K.K. Barrett [Production Designer, Art Director, Musician]

By: Julian Chavez | June 25, 2010 | Ten by Ten

Keith “K.K.” Barrett is the award-winning production designer behind several Oscar-nominated films including Spike Jonze’s 2009 masterpiece Where the Wild Things Are and Sofia Coppola’s historical fable Marie Antoinette. His visual brilliance is responsible for the look and feel of cinematic classics such as Adaptation, I Heart Huckabees, Human Nature, Lost in Translation and Being John Malkovich.

What inspired you to work in the entertainment business?
There are so many facets to filmmaking that I seemed to be involved with already: photography, art, music — these were things I was always doing since I was a kid, so it seemed inevitable that I would end up in the one arts discipline that entertained them all. When I fell into it — and I did —  it was as if there was a license to invent your own way and fake your way uphill until you catch yourself not faking anymore. It is play-acting after all. I think that still exists. And clown school was full.

In one or two sentences, how would you describe the current state of the industry?
If we are talking about film, it seems very conservative. Stories are taken incestuously from other films or TV. There are fewer original ideas. Films look like other films, plot like other films, sound like other films, are forgotten like other films. Where are the prime numbers of film, the new basic patents, the celebration of originality over well-done repetitive craft? At the same time, it has never been easier to make a film with a video camera — a really good looking and sounding film. Yet [there are] fewer avenues for release.

In your opinion what constitutes great storytelling?
Being able to generate with unique characters and settings the same feelings as falling in love; the delirium that causes you to move forward into the unknown — possibly afraid and yet not caring because you care so much; touching the common heart that we share with characters who are outside our comfort zone and forced to grow.

What contemporary artists do you admire and why?

Karen O, songwriter, performer. She just tickles me. She is tough and loud, and intensely quiet and heartfelt.

Jennifer Jason Leigh, the mysterious soulful actress we see far too little of. She is so honestly open.

Oscar Niemeyer, an architect of sensuous shapes that look like tomorrow, yet he is a contemporary at 102 years old.

Peter Fischli and David Weiss, visual artists who constantly reinvent themselves with a delicate balance of intellect and humor. They should run a film studio.

Please list your top five films of the decade and why?
I chose films that opened my eyes not just massaged them. I liked 100 films, but inspiration is more precious:

Oasis by Lee Chang-Dong, as well as Peppermint Candy. I felt like I had discovered the new Korean Cassavetes-dogma. Human, raw and done for nothing.

Let the Right One In. Somehow I expected nothing and was taken to a cold new world. The casting/acting was honest and innocent, never evil.

Birth. The character’s dilemma portrayed a quiet, dual self-induced hysteria. It was beautifully shot, and alternately boiled over or was on “stun.”

City of God. Best action movie, frightening, touching, ugly, cool.

Mulholland Highway. Storytelling without reins. I don’t think literally or linearly all the time. In my sleep, there is beautiful abstraction.

What do you consider your greatest career achievement?
Being lucky enough to work with a number of personal filmmakers who care infinitely about the projects they do and the people who work with them.

What do you consider your greatest career failure?
Being so picky about projects that I have only completed, on average, a film every two years. I should have taken the chance to fail more often.

What do you believe is the biggest problem currently facing the entertainment business?
Hopefully there is no problem; it is just morphing as it has always done, contracting into a black hole (as the music business has) only to burst redefined out the other side.

What new technology currently having an impact on your industry are you most excited about and why? What technology are you most afraid of and why?
We are in the age of the self-made film — the equivalent is what the home computer studio brought to music. All new technology has a consumer parallel that makes anyone a potential filmmaker. Technology advancing is inevitable. You can’t be afraid of the inevitable. You can only embrace it.

What is the best career advice you’ve ever received, and who gave it to you?
That you can be most constructive when you are already busy.  When idle, it’s harder to get things done than when already overwhelmed. My father said that.

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