Art Direction via "American Beauty" and "What Dreams May Come"

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American Beauty

How important is the set or location to the overall effect of the film?

The setting of a story, especially this story, is nearly, if not equally as important as any of the characters. Here the setting (the pleasantly oblivious suburban neighborhood where the Burnhams live) is something we can all relate to. This universe of normality is exactly where we all live (if not actually, then vicariously through decades of sit-coms and soap operas.) Without even hearing Lester's voice, we would know that he is us, this story is about YOU, and ME.

Why do you think this film is shot on this set or at this location? (many movies have one central set and other minor ones. Focus on the main set. If there are many locations, choose one or two of those locations and focus on them.)

As I said earlier, the location of this film sets the groundwork for our connection to the characters, and to the story.

What is the art director trying to tell you with the costumes chosen for the characters?

Lets look at the contrast between Jane and Angela. In their streetclohtes anyway. Angela's clothes are always colorful, flamboyant, and quite a bit sluttier. Her extremely external locus of confidence defines the way she dresses as totall as it defines the way she acts. Jane's attire on the other hand reflects her personality, subdued by the oppresively boring and embarrassing family she has to come home to every day.

Lester's clothes reflect his journey to happiness. In the beginning his clothes are stuffy, tight, motion limiting, formal and uncomfortable. As he discovers and lets go of how really pointless all of the responsibility and expectation of his life is, his clothes begin to be more about making him happy than making others happy, or showing others that he is happy.

Is the lighting for the film appropriate? Why/why not? Is it harsh and direct or is it soft and diffused (or somewhere in the middle)?
Explain the lighting.

Every scene obviously has it's own unique lighting design chosen to reflect or support the mood of the scene. For instance, the Kiss scene between Lester and Frank. At first, the single garage light looks like an interrogation lamp. Like Frank really is going to do exactly what we think he's going to do. But as soon as he starts to lean in close to Lester, it's obvious that it really was designed for intimacy rather than focused anger.

What is the director trying to tell you with the style of lighting chosen?

Art is really all about feeling. The look of a movie, a scene, a shot, even a single frame is a matter of visual art. Each scene and shot have a specific job in supporting, if not telling the story. The lighting of each scene and shot in this movie excellently mirror the dynamics and flow of the story of Lester Burnham and his friends and family. From the dully lit desaturated veneer of "contention" yearning to latch on to the bright red of the flowers, to the vibrant and pronounced oranges of Lester's uniform at the burger joint where he can finally be happy again, lighting shows us just exactly how we're supposed to see what it is we're seeing.

What colors are prominent? Why? What message is being sent?

The article talks a lot about red being symbollic of life, happiness, etc. This is evident in that everything Lester, and in fact, all the characters really truly want is vibrantly red. Wether that be a red sports-car, or the lips of a beautiful young girl for Lester, or the man on the bright red real estate sign for Carolyn.

Other comments:
I noticed several times the way shots were composed, especially early in the film, Lester felt to me like he was hanging. In their first dinner scene, the table is closer to one wall than the other, with Carolyn nearer the closer wall. This leaves Lester just "hanging" in the middle of the room, too far from any point of reference to be really noticed, not really in the middle of the shot, but not really on a third either. He's just kind of "there even though he doesn't really need to be."

I also wanted to comment about the use of the camcorder footage Wes Bentley (Ricky Fitts) comments on the special features that he thinks the video camera serves as sort of a more precise eye that looks without bias at what most people take for granted. Though the cinematography of the film was gorgeous, they chose to use quite a bit of camcorder footage. I think this really does give a sense of reality and relatability to whatever the camcorder looks at.

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What Dreams May Come

How important is the set or location to the overall effect of the film?

There are many sets in this movie, and I don't really think any one could be called the "main set or location." One that I'd like to focus on however recurs in the movie, like musical variations on a theme: The Mountains. I suppose it could have to do with the fact that many of the scenes in this movie were filmed in my dear old Montana.
The mountains represent, to me, in all their permutations and variations, the sheer majesty and grandeur of the theme at that time. In the beginning it's Chris and Annie's love, when Chris goes to heaven, it's the boundless capacity of his imagination to extrapolate from what he loved in life, when he seeks his love again, it's the obstacle before him.

Why do you think this film is shot on this set or at this location? (many movies have one central set and other minor ones. Focus on the main set. If there are many locations, choose one or two of those locations and focus on them.)

As I said above, these scenes were shot in the Rocky Mountains of Montana, and digitally altered for their appearance in heaven. The live shots had to be grand and majestic to work, and I'm guesing the budget people said Montana was a better option than Switzerland.

What is the art director trying to tell you with the costumes chosen for the characters?

Initially their clothes represent their youth, but as they grow, their individual personalities and cardinal traits become infused with their garb. Annie's clothes are constantly changing, constantly fading little by little to the dark side, following her into depression as she loses everything she loves. Chris on the other hand is Mr. stability. His costume remains relatively the same throughout his adult life, strong but warm. Annie depends on this, and Chris's pride and joy in life is his ability to stand up under his ailing wife and support her in her time of need.

Is the lighting for the film appropriate? Why/why not? Is it harsh and direct or is it soft and diffused (or somewhere in the middle)? Explain the lighting.

Here I must admit that this movie is clearly above my level in terms of artistic interpretation. The subtext of fine art in the visual nature of this movie is really designed for those who have studied art, and know what their looking at. For the rest of us, let it suffice that we can just look it and go "oooo pretty."
In any event, I will say that on a basic level, the lighting in this film really follows Annie in the real world, and Chris's heart in his heaven. These two merge in the confrontation of Chris and Annie(post suicide.) Chris has found his children, and realized finally how much their death affected Annie, and that he was too pre-occupied with trying to bring her back to him to notice. He knows now just how bad it was for her, and knows even still (here's where the beauty of this scene comes from) that he'd rather live in that grey, dead, mournful, lost and perpetual hell with Annie than in his own vibrant, colorful happy heaven without her.

What is the director trying to tell you with the style of lighting chosen?

I think he's using lighting as a contrast, mostly between happiness and sadness (fulfilment and emptiness, etc etc.) Brightness and color equate to positivity, hope, etc. Desaturated, grey low wash-lighting equate to sadness, depression, damnation, etc.

What colors are prominent? Why? What message is being sent?

Here again I can only say that any attempt on my part to analyze color in this movie would be little short of pointless. There is so much color which I'm sure references so many different classical artists, paintings, statements, etc. that I'd be remiss in assuming I could accurately decipher just what the production team had in mind.
There is however a recurrence of that sort of cornflower blue-violet in the tree. I think this is sheerly due to it's connection with the tree itself, but it seems to represent the ethereal link between Chris and Annie, maybe that's the color of true soul mates, maybe it's their individual "wavelength." In any case it seems to represent their higher connection, above and beyond love and companionship.

Other Comments

I think animated films, and films that incorporate heavy artificial graphics often tend to be somewhat caricature-ish in art design. This isn't always a bad thing though, in fact I think it's what makes Disney movies interesting to watch. This film however not only uses a ton of C.G.I. but it does it without seeming gratuitous. It's like a movie with a fantastic score that you don't even remember. The story of "What Dreams May Come" is so powerful, that the imagery seems like it's just barely keeping up, it makes it very easy to get lost in Chris's imagination.