Ms. Platt was the “production designer” in Paper Moon and Last Picture Show. What does a production designer do?
Although some members of the team might not get started until later in the project, the production designer is working on the project from the very beginning.
As the head of the art department, the production designer is in charge of making sure each shooting location is perfect, prepared, and on point with the vision of the film. Film is a language of visual storytelling, and so the visuals captured by the camera matter immensely. Your locations, sets, costumes, lights, etc. all work together to create a world on screen, and this world is a crucial part of telling your film’s story.
Having an incredible script and cast of actors onboard won’t be enough if what the audience will be looking at doesn’t tell a cohesive story. That is why the production designer’s job starts during pre-production alongside the director and producer of the project: to take the writer’s work, the director’s vision, and the producer’s plan, and synthesizes them all into a compelling visual story.
Together, the pre-production team formulates ideas and plans for the visual context that will be used to tell a captivating story. This work includes deciding on colors, themes, compositions, and other visual elements that work best to evoke the emotions, themes, and actions of each scene and the project as a whole.
With their strong knowledge of art and design, including color theory, lighting, and more, the production designer will have a significant influence on the final look of the movie — and, indeed, on how the audience experiences the story.
It was PLATT who gave Bogdanovic the Addie Pray novel, PLATT who found “the road,” PLATT who designed all of the visuals, selected the music, the costumes (she was uncredited costume designer in both LPS and PM). Bogdanovic was not aware of the “ghostly images”, in Paper Moon, literally “never thought of that!”, didn't answer a specific question about the "lyrics" because he COULDN'T answer, didn't know anything about the operatic use of the song lyrics. It was all POLLY PLATT. SHE divorced him after he left her for Cybill Shepherd, who SHE discovered for LPS, for her. It was all Polly Platt. After she stopped making films for him (PM was their last), Bogdanovich's career went in the toilet. He declared bankruptcy TWICE. Bogdanovich was a swine.
I’m not going to post the Paper Moon celebration on May 9. Tatum O’Neal was exploited and emotionally abused by Bogdanovich and her father on this set. And the finished product was not Peter Bogdanovich’s but POLLY PLATT’s.
