A house is not a home, as the song goes, but for astute production designers, houses and other architectural signifiers can go a long way toward building out the hero’s emotional landscape. Oscar-winning designer Rick Carter (“Lincoln”), nominated this year for “The Fabelmans,” says, “The real joy in production design comes in connecting the design to the story so that the director can move into a world that is not only thought out but also felt through. This allows the actors to walk onto a set and say, ‘Oooh, this reflects who I am in my character.’ It’s almost like a language that doesn’t tell you anything; it’s showing you.”
This year’s Oscar-nominated production designs capture the iconography of several eras, traversing war-torn battlefields, decadent Jazz Age Hollywood, the American South in the ‘50s, ‘60s suburbia and an alien planet nearly 150 years in the future. Here’s a look at this season’s cinematic architecture at its most evocative.
Production design by Dylan Cole (“Tron: Legacy”) and Ben Procter (“Ender’s Game”)
Time frame: 2169
Hero home: Metkayina Reef Village
To demonstrate how the Na’vi race integrates with the environment, filmmakers suspended the village from the roots of monumental mangrove-like trees. Designer Cole says, “We explored a mix of tensile membrane architecture for their communal spaces, walkways and tarps. For their homes, we used woven wasp nest-like structures. Weta Workshop constructed a 14-foot-tall version of the Sully home from bent cane, woven flax and other natural materials. This was 3-D scanned and photographed by Weta Digital so all that reality could be used in their final VFX shots.”
Inspiration: Polynesia, Malaysia, Indonesia and communities throughout the South Pacific.
Workplace: Bridgehead
Reminiscent of a frontier boom town, the human-built industrial port refines fossil fuels at a relentless pace. “Jim [Cameron] wanted it to feel like ants, toiling and building,” designer Procter says.
Inspiration: Spacecraft, mega cranes, work ships, oil rigs and refineries served as contemporary reference points. “This engineered world of design is based on function rather than style and therefore evolves slowly,” Procter notes. “Rather than explicitly aiming for futurism, I guess you could say we looked for tomorrow in the periphery of today.”
Production design by Christian Goldbeck (“The Reader”)
Time frame: 1918
Hero home: The trenches
Filmmakers started digging trenches for both French and German soldiers in January 2021 outside of Prague. Built on a stretch of land the size of 10 football fields, the soldiers’ no-man’s-land nightmare environment would eventually be populated with barbed wire, bomb craters, animal carcasses and corpses. For the trenches, Goldbeck says, “we only used materials that would have been used in 1917, mostly wood, which went through a process of burning, sandblasting, foundation color. Scenic painters added a layer of gloss to the trenches so they had the feel of the walls being damp all the time.”
Inspiration: Drawings and photographs archived in historical museums in Berlin, Belgium and France provided historically accurate dimensions, which were slightly enlarged to accommodate the “All Quiet” camera crew.
Dose of reality: As winter snow thawed in March and April, the ground turned muddy. Actors, armed with custom-manufactured period-correct Mauser Gewehr 98 rifles, tramped through the muck just as soldiers would have done just over 100 years ago.
History speaks: In the fictional French town of Eguisac, German officers commandeered a mansion whose interior was shot in an abandoned 16th century Renaissance chateau called Libechov Castle and dressed to reflect wear and tear from the war.
Production design by Florencia Martin (“Licorice Pizza”)
Time frame: 1926
Anti-hero home: Movie mogul’s Bel-Air mansion
The exterior was shot at Shea’s Castle in Antelope Valley, built in 1924 by Hancock Park developer Richard Shea in the millionaire mode of the times. “There’s a kaleidoscope of architecture during this period,” Martin says. “Revivalist, Gothic architecture, Mission, Victorian. Our studio executive Don Wallach decides to build a Gothic castle reminiscent of mansions built by [William Randolph] Hearst, [Edward L.] Doheny and other power players.”
Workplace: Kinoscope Studio
Modeled on dirt-floor “Poverty Row” outdoor production lots, filmmakers constructed side-by-side backdrop facades for a western saloon, a kitchen comedy, a costume drama and a jungle action movie on Piru farmland.
Inspiration: Paramount Pictures studio archives provided references including a photo of Charlie Chaplin sitting in a chair surrounded by dusty film equipment and one umbrella. “All you see is dirt and orange groves behind him,” Martin says. “It was important for us to show what early Hollywood production looked like.”
History speaks: Interiors for the Wallach mansion were filmed inside a radically refurbished Theatre at Ace Hotel in downtown L.A. Originally called United Artists Theatre, it was built in 1927 to showcase movies starring Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks.
Production design by Catherine Martin and Karen Murphy (“Moulin Rouge”)
Time frame: 1955 through 1973
Hero home: Graceland
Elvis Presley’s iconic headquarters in Memphis were replicated on the backlot of Village Roadshow Studios in Queensland, Australia, based on blueprints provided by the Graceland estate. Filmmakers reflected Presley’s aesthetic by changing the 1939 mansion’s original floorboards to red carpet throughout. “Graceland was very much the symbol and expression of Elvis’ success,” Martin says.
Workplace: The carnival
Elvis meets manager Colonel Tom Parker in 1955 at a carnival featuring country singer Hank Snow. Signage, tents, sideshows, concession stands, freak shows, the Hank Snow Show, food stands, wagons and carriages were all fabricated in New Zealand by the film’s art department, with only the Ferris wheel, carousel and swing chair brought in from vintage sources. “Colonel Parker used to be a carnival barker,” designer Murphy notes. Director “Baz Luhrmann wanted the carny world to provide an enticing location for Parker to cast his spell.”
Home away from home: The International Hotel in Las Vegas
A modernist skyscraper newly built in 1969, the International Hotel presented Presley as a Vegas workhorse whose glitzy revue featured a massive gold curtain. The fabric was dyed gold, imported to Australia and sewn together there.
Complication: Graceland and the other “Elvis” sets were wrapped in plastic for nearly a year due to the pandemic shutdown.
Production design by Rick Carter (“Lincoln”)
Time frame: mid-1950s through mid-1960s
Hero home No. 1: Two-story in New Jersey
Spielberg alter ego Sammy Fabelman and his family initially lived in a New Jersey two-story suburban house typical of the postwar era. Filmmakers actually shot those scenes in Chatsworth. “It was kind of funny to see crew members in shorts and tank tops laying out snow carpets on this 100-degree day,” Carter says.
Hero home No. 2: Ranch house in Phoenix
The Fabelmans move to a Midcentury Modern ranch-style house in Phoenix. “It’s a new community, new opportunities, a new way to start fresh away from the old world,” Carter says. Filmmakers located and painted a house in Simi Valley that resembled the Spielbergs’ Arizona residence.
Inspiration: Carter referred to old photographs and home movies shot by Steven Spielberg.
Hero home No. 3: California Craftsman
The Fabelmans relocate to the Santa Clara area around 1965 as the marriage falls apart during Sammy’s final year of high school. Carter says, “Craftsman houses were common to that area, and I thought it would work for the story because of the heaviness and somber colors. California’s supposed to be the promised land, and yet for this family, it’s not.”
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