Adam Stockhausen–who earlier this year earned a Best Achievement in Production Design Oscar nomination (shared with set decorator Alice Baker) for 12 Years a Slave–is off to a fast start this awards season for his work on director Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel (Fox Searchlight Pictures). This month Stockhausen picked up Best Production Design honors from the L.A. Film Critics Association and the San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards while earning a Best Art Direction nomination from the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, all on the strength of The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Looking back on his latest collaboration with Anderson, Stockhausen observed, “I think the most challenging part of designing The Grand Budapest Hotel was really practical rather than the creative side–the hotel was made inside a defunct department store in Görlitz, Germany…hours away from our construction and paint shops. The department store was a historically protected building, so the whole build had to be pressure-fit in place without using screws or nails to tie into the architecture. And to top it off, we made the ‘60s lobby inside of the ‘30s lobby at the same time. We shot the ‘60s lobby at the beginning of the schedule and then spent a weekend tearing away the ‘60s and changing over into the ‘30s lobby. Creatively I think the big challenge is how to give every small detail its due focus while scrambling to keep the practical stuff working.”
Stockhausen first worked with Anderson on The Darjeeling Limited; Mark Friedberg designed the film and Stockhausen was his art director. Stockhausen then served as production designer on Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom and next The Grand Budapest Hotel. “Between Darjeeling and Moonrise Kingdom, I worked with Wes on a series of commercials, so we stayed in touch pretty often,” recalled Stockhausen. “As we’ve worked together more and more, I think the best part is a kind of shorthand develops. That makes the design process faster and also a ton of fun.”
Central to the whole process, said Stockhausen, is working with Anderson’s long-time cinematographer, Robert Yeoman, ASC. “The sets are all designed for specific camera moves,” explained Stockhausen. “So we plan it out together with maps at the beginning and then Bob comes repeatedly to see the half-finished sets, making sure everything works in the real lens the way we thought it would on paper. We can then push and pull pieces to fit just right before everything is finalized.”
Stockhausen broke into production design–and film–through the theater. “I was working as a set designer in regional theater and opera and then started in film art departments as a draftsman. Before designing I worked backstage as a painter, carpenter, electrician, and pretty much every other job. Switching over to film was a new medium with its own vocabulary but the process of making scenery was second nature. I’ve been very fortunate as I started working in film to meet and work for Mark Friedberg…I worked for him as a draftsman and then art director, learning a great deal about both film and design.”
As for his recent work outside his collaborations with Anderson, Stockhausen noted that he teamed last fall with director Noah Baumbach on While We’re Young, which premiered at Toronto. Stockhausen is currently finishing a project with Steven Spielberg.
Certainly among Stockhausen’s career highlights is serving as production designer on director Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave, which won the Best Picture Oscar. “I met Steve McQueen through the film’s line producer Anthony Katagas,” recalled Stockhausen. “Anthony and I met on my first design job, My Soul to Take with Wes Craven. Steve and I hit it off immediately and we were off and running. 12 Years a Slave was an amazing experience. Personally, it was incredible to be part of telling such a powerful and important story as Solomon’s. As a set designer the goal was to make real, believable 19th century plantations…Steve wanted to be surrounded by the real world of the film. Any sense of artificiality would have destroyed the intimacy he was building. On an incredibly tight budget I think we pulled that off, which is very gratifying.
Maria Djurkovic
For director Morten Tyldum, seeing Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy (directed by Tomas Alfredson) was a prime catalyst drawing him to production designer Maria Djurkovic whom he secured for The Imitation Game (The Weinstein Company), which stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing, a computer pioneer who broke the Nazis’ elaborate secret communication code, an accomplishment which helped to win World War II. Turing’s historic story is also a personal tale as he was a closeted gay man at a time when homosexuality was criminalized in the U.K. He was prosecuted for his sexual orientation and committed suicide in 1954.
Tyldum said, of Djurkovic, “She is able to do wonders within a budget. Our film covered different stages in Alan’s life spanning the 1930s, 1940s and ‘50s. One of the many things I love about her approach is how smart she is about time periods. So many times you see a move from the 1960s and all you see is stuff from the ‘60s. Instead Maria noted that if you have a story set in the 1940s, you should see things in a room from the 1920s and 1930s. She is so precise, so dedicated. And her creation of Christopher, Turing’s code-breaking machine is amazing.” (The machine was a pre-cursor to the modern computer; Tyldum and Djurkovic traveled to Bletchley Park, the main venue for the UK’s Government Code and Cypher School, to see a reproduction of the original Christopher).
Tyldum noted that the design of the machine in the film is based on the real Christopher “but Maria took some liberties. She helped to make it a living character in the movie.”
Djurkovic related, “I love doing period films. I love recreating worlds that no longer exist. It’s about accuracy but also mood, tone, visual aesthetic.” Djurkovic’s affinity for and expertise in period pieces is demonstrated in assorted works, including The Hours which like The Imitation Game spans three time periods within a single film. For her work on The Hours (directed by Stephen Daldry), Djurkovic earned an Art Directors Guild Excellence in Production Design Award nomination in 2003, one of three ADG nominations she has received thus far in her career–the others coming for Billy Eliot (also directed by Daldry) in 2001 and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy in 2012.
Djurkovic’s production design on Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy won assorted honors, including a British Independent Film Award in 2011, and a European Film Award and a London Critics Circle Film Award in 2012. Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy was also nominated for a BAFTA Film Award for Best Production Design. Djurkovic’s body of work additionally encompasses TV, including a primetime Emmy-nominated effort for RKO 281, recognized in the Outstanding Art Direction for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special category in 2000.
For whatever work she takes on, Djurkovic noted, “When I read a script, it has to grab me straight away–and The Imitation Game did just that.” Another enticement was the opportunity to work again with actor Cumberbatch who was in Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy.
“I’m passionate about my work and doing projects that interest me, that can call on me to discover whole new worlds through research and study,” said Djurkovic. “Morten [Tyldum] gave me that opportunity with this film. I was aware of Alan Turing and Bletchley Park but not in great detail prior to becoming involved in The Imitation Game.”
As for what’s next for Djurkovic, at press time she was headed to Stockholm to work on The Snowman, a thriller being directed by Alfredson.
This is the seventh in a multi-part series with future installments of The Road To Oscar slated to run in the weekly SHOOT>e.dition, The SHOOT Dailies, SHOOT’s January print issue (and PDF version) and on SHOOTonline.com. The series will appear weekly through the Academy Awards. The 87th Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Thursday, January 15, 2015. The Oscars will be held on Sunday, February 22, 2015 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood and will be televised live by the ABC Television Network.
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