Wednesday, September 30, 2009
'Where the Wild Things Are' Production Designer Speaks!
I Watch Stuff: "K.K. Barrett was production designer for Human Nature, I Heart Huckabees, Lost in Translation, Maria Antoinette, and every feature film Spike Jonze has made. If he spends 18 minutes talking about his work, including his recent Where the Wild Things Are job, wouldn't you want to hear that?"
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7 comments:
He seem like the way in which he goes to design a movie is amazing i dont know how he thinks of all of these ides i could never think of those type of things. i wish i could see there step by step process of the way that he goes though his process of designing a show / movie. this was a very insetting article to read and view.
One of the most interesting things that he mentioned was about how you can't, and shouldn't control all aspects of the production. Not only are there all these different sections coming together to create a single piece, but if you try to control the process, you will lose some of the crazy creative ideas. The design process continues growing from when the designer sends it off, to the day the show goes up.
To see him, and how he deals with the struggles of design is interesting. Almost like he plans problems and forsees a better smarter solution. His way of designing is interesting to. Going from two different approaches to create a complete design is interesting. And then to say that a designer shouldn't control all aspects of a design i skind of scarey to me. To see a vision completed vision the way you see it, it is necessary to have some control on all aspects or take a huge risk, putting alot of faith in others. His design process is crazy to. A mind that can create some incredible designs is impressive and he surely seems to know what he is doing.
What really impressed me about Barrett is the way that he approaches each of his project with a very open mind and a childish sense of wonder and curiosity. He is very open to ideas, very flexible, and a quirky researcher that has done well so far (Marie Antoinette is a beautiful movie in so many senses). Where The Wld Things Are is purely imaginative, and I feel as though Jonze could not have chosen a better designer.
i found it really interesting how he went into detail about Marie Antoinette. I love that movie, so i liked to see how it was made. it was interesting how they had to replicate the queens room. i like that whole process, its fascinating. Its funny how they would tell the queen and king what they could and couldn't do in bed.
Oh man, I saw this interview earlier this week on Weloveyouso.com (a blog made by and featuring Spike Jonze and all his friends). As I was watching, I heard him mention the he went to Oklahoma State University. That's a very small university that my dad attended when he was in school. So I start looking around and I find out he's exactly the same age as my dad as well. I emailed my dad, turns out, he was my dad's next door neighbor in his freshman dorm, and they used to sit around and play music together (KK Barrett used to be the drummer for a great punk band called The Screamers). I thought that was interesting.
I love this guy's work and I think he's one of my favorite artists in the industry. I also think it is interesting to know where he came from-- he didn't have any formal training in theatre or film, he's not from a big city and was never a theatre kid. He just started doing a movie, offered to design the sets and found out he was brilliant at it. I think we forget sometimes how much of an art and less of a science story telling is. That no matter how much education we get, and how many classes you take, sometimes it just comes down to pure, unbiased talent.
This story is one that, I believe, a large majority of the population of the United States grew up with and thus has some childhood connection with it. This provides a very distinct challenge in producing a version of this story. You have many different people with many different views and experiences associated with the story, which could cause possible resistance to a certain interpretation being thrust at them.
This being said, I am glad to hear that the Production Designer (possibly the most important person in terms of the overall look and feel of the production) approached it with a childlike curiosity. I think that any other approach would have made the story inaccessible to the many who experienced it as a child.
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