Tag: Donald Graham Burt

Team Deakins: Donald Burt, Production Designer

Roger Deakins and James Deakins
September 5, 2021
Team Deakins (rogerdeakins.com)

The Team Deakins podcast is an ongoing conversation between acclaimed cinematographer Roger Deakins and James Deakins, his collaborator, about cinematography, the film business and whatever other questions are submitted. We start with a specific question and end….who knows where! We are joined by guests periodically. Followup questions can be posted in the forums at rogerdeakins.com.

Team Deakins delves into the craft of production design with the great production designer, Donald Burt (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Hostiles, Mank). We loved hearing about his path to the film business! We talk about his first movie as production designer, Joy Luck Club – quite a film to start on! He shares his methods of working with a director and how he doesn’t want to draw attention to what he is doing and that he wants to be supportive and serve the story first. We also touch on how restrictions and limitations breed imagination, his approach to sets vs locations, and how you can’t be afraid of articulating a stupid idea. And, we also speak about the making of Mank, The Outlaw King, and Zodiac. As well as much, much more!

Listen to the podcast

Art Of The Frame Podcast: “Mank” Set Designer Cassidy Shipley

Damian Allen
June 2, 2021
Art Of The Frame Podcast (ProVideo Coalition)

The Art of the Frame Podcast brings in-depth conversations with the top creators of your favorite films and shows into your car, living room and beyond. In each episode, we talk with creators ranging from emerging stars to Oscar and Emmy winners. Hear from the top editors, cinematographers, directors and more about their careers and about their work on some of the biggest films and TV shows of the year.

On todays episode of the Art of the Frame Podcast, Damian Allen talks with Cassidy Shipley about his work on the Oscar winning film “Mank.” Cassidy has had an illustrious career having worked as a set designer on films such as “La La Land”, and the upcoming film “Thor: Love and Thunder” as well as shows like “Mindhunter”, “Them” and the new Amazon series “Solos.”

Make sure to check out Cassidy’s full IMDb for more info about his career and head over to Amazon to watch “Solos!”

Todays episode of the Art of the Frame Podcast is brought to you by Filmtools.com, Hollywoods trusted one-stop shop for all things production and post.

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If you like the podcast, make sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast app and tell a friend.

‘Mank’ Wins Oscar for Best Production Design

MANK Accepts the Oscar for Production Design

Production Designer Donald Graham Burt and Set Decorator Jan Pascale received the statuette at the Academy Awards for their work on Mank.

They had already won the Art Directors Guild Award for Excellence in Production Design, Best Picture and Best Achievement in Decor/Design of a Period Feature Film at the inaugural Set Decorators Society of America Awards, a BAFTA Award and a Critics’ Choice Award.

The other nominees were Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Production Designer Mark Ricker, Set Decorators Karen O’Hara and Diana Stoughton), The Father (Production Designer Peter Francis, Set Decorator Cathy Featherstone), News of the World (Production Designer David Crank, Set Decorator Elizabeth Keenan), and Tenet (Production Designer Nathan Crowley, Set Decorator Kathy Lucas).

Mank was nominated in 10 categories: Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actress, Production Design, Cinematography, Costume Design, Makeup and Hairstyling, Sound and Original Score. Director of Photography Erik Messerschmidt also won in the category of Best Cinematography.

Pascale had been previously nominated in 2006, for her work on George Clooney‘s Good Night, and Good Luck (another black & white film) but this was Burt’s second Oscar, after his triumph in 2008 with David Fincher‘s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, so he let Pascale have the full time for her acceptance speech:

“It’s a long way down here! First of all, thank you to David Fincher, Ceán Chaffin, and Don Burt, for trusting me with this amazing project. It was such an honor to work with such an amazing group of people. Thank you to my crew, who worked their tails off on this just to make it right. When I was young, I never realized that this was a career that was even a possibility. There were so many people who helped me along the way, and guided me, and I’m so grateful to all of them, and especially to my wife, Louise, who inspires me every day. Thank you so much.”

Don Burt could give his speech in the backstage:

MANK’s Thank You Cam Speech: Production Design

The Art of Production Design: A Panel Discussion with the Oscar Nominees

Thomas Walsh, Jan Pascale
April 24, 2021
Variety / American Cinematheque

Join us for a panel discussion with this year’s Academy Award-nominated production designers and set decorators. Nominated films are: MANK (production design: Donald Graham Burt; set decoration: Jan Pascale), MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM (production design: Mark Ricker; set decoration: Karen O’Hara and Diana Stoughton), NEWS OF THE WORLD (production design: David Crank; set decoration: Elizabeth Keenan), TENET (production design: Nathan Crowley; set decoration: Kathy Lucas) and THE FATHER (production design: Peter Francis; set decoration: Cathy Featherstone). Moderated by Thomas A. Walsh and Jan Pascale Presented by the American Cinematheque and the Art Directors Guild and Set Decorators Society of America. Sponsored by Variety.

How ‘Mank’s’ Production Designer Recreated Old Hollywood

Bianca Rae, Los Angeles
April 21, 2021
Spectrum News 1

Since his early life, production designer Donald Graham Burt never really had his eyes on Hollywood.

Burt grew up in Kansas and became a janitor right after college, but after living in Los Angeles for 40 years, he now has the chance at winning his second Academy Award.

“There are so many places in LA that are undiscovered, and sometimes they’re in the periphery and you don’t even notice them because you’re looking at the other things,” he said.

LA, however, does see Burt. In all his glory, like the Huntington Library Art Museum and Botanical Gardens — the gem that helped him embark on a nearly impossible journey to recreate old Hollywood.

Read the full article and watch the featurette

FIDM Online Lecture Series: Setting the Scene, Inside the World of Mank

Tom Henkenius
April 19, 2021
FIDM Museum / Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising

Join us for a live Q&A with Production Designer Donald Graham Burt and Set Decorator Jan Pascale about their Academy Award nomination for Best Production Design on the hit Netflix film Mank, nominated for 10 Academy Awards this year including Best Picture, Best Director (David Fincher), Best Actor in a Leading Role (Gary Oldman), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Amanda Seyfried), and Best Costume Design (FIDM Grad Trish Summerville).

About Your Moderator, Tom Henkenius: Tom is an Emmy award-winning broadcast journalist, director of FIDM’s Bachelor of Arts degree in digital marketing and principal partner at Thunder Communications, a content production company. Tom spent 10 years as a television news journalist after graduating from USC Annenberg. Tom holds a Master’s of Science from USC’s Iovine and Young Academy in Integrated Design, Business and Technology.

SBIFF 2021: Variety Artisan Award. Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, Donald Graham Burt, and Jan Pascale

Jazz Tangcay
April 5, 2021
Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF)

Variety’s seventh annual Artisan Awards celebrates those essential to the filmmaking process and who have exhibited the most exciting and innovative work of the year in their respective fields.

The Variety Artisans Award were presented to Editor Alan Baumgarten (The Trial of the Chicago 7), Supervising Sound Editor Nicolas Becker (Sound of Metal), Costume Designer Alexandra Byrne (Emma), Production Designer Donald Graham Burt and Set Decorator Jan Pascale (Mank), Visual Effects Supervisor Sean Faden (Mulan), Hair Department Head Mia Neal (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom), Actor and Musician Leslie Odom Jr. (One Night in Miami), Musicians Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (Mank, Soul), Cinematographer Joshua James Richards (Nomadland).

In conversation with Donald Graham Burt, Erik Messerschmidt and Ren Klyce

John Horn
April 13, 2021
Netflix Awards FYC

A conversation with Production Designer Donald Graham Burt, Cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt and Sound Designer Ren Klyce on behalf of Mank. Moderated by John Horn.

Watch the full conversation

The Backdrop with Donald Graham Burt

April 9, 2021
Netflix Film Club (YouTube)

Oscar®-winning Mank production designer Donald Graham Burt breaks down a few key sets from the film, including the ranch house where Herman Mankiewicz sets up shop in order to grind through the first draft of Citizen Kane, and the immaculate recreation of William Randolph Hearst‘s San Simeon castle.

The “Fine Line Between Romance and Reality” in Creating the World of ‘Mank’

Having collaborated with David Fincher — and each other — on previous projects such as The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and Gone Girl, costume designer Trish Summerville and production designer Donald Graham Burt were both aware of the director’s long-gestating project Mank before it ever got the greenlight.

Nikki Baughan
April 12, 2021
Screen Daily

Fincher had wanted to make this 1930s Los Angeles-set period piece about screenwriter Herman J Mankiewicz and his troubled writing of Citizen Kane for director Orson Welles ever since his journalist father Jack penned a screenplay in the late 1990s; Fincher Sr died in 2003 with the script still in a drawer. When Net­flix approached Fincher about making a film following their collaboration on crime series Mindhunter, the director immediately suggested Mank and brought Summerville and Burt onboard.

“It was a project that I really wanted to be a part of,” says Summerville. “Being black and white, being a period setting, being with David, it’s the kind of film that’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance.” Burt, too, felt an instant connection. “It’s a period Los Angeles film-industry movie, and I immediately fell in love with it.”

Fincher’s film was to be an authentic emulation of a 1930s movie, featuring real-life locations and characters including Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman), Welles (Tom Burke), media titan William Randolph Hearst (Charles Dance), MGM boss Louis B Mayer (Arliss Howard), producer Irving Thalberg (Ferdinand Kingsley) and Hearst’s girlfriend, actress Marion Davies (Amanda Seyfried). That meant research — and lots of it.

Read the full profile