Ok I might have chosen this movie based on my nostalgia. This was one of the first movies went to the theaters to see and it has stayed in my mind ever since I was five years old. This movie is of course "Superman" staring Christopher Reeve as the title character.
The scene I have chosen to focus on is the Fortes of Solitude. As a kid my imagination made me feel like this place must be massive, I have always wondered how it was constructed. Thanks to the power of DVD I learned that during the making of this film the storyboards were drawn by the comic artist working on the Superman comics at the time. Since director Richard Donner was able to hire actual comic artist to come up with the ideas of the sets the art designers had a lot to work with.
The Production designer for this film is John Barry, who became famous for his work on Star Wars. Berry definitely showed his talent in creating sets for fantastic looking worlds. He took the design of the comics and implemented the crystal theme through out the whole set. This varied from the comic book versions a bit, however ever since this film it has impacted the way the Fortes was drawn in the comics from then on.
Some of the principles of design I see in this set is
Gasalt principles - The set is an example of the parts being more than the hole. As you can see etch crystal makes up a part of the walls. They overlap etch-other creating a hole peace.
The crystals all point upwards in a way. Your eye moves in a line at an angle pointing upwards.
The Texture seems to differ depending on were you are at. The walls seem smooth. but the ground where your feet stand is not flat. it has a geological cleavage (smooth) but still rises in arias and gives a traction feel.
Color - since the crystals are very glass looking and the fact that they are suppose to be in the Arctic the main color is white. Bluish hughes accent and make a cold feel. The white that the light coming off the control center makes Clark's suite stand out as a huge contrasts to the white.
One of the resin this film is so well done is because it had the creative teams from two of the biggest grossing movies at that time collaborating on it. The Writer of the film is Mario Puzo who wrote the book and script for the film "The Godfather".
John Berry the man who designed "Star Wars" was head of set production. Geoffrey Unsworth was director of Cinematography (2001: A space odyssey). Ernest Archer was Art Director (The spy who loved me). Yvonne Blake - Costume designer (Jesus Christ: superstar).
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