Magical History Tour – 
Production Design

The "eye of the director" – that's Ken Adams's pithy description of the function of the production designer (who is referred to variously as set designer or scenographer, depending on the production company, country, or period), who takes responsibility for a broad range of different tasks, starting with the conceptual visualization of the script and taking in the design of the cinematic universe all the way to creation and implementation of the interiors and exteriors. The work of the production designer doesn't just leave its mark on the look of a film, but also on its atmosphere and mood and not just in design-intensive genre films. Despite being impossible to overlook, the key contribution made by production design to the all-embracing nature of cinematic art is too seldom recognized. All the more reason then to dedicate the summer edition of the Magical History Tour to the quite literally multiform world of production design.