Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1490572
J A N U A R Y / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 | P E R S P E C T I V E 1 2 9 his stories of his studio days in the Fox Art Department drafting room, his time with Dean Tavoularis and Francis Ford Coppola shooting in the Philippine jungle of Apocalypse Now, the colorful spectacle of One From the Heart, and his first Oscar nomination as Art Director for The Natural. Early on, with each film, he would hand me a stack of white tracing paper sheets, edges precisely torn to varying lengths with the edge of a triangular architectural scale. Each sheet of paper containing loosely drawn plans and elevations, both evocative and accurately scaled, for each set to be built for the film. The layering of spaces and elements, the detail and character all richly conveyed in his lines, with every angle and view he chose keeping a film camera lens in mind. He created his loose sketches in a fine-line black marker with deliberate confidence. Each seemingly errant mark was eventually revealed to contribute to the image he wished to convey. His measured construction drawings were invariably crafted with a soft Tombow pencil, one I cannot ever recall seeing him sharpen. While his pencil point was always a chiseled nub, he worked it beautifully across the paper to make his intended marks. Where most use lines to express limits—the edge of a wall or the string for a dimension, Jimmy's lines conveyed potential. You won't find his decades of work on any hard drive or cloud. His prolific career is lying flat and stacked, originals only, deep in the recesses of studio archives all over Los Angeles. And of course on screen, with films like Changeling, Gran Torino, Invictus, Hereafter, J. Edgar, Jersey Boys, American Sniper and Sully. A. AMERCIAN SNIPER. 2014. PRODUCTION STILL. B. WATER LANDING FROM SULLY, 2016. PRODUCTION STILL. A B