Dizzying feats of movie design

Without the contributions of production designers, filmmakers would be hard-pressed to bring their visions to fruition. So when a director discovers a production designer who shares his or her dream, that director tends to use the designer on project after project.

Thus, when Clint Eastwood goes into production on a film, he relies on 89-year-old Oscar-winning veteran Henry Bumstead to create the fully realized world for his characters to inhabit. Bumstead is one of the legendary production designers who will be on hand to discuss their craft during the Art Directors & Production Designers Festival from Friday through next Sunday at the American Cinematheque’s Egyptian Theatre.

Presented in association with the Art Directors Guild, Bumstead on Friday will talk about Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 thriller, “Vertigo.” On Saturday, Harold Michelson will discuss 1979’s “Star Trek: The Motion Picture,” followed by William Creber reminiscing about 1972’s “The Poseidon Adventure.”

Sunday’s programs feature Robert Boyle chatting about his collaboration with director Norman Jewison on 1971’s “Fiddler on the Roof” and Gene Allen discussing 1954’s “A Star Is Born,” the first of several films he made with director George Cukor.

Bumstead, who won Oscars for 1962’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” and 1973’s “The Sting,” made four pictures with “master of suspense” Hitchcock, including the director’s last film, 1976’s “Family Plot.”

“The first picture I did with Hitch was ‘The Man Who Knew Too Much,’ ” Bumstead recalls. “I was doing a picture called ‘The Vagabond King’ with director Michael Curtiz. I didn’t pay too much attention, but the cameraman on the picture was Bob Burks, who was Hitchcock’s cameraman. Hitch said to him one day, ‘Do you know any art directors you think I would like to work with?’ He said, ‘I am working with one now.’ Hitch said, ‘Send him up.’ ”

Making ‘Vertigo’

Even 50 years after he was first hired by Hitchcock, Bumstead admits that he never before “in my wildest dreams, and I was quite young then, thought I would be working with Alfred Hitchcock. Hitch had a few things on every picture that he was demanding about. Then the rest was up to you. If he didn’t like you, he would let you go. Luckily, I pleased him.”

The exteriors for the romantic thriller “Vertigo,” which starred James Stewart and Kim Novak, were shot on location in San Francisco, but the interiors were all filmed on Paramount sound stages. “Hitchcock liked the comfort of the stage,” recalls Bumstead. “He had more control and thought he could get better scenes. Doing sets in the studio, you have all the facilities right there. I had a good construction foreman, and it made the job much easier for me. I am a stickler for detail; it’s much easier to do it on the stage.”

Bumstead also collaborated with Hitchcock off set. “I did a lot of work for Hitch at his home in Bel-Air and at his home in Santa Cruz, which was up on a hill,” he says.

Allen, 86, got his first big break -- and Oscar nomination -- on “A Star Is Born,” the opulent musical that starred Judy Garland and James Mason. Fired as a sketch artist from Fox, Allen got a job at Warner Bros. in the same capacity on “Star,” where he quickly impressed Cukor.

“I had some brilliant idea and Cukor liked it,” says Allen, who won the Oscar for 1964’s “My Fair Lady” and is a former president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. “I worked for him for the next 18 years.”

During the production, Allen was promoted from sketch artist to assistant art director to art director. Allen says he was on the set for every shot of “Star.”

“I was there preproduction and during production and postproduction. He wanted me around at all times. So I had to do my designing of the sets and all with a good assistant.” Allen also designed the shots.

Allen had aspirations to become a director. He recalls “My Fair Lady” star Audrey Hepburn telling him, “Gene, when you do your first picture, remember me.” But his dream never became a reality. “I stayed with Cukor too long. Also it’s a seven-day, seven-night job when you are a director. And I had a wife and two boys....”

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Art Directors & Production Designers Festival

Where: American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd.

When: Friday through next Sunday

Price: $9 general, $8 seniors and students $6 for Cinematheque members

Contact: (323) 466-FILM or www.americancinematheque.com

Schedule

Friday: “Vertigo,” 7:30 p.m.

Saturday: “Star Trek: The Motion Picture,” 2 p.m.; “The Poseidon Adventure,” 5 p.m.; “Diamonds Are Forever,” 8 p.m.

Next Sunday: “Fiddler on the Roof,” 2 p.m.; “A Star Is Born,” 6 p.m.