Thursday, July 24, 2014

I9TH CENTURY STAGE DESIGN

I confess to liking the old-fashioned theatrical backdrops (above) of the 19th Century.


I think it was the sets in the old Melies films (above) that won me over. Look at the one above...bathing beauties, military men and a scientific space canon all sharing the same scene with the intriguing rooftop world of the big city. All those aspects of reality within one frame...what an interesting idea!


I also like the 19th Century style long shots in some of the old Fleischer cartoons. I like the idea that at odd times we're catapulted into a larger reality that gives us a different perspective on the story. Using ultra long shots only to establish a scene is a waste of a powerful tool. 


Old time theatrical backdrops had lots of balconies, windows, winding paths, caves and ledges. I guess the stage designers felt that was the way to get the most bang for their buck. That's okay...those old sets produced a surreality that reinforced the unnatural dialogue delivery and over-the-top stories of the day.


Someone who likes that old style doesn't have to slavishly copy the 19th Century. It's an idea that easily adapts to modern aesthetics. Here's a modern home that uses it. In houses like the one above you get a glimpse into multiple realities with just one glance, and there's plenty of hiding places, opportunity for unwelcome intruders to avoid detection, spying, sudden escapes, chases, athletic moves, dances and surprises.



Here's (above) a home design by Wally Wood that follows the same principal.


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3 comments:

  1. Unknown9:37 PM

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  2. Alex Printz7:13 PM

    Most artists today don't understand how to use the environment as a character, so it becomes neglected to establishment as a location only; if you wanted to postulate why, perhaps mankind has conquered the natural world, and people nowadays are used to living in cities and never see their environment as having a personality? I also don't think most people in cartoons use the horizon line properly in their long shots to give emotion and atmosphere to their scene.

    If an artist was to take that Popeye shot and drop the horizon line and give more sky, the mountain becomes more ominous and ambitious. If the horizon line was brought up, the ground and falling becomes more hazardous. In either case, it becomes popeye and olive vs. the mountainside. Nowadays you would focus on interactions between popeye and olive as conflicting / cooperation characters in themselves, and the journey up the mountain would be used as a transition from bottom to top of mountain, or as a place for a chase / fall scene to happen.

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  3. Eddie Fitzgerald8:22 AM

    Alex: True, so true! Batman does that in the sense that in the best stories Gotham City is a character and not just a backdrop. It's a place that's so interesting that the people who live there just naturally want to live large. Even the criminals are like that.

    New York and Paris used to be like that. I wish they would be again. Maybe someday we'll see the Vassos/Ultimo big city.

    About animation backgrounds: John used to say that he wishes a background designer with an interesting point of view would walk into the studio and say, "You're doing it all wrong. THIS is the style your cartoons need." An imaginative background stylist could change the industry.

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