An exhibition by the Edinburgh Film Guild held at the National Gallery of Scotland, August 27th to September 18th 1943
“Allocation of credit for a good film and blame for a bad one has always been difficult in the cinema, which is so essentially a collaborative art. By tradition the director is most often held to be responsible for the success or failure of a film; and it is true that the chief work of creative interpretation is done on the studio floor; but there are other departments of film-making which may bring a distinctive contribution to a film.
This exhibition is concerned with one of these: art direction. In the task of interpreting the theme, the art director comes somewhere between the director and the cameraman. His raw material is the treatment or the shooting script. Working from this he visualises the theme in conjunction with the director, produces a series of sketches illustrating the main sequences, and provides {or the other craftsmen drawings which will guide them in building and dressing the sets.
Apart from the obvious contribution of the actor, the relative importance of the various film-making departments is little appreciated or understood. ln comparison with the writer and director, the work of the art director is by its nature comparatively easy to illustrate. His sketches are not intended to be finished works of art : when they are, they may not be doing their job; but the artist inevitably leaves the stamp of his personality on his work; and it is possible, by comparison with the film or with stills from it, to discover what influence he has had on its final form.
The purpose of this exhibition is to provide an opportunity of looking, from this point of view, at examples of the work of a few art directors. The exhibition makes no attempt to be comprehensive. War causes make it impossible to include the work of the leading foreign art directors; and limited space makes possible the inclusion of only a few sketches from one or two films by each artist.” (Forsyth Hardy, Honorary Secretary, Edinburgh Film Guild)
Lecture
The exhibition was accompanied by a lecture at the National Gallery of Scotland by EDWARD CARRICK. Art Director of many British films and author of Designing for Films.
EDWARD CARRICK (1905–1998) was an English art designer for film, an author and illustrator. He became the art director of several film companies, beginning in 1928, including Associated Talking Pictures and Criterion Film in the 1930s, the Crown Film Unit during the Second World War, and later Pinewood Studios. He also created stage designs.
Catalogue of the Exhibition
Below: Catalogue. ‘Film Decor: Art Direction In The Cinema‘. National Gallery Of Scotland, August 27 to September 18. 1943.
