Scott Hutchins wonders: > The other day I purchased the soundtrack for _The Thin Blue Line_, and I > noticed that it listed a production designer among the credits. I was > wondering how someone could be a production desginer on this sort of film > which uses all real-life sets, buildings, etc, just as they are in life, > save for how Morris shows them. Would it be a token/union mandate job in > this case? I'm not particularly a specialist in this area, let alone this one film, but two points occur to me: 1) In the case of the interviews with the various (living) people still involved, the camera placement and lighting (as well as the choice of locations--aside from a jail) might well involve the input of others than the director, cinematographer, etc. Consider too the shots of the Dallas night skyline, etc. If the production designer guides the overall "look" of the film, these are as much factors as building a set or stitching a costume; and the style of the interviews is itself nearly as unnerving as other aspects of the film (q.v., below); 2)much more obviously, in the case of TTBL especially, the claim that Morris uses "all real-life sets, buildings, etc, just as they are in life" is a vast overstatement! Look at those endless restagings of the shootings, with the car, the milkshake cup, etc. taken from so many different angles, with such obviously stylized effects of lighting and setting! Here the hand of the P.D. has to be very obvious indeed! One might also suspect contributions in the use of various kinds of documentary "evidence" from news headlines to clips from Boston Blackie films, etc., etc. If ever a documentary showed evidence of design, this is it! Don Larsson ---------------------- Donald Larsson, Mankato State U (MN) [log in to unmask] ---- To sign off SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]