ABSTRACT
An art director’s initial relationship to the production designer is as intense and short-lived as most film project relationships. Anyone who has experienced summer camp as a child understands this dynamic. First encounters on a new film project are driven by the personal need to establish a sense of belonging to a special group, your department, and a political need to define one’s place in the psychological hierarchy of the film. The bond between the prime art department figureheads-the PD and the AD-is forged by these human forces and compels the art director to fulfill first responsibilities.
