SheltonDesigns: 2017

Friday, June 30, 2017

More old family movie treasures...

My great uncle, Gene Widhoff, had a long history doing artwork for films back in the early days. He was affiliated for many years with R.K.O. Radio Pictures, then went on to work for other studios. My father grew up eagerly looking for Gene's movie star portraits and posters when walking by movie theaters. The studio art departments would photograph the work in different layouts for varying poster sizes. Unfortunately, you don't always get to see the poster artist's signature due to this.

Recently, I was fortunate enough to come across a signed poster Gene had done that was up for auction in time to bid on it.

The film, originally titled "Men are Such Fools", was a Pre-Code drama directed by William Nigh and was released in 1932 (or so I'm told by Wikipedia). It starred Leo Carrillo, Vivienne Osborne, Una Merkel and Jos. Hawthorn.

The poster being auctioned has an interesting story: 16 years after its original release, the film was re-released in 1948, with the new title: "Prison Bait". Apparently, the studio either had a bunch of the old posters still in their possession or had them re-printed from Gene's old artwork, but in any event, they screen printed the new title atop the old one in a larger format, covering the names of the top 3 billed actors as well as the air space over the cover girl's head.

Here is a shot of the original poster as it looked in 1932, followed by the version with the new title which is now happily framed and in my possession, 85 odd years after its journey began!

Finding old family movie treasures... the "Ragtime" flip book sketches

Spending time going through old boxes at my studio, I came across the original sketches my father (Richard T. Shelton) had done that were photographed and made into the flip book featured in the film "Ragtime" (1981). Dad was a stand-by scenic artist on that film, directed by Milos Forman.

Here's a link of how the book was featured in the film, with a little selection of the sketches below!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQe7m5XpQKE

Friday, May 19, 2017

"Homeland: Season 6- New York City"

From July of 2016 until March of 2017, I worked as one of two assistant designers to the delightful Katina LeKerr, who has designed every season of this politically charged television show. I did 12 episodes and was credited as costume designer in addition to KLK on episode 612, although Katina truly is the designer "behind the curtain" on this show. There are many television shows where the designers are pulled in various directions by other projects but not Ms. LeKerr. She keeps a laser like focus on getting this done beautifully and as in all shows these days, with no time to spare. Her awareness of how to artfully balance the aesthetic of the show with the sometimes diverse wishes of a bi-coastal group of writers, directors and producers is a marvel to witness.

The baseline crew of producers, writers and designers on this show are extraordinary. The writing kept me at the edge of my seat as we scanned everything from treatments to the finished scripts, which were updated at lightning speeds. In my opinion, episodic shows of this nature can be the hardest sort of work in show business. My hat is off to the HL gang as they prepare to move along to an expected two more seasons, having shot down south, in South Africa and Germany before their NY stint. Our local NY costume crew were just great as well, if a little sleep deprived!

My domain for the most part on HL6 was dealing with the background performers in everything from sending out research of the look of the clothing people should bring to approving final looks. There is a long established, very limited palette to the show. Your eye is drawn to the faces of the actors as the colors are generally so muted, neutral and dark. It is television with the sensibility of a carefully crafted film. No scenery chewing via costume. Whenever I'd get the yen to add a little dash of color to someone in a crowd (if a BG artist brought something of great character, perfect for a neighborhood type), we'd do our line up of everyone who would appear together and inevitably, I'd have to swap that look out something that was perhaps less fun, but in keeping with the show's sensibility. On the rare occasion someone managed to sneak in without being approved, they would stand out, even if the tone of their clothing was simply too light and they weren't colorful at all. That's "Homeland" for you. It was our parallel universe- in our world, a female was the President Elect. Friends of mine texted me one Saturday to see if I'd meet them at a protest and I had to demur as we were dressing 450 odd people for a protest scene on the show. Can't protest because we're playing it on TV!

A small selection of some of the types we did in addition to folks in their civvies:

A gang for surveillance photos...