Worker Studio's Barry Kooser: Top 5 Production Design Picks - #1

Worker Studio's Chief Creative Officer,Barry Kooser was a background Artist and Supervisor for 11 years at Walt Disney Feature Animation, contributing to films such as as The Lion King, Mulan, Lilo & Stitch, and Brother Bear, among others.  He also ventured his painterly eye as a Fine Artist, exhibiting his work in galleries around the country. We're lucky to have this master artist inform Worker Studio's production design. We asked Barry what the Top 5 Production Designs that influenced his career in filmmaking are. As you'll see his influences range from classic Disney films to some of the most gorgeous live action films of the past 30 years. This is #1 in a series of posts.  

Background Art from Walt Disney's Lady and the Tramp 

# 1 Lady and the Tramp - Walt Disney (1955) 

Lady and the Tramp was the first animated film produced for CinemaScope, giving it a wide screen aesthetic unlike anything seen in animation. This gave the backgrounds a richly detailed feel, along with it's gracious use of painted light to evoke the film's moods. Disney used miniature models of the backgrounds, like the Victorian mansion where Lady lives, and used scaled figurines of the characters for artists to reference an authentic "dog's eye-view" of the surroundings. With producing the film in CinemaScope, the use of close-ups and cuts weren't as necessary for the characters to move in. Since fewer scenes were needed, artists could give loving attention to the backgrounds, filled to the brim with life and detail.

See more picks from Barry ...

Production Designs Pick #2

Production Designs Pick #3

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Production Designs Pick #4

Production Designs Pick #5

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