Following Schumacher’s Spring Market discussion Designs on Film, we chatted with Cathy Whitlock about her new book Designs on Film: A Century of Hollywood Art Direction. We asked Cathy about some of her favorite parts of writing the book.
"You know, it's hard to say. The interviewing of various notables of the industry had to be one of my very favorite parts of the process. I absolutely loved interviewing Robert F. Boyle, who unfortunately died recently. Hearing his stories of being a production designer for Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest and The Birds were positively incredible. Spending an afternoon at his home, listening to all of it while looking through a lifetime of images was an experience I'll never forget."
She continued, “I loved digging up the research but it's so tough to pick one film over another when you love them both. It’s sad to say, but because certain films weren’t even an option helped me in a huge way. Some of the best examples of what I wanted to convey were films that simply had no photographs available. Had I had every film at my disposal, this book may have taken several years longer.”
Before letting Cathy get back to her book signing, we had to ask which film set she would live in given the chance.
"Oh that's a good question! It would probably be a tie between the townhouse in The Thomas Crown Affair, and the penthouse in A Perfect Murder. I will add, though, that Gone with the Wind was probably the film that best exemplified many of the points in my book. The epic, old South-new South feel with the war was just exquisite. They pulled off everything perfectly in that movie!"
