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LMGI COMPASS
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Summer 2021
The Production Designer
Like Doyle, production designer Donald Graham Burt got his first
job after college working in a scenic warehouse.
"My career and Bill's were sort of running in parallel in the sense
that we each ended up being runners, which is how we both got
to know the city of Los Angeles," says Burt. "There's nothing like
being in a truck and driving all over L.A. trying to find things to
give one a sense of the city."
Doyle and Burt initially met on Benjamin Button and the two had
a great rapport by the time Mank got on its feet.
"We have that ability to look at each other across a room and
know instantly what the other is thinking, so it's great," says Burt.
Burt recalled a moment early on in prep when Fincher came
into his office with a box of photographs. "They had taken a lot of
pictures when they were doing some surveying in the late '90s," he
says, "and what you realized as you were looking at these photos
was how quickly things change. There were so many locations
that were just gone … places that I knew like Perino's Restaurant
on Wilshire … The Brown Derby … The Ambassador Hotel. It was
kind of shocking."
Shocking and challenging. With all that change, you might realize
that the amazing 1920s location you just found is now directly
across the street from a modern glass and steel structure. That's
where having someone like Fincher leading the charge is key.
"He's basically his own VFX supervisor," says Doyle. "We do
have Peter Mavromates, who's also a co-producer on the film, and
works as the post supervisor/VFX producer, but Fincher is the guy
who knows what he needs to make something work and he frames
his shots in such a precise way that it's actually very freeing."
Fincher's film plays out on two timelines, with Mank at a
bungalow in Victorville writing "American," the first draft of what
would become Kane, while flashing back to show his life in the
