The Academy Museum is holding nightly panel discussions with nominees in various categories for this year’s Academy Awards. Tonight, the production designers of Searchlight Pictures’ Poor Things were featured.
What Was Discussed:
- Poor Things is nominated for Best Production Design at this Sunday’s ceremony and on hand to speak about the film were the two nominated production designers, James Price and Shona Heath.
- Per Academy rules, one set decorator and one production designer are nominated for the award, however if it is deemed enough work was done by multiple individuals, roles can have multiple nominees, this Price and Heath are both allowed nominations alongside a set decorator.
- Originally, the pair created separate pitches to work on the film. After the team liked both pitches, they were persuaded into working together on the film, though they had never worked together prior.
- Yorgos Lanthimos, the film’s director, stated from the jump that he wanted to make a 1930s-style studio film, but without the pastiche of the era. This led to the massive, physical sets being only complimented through CGI work. (i.e. tops of buildings, far out landscapes, etc.)
- Since this was such an art direction heavy film, the pair were vital to the film’s success. Once their documentation on the art direction was created, it became a bible of sorts for all working on the film.
- The pair would create concepts for design quirks, but as problems arose, they would have to stray from the plans. Yorgos would frequently reference the concepts when looking at the finished product, so without his knowledge, they would alter the printed concepts to match the final product to make Yorgos happy.
- Similarly, they had a hard time reading Yorgos’ feelings towards various design choices. It took the pair a while to figure out what the director liked or preferred, since he would rarely verbalize his preferences. The director did have an idea with what he wanted the film’s world to look like, but gave Price and Heath much freedom.
- For example, an early script of the film had Bella Baxter falling on her back from a piano bench. This led them to come up with the idea of padded, upholstered flooring. Since Bella Baxter is basically an adult-sized infant, it was an ingenious, yet simple design choice that helped flesh out the world.
- While CGI was used for backgrounds, it mostly complimented the gorgeous backdrop paintings. They were worked on by Steve Mitchell, coined “the godfather of Europe scenic painting” by Price. Mitchell also worked on fellow nominee Barbie.
- For the Lisbon set, they utilized the largest studio in continental Europe. A majority of the Lisbon scenes find Bella Baxter wandering and getting repeatedly lost, so Heath and Price had to work diligently on using the space to its greatest potential and finding unique paths and vistas for Baxter to come upon.
- Poor Things is nominated for 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
- Poor Things begins streaming on Hulu on March 7th.