Setting the Scene: The Great Hollywood Art Directors

by RobertS.Sennett (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  1994

  $13.32

  Accompanied by more than 160 illustrations, Setting the Scene surveys the careers of the great Hollywood art directors and examines their work in detail. After a brief history of the role played by the art director in the Hollywood studio system, Setting the Scene looks at the particular art directors' productions and sets, analyzing how the art direction contributes to the success of the finished film. The book covers such memorable movies as The Birth of a Nation, 1915, where head carpenter Frank ( Huck ) Wortman utilized the painted flats and two-dimensional, boxlike sets of the stage. In contrast, in a recent big-budget production, Batman, 1989, one key element to the film's success was art director Anton Furst's highly sophisticated, surreal sets and designs using the most advanced technology available to film. A bibliography and index round out the volume.