Analysis:
With every great
movie comes the brilliant brains behind production design, artistry, and
cinematography. For this assignment I chose to analyze the production design of
a very famous movie called The Italian Job. Charles Wood was
the main production designer. I chose to examine this role in the movie because I
believe it creates a setting that would otherwise not be there without
production design. It's an extremely important thing to consider when trying to
create an incredible movie.
The clip I chose
is towards the end of the movie when they're executing their heist and escaping
through the metro system in Los Angeles. Some information I found said the
director and production designer worked together to develop a style before they
even starting filming.
---Pfister, the director of photography, wanted "dark textures and undertones and strong contrast"; he collaborated with production designer Charlie Wood on the color palette, and the two would confer with Gray on their ideas. Paramount preferred that The Italian Job not be shot in the anamorphic format, despite Pfister's wishes to do so. Gray wanted a widescreen aspect ratio, so they chose to shoot the film in Super 35 for a 2.4:1 aspect ratio. Once principal photography began, Gray frequently utilized dollies, as well as Steadicams and a Technocrane, to keep the cameras almost constantly moving.---
This statement I found clearly shows how much collaboration went on and how much thought truly goes into making a scene perfect in a film for whatever situation they're trying to create. For the clip above, it took close to 40 days to shoot. Right after this clip is when they start mobbing through the canal/riverbed in the mini coopers, which also contributed to the 40 days of shooting.
From an artistic standpoint, I chose to showcase the mini coopers in this scene because there is A LOT that went into making these coopers what they are and making this scene what it is. Capturing all of this wasn't easy. Not only did they have to design a subway tunnel set, they had to actually make the coopers equipped to mob with pounds of gold weighing it down. It is said that the main actors also did most of their own stunts, which means they were actually driving like the movie shows. I'm sure creating the physical context of a subway tunnel for mini coopers to fit through wasn't that easy, however they still pulled it off. In this scene you can see the "dark textures and undertones and strong contrast" idea that they wanted to achieve really coming into effect. If they designed the subway tunnel set from the ground up, then you know it had to have been tricky for them to make it look like the cars were actually driving through there for a long time. I also really appreciated how they slowed down the camera quite a bit when the cars shot out of the tunnel into the canal. In addition, when "Handsome Rob" flips the car around and tells his teammate to open his door so the motorcyclist crashes, you can clearly see how much thought went into filming that action right there. The timing had to be perfect, which probably meant they did multiple takes on it.
Contrast, balance, harmony, texture, line, shape, color, figure/ground, pragnanz, proximity, similarity and closure are all present in this scene. Contrast because of the darkness and brightness from being inside the tunnel to shooting out of it, balance because every time one mini would cling to one side the others would balance it out by switching placement, harmony because of the three different colors of the mini coopers (patriotic) and the way they fit perfectly in the tunnels, texture because of the tunnel walls and water splashing when they fly out, line because of the obvious direction they were headed in the tunnel, shape because of the similar car shapes and the continuous tube shape they were being chased through, law of similarity because of the same types of cars and how they were constantly following each other, and the law of continuity because of the vanishing point being created in the tunnel and them eventually reaching a point where they can see daylight.
Individual Analysis:
It was said that they wanted this film to be as realistic as possible and I think they did a phenomenal job at doing so. This scene and all of the stunts included seemed very doable in real life. Very rarely did I notice a spot in this film where I thought something would be impossible. Overall I really enjoyed examining the production designer's role and how all the other crew members really do play into the entire picture. Teamwork makes the dreamwork.
Production Credits:
Director - F. Gary Gray
Production Design by - Charles Wood
Supervising Production Designer - Diego Loreggian
Art Direction by - Mark Zuelzke, Doug J. Meerdink
Cinematography by - Wally Pfister (director of photography)
---Pfister, the director of photography, wanted "dark textures and undertones and strong contrast"; he collaborated with production designer Charlie Wood on the color palette, and the two would confer with Gray on their ideas. Paramount preferred that The Italian Job not be shot in the anamorphic format, despite Pfister's wishes to do so. Gray wanted a widescreen aspect ratio, so they chose to shoot the film in Super 35 for a 2.4:1 aspect ratio. Once principal photography began, Gray frequently utilized dollies, as well as Steadicams and a Technocrane, to keep the cameras almost constantly moving.---
This statement I found clearly shows how much collaboration went on and how much thought truly goes into making a scene perfect in a film for whatever situation they're trying to create. For the clip above, it took close to 40 days to shoot. Right after this clip is when they start mobbing through the canal/riverbed in the mini coopers, which also contributed to the 40 days of shooting.
From an artistic standpoint, I chose to showcase the mini coopers in this scene because there is A LOT that went into making these coopers what they are and making this scene what it is. Capturing all of this wasn't easy. Not only did they have to design a subway tunnel set, they had to actually make the coopers equipped to mob with pounds of gold weighing it down. It is said that the main actors also did most of their own stunts, which means they were actually driving like the movie shows. I'm sure creating the physical context of a subway tunnel for mini coopers to fit through wasn't that easy, however they still pulled it off. In this scene you can see the "dark textures and undertones and strong contrast" idea that they wanted to achieve really coming into effect. If they designed the subway tunnel set from the ground up, then you know it had to have been tricky for them to make it look like the cars were actually driving through there for a long time. I also really appreciated how they slowed down the camera quite a bit when the cars shot out of the tunnel into the canal. In addition, when "Handsome Rob" flips the car around and tells his teammate to open his door so the motorcyclist crashes, you can clearly see how much thought went into filming that action right there. The timing had to be perfect, which probably meant they did multiple takes on it.
Contrast, balance, harmony, texture, line, shape, color, figure/ground, pragnanz, proximity, similarity and closure are all present in this scene. Contrast because of the darkness and brightness from being inside the tunnel to shooting out of it, balance because every time one mini would cling to one side the others would balance it out by switching placement, harmony because of the three different colors of the mini coopers (patriotic) and the way they fit perfectly in the tunnels, texture because of the tunnel walls and water splashing when they fly out, line because of the obvious direction they were headed in the tunnel, shape because of the similar car shapes and the continuous tube shape they were being chased through, law of similarity because of the same types of cars and how they were constantly following each other, and the law of continuity because of the vanishing point being created in the tunnel and them eventually reaching a point where they can see daylight.
Individual Analysis:
It was said that they wanted this film to be as realistic as possible and I think they did a phenomenal job at doing so. This scene and all of the stunts included seemed very doable in real life. Very rarely did I notice a spot in this film where I thought something would be impossible. Overall I really enjoyed examining the production designer's role and how all the other crew members really do play into the entire picture. Teamwork makes the dreamwork.
Production Credits:
Director - F. Gary Gray
Production Design by - Charles Wood
Supervising Production Designer - Diego Loreggian
Art Direction by - Mark Zuelzke, Doug J. Meerdink
Cinematography by - Wally Pfister (director of photography)
