THE ART DIRECTOR

Set decorator Peter Howitt, whose previous films include “Braveheart” and “Mission: Impossible,” is up for his seventh Oscar nomination. Art director John Myhre, whose credits include “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” and “Immortal Beloved,” is nominated for the first time. “Elizabeth,” shot on location in Newcastle, England, was their first collaboration. Howitt was interviewed by phone from London. Myhre was interviewed in Los Angeles.

Describe what you do

Myhre: I have the best job in the whole world. I’ve always loved movies and architecture. The art director picks the settings and the architecture theme. On a film like “Elizabeth,” the settings really became characters in the film. Whitehall Palace is a character . . . It protected Elizabeth, and it also threw her to the dogs. . . . Part of what I do in a film is to establish an atmosphere that will complement or contrast with the emotions of the film . . . When I interviewed with [director] Shekhar [Kapur], I didn’t talk about the architecture or the pretty furniture. I talked to him about the emotion of the film, about fires and candles burning, and he was looking to do the same thing.

Howitt: If it’s a period picture, you really have to start by getting your references together, like how they lived, how they ate and how they walked . . . You have to be armed with the correct information of the period and the knowledge of what it really was like.

Lighting was very important. We had thousands of candles, and they had to be made specially, because in those days they were yellow and made of beeswax.

We filmed in all of these monstrous Gothic palaces, but the Gothic [era] was long after our film . . . But Shekhar maintained that this was an entertainment film and that we didn’t have to follow the exact period [protocol]. For example, in Elizabethan times no one was allowed into the queen’s bedroom--no one. But [in the film] he just cut completely around that.

What was the biggest challenge?

Howitt: The battle scene was very difficult because we had to cope with doing it on such a grand scale. . . . The burning scene was difficult as well because I had four sets going at the same time. And I had other sets being prepared in other castles at the same time.

What scenes best show what you do?

Myhre: The sequences inside Whitehall Palace. What Shekhar and I tried to do was to create an atmosphere of conspiracy and intrigue. My favorite sequences are when we are able to capture that . . . when we are shooting from above, or through a window or a hallway those shots became part of the design.

We went after this Norman style of architecture, which was a very heavy architecture [and preceded the Elizabethan era]. We found that the Tudor style of architecture was too small, and we really wanted to have the cavernous feeling to the palace. As an American, you dream of beautiful young princesses becoming beautiful queens living in beautiful castles, when in fact Elizabeth didn’t know if she was going to live or die from one day to the next. She was taken from a beautiful country setting and thrown into the Tower of London. We wanted to make it seem like she lived in a dank and stinky prison. We also wanted to convey this idea that Elizabeth was never alone. There are no doors to her bedchamber. Even when she was alone, I wanted the audience to feel she wasn’t alone, so we had the motif of statuary where these statues would seem to be listening and watching her.

What will an Oscar mean for your career?

Myhre: I’ve dreamed about going to the Academy Awards since I was a kid, and to actually realize that I get to go and sit down in front is pretty amazing. The nomination has been very good for me and my career. I’ve taken a less commercial route [in making films], and it’s all obviously paid off. Every so often you think, “Gee, am I going about this the wrong way?” So it’s nice that I can say, “Hey, you’ve done OK.”