ADG Perspective

January-February 2021

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1 1 8 P E R S P E C T I V E | J A N U A R Y / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 1 Sagal, and Norm was the hero of the day. After a few years of work designing his own television series (The Six Million Dollar Man, Logan's Run), some of Hollywood's best Production Designers began to call on him to help them as an Art Director on their feature fi lm projects. Al Brenner, Chuck Rosen and most notably Bob Boyle, sought him out. He excelled as usual, and became one of the most requested Art Directors, in between designing a dozen or so feature fi lms on his own. In the late 1980s, Universal called him again, this time to be the Executive Art Director and design director for Universal Creative. Under his leadership, an Art Department of fi lm designers and draftsmen created the Universal Studios Tour theme park in Orlando and a series of expansions and additional rides for the studio's fl agship Hollywood park. He stayed with the company and went on to supervise the designs for Universal Studios Japan, managing two Art Departments, one in Hollywood and one in Tokyo, simultaneously. When Universal moved the theme park division to Orlando in 2001, Norm turned down the invitation to move with them, and began to cast about for a new career after nearly fi fteen years away from mainstream fi lmmaking. Tentatively at fi rst, and then nearly full time, he dove into Art Direction for motion capture and became a specialist in digital technology. His work included the major examples of that emerging technology (The Polar Express, War of the Worlds, Beowulf and Avatar). Norm considered his primary role as translating the digital environments into physical green screen sets to enable the actors' performance to match the computer-generated sets. Modestly, he called the job "space wrangling." Explaining his role on Avatar, he said: "The director is holding a virtual camera seeing the 3D set...built by digital artists. Basically, I was managing the digital artists while making sure they delivered what James Cameron wanted onstage and that it worked in the fi lm." He was an active member of the Art Directors Guild, serving as the Guild's President and as a Board member for many years, and of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, serving on the Production Design Branch committee. In 2010, he shared the ADG Award for Excellence in Production Design with the Art Department of Avatar where he was credited as Virtual Production Art Director. In 2018, he received the Art Directors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award. After fi nally retiring, he continued to consult, teach and lecture on Art Direction, both analog and digital. Norm passed away at his home, after a short fi ght with cancer, on December 1, 2020. He is survived by his beloved wife of 52 years, Carolyn, their son Peter (Meghan) and grandchildren Grace, Lila and William their daughter Rebecca (Beth Kodluboy) fi ve siblings and many nieces and nephews. Norm was a generous man, sharing his knowledge and friendship with many. I will miss him. A. NORM WITH HIS WIFE CAROLYN. B. STILL FROM THE POLAR EXPRESS, ON WHICH NORM SERVED AS AN ART DIRECTOR. A B N O R M N E W B E R R Y C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 1 1 4

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