Variety: David Fincher’s “Mank” takes audiences back into 1930s Hollywood, a black and white world where the screenplay for “Citizen Kane” comes together. In Disney’s “Mulan,” audiences are transported to the Imperial City for the live-action heroine tale based on Chinese folklore. George C. Wolfe’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” hones in on a recording session one hot summer’s day in Chicago 1927. And Christopher Nolan experiments with time-inversion in the globetrotting action thriller “Tenet.”
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Truth be told, I have found it more difficult to keep track of award shows during the pandemic. My family decided to cancel cable with the amount of streaming services and news channels that can now be accessed without cable. It is also harder to keep track of even time in the pandemic. It feels odd that the Tony’s were not in June. This article was a reminder to watch many of the films mentioned, some of which I had not even heard of yet. I usually am involved in such a buzz about the what is what and who is who each season, but for some reason, there has been a lot less of that lately, at least from what I have experienced. The limited photos in this article do give an excellent sneak peek at some of the designs of the film. Each choice is clearly strong and evident in the photos across a variety of design disciplines. I am sure many of the films deserve awards, and I am excited to look into them more.
It continues to yuck me out that Mulan is Oscar nominated? I don't think I really realized that its production design was Oscar nominated until reading this article. All I've heard from that movie was bad reviews, and it doesn't sit right with me at all that a majority-white production team would be celebrated for their work on a movie set in China. That being said, I'm not surprised that white people are getting the accolades for this production. Tenet is the only movie I've actually seen out of this list, and the sheer scale of that movie deserves its own award. I really hope that Christopher Nolan releases a behind the scenes look at the production of that movie, since there were so many intricate yet massive shots and sequences throughout the film. While I'm not sure that I fully understand the plot of the movie, its design and execution still stick with me.
I have always found it so fascinating to learn what parts of what films were captured on location versus in a soundstage. This article gives a little bit of insight into a few different contenders for the Production Design Oscar category. Looking first at Mank, a film I have not personally seen, I was surprised to learn that despite being set at Hearst Castle, it was actually filmed at a handful of other locations around Southern California, as they weren’t allowed to film at the castle itself. I find this particularly interesting as I have seen parts of films and videos which were actually filmed on location at Hearst castle. It makes me wonder whether this was purely due to Covid restrictions or if it was some other reason. Granted, I do not know much of the film and when it was actually produced, so that question will remain unanswered for the time being. Looking at Tenet, on the other hand, brings in Christopher Nolan and his tendency to lean towards practical effects over computer generated effects. Not only did Tenet shoot in around fifteen different countries around the world, but Nolan also bought an old Boeing 747 just to crash it into a hangar… He claims that it was cheaper to take this route than use scale models and computer-generated images, but I really do have to wonder. In any case, the resulting footage was quite stunning and realistic… for obvious reasons.
I agree with Ariel in the fact that award shows have just been really hard to keep up with during the pandemic. For me not only has award shows been really hard to keep up with but so have movies that would have been in these award shows. I am a HUGE Christopher Nolan fan and tend to watch his movies within the first weekend of their releases however I just could not find the energy to watch Tenet. It was released later in the pandemic and in theaters near me however the idea of leaving my house, keeping a mask on for 3 hours, and watching a movie that I had the potential of watching at home just felt unappealing. Honestly the idea of paying for a movie felt wrong to me during the pandemic since the ticket sales were no longer paying the staff, cast, and production crew but rather the head of the production company. I however loved that this article focused on Production Design as I feel like that is so overlooked in previous years. This article inspired me to go watch these movies as the designs seem distinct and interesting. However, I do know I will not be watching Mulan.
Ok first things first: All the television and film award shows that have happened during the pandemic, as far as I have heard, have been pretty darn bad. The Golden Globes have terrible selections and placed a distinctly American film in a foreign category? Get out of here. I'm really not here to talk about production design, I'm more here to bitch about the Mulan 2021 movie. Big talk about a more faithful adaptation when it...is not. The production crew is largely white, that is Not what phoenixes symbolize in China, I do not know what the witch is doing there, not to mention the whole thing about the proximity to Uyghur Muslim camps. And this is such a small thing, but if we are here making an adaptation of Mulan, it would be the easiest thing in the world to actually give Mulan a younger brother and an elder sister.
After reading a few of my peer’s comments, I have to echo that I haven’t watched any award shows during the pandemic. I’m pretty sure the Golden Globe awards were a few weeks ago? But I’m not too sure. And honestly— I don’t really keep track of award shows in general. I used to watch the Tony’s maybe because I felt an obligation to as a “theatre” person, but I find that with every award show it’s more frustrating than satisfying because there is always going to be a result somebody is unhappy with.
In particular, Mulan. I remember that when Mulan first came out, there was a lot of controversy in the Asian community about watching the movie because it was apparently produced not with the “Asian perspective” in mind, and had racist undertones(?) in their hiring process? I’m honestly not too sure or familiar because I don’t make a point to check up on the politics of movies (I don’t particularly care for stuff like that... ) So the fact that Mulan was nominated despite controversy surprised me, is all.
This article was very interesting. I have so much respect for the production designers on films nowadays. Most have to come up with numerous sets and all have to be so detailed for the the camera and modern audience expectations. I thought that the production design in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom was excellent. I was very transported with the two performances scenes in the beginning fo the film. My only problem was that when they got into chicago I could tell it was CGI. I know it would have been ALOT to have a whole set of 1920’s chicago. But even though it was very well done it was just a little itsy bit off for me. I have not seen any of the other films mentioned but to hear the processes were very interesting. On the films that were based off historical events it was clear that the goal is not to replicate entirely but you must get the feeling of the time. -Evan Riley
Personally, I haven't watched or read anything about the movies that were nominated for this category. I do know that there has been a substantial amount of controversy around Mulan due to the mostly white production team and severe misrepresentation of Chinese and Asian culture, but I haven't actually watched the movie, so I don't know enough about it to really talk about it. However, I do typically have a tremendous amount of respect for movie designers in general, since I can only imagine how challenging it is to design sets and environments that aren't the core focus of the movie, yet still convey all the depth that other media forms are able to convey. I love reading about the process these artists undertook to truly get into the space and mindset of the movie and to convey without words all the depth that the movie world has. With only 2 hours on average to tell its story, movies usually have to focus less on their world-building and more on the characters and their journey, but production artists still have to work to include that world-building, or else the movie would just feel empty and stale. It's work that I think often goes unappreicated, so I try and learn as much as I can about it.
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