DIRECTOR
CINEMATOGRAPHER
COSTUME
DESIGNER
ART DIRECTOR
DIRECTOR
CINEMATOGRAPHER
COSTUME
DESIGNER
ART DIRECTOR
SKETCH GALLERY: Andrew Jackness
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Designers are storytellers.
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Each project that I do involves immersion in a subject, sometimes familiar… more often new. Every character, location, and set needs definition. More often than not I work this out on computer in a photographic collage; but with large sets, fantasy, period, and special places I begin the process by sketching. A blank piece of tracing paper and a closed door is my happiest space.
Sometimes I begin with a ground plan, then by drawing a space from a primary angle. In either case I work moving and adjusting as I go along; and adding subsequent layers of trace as the idea gets more defined, sometimes taking away if I’ve gone in the wrong direction. This process allows me to do the loosest sketch or the most complicated depending on the available time.
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For me, computer line is so proscribed as to not allow you to change your mind as you work. To observe the special relationships in a mess of lines and decide which feels the best.
Sets used to be sketched out first as an illustration, and then drafted after. I was trained that way, changed with computer and have come back to it as the best method for me; but it requires thinking in volume and how light strikes an object. Film designers have a process of thinking about character, architecture, décor, and light at the same time. With digital photography we have become lighting designers as well since practical fixtures can be all the lighting a cinematographer needs. It’s easier for me to let everyone working on the show producing my work understand what I’m thinking before they move on independently.
