2529 Foothill Boulevard – Suite 210 – LaCrescenta, CA 91214 -  phone 323-665-7159 - Fax 323-337-8208                      

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managing space

IN film, Theatre & Architecture

an introductory course in linear perspective

Prospettiva agivgnie doue maca il givditio nelle cose che diminviscono

“Perspective comes in where judgement fails”

leonardo da vinc

SEMINAR SUMMARY

The fundamentals covered in this seminar are essential to the development of the visual artist entering the field of design in Film, Television, Theatre, Gaming & Architecture. It was specifically created to fill an information gap created by the lack of clear and concise material available at both collegiate and professional levels.

 This seminar will give the designer powerful tools in order to: 

             1.      Design sets for film, television, and theatre.

2.      Improve understanding of spatial relationships in fine art composition and human anatomy.

3.      Manage building shapes and forms in architecture.

4.      Analyze space management in interior design.

5.      Create backgrounds for animation and game design.

6.      Pursue a career as an illustrator or story board artist.

7.      Better understand spatial principles as they apply to composition in photography & cinematography.

8.      Better understand the principles that affect the rendering of objects in space.

Most importantly our seminar will unravel the heretofore confusing and complicated fundamentals used in the explanation of linear perspective.

 In contrast to traditional perspective methods the fundamentals of this course were first mapped out in studio art departments in the early days of Hollywood. The renown illustrator and three time Academy award winning Production Designer John DeCuir Sr. (well known for his work on THE KING & I, HELLO DOLLY & CLEOPATRA), was especially adept at applying these principles. We will use many of his illustrations to demonstrate the underlying concepts. The seminar itself will be conducted by his son, John DeCuir Jr.; himself an accomplished illustrator and film designer, known for his work on TOP GUN, GHOSTBUSTERS, SISTER ACT II & 3D MUPPET MOVIE.

 Traditionally, classes in this field focus on the “geometric and trigonometric” math required to translate objects in space onto a 2D surface, be that “surface” paper, film or a video monitor. This course cuts through the traditional sea of construction lines, vanishing points, polar coordinates and other confusing models and  presents a comprehensive overview of the driving forces and principles behind the math.

We begin with man’s earliest attempts (a non linear approach) to translate his world onto a cave wall where he could analyze it and build survival strategies. This introduction  traces our visual history from the cave drawings at Lascaux, moving through great historical “tracings” such as Egyptian hieroglyphs, Renaissance frescoes and ends at our latest technological achievements in film, television and virtual reality.

 Next we analyze the visual principles in support of this history. These principles begin with a discussion of the human eye and its robotic clone, the camera. Importantly, in this section of the seminar, we examine “The Persistence of Vision” the principle that drives all of man’s accomplishments in film, animation and television.

 The seminar introduces CUBES, a small animated character who will be our host through the confusion of vanishing points and picture planes. CUBE will demonstrate that he posses all the geometric secrets necessary to build any shape, any full figure or portion of the human anatomy, or any architectural form. By understanding how visual math affects a simple cube in space, the designer can easily apply these fundamentals to more complicated shapes and forms. .

 The final portion of the course will apply all that we have learned to a case study in film design. Our selected case study will be from the film GHOSTBUSTERS, specifically the skyscraper over looking Central Park, GHOST CENTRAL. This unique optical illusion was a composite of a lower section of an actual building in New York, a mid-section miniature and a crown structure built on a stage in Hollywood. Combined with the erupting street sequence on the Warner Brothers back lot, this collective series of images created the unified structure that became Ghost Central.

Completing the seminar will provide the designer with a full set of visual tools necessary to manage space in film, theatre and architecture.

MANAGING SPACE - in Film, Theatre & Architecture.

OUTLINE

THE BACK STORY

 1.         BEFORE LINEAR PERSPECTIVE.

2.             THE AWAKENING OF LINEAR PERSPECTIVE IN THE RENAISSANCE.

3.             ANALYSIS OF THE HUMAN EYE AND THE CAMERA LENS.

4.             TECHNIQUES OF CREATING THREE DIMENSIONAL SPACE ON A TWO DIMENSIONAL SURFACE.

 FUNDAMENTALS OF FORM and LIGHT IN SPACE

 1.                   SPATIAL  MEMORY OF KNOWN OBJECTS

2.                   ATMOSPHERIC LAYERING.

3.                   CREATING SPACE BY LAYERING SHAPE AND FORM.

4.                   LIGHT AND THE ILLUMINATION OF OBJECTS IN SPACE.

5.                   DEVELOPMENT OF THE HUMAN FORM IN SPACE.

6.                   ARCHITECTURAL SHAPES IN SPACE

7.                   MANAGING INTERIOR SPACE.

8.                   COMPOSING SPACE TO HOST PEOPLE & ACTOR CHOREOGRAPHY.

9.                   MAPPING OUT SPACE IN THE QUICK SKETCH.

 MAINTAINING A  POINT OF VIEW(S).

 1.                    POSITIONING THE CAMERA OR THE HUMAN EYE.

2.                    THE GROUND, THE PICTURE PLANE AND SPACE.

3.                    YOUR EYE AND THE CAMERA.

4.                    THE CAMERA ANGLE (LENSES AND HOW THEY WORK).

THE THEORY AND THE MATH

 1.             THE SIMPLE MATH OF LINEAR PERSPECTIVE.

2.             THE CUBE IN SPACE.

3.             BUILDING WORLDS INSIDE THE CUBE

4.             SKETCHING & MEASURING TOOLS.

5.             PERSPECTIVE OF THE HUMAN BODY.

6.             SHADE & SHADOWS.

7.             REFLECTIONS.

 THE COMPUTER AS A TOOL IN MANAGING SPACE

 1.             UNDERSTANDING THE COMPUTER AS A TOOL IN MANAGING SPACE..

2.             THREE DIMENSIONAL IMAGING ON A MONITOR.

3.             CREATING MATTES.

4.             THE USE OF LINEAR PERSPECTIVE IN MOTION CONTROL.

5.             THE USE OF LINEAR PERSPECTIVE IN ANIMATION & VIRTUAL REALITY

 AN APPLICATION CASE STUDY IN FILM DESIGN FROM THE FILM GHOSTBUSTERS

 In the case study we will see how these principles affect traditional cinematic design including:

             1.         SETTING DESIGN GOALS.

2.          BREAKING DOWN THE SCRIPT.

3.          LOCATION ANALYSIS – UNDERSTANDING THE EXISTING PORTIONS OF THE BUILDING.

4.          CREATING THE NON-EXISTENT MID PORTIONS OF THE BUILDING

5.          USING MINIATURES.      

5.          CREATING THE STREET ERUPTION SEQUENCE USING THE BACK LOT  & LOCATIONS

6.          CREATING THE TOP FLOOR USING STAGE WORK AND BACKING TECHNIQUES.

7.          COMPOSITING ALL THE ABOVE ELEMENTS INTO A SINGLE STRUCTURE USING PRE- COMPUTER OPTICAL TECHNIQUES.

8.          HOW THE BUILDING WOULD BE COMPOSITED TODAY (TWENTY YEARS LATER) USING DIGITAL COMPOSITING TECHNIQUES.