The Art Direction Handbook for Film

CHAPTER 2

The Responsibilities, The Relationships, and the Setup

HIERARCHY OF RESPONSIBILITIES

First Responsibilities

An art director’s initial relationship to the production designer is as intense and short-lived as most film project relationships. Anyone who has experienced summer camp as a child understands this dynamic. First encounters on a new film project are driven by the personal need to establish a sense of belonging to a special group, your department, and a political need to define one’s place in the psychological hierarchy of the film. The bond between the prime art department figureheads—the PD and the AD—is forged by these human forces and compels the art director to fulfill first responsibilities.

How does an art director repay ...