Art Director - The art director works with the production designer and is responsible for the design and construction of a movie set. They are essentially assistants to the production designer and help construct the "look" and "feel" of the movie.
The Art Director for this movie was David Lazan. He has worked on movies such as Training Day (2001) and Constantine (2005)
For American Beauty - Just a Couch Scene, I did:
For this scene I worked closely with the production designer and helped build the set. We designed this set to work with the mood during the scene. As we went about designing this particular scene we decided to go with a color palette that is more somber. This scene takes place in the living room of the house. We built the house and this scene with the feeling of lethargy. We place the red roses and the red truck in there for little pops of color. The red represents the physical life force, and right now he only has a little bit. There is a little bit of life in him and in the room we put the little bit of red to show that maybe he still has some life left in him.
We designed this set with the color palette of gray, cream and white, so when we added the red roses and the red truck they stand out and almost look out of place. Both of the characters are dressed to fit the room. The wardrobe designer put them in the same colors as the room. She wanted to have the characters seem like fit in with the set, almost blending in with the set. Everything in the scene is well put together. The room is clean, the floors shine, the couch and pillows are all perfectly set up to represent the feeling of him being trapped in suburbia. The only things that are out of place in this scene are his jacket and the beer bottle and food wrappers that he brought into the room. Everything else was strategically placed and meticulously put in its proper spot.The house was meant to look cold and uninviting, as their lives have changed and they have both in a way become cold. They almost begin to blend in with their house.
