Looking thru the winner and nominated films of the past 60 years, I gotta be honest, I've seen a lot of them. This A-Z of movies of notable Production Design is kinda easy, I've seen a lot of these beautiful films. Films beginning with A that jumped out at me like Avatar, The Aviator, AMile, Apollo 13, Annie, Amades, Apocalypse Now. You gotta be in the mood to watch those. I decided to start with a film I needed to watch for research of the show I was prepping, American Crime Story: Impeachment. I've seen this movie probably two or three times before. Watching it with a design eye is different. I'm looking at the light sources, the color pallete, the camera work. Crazy that it's a perfect period film now of everyday 70's design. When I look at the newsroom, it's all busy with paperwork, books and magazines. Dressing a newsroom now is like a laptop and a cell phone charger, we have lost so much dressing with the evolution of tech. No more audio tapes, CD's, VHS, books!! '
What I love about this movie is the vernacular of the character sets. The messy apartment of Woodward, the very "D.C." houses of the witnesses they visit, the primary colors of the desks in the newsroom bullpen, and the blurred out Washington historical monuments in the drive by shots... it's all beautiful. Considering this film was released in April of 1976, and Nixon resigned in 1974, only two years to get a screenplay and this film shot? That's crazy!
"All the President's Men" was nominated for Production Design in 1976 and will appear in the Best Production Design of the 1970's bracket. Who will it be up against?? Have you voted in the 20-teen Best Production Design of the decade bracket yet? Why not??