Auriane Jobbagy

Script visuals
In this documentary I am going to be
talking about the development of Art
directors throughout the years which
will cover sound and lighting.

Art directors have a big role in the film

production.
1.03-1.21mins https://youtu.be/7h9VTKZu0yw

They are in charge of the overall look

of the set. When shooting is in process
they cannot always go to their desired
location, so art directors have to
convince the viewers that what they
see on screen is real.
Mise-en-scene is important with art
directors. First applied to films in the
1950s by French critics. They first got
the idea from the French theatre.
Meaning “putting in the scene” It was
first thought that the films mis-en-
scene consisted of everything that the
camera saw, the setting, the lighting,
and actors and how they performed,
costumes, make up and props used.

To become an art director, the usual

requirements are having a degree in
film, television or theatre production
or a diploma or degree in any type of 1:07-1:46mins https://youtu.be/cNRZFZEyTLI
art, craft or textiles. It is also useful to
have secondary education in subjects
of design, media, history, dance or
drama.
An art director needs imagination nd
to be creative to be able to create
fiom sets, they need to have good
communication skills working for the
rest of the team. They need to be
good at research and to be able to
work well under pressure.

Dr. Mehemed Fehmy Agha was the

first art editor which was titled as an
art director. In 1929 Agha came to the
USA to take the role of being the art
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director for Vogue. Agha was notice

for his great typographic and
photographic skills which made him
perfect to lead vanity fair and vogues
design teams at the time where
magazines where lacking decent visual
concept. Agha introduced the concept
of the publishing world in the US, the
concept was to integrate design into
the editorial content, there for
creating the role of a key figure
responsible for this, art director.
Agha raised the bar of being a art
direction and design as it was no
longer known as decorative but as an
integral part of modern magazine

Music and sound is also a huge part of

films. Adding music to a scene can
create a new story for it, so using the
wrong music can change it.

The real home of film is Vienna,

Austria
in the 19thcentury Vienna became the
leading centre of European opera
andnarrative music
in the 1930's stinners lead for
followed by other composers who
found a new life in Hollywood bringing
a rich orchestral style formed in 20
century Europe to bare on their work
that became to define the Hollywood
sound

1920s, cinema was starting the be the

most popular form of entertainment.
Most picture houses would have their
own small orchestra to accompany
their films in the silence era. Later
came the theatre pipe organ which
would only work on air acting like a
one-man orchestra

Don Juan was the first full length

future film with pre-recorded,
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released in 1926 it had no dialog just

pre-recorded music, it came as a disk
and was synced with the projector,
the same system called the vitaphone
was used for a film called the jazz
singer the following year, however it
had spoken dialog as well as music.
However, studios thought that the
audience wouldn’t accept music on
the soundtrack unless they could
actually see the singers and musicians
on stage, this meant it arrowed
dramas to only opening and closing
music
King Kong arrived in 1933 with music
and spoken dialog on top of each
other, this was a huge risk for RKO as
it had not been done before.

In 1902 George Melies “A trip to the

moon” was released. Most of the set
had been painted and used as a back
drop as back then they didn’t have
green screens to give the illusion that
they are in space. They had very
minimal props When they released it
in colour they had to paint each frame
by hand. Melies creates an illusion in
his films of people disappearing, by
making the motion picture frame by
frame. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=891zKx2Ffvg

Cedric Gibbon was the head art

director for “The wizard of oz” which
was released in 1939. You can see
how art directors have improved with
their set designs as the setting it
mainly all props and not painted back
drops, they made costumes for the
characters as the director has to fit
the same description as the book. In
this scene is also shows the wicked
witch disappearing but instead of
stopping the camera and moving out
of the shot like in a trip to the moon
they have used a smoke machine and
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a trap door underneath for her to

escape.

In both of these different films you

can see a significant difference with
how they set the scene, their props
and their costumes.

Cerdric Gibbons was also the director

of An American in Paris which was
released in 1951.Gene Kelly who was
the director wanted to shoot the
location in Paris, however the film was
actually shot in MGM studios in
California, on 44 set build for the film.
It was difficult for the studio to secure
travel arrangements for location
shooting. This then meant Cedric
Gibbons and E. Preston Ames had to
create and make Paris in different
sets, this would mean researching
different places in Paris and creating
the streets to look exactly like they
were actually in Paris to convince the
viewers.

In 1973 the first film that used CGI was

released. Westworld. It used digital
effects for 2 minutes which consist of
little pixel squares.

As film and special effects improved

green screen Art directors in some
cases have less to do. You can now
create a whole new world on a screen.
Alice in wonderland won an Oscar for
art direction. Released in 2010.You
can see that most of the film was
done in the studios surrounded by a
green screen, even character were
dressed in green this meant the
directors could create a magical
background and characters being able
to create whatever they want, costing
more money for production however
it means they can create exactly what
they want.
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Where most directors will mainly use

green screen and cgi director
Christopher Nolan doesn’t like to use
CGI and thinks it’s boring. Christopher
was the director for batman and
interstellar. When filming Intersteller
which was released in 2014 Nolan
went to the same glacier where they
filmed batman however since then
there had been a volcanic eruption
leaving the glacier covered in grey ash
making it look gritting which gave it a
look like a hostile environment which
worked well for an ice planet look.
When filming interstellar they had to
film a dust storm so instead of using
cgi they used big fans to fill the air
with c90 a non-toxic biodegradable
material made from cardboard. In
interstellar Noland wanted a house
that was in the heart of America
however when filming this it was
actually filmed out of Calgary in a
Canadian Provence of Alberta, he
didn’t want to make a farm house
digitally so they found a piece of land
that fitted the requirement they made
a road that led to the house and
planted 500 aches of corn 6 months
before filming.

In 1892 Edison and Dickson invented

the first motion picture camera. it was
first shown publicly in 1893 and the
year after the first Edison films were
exhibited commercially.
When it was first invented over 100
years ago the film was very low this
meant it need a lot of light to be able
to record an image. The only thing
that was bright enough to expose the
film was the natural sun light.
Electric light were then used however
film was still very slow so they had to
be big, use a lot of electricity and
expertise to operate.
After time film and video cameras got
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quicker which meant lighting

technology got better, putting out
more light with less power. Now we
also have fluorescent and LED lights,
which use a lot less energy and are
easier to use. Lighting used to need a
crew of people to handle the lighting
whereas now it can be done
single headedly. We also have HD
video and you can see straight away
the footage you have just
shot.