Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1332040
J A N U A R Y / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 1 | P E R S P E C T I V E 9 C O N T R I B U T O R S F E L I C I T Y A B B O T T recently completed the BBC/Working Title UK production of The Luminaries. An epic story of love, murder and revenge, the six- part miniseries is an adaptation of Eleanor Catton's Man Booker prize-winning novel set during New Zealand's 1860s goldrush. Her previous work includes Ladies in Black, a tale set in the summer of 1959 from director Bruce Beresford and the period film The Outlaw Michael Howe for which she won the Australian Production Design Guild (APDG) Award for Best Production Design in 2014. She was also nominated for Best Production Design by the Australia Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) for the Blumhouse sci-fi action thriller Upgrade. A professional member of the British Film Designers Guild (BFDG), The US Art Directors Guild (ADG) and the Australian Production Design Guild (APDG), Felicity is a graduate of the Australian Film Television and Radio School (MA Hons) and Elam School of Fine Art, The University of Auckland, New Zealand (BFA). She studied classical design at the French national film school La Fémis in Paris as part of her master's program. M A Y N E B E R K E ' S credits as a Production Designer include The Outlaw Johnny Black, Sylvie's Love, Unbroken: Path to Redemtion, directed by Harold Cronk, The Trap, directed by Eric White and starring Mike Epps, TI and Queen Latifah, the show Lopez, directed by Troy Miller, starring George Lopez, Waking Madison, directed by Katherine Brooks and starring Elizabeth Shue and Taryn Manning, Something New, directed by Sanaa Hamri, starring Sanaa Latham and Simon Baker, Taxi, directed by Tim Story, starring ueen Latifah and Jimmy Fallon, S.W.A.T., directed by Clark Johnson, starring Colin Farrell and Samuel L. Jackson, The Princess Diaries, directed by Garry Marshall, starring Julie Andrews and Anne Hathway. Rock Star, directed by Stephen Herek, starring Mark Wahlberg and Jennifer Aniston, 15 Minutes, directed by John Herzfeld and starring Robert De Niro and Edward Burns, Jack Frost, directed by Troy Miller, starring Michael Keaton and Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, directed by David Mirkin, starring Lisa Kudrow and Mira Sorvino. He also designed the acclaimed HBO original film Don King: Only in America, and the Clio Award- winning Levi's Elevator Fantasy commercial, directed by Michael Bay. D O N A L D G R A H A M B U R T is a Production Designer who lives in Los Angeles having moved to the West Coast in 1981. He began working in the film industry in 1980 almost exclusively on commercials and videos. Since then, he has designed for commercials, episodic and feature films. He sees his job as creatively contributing to and serving both the story and the director's vision while desiring to draw as little attention as possible to himself. C A Y L A H E D D L E B L U T E It's the unknown and unwritten future that beckons. With urgency. To be in the present. And lock on to the future. Far more captivating. All consuming. A reach for that starlight twinkling on the barent shoals. An unpredictable past helps one prepare for a future never imagined. Navigating a career in the Art Department of the film industry has proved an illuminating asset. Never having a steady gig, a lifetime making that choice, helps one weather chaos. From the altered state of sleepless months, sometimes years bringing the vision of a production into sharp focus, to the quiet phone of the in-between times. Those lucid transitions keep one's dreams awake. Having creative pursuits and the energy for the other life, the life lived between the crashing waves. These skills developed over years have been a great set of steadying anchors to survive the current tumult.To create opportunity in the face of dynamic change. To be listening, watching, acting upon each day. To cultivate the ability to adapt, to be nimble, to have tensile strength. To always be learning. To be vigilant and steady. To create our own new normal. To the future. Working in film has been an exceptional teacher. What good fortune to have had so much practice!