Seeing the Creative Process at Work

The behind the scenes process that goes into the creation of visual art of any kind is interesting and exciting to me. I'll never forget the slow, loud clicking sound that traveled through the Akron Beacon Journal as the printing presses were started. The smell of the ink and the sight of the web of paper woven in and out of the cylinders was fun to watch everytime. What started as an idea translated into a design on my computer screen, went through many hands before ending with the final project in print.

It seems, very much the same in the production of a movie, except in a larger and lengthier scale. We've been very lucky in the Cleveland area to see that production, as major motion picture companies come here to film on location. The newest one in town is Marvel Comic's Captain America: Winter Soldier. The amount of work that went into one 34 second scene was incredible. A whole day of preparation the day before included cranes, tons of weight hovering over a usually busy interesection, piles of sand and a slew of camera crews, production assistants, and security to name a few. There was a director yelling "rolling," stunt people in protective clothing and loads of wardrobe carts being wheeled around for what must have been the extras, as this scene had no actors in it. I can only imagine that someone was monitoring for the perfect lighting affect, framing the scene to make the most visually interesting image, and checking that all the tools for recording were ready to roll for this crash scene. And this must just be the beginning, there's editing, animation and sound that need to be worked on to complete this creative project.

As an artist, I'm fascinated and appreciative of both the concept and the work and workers behind the scenes. It's nice to see Clevelanders gather around these location sets too, it seems that the creative process, at least behind the movie scenes, interests them as well. Can't wait to see what else we'll see.

*Photograph: Linear Perspectives on Location by Janet Pahlau

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