A Material World
A richly assembled team of filmmakers gets together to discuss the art of building narrative worlds.
“Play as Process: Worldbuilding and New Ways to Imagine”
Films invite us to wander through different universes and stroll through different worlds that may or may not exist but surely become real inside movie theatres. “Play as Process: Worldbuilding and New Ways to Imagine” was a Berlinale Talent Campus panel that rapidly turned into a discussion about the use of digital tools and their current role in creating narrative worlds. Director Shekhar Kapur, production designer Alex McDowell, art director Saku Lehtinen, designer Tali Krakowsky and artist Andrew Shoben led the wide-ranging discussion.
“The creative process is not so linear now. Preproduction, production and postproduction happen simultaneously”, said McDowell, who worked on movies such as FIGHT CLUB, MINORITY REPORT, CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY and FANTASTIC MR. FOX. This production designer made clear that he thinks making cinema is about team work and pointed out that even film scripts can be the result of a director-designer collaboration. “Everybody is looking for a creative accident”, said Shekhar Kapur. “That accident happens when the actor, the editor, the cinematographer does something”. Lehtinen, a videogame specialist, added: “When we build a world, we don’t just build a set. We create a space in which those accidents can happen”.
As the discussion went on, the speakers constantly referred to the importance of the task of giving shape to ideas. “What’s in our minds is not less important than what’s in reality”, said Tali Krakowsky, trying to underline the sizeable challenge that designers face as the craftspeople who materialise stories. Kapur supported her opinion by stating: “The creation of a world is the creation of a contradiction. And with greater contradictions come greater stories”.
Through images, films let us tour not only the minds of directors but also the creative work of those who turn intangible thoughts into tangible universes. Given the present demands of the film industry, with so many movies built upon virtual worlds that rely completely on technology, those workers are becoming increasingly recognised for their essential contribution to the chain-process of visual storytelling.
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