might have a better shot at BAFTA.

Babylon is certainly full of impressive sets, but it has the same handicap here as it does in other categories: the fact that audiences hated it/stayed away. It already suffers from the low profile of not being among the best picture 10; the two winner exceptions I noted above, Alice and Gatsby, each put up $100 million grosses. A film can win costumes with a low gross (Marie Antoinette, The Duchess), but this category tends to go to more widely-liked films.

Elvis would seem to be a solid choice, given Luhrman's propensity for winning the category. But, honestly: does anyone think of Elvis in the same "wow, what a design concept" way they do Moulin Rouge or Gatsby? The sets on display here felt more workaday than flashy (I remember this because it struck me as so un-Baz-like).

Not many people seem to be heavily considering Avatar: the Way of Water, which, truly, baffles me. The film is largely about its pictures, its extravagant design. Do people think the film will be slighted simply because it's the second time around for Pandora? If so, I think they're mistaken: there are a multitude of new designs on display, more than enough to merit the prize on their own. I did hear one Gold Derby-ish pundit voice what might be an objection: How do you know what's CGI and what's production design? The answer is, you don't -- anymore than you do with every other film in the category. That's why they changed the name of the category from Art Direction/Set Decoration to Production Design -- because they understood the new technology would mean the look of all films would be a blend of the two. There are still people overseeing the overall look of the film, and that's who this award is meant to honor.

I guess I just think Avatar is close to the obvious choice, and it puzzles me that so many in Oscar world seem to be skipping over it. We'll find out if they see things more clearly, or if I do.