Spotlight: Adam Stockhausen
Production Designer, The Wonderful Story Henry Sugar
Oscar winning production designer Adam Stockhausen (not pictured above, that’s Benedict Cumberbatch), whose work you may know from Wes Anderson films like The Grand Budapest Hotel, Asteroid City, The French Dispatch, Isle of Dogs, and Moonrise Kingdom, as well as titles like Bridge of Spies, and West Side Story (2021), took the time to answer some questions.
Which details from or aspects of The Wonderful Story Henry Sugar did you focus the most on while adapting it to the screen? How did you meld Roald Dahl and Wes’s worlds?
The details on this one started with Dahl’s writing hut! We matched the details pretty carefully and exactly. As soon as we step outside of the hut though we start to move through the world of the story and the world of the stage at the same time. Wes had the idea of how he wanted to do this from the very beginning. My main challenge was trying to figure out how to pull it off—making the parts move and getting each to have the right detail.
What’s a small change you made on a project that ended up having an unexpectedly significant impact?
Lots of times this happens—where what seems like a small thing at the time becomes a very significant turning point. I’m in Berlin now writing this and remembering being here scouting for East Berlin for Bridge of Spies. We were struggling to find a section of town that still felt old enough to show the early 60s, and decided to take a chance on a quick search in Poland. That quick search changed the whole production plan and ultimately gave us the look of our East Berlin.
How has technology changed the way you approach your work?
Technology has definitely changed the way we plan the work. We used to model everything in cardboard or sometimes just plan in two dimensions with pencil and paper. We can now plan in 3-dimensional space using modeling programs and see what real lenses will do. This allows for more accurate planning and makes scenery moves like the casino set in Henry Sugar possible.
Do you have any signature easter eggs you like to leave? Any small details that you are particularly fond of?
I wouldn’t say there are easter eggs in this one. But there are loads of special details! I think my favorite might be the levitation boxes where we painted a perspective view of the background onto a prop box. The actor sitting on the box appears to be floating in a very special and theatrical way.
Did you talk about reflecting the iconic Quentin Blake illustrations in production design? How would you go about doing that?
Not really. They are such incredible drawings and I’d say they’ve been inspiring me since I saw them as a child! But for this the starting point was really the machine Wes devised to move us through the story—and pairing that to specific references scene by scene.
There is such an intentionality to the aesthetics of a Wes world. Is there a set or frame that took you a long time to get perfectly right?
All of them! It’s a very labor-intensive process getting these frames right. Occasionally one will click right away, but usually it’s a process of refining and refining. The jungle for instance went from sketches to models to samples and back again several times before the final look settled.
If you had to present one frame that showcases the best of your work, what would it be?
Oh my. Maybe the jungle? I really enjoyed making the jungle!
With all the moving sets in the trailer for The Wonderful Story Henry Sugar, it feels reminiscent of a theatre production. Are there distinct differences in approach between film and theatre and how much do you blur the lines between them in your work?
I think the lines are blurred completely! Or maybe they aren’t even there. I love that Henry Sugar is so incredibly theatrical in its storytelling. It allows us to show the artifice of the sets all the time which somehow makes them even more satisfying when they finally do line up and create a complete picture. I think the casino set is a perfect example—the pauses where it all lines up for a second are even more enjoyable because we get to see it broken apart and sliding away.
Thanks, Adam!
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Films of 2023: Roald Dahl Collection (?) (dir. Wes Anderson)
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar: B+
The Swan: A-
The Rat Catcher: B/B-
Poison: B+
Adam Stockhausen:
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Bad Day at Black Rock is a 1955 neo-Western film directed by John Sturges with screenplay by Millard Kaufman (the creator of Mr. Magoo).
It stars Spencer Tracy and Robert Ryan with support from Anne Francis, Dean Jagger, Walter Brennan, John Ericson, Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin.
In the plot, a one-armed stranger comes to a small desert town in 1945, and uncovers a secret that has corrupted the entire community.
The film was a key reference for the design of the 2023 Wes Anderson film Asteroid City.
"Generally, we were looking at ‘Black Rock’ for overall how the town’s [located] in the landscape," confirmed designer Adam Stockhausen. "But also we’d go in and look at tiny details, too. How the tar paper was nailed to the roof of the gas station, and we ended up using it for the way we wrapped the tar paper around the motel cabins. Or the cafe when we took several little detailed pieces for the back counter of the luncheonette straight from there".
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How 'Asteroid City' Production Designer Creates the Worlds of Wes Anderson
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Critics Choice Awards 2024: Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer, Barbie, Succession, The Bear lead the wins
The Critics Choice Awards 2024 celebrated cinematic and television excellence on Sunday night, January 14, 2024. Chelsea Handler returned as the host for the evening. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer shone, securing eight wins, including Best Picture and Best Director though Cillian Murphy missed the Best Actor win. Greta Gerwig’s Barbie claimed six awards, winning in categories like Best Comedy and Best Original Screenplay. Emma Stone earned Best Actress for Poor Things. On the TV front, Succession, The Bear, and Beef led the wins.
FILM
BEST PICTURE
American Fiction
Barbie
The Color Purple
The Holdovers
Killers of the Flower Moon
Maestro
Oppenheimer - WINNER
Past Lives
Poor Things
Saltburn
BEST ACTOR
Bradley Cooper, Maestro
Leonardo DiCaprio, Killers of the Flower Moon
Colman Domingo, Rustin
Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers - WINNER
Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer
Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction
BEST ACTRESS
Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon
Sandra Hüller, Anatomy of a Fall
Greta Lee, Past Lives
Carey Mulligan, Maestro
Margot Robbie, Barbie
Emma Stone, Poor Things - WINNER
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Sterling K. Brown, American Fiction
Robert De Niro, Killers of the Flower Moon
Robert Downey Jr., Oppenheimer - WINNER
Ryan Gosling, Barbie
Charles Melton, May December
Mark Ruffalo, Poor Things
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Emily Blunt, Oppenheimer
Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple
America Ferrera, Barbie
Jodie Foster, Nyad
Julianne Moore, May December
Da'Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers - WINNER
BEST YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRESS
Abby Ryder Fortson, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.
Ariana Greenblatt, Barbie
Calah Lane, Wonka
Milo Machado Graner, Anatomy of a Fall
Dominic Sessa, The Holdovers - WINNER
Madeleine Yuna Voyles, The Creator
BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE
Air
Barbie
The Color Purple
The Holdovers
Killers of the Flower Moon
Oppenheimer - WINNER
BEST DIRECTOR
Bradley Cooper, Maestro
Greta Gerwig, Barbie
Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things
Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer - WINNER
Alexander Payne, The Holdovers
Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Kelly Fremon Craig, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.
Andrew Haigh, All of Us Strangers
Cord Jefferson, American Fiction - WINNER
Tony McNamara, Poor Things
Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer
Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Samy Burch, May December
Alex Convery, Air
Bradley Cooper & Josh Singer, Maestro
Greta Gerwig & Noah Baumbach, Barbie - WINNER
David Hemingson, The Holdovers
Celine Song, Past Lives
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Matthew Libatique, Maestro
Rodrigo Prieto, Barbie
Rodrigo Prieto, Killers of the Flower Moon
Robbie Ryan, Poor Things
Linus Sandgren, Saltburn
Hoyte van Hoytema, Oppenheimer - WINNER
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
Suzie Davies, Charlotte Dirickx, Saltburn
Ruth De Jong, Claire Kaufman, Oppenheimer
Jack Fisk, Adam Willis, Killers of the Flower Moon
Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer, Barbie - WINNER
James Price, Shona Heath, Szusza Mihalek, Poor Things
Adam Stockhausen, Kris Moran, Asteroid City
BEST EDITING
William Goldenberg – Air
Nick Houy – Barbie
Jennifer Lame – Oppenheimer - WINNER
Yorgos Mavropsaridis – Poor Things
Thelma Schoonmaker – Killers of the Flower Moon
Michelle Tesoro – Maestro
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Jacqueline Durran, Barbie - WINNER
Lindy Hemming, Wonka
Francine Jamison-Tanchuck, The Color Purple
Holly Waddington, Poor Things
Jacqueline West, Killers of the Flower Moon
Janty Yates, David Crossman, Napoleon
BEST HAIR AND MAKEUP
Barbie - WINNER
The Color Purple
Maestro
Oppenheimer
Poor Things
Priscilla
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
The Creator
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
Oppenheimer - WINNER
Poor Things
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
BEST COMEDY
American Fiction
Barbie - WINNER
Bottoms
The Holdovers
No Hard Feelings
Poor Things
BEST ANIMATED FILM
The Boy and the Heron
Elemental
Nimona
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse - WINNER
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
Wish
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Anatomy of a Fall - WINNER
Godzilla Minus One
Perfect Days
Society of the Snow
The Taste of Things
The Zone of Interest
BEST SONG
“Dance the Night," Barbie
“I’m Just Ken," Barbie - WINNER
“Peaches," The Super Mario Bros. Movie
“Road to Freedom," Rustin
"This Wish," Wish
"What Was I Made For," Barbie
BEST SCORE
Jerskin Fendrix, Poor Things
Michael Giacchino, Society of the Snow
Ludwig Göransson, Oppenheimer - WINNER
Daniel Pemberton, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Robbie Robertson, Killers of the Flower Moon
Mark Ronson, Andrew Wyatt, Barbie
TELEVISION
BEST DRAMA SERIES
The Crown
The Diplomat
The Last of Us
Loki
The Morning Show
Stark Trek: Strange New Worlds
Succession - WINNER
Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty
BEST ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Kieran Culkin – Succession - WINNER
Tom Hiddleston – Loki
Timothy Olyphant – Justified: City Primeval
Pedro Pascal – The Last of Us
Ramón Rodríguez – Will Trent
Jeremy Strong – Succession
BEST ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Jennifer Aniston – The Morning Show
Aunjanue Ellis – Justified: City Primeval
Bella Ramsey – The Last of Us
Keri Russell – The Diplomat
Sarah Snook – Succession - WINNER
Reese Witherspoon – The Morning Show
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Khalid Abdalla – The Crown
Billy Crudup – The Morning Show - WINNER
Ron Cephas Jones – Truth Be Told
Matthew MacFadyen – Succession
Ke Huy Quan – Loki
Rufus Sewell – The Diplomat
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Nicole Beharie – The Morning Show
Elizabeth Debicki – The Crown - WINNER
Sophia Di Martino – Loki
Celia Rose Gooding – Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
Karen Pittman – The Morning Show
Christina Ricci – Yellowjackets
BEST COMEDY SERIES
Abbott Elementary
Barry
The Bear - WINNER
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Poker Face
Reservation Dogs
Shrinking
What We Do in the Shadows
BEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Bill Hader – Barry
Steve Martin – Only Murders in the Building
Kayvan Novak – What We Do in the Shadows
Drew Tarver – The Other Two
Jeremy Allen White – The Bear - WINNER
D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai – Reservation Dogs
BEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Rachel Brosnahan – The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Quinta Brunson – Abbott Elementary
Ayo Edebiri – The Bear - WINNER
Bridget Everett – Somebody Somewhere
Devery Jacobs – Reservation Dogs
Natasha Lyonne – Poker Face
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Phil Dunster – Ted Lasso
Harrison Ford – Shrinking
Harvey Guillén – What We Do in the Shadows
James Marsden – Jury Duty
Ebon Moss-Bachrach – The Bear - WINNER
Henry Winkler – Barry
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Paulina Alexis – Reservation Dogs
Alex Borstein – The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Janelle James – Abbott Elementary
Sheryl Lee Ralph – Abbott Elementary
Meryl Streep – Only Murders in the Building - WINNER
Jessica Williams – Shrinking
BEST LIMITED SERIES
Beef - WINNER
Daisy Jones & the Six
Fargo
Fellow Travelers
Lessons in Chemistry
Love & Death
A Murder at the End of the World
A Small Light
BEST MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION
The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial
Finestkind
Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie
No One Will Save You
Quiz Lady - WINNER
Reality
BEST ACTOR IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Matt Bomer – Fellow Travelers
Tom Holland – The Crowded Room
David Oyelowo – Lawmen: Bass Reeves
Tony Shalhoub – Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie
Kiefer Sutherland – The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial
Steven Yeun – Beef - WINNER
BEST ACTRESS IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Kaitlyn Dever – No One Will Save You
Carla Gugino – The Fall of the House of Usher
Brie Larson – Lessons in Chemistry
Bel Powley – A Small Light
Sydney Sweeney – Reality
Juno Temple – Fargo
Ali Wong – Beef - WINNER
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Jonathan Bailey – Fellow Travelers - WINNER
Taylor Kitsch – Painkiller
Jesse Plemons – Love & Death
Lewis Pullman – Lessons in Chemistry
Liev Schreiber – A Small Light
Justin Theroux – White House Plumbers
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Maria Bello – Beef - WINNER
Billie Boullet – A Small Light
Willa Fitzgerald – The Fall of the House of Usher
Aja Naomi King – Lessons in Chemistry
Mary McDonnell – The Fall of the House of Usher
Camila Morrone – Daisy Jones & the Six
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE SERIES
Bargain
The Glory
The Good Mothers
The Interpreter of Silence
Lupin - WINNER
Mask Girl
Moving
BEST ANIMATED SERIES
Bluey
Bob’s Burgers
Harley Quinn
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off - WINNER
Star Trek: Lower Decks
Young Love
BEST TALK SHOW
The Graham Norton Show
Jimmy Kimmel Live!
The Kelly Clarkson Show
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver - WINNER
Late Night with Seth Meyers
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
BEST COMEDY SPECIAL
Mike Birbiglia: The Old Man and the Pool
Alex Borstein: Corsets & Clown Suits
John Early: Now More Than Ever
John Mulaney: Baby J - Winner
Trevor Noah: Where Was I
Wanda Sykes – I’m an Entertainer
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Asteroid City (Wes Anderson, 2023)
Cast: Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Liev Schreiber, Hope Davis, Stephen Park, Rupert Friend, Maya Hawke, Steve Carell, Matt Dillon, Hong Chau, Margot Robbie, Tony Revolori, Jake Ryan. Grace Edwards. Screenplay: Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola. Cinematography: Robert D. Yeoman. Production design: Adam Stockhausen. Film editing: Barney Pilling. Music: Alexandre Desplat.
On the Netflix series Heartstopper, a teenage boy works up the courage to ask a girl he likes (and who secretly likes him) to go on their first date. He takes her to a movie that he likes and she doesn't, and the date is a disaster. The key fact here is that the movie is Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom (2012). In my day, a comparable move would have been to take a date to see Jacques Demy's The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964). Like Demy, Anderson makes movies that display an uncompromising sense of style. The only question is whether that style works for you or not, whether you think it betrays a lack of substance or opens vistas of meaning. In Anderson's case it's certainly a consistent style: an absence of closeups, long takes with characters artfully placed, actors who deliver their lines deadpan facing front, tricks like switching the screen from standard Academy ratio to widescreen and from monochrome to color. Sometimes Anderson's style works for me and sometimes it doesn't -- I love The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) and The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), but I could barely sit through The French Dispatch (2021). In the case of Asteroid City, I still haven't made up my mind completely, but I'm leaning toward the favorable view. I think it captures something essential about the brutal innocence of 1950's America -- the film is set in 1955 -- and does it without clichés. There's an acidity of tone to the film that keeps it from becoming twee -- an adjective frequently applied to Anderson's movies. The performances of its all-star cast are often delightful: I particularly liked Bryan Cranston's performance as the TV host who serves as the narrator in the frame story. Cranston somehow manages to walk a line between Rod Serling and Walter Cronkite in his delivery. Scarlett Johansson and a bearded, pipe-smoking Jason Schwartzman manage to transcend the limitations of deadpan delivery as the film's romantic leads. Jeffrey Wright doesn't overplay the role of the pompous General Gibson, and there's a brief starry cameo by Margot Robbie. Asteroid City may be one of those films it's more rewarding to think about after you watch it, but watching it is fairly painless.
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PRODUCTION DESIGN
Shortlisted: Barbie / Evil Dead Rise / The Taste of Things
THE NOMINEES ARE:
ASTEROID CITY
Production Design by Adam Stockhausen, Set Decoration by Kris Moran
BEAU IS AFRAID
Production Design by Fiona Crombie, Set Decoration by Paul Hotte
KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
Production Design by Jack Fisk, Set Decoration by Adam Willis
THE ZONE OF INTEREST
Production Design by Chris Oddy, Set Decoration by Joanna Kus and Katazyna Sikora
AND THE CRISTAL GOES TO...
POOR THINGS
Production Design by Shona Heath and James Price, Set Decoration by Zsuzsa Mihalek
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2023 Golden Chinchillas
Best Production Direction
Asteroid City (Adam Stockhausen)
Barbie (Sarah Greenwood & Katie Spencer)
Beau is Afraid (Fiona Crombie)
John Wick 4 (Kevin Kavanagh)
Killers of the Flower Moon (Jack Fisk)
Poor Things (Shona Heath & James Price)
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About “Major Organ and the Adding Machine” album
(fragments from 'Endless Endless' by Adam Clair, 2022)
transcript:
One of the zanier things that grew out of this period was Major Organ and the Adding Machine. The entity produced one self-titled album, though it’s not entirely clear who that self is. It was created with no intention to release the album to the public, though that happened long after it was finished. The album is also not the most highly regarded in the E6 catalog. It’s easily one of the weirdest, though, and given how it came together, it serves as a remarkable document of the time period and community, like some kind of Dadaist Polaroid. The stream of unselfconscious is evidence that even without commercial ambitions of any kind, folks were still doing their thing, trying to entertain themselves and one another.
The project began a cover of “What a Wonderful World” that Julian, Jeff, and Jill Carnes recorded together for a Kindercore compilation of Christmas music released in 1997. The Louis Armstrong original is a song most people have heard so many times that it’s basically white noise, but the Elephant 6 rendition has its own feel. Of the trio’s contributions to the song, Jill’s vocal melody hews closest to the familiar, but her creaky timbre weaves in and out of Julian’s ethereal saw like a frog clambering through a thicket of swaying cattails. Jeff’s verse in the middle is modulated just to the point of peculiarity, and a haunting tape loop from his homemade sound effects library undergirds the entirety of the two-minute track.
Julian submitted the track under the name Major Organ and the Adding Machine and then lent the name to the project that emerged next, a bunch of songs that came together via an exquisite corpse–style sharing of tape. No one seems able to recall the exact origins, but it basically came about like this: one person would compose the beginnings of a song and put it to tape—maybe a fractured, looping guitar riff or a surreal lyric—and pass it off to someone else, who would then add sound effects or some percussive toy piano and pass it to someone else, who might add a bass line or instead decide to cut the whole thing up and rearrange it. Each person would add bits and pieces and then pass it to the next person, until a song was ready to collapse under its own weight. The tapes were passed around for years, each song swelling into maximalist oblivion as much from divination as from intentional composition, without anyone guiding the process or even keeping track of it. Eventually, there was an album’s worth of material.
[...]
Griffin Rodriguez: When we did the recordings for Major Organ, it was just like any other day. “We’re going over to Julian’s to do some recording. Julian has a track for you to play on. Bring your bass.” It was always very impromptu and in the same spirit as all the other records. They would just invite you over and you’d play an overdub.
John Fernandes: Everyone kind of inspired each other. On the Major Organ project, everyone would kind of bring in things, and someone would say, “Hey, I’ve got a bass line for that.” We’ve never really talked about it. I’m not even sure if we’re supposed to be talking about how “we” did it.
Kevin Barnes: In the best way, it was a collaborative project. Everybody seemed to be contributing equally and making everything better. It was never getting worse because somebody laid some stupid tracks on it. It was like, “Whoa, this song is so much cooler now, and it was already cool.” I wrote that song “Madam Truffle.” I don’t remember who got it, but they sped it up really fast, and there’s this extra cool stuff Eric added.
Julian Koster: But we weren’t doing it to put it out. That was the thing. It entertained us to no end. It made us all laugh when we listened to it. It was just so funny and weird and fun. We all loved the Boredoms and Faust and Stockhausen.
[...]
Most of the recording happened in 1998 or thereabouts, and the album was released to the public in 2001. The finished product is every bit as eclectic and bizarre as anything else in the Elephant 6 catalog, and even more opaque. [...] Absolutely nothing had to be distilled into something accessible, because no one expected it to have an audience that wasn’t in on the joke. No one expected it to have an audience at all, beyond the people who made it. If the spirit of their weekly potlucks could be transposed into a record, it would be Major Organ and the Adding Machine.
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