“Working Hollywood: Hitting the books for ‘Inception’”

You like art? Doing research? You might want to read this LA Times article:

Although Christopher Nolan’s big-budget psychological action movie “Inception” was shot in six countries, art department researcher Dominique Arcadio found much of what she needed to do her job within the aisles of the Los Angeles Public Library.

“For every film I’ve worked on, I’ve gotten at least 50 books out of the L.A. Public Library,” she said. “They’re very good about just letting you take out books that should really be reference books. It’s one of the best libraries that I’ve had a chance of using. I know all the rows by heart.”

For Arcadio, a day’s work can include collecting source images of rust to inspire the art department, looking into table etiquette circa AD 200 or interviewing employees of the U.S. Geological Survey.

“I’m kind of like a librarian,” she said. “I work closely with the production designer, the supervising art director and sometimes the set decorator and even the prop master. My role is basically to gather information as quickly as possible, especially in those first few weeks of preproduction. Usually by my third week on a project, I have over 10,000 images that relate to the set and the script breakdown that I’m given.”

How did Arcadio get her gig?

She worked her way up from intern to art department coordinator before noticing she was always volunteering to do the research.

“I’ve always loved being in libraries,” she said. “And eventually I realized, ‘Wow, this is a full-time job for some people. This is really cool.’”

Takeaway:

* Re screenwriting, it underscores the importance of research. Perhaps not as much research as someone like Arcadio does, but enough that your script comes across as authoritative and you create a ‘real’ story world.

* Movie credits typically last between 5–6 minutes with hundreds of names listed in the crawl. Each one of those names represents a job. Given your specific interests and passions, there are opportunities to work in Hwood other than screenwriting.

* While it’s fiercely competitive, the fact is thousands of internships exist in Hwood. Great way to break into the business.

Any GITS readers who work in the industry as researchers? If so, care to share any insights you have into the business?

To read about what Arcadio did in her work on Inception, read the rest of the LA Times article here.

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