Coming from a writer that covers different art, I strongly believe that set designers or art directors in big-budget production films are crucial. A good work of a set designer, once the show opens, in big-budget films is an essential “digging the dirt“ very complex business. Just think about all the fantastic film layouts, grand, magnificent set designs that simply take over the story. With big films, a good design set that takes on every single aspect of the production needs to run just as the set designer intended or everything falls apart. We do not see the space in the film that goes through many phases, but the set designer does, depending of course from an estimate of the set that in Hollywood movies cost millions of dollars. Now we are talking about really big budgets. This is the person who decides about the visuals of the film, he or she is the one who approves (or rejects) other designs too. Set designers tend to be artistic individuals, creative, intuitive, sensitive, articulate, expressive, but just enough to do not take over the central story of the film. Hmm…right away just think about the most exciting sets in the Hollywood industry that stayed in your memory. For instance, I am thinking about Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, I will always remember the magnificent house set on the hill, just above the Bates motel or the Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shinning“ and fabulous setting of the hotel, that most likely is, in real life, a little different from the movie set, but we do remember Johnny plotting with resident ghost bartender film set. Unforgettable! All that work was done by the art director/set designer and a good set design costs a great deal of money. So yes, the set designers in big-budget films are very important because how the set looks stay in people’s minds forever. Set designers must be unstructured, original, and nonconforming, those are set designer’s features for all ultimate good time films.
All this it is believed that is true for Miljen Kljaković – Kreka a Hollywood set designer who actually grew up and studied in Belgrade, but for a while, lived in Hollywood. In the documentary film„Kreka – The Dreamcatcher (Kreka-Lovac na snove)“ directed by Slobodan Ivetic, Kreka is an adventurous, ambitious, and extroverted personality. His exceptional energy helped him to work with Hollywood Oscar winners, there, including Johnny Depp, Vittorio Storaro, Barry Levinson, Brian Helgeland, Matti Leshem, Ridley Scott, Sergio Mimica – Gezzan, Ken Follet, Rola Bauer, Jerry Lewis etc… All of them gathered together in one documentary that actually talks about Miljen Kljaković – Kreka. The documentary is directed by Serbian film director Slobodan Ivetic and talks about a good film design and Kreka being an enthusiastic, confident, and optimistic and by now the winner of numerous awards, including the French Film Academy Award and the European Film Academy Award for the film“Delicatessen“ and the Yugoslavian Academy Award for his work on Kusturica’s „Underground“. He was nominated for Primetime Emmy Award for his work on „Rasputin“ and for an Art Directors Guild Excellence in Production award for „Helen of Troy“. This documentary film reveals all the importance of film scenography. The production designer who gave an invaluable contribution to a local and world film creation, with his story, along with previously unpublished materials from his personal archive, where he talks directly to Johnny Depp or Ridley Scott, in the conversations with the most eminent authors of the film today, that reveals elusive moments hidden behind the film camera. „Kreka – The Dreamcatcher (Kreka-Lovac na snove)“ directed by Serbian filmmaker Slobodan Ivetic is a dream journey through the magnificent world of film decors of a man who turns the illusion into reality. „Each film is different and has its own specific path and dynamics that depend on its weight and complexity. Films from the era usually require longer and more serious preparations, which is normal, in order to better understand the historical moment and the moment that the film’s story is about. It is similar to science fiction movies. When it comes to the process of working on making film decor, it is always the same. It starts from the basic, adopted idea, which is usually presented by the author’s sketches and drawings, which are further technically elaborated and finally transferred to space as such. The quality and beauty of the executed decor, mainly depend on the imagination and experience of its author. Each setting must basically have a very clear concept within which adequate film solutions are sought and found, which will adequately contribute to the visual quality of each film square. This is the significance of a set designer as a film profession“, explained Kreka.
Kreka – The Dreamcatcher trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDtyxfKyBx0
Kljakovic has worked as production designer or art director on over thirty feature films, and some of those were big-budget Hollywood films, there, including „Talisman“, „Species II“, „Rasputin“, „Arizona Dream“, „Hard to Swallow“, „Legend and Life of Ernest Hemingway“ and „Four Men in October“etc…
You can check all design set of Miljen Kljaković – Kreka in a short film overview
http://www.miljenkrekakljakovic.com/video.php
Slobodan Ivetic the director of documentary about Kreka directed 11 short feature and documentary films, including: „Stop The World“, „I Want To Get Off“, „Flowers Of The Concrete“, „Picassso’s Will“, „She And She“, „Houses Alfort“, „Visit To The Zoo“ and „Modigliani“.