Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1507937
6 8 P E R S P E C T I V E | S E P T E M B E R / O C T O B E R 2 0 2 3 A. CONCEPT SKETCH FOR THE WARNER BROS. FILM HOTEL BY CARY ODELL. OPAQUE WATERCOLOR ON ILLUSTRATION BOARD. As demonstrated in this month's AFI Showcase, architectural drawing is foundational to the creative process of Production Design. Today, there are many digital tools to aid concept design development, but Production Designers and Illustrators originally relied entirely on their ability to render by hand. Featured here is a beautiful sketch created by Art Director Cary Odell depicting a sophisticalted wood-paneled office for the 1967 Warner Bros. feature Hotel. The rich opulence of this sketch alludes to the centrality of the set to the story of the film. The hotel acts as a central character of the narrative around which the plot unfolds. A once beautiful and elegant fixture in New Orleans, the hotel has seen better days and is struggling financially. Various forces are at play—from a petty burglar to a union organizer to a corporate hotel chain investor—all vying for the attention of the manager who strives to save the aging establishment. Cary Odell was born in Indiana in 1910. He began his career as a sketch artist at Columbia Pictures in 1935 and remained with Columbia until 1962. By 1937, he had been promoted to Art Director on Frank Capra's classic film, Lost Horizon. He worked as an Art Director and Production Designer for almost forty years and his credits include several notable films and TV series, including From Here to Eternity, Father Knows Best, The Partridge Family and Cool Hand Luke. He was a three-time Academy Award nominee for his work on Cover Girl (1944), Bell, Book and Candle (1958) and Seven Days in May (1964). He retired to Cambria, along the California Coast, where he was active in the community Allied Arts Association and continued to enjoy sketching and painting for the remainder of his life. RESHOOTS B Y L I S A C L A R K , A S S O C I AT E E D I T O R S E L E C T I O N S F R O M T H E A D G A R C H I V E S C O U RT E S Y O F T H E A D G C O L L E C T I O N S AT T H E M A R G A R E T H E R R I C K L I B R A RY, A . M .P. A .S . A