Production Design for The Life Aquatic

  Mark Friedberg was the Production Designer for the Life Aquatic.  Reading some of his interviews online, I discovered he has a great appreciation for detail which is why he understandably works well with Director Wes Anderson who is known for creating a very specific look and feel with his movies.

It’s not always about graphic representation,” he said at one point, noting that good production design includes “the ballpoint pens in the drawer of the desk that won’t even make it on camera.” Holding up the cap of his bottled water, he said that “this could be as important in a film as a whole cathedral you build,” illustrating how “design for film is not sitting in a room and coming up with grand ideas, like you’re in The Fountainhead—you can’t just leave the details to chance.” And, in keeping with that, “for the directors I want to work with, visual language is as important as the dialogue, or the music, or anything else going on, to tell the story.”

-Mark Friedberg, http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/culture/2012/03/5568823/production-designer-mark-friedberg-shares-secrets-making-cinematic-w


  Part of the visual design includes a very coherent color-scheme, an example of which is apparent in the frames above and below, and exists throughout the entire film.

  Notice the dull blues, contrasting with the red/orange of the hat and the apple.  This use of color makes items 'pop' within the scene, almost makes them more real in a sense.

  The sequence we've selected has a number of unique properties, including the use of stop-motion animation that is intended to give a surreal, almost fable-like atmosphere to the world created in this movie.  Not shown in our sequence, but used throughout the whole film almost as a character is the boat used by Captain Steve Zissou and his crew.  An elaborate cutaway was made as part of  Friedberg's and Anderson's vision, shown below.

   The actual ship used was a renovated WWII minesweeper.  All of these production choices help achieve a certain look and feel when it comes time begin shooting, and were specifically sought after by  Anderson.  Friedberg made the vision come to life, and continued to work with Wes Anderson on his subsequent films like the Darjeeling Limited.   The filmmakers had stated they were going for a Cousteauvian feel, and I think they maintained that.  What I love is that the set design and production design add to the narrative side of the film.  In this film, the main character played by Bill Murray is a washed-up oceanographer at the tail end of his career, and experiencing all the typical mid-life crisis emotions.  The set and props used are also are made to look outdated and worn.  In this way I think the production design of this particular film worked really well.