Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1349602
1 4 P E R S P E C T I V E | M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 2 1 N E W S 25th Annual Art Directors Guild Awards for Lifetime Achievement Announced Set Designers, Model Makers and Previs Artists Craft Winner: Martha Johnston B Y D A V I D M O R O N G , E D I T O R A D G L I F E T I M E A C H I E V E M E N T AWA R D M A R T H A J O H N S T O N A D G L I F E T I M E A C H I E V E M E N T AWA R D M A R T H A J O H N S T O N A. MARTHA JOHNSTON WORKING AT UNIVERSAL ON BACK TO THE FUTURE 2. B. MODEL OF CAESAR'S TREEHOUSE FROM DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES. Martha Johnston began her career as a Set Designer as a summer job in 1976 following her third year of college at CSUN, where she was studying fi ne arts. Her father was a Set Designer at MGM (now Sony) on a feature called Comes a Horseman. Her fi rst assignment in the Art Department was to help build and decorate a dollhouse to be used in the movie. The Production Designer was George Jenkins and she was even able to do a little drawing for Mr. Jenkins a fi replace addition for his home with the help and advice of the many talented Set Designers in the MGM Art Department. Martha then had the good fortune to work in the Universal Art Department under the tutelage of Hank Meyer and was able to oin the union and work on TV shows such as Quincy M.D. and Little Women, continuing her fi ne arts studies at night until sure that she could make a career in Set Design. After her fi rst stint at niversal, Martha worked with Chuck Rosen at Warner Bros. Studios on The Main Event. She continued to learn her craft on the job, returning to Universal and working on various TV shows, as well as on Xanadu and Psycho II with John Corso, working her way up the Set Designer ladder from unior c,' b' and eventually a.' Her career continued with Pennies from Heaven with Ken Adam who called her "the girl," and at the beginning of the 1980s on Poltergeist with Jim Spencer and Bill Matthews. She eventually earned the nine thousand hours required to become a Senior Set Designer and got involved in committee work at the ADG to redefi ne Set Design categories. A B