There's a cynicism that's seeped its way into the majority of modern science fiction. Our futures have become dystopian, apocalyptic,
totalitarian, and not much else. That sense of optimism
that's so integral to the genre is rare to find these days -
which is why Spike Jonze portrayal of a brighter future in his 2013 sci-fi love story "Her" was so refreshing. It brought a
humanity and a warmth back to technology and depicted a time not too distant from our own
that's worth aspiring to. And one of the driving forces behind this lighter vision of the future was production designer KK Barrett.
And if you're not familiar with the role of a production designer,
they're essentially the head of the various departments that are all responsible for helping to define a uniform visual aesthetic for the film.
KK has worked on a number of Spike Jonze projects as well as Sofia Coppola's "Lost in Translation" -
which is another link that makes that film such a great companion piece to "Her" - and his approach to capturing Tokyo's vast, technological
playground in that film was the same when designing this futuristic Los Angeles.
He said it was all about choosing the right fragments of this massive available palette to represent cacophony off-screen, a visual theme inspired by Japanese
photographer Rinko Kawauchi whose images illustrate everyday life through these quiet slivers of a much larger narrative
But the goal being to build a future
That's rich
And distinct, that still leaves much to the imagination.
You give the world a parallel story of its own that informs the characters as much as the dialogue,
conveying the bigger picture in as little as 5 or 6 set pieces. And to achieve that same sense of scale of "Lost in
Translation's" urban landscapes they took LA's modest parabolic skyline and augmented it with CG composites of
Shanghainese skyscrapers creating an amalgamation of downtown Los Angeles and
Shanghai hyper-modern pudong district where the majority of her was filmed and
collaging these two cities via visual effects allow the LA
exteriors to match the density of the footage shot in Shanghai so in montage we can cut from the Lujiazui
Pedestrian bridge in Shanghai to this shot outside the Disney Concert Hall in LA to the Shanghai la hybrid composite skyline to the CG
747 art installation outside the Pacific Design Center all without breaking the illusion that is one single seamless
Sprawling future metropolis, but not all the city was manipulated with the effects both Theodore and Amy's homes
Which are just redressed versions of the same apartment filmed on location at the watermark tower have windows facing
northeastward into LA's financial district
And it's an honest view of the city that just appears more dense than it actually is due to the overlapping nature of those few
buildings and the decision was made to forego green-screen windows so that
cinematographer Hoyt Avon Hoyt Tama could install large mirrors on the helicopter platforms the adjacent buildings
To bounce back sunlight into the apartment giving it a much warmer more naturalistic quality than what could have been done with
Isolated said and her does away with all the cold mono chromatic tones typically associated with the future in favor of a Jamba Juice
inspired aesthetic with blue tones being very sparse and usually a soft - saturated shade as you can see here at the beach or
Here at Catalina Island with the colors of the sky and the ocean being
Completely washed out
Even light emitted from computer monitors and phones is much warmer and more inviting than what's commonly used in film and there's a textural property
To the technology of her that you don't often see in sci-fi with its paper and cloth and wood and glass
Pastels and incandescent bulbs technologies advance to the point where it no longer needs to prove its
sophistication in its design with cellphones looking less like sleek Apple products and more like a cigarette case or a business card holder from the
20s the computers
Which were made up of wood and canvas with no mouse or keyboard are more akin to a frame piece of artwork
than a window into digital entertainment
Advertising is text-less, brand-less and visually subjective
Life exists on elevated walkways outside of billboards and traffic or any cars for that matter
It's a simpler future and that's also reflected in the costume design especially with Theodore's wardrobe with its absence of denim and collars
Belts ties and baseball caps it's a subtle
evolution of fashion that draws more from the past
As fashion trends often do and that's what I love so much about her rather than trying to forecast
innovation or technological progress it draws from the past to be more relatable in the present a vintage quality that makes you feel
Almost nostalgic for the future. It is very important to us not to celebrate design advance by looking at
technological items that date a film data story nor
Have it be about that it was about characters the film is about the human experience and our relationship with technology
Not about what the technology is or what it does
We're too caught up in how our world will change for the worst rather than how we will stay the same
Her gives us a glimpse at a lighthearted more hopeful future
Where characters are free to resolve their interpersonal conflicts and experience life without being oppressed by those dystopian or apocalyptic
or totalitarian environments
Which is why 10 20 or even 50 years from now her won't look like a dated vision of the future just a charming
Alternate reality where people cleaned up their lives and finally got their shit together
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