follow in nicole's footsteps
'Australia' production designer Catherine Martin at Faraway Downs
If Faraway Downs can come to ACMI, why can't you travel to some legendary movie locations?
The answer, of course, is that you can. The trick is knowing where they are. Ever wondered about the pub featured in Mad Max 2*, Razorback, and countless other Aussie films? Ever thought about where Peter Weir shot the dramatic beach scenes for Gallipoli? (answer: not in Turkey). Doesn't that beach on which Mr Percival played with Storm Boy* look familiar? In Australian Traveller this week, George Dunford answers these questions and more, and lays out an itinerary for a great adventure through some famous and infamous film locations in Oz. Now, there's a roadtrip to consider this summer! Read George's article Hollywood Downunder here
Furnished with your map to the real thing, we're inviting you to ACMI this summer to uncover the secret to making it look like the real thing - Setting the Scene: Film Design from Metropolis to Australia opens next week, uncovering the astonishing tricks and unforgettable visions of production designers and applauding the real character actors in any film (often out-acting the actors themselves) - the locations.
Imagine The Shining without The Overlook Hotel, Cabaret without the Kit Kat Club or Ned Kelly without Glenrowan. The climactic shootout in The Lady of Shanghai wouldn't be half as memorable if it wasn't set in that mirrored maze, and The Apartment would be pretty empty without the actual apartment! And would Oprah be as impressed with Baz Luhrmann's Australia without the film's meticulous recreation of 1940s Darwin or the ornate grace of Faraway Downs?
As film lovers we can often take them for granted, but set and production designers are the unsung heroes behind the magic of the silver screen - until now! Setting the Scene celebrates the creativity, inspired visions, technology and old fashioned elbow grease behind some of cinema's most iconic worlds, including those of Metropolis, A Clockwork Orange, Alien and The Matrix. Immerse yourself in the underbelly of Dark City, the dusty landscapes of The Proposition and the grandeur of Aslan's How in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. And get an exclusive behind-the-scenes glimpse at Luhrmann's new epic Australia, including a full-scale reconstruction of the Faraway Downs homestead's sumptuous living room.
Australian Stephen Curtis has said that as a production designer his role is "to lift the world and characters from the page and make them real". Without the work of these talented artists, our experience of the movies would be limited to watching actors perform in front of, well, nothing. And where's the fun in that?
Setting the Scene opens next Thursday, 4 December. To find out more, head here
(* And a by the way: stay tuned to our Kid's Flicks and Australian Perspectives programs, to see for yourself, as we screen the classic Storm Boy, and all three Mad Max movies, this coming January!)
Published Thursday, 27 November 2008
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