美国国家公共电台 NPR She Designed Wakanda — And Might Win An Oscar For It

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Marvel¹'s "Black Panther" is up for seven Academy Awards on Sunday. It is the first superhero movie nominated for best picture.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BLACK PANTHER")

CHADWICK BOSEMAN: (As Black Panther) Wakanda forever.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters) Wakanda forever.

GREENE: The woman who helped create the cinematic world of Wakanda is Hannah Beachler. She's the first African-American ever nominated for an Oscar for production design, and NPR's Mandalit del Barco has more.

MANDALIT DEL BARCO, BYLINE²: The Black Panther is T'Challa, king of Wakanda, a fictional³ African country that was never colonized⁴, rich in tradition and advanced technology. The movie's director, Ryan Coogler, says he wanted Wakanda to look and feel authentic⁵. So he called on his longtime production designer Hannah Beachler. She says they traveled around Africa researching cultures, scouting⁶ locations and collecting ideas.

HANNAH BEACHLER: The rocks, the moss⁷ on the rocks, like, how the rocks were formed, how they were layered, the color of them. Everything around me that was nature I took pictures of.

DEL BARCO: Beachler also took note of the styles of architecture, clothing, food, transportation and ways of life. She incorporated these aesthetics⁸ with concepts from the original Marvel Comics created by Stan Lee and Jack⁹ Kirby. And Beachler came up with a history and production guidebook for Wakanda, what she calls a bible, for the movie.

BEACHLER: To get to the design, I had to come up with stories about why this would particularly be there. Was it always there, and where did it come - did it move? So that's where we started.

DEL BARCO: Beachler considered not just the design but the histories of Wakanda's buildings, its epic¹⁰ waterfalls, its weapons and gadgets¹¹. She designed a throne room with suspended birch logs, a pristine¹² high-tech¹³ design lab. She imagined the backstory of vibranium, the potent¹⁴ and virtually indestructible element powering Wakanda. In the movie's DVD commentary, Coogler talks with Beachler about creating this vision.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

RYAN COOGLER: That's something that Hannah wanted Wakanda to fill all - we wanted to fill the history on it. And Hannah, you know, worked on a - how many pages was that bible that you made?

BEACHLER: Five hundred and fifteen.

COOGLER: (Laughter) Five hundred and fifteen.

BEACHLER: It ended up being 515.

DEL BARCO: Beachler made other production bibles for Coogler when she did the production design for his 2013 movie "Fruitvale Station" set in his hometown Oakland, Calif., and a bible for the boxing world of Coogler's 2015 movie "Creed¹⁵." This time, the director says his friend's work included making the Black Panther's aircraft called a Royal Talon¹⁶ Fighter.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

COOGLER: Hannah kind of designed it to look like a mask from the top down. One thing that I really like is, on the bottom, we've got these sonic things. And they kind of remind me of subwoofers. You know, you see it kind of...

(LAUGHTER)

BEACHLER: Yeah. Exactly, exactly.

DOMINIC BEACHLER: They are phenomenal together. They're, like, brother and sister, honestly.

DEL BARCO: Beachler's 20-year-old son Dominic marvels¹⁷ at his mother's working partnership¹⁸ with Coogler. As a huge Marvel fan, Dominic says he was excited to help her prep for the movie.

BEACHLER: And I just started teaching my mom everything I knew about Black Panther and how important of a character he is to African-Americans and to the diversity that Stan Lee helped bring into comics. I did say you better get it right. I'm a huge nerd, and I wanted her to get it right. And I think she did. I think she did a great job with it.

DEL BARCO: Dominic says building movie worlds comes naturally to his mother. Beachler grew up in Ohio with an interior designer mother and a father who was an architect.

BEACHLER: You know, my mom would change the house every year depending on what the mood was. The color palette constantly changing, the furniture changing, the paintings - like, you're constantly watching the rooms morph. You know what I mean? Like, I picked up very much my mom and dad's ability to go into an empty space or a raw space or a space that's not even there and then see all of it 'cause I was - would go with my dad to construction sites since I was 6.

DEL BARCO: Beachler says she loved fashion design. And after moving to Cincinnati for college, she began working on music videos and Super 8 films.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG)

UNIDENTIFIED SINGER: (Singing) Girl posse. Girl posse. Girl posse.

DEL BARCO: "Grrrrrrlll Possy" was a campy, indie, grindhouse movie about a girl gang.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "GRRRRRRLLL POSSY")

BEACHLER: (As character) Cut. Done, sweetie. Done.

DEL BARCO: That's Beachler directing the film which she wrote and acted in with her friend Dana Hamblen.

DANA HAMBLEN: It was kind of, like, a homage¹⁹ to John Waters or a Ed Wood kind of movie. We never finished it. We were both in it. It was so bad but hilarious²⁰.

DEL BARCO: This was long before Beachler became a production designer for Ryan Coogler's movies, Barry Jenkins' Oscar-winning film "Moonlight" or Beyonce's "Lemonade" videos.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FREEDOM")

BEYONCE: (Singing) I'm going to keep running 'cause a winner don't quit on themselves.

DEL BARCO: As Hannah Beachler preps for the red carpet, she muses²¹ about her historic nomination²² as the first African-American production designer up for an Oscar.

BEACHLER: Of course your like, this is the best day ever on the face of the earth that has ever happened to me, of course, except for the birth of my son. But then you do kind of think about, like, what it really means in regards to your community and your ancestors. I'm the first. Where are we really in 2019?

DEL BARCO: In nine decades of the Oscars, Hannah Beachler could be the one. Mandalit del Barco, NPR News.

1 marvel   

vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事

参考例句：

• The robot is a marvel of modern engineering.机器人是现代工程技术的奇迹。
• The operation was a marvel of medical skill.这次手术是医术上的一个奇迹。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 fictional   

adj.小说的，虚构的

参考例句：

• The names of the shops are entirely fictional.那些商店的名字完全是虚构的。
• The two authors represent the opposite poles of fictional genius.这两位作者代表了天才小说家两个极端。

4 colonized   

开拓殖民地，移民于殖民地( colonize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The area was colonized by the Vikings. 这一地区曾沦为维京人的殖民地。
• The British and French colonized the Americas. 英国人和法国人共同在美洲建立殖民地。

5 authentic   

a.真的，真正的；可靠的，可信的，有根据的

参考例句：

• This is an authentic news report. We can depend on it. 这是篇可靠的新闻报道, 我们相信它。
• Autumn is also the authentic season of renewal. 秋天才是真正的除旧布新的季节。

6 scouting   

守候活动，童子军的活动

参考例句：

• I have people scouting the hills already. 我已经让人搜过那些山了。
• Perhaps also from the Gospel it passed into the tradition of scouting. 也许又从《福音书》传入守望的传统。 来自演讲部分

7 moss   

n.苔，藓，地衣

参考例句：

• Moss grows on a rock.苔藓生在石头上。
• He was found asleep on a pillow of leaves and moss.有人看见他枕着树叶和苔藓睡着了。

8 aesthetics   

n.(尤指艺术方面之)美学，审美学

参考例句：

• Sometimes, of course, our markings may be simply a matter of aesthetics. 当然，有时我们的标点符号也许只是个审美的问题。 来自名作英译部分
• The field of aesthetics presents an especially difficult problem to the historian. 美学领域向历史学家提出了一个格外困难的问题。

9 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

10 epic   

n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的

参考例句：

• I gave up my epic and wrote this little tale instead.我放弃了写叙事诗，而写了这个小故事。
• They held a banquet of epic proportions.他们举行了盛大的宴会。

11 gadgets   

n.小机械，小器具（ gadget的名词复数 ）

参考例句：

• Certainly. The idea is not to have a house full of gadgets. 当然。设想是房屋不再充满小配件。 来自超越目标英语 第4册
• This meant more gadgets and more experiments. 这意味着要设计出更多的装置，做更多的实验。 来自英汉非文学 - 科学史

12 pristine   

adj.原来的，古时的，原始的，纯净的，无垢的

参考例句：

• He wiped his fingers on his pristine handkerchief.他用他那块洁净的手帕擦手指。
• He wasn't about to blemish that pristine record.他本不想去玷污那清白的过去。

13 high-tech   

adj.高科技的

参考例句：

• The economy is in the upswing which makes high-tech services in more demand too.经济在蓬勃发展，这就使对高科技服务的需求量也在加大。
• The quest of a cure for disease with high-tech has never ceased. 人们希望运用高科技治疗疾病的追求从未停止过。

14 potent   

adj.强有力的，有权势的；有效力的

参考例句：

• The medicine had a potent effect on your disease.这药物对你的病疗效很大。
• We must account of his potent influence.我们必须考虑他的强有力的影响。

15 creed   

n.信条；信念，纲领

参考例句：

• They offended against every article of his creed.他们触犯了他的每一条戒律。
• Our creed has always been that business is business.我们的信条一直是公私分明。

16 talon   

n.爪；（如爪般的）手指；爪状物

参考例句：

• Can you get a little tighter with the talon?你能不能把摄像探头固定住不动？
• This kind of spice is made of eagle's talon and has a unique flavor.这种香料味道独特，是用鹰爪作原料制成的。

17 marvels   

n.奇迹( marvel的名词复数 )；令人惊奇的事物（或事例）；不平凡的成果；成就v.惊奇，对…感到惊奇( marvel的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The doctor's treatment has worked marvels : the patient has recovered completely. 该医生妙手回春，病人已完全康复。 来自辞典例句
• Nevertheless he revels in a catalogue of marvels. 可他还是兴致勃勃地罗列了一堆怪诞不经的事物。 来自辞典例句

18 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。

19 homage   

n.尊敬，敬意，崇敬

参考例句：

• We pay homage to the genius of Shakespeare.我们对莎士比亚的天才表示敬仰。
• The soldiers swore to pay their homage to the Queen.士兵们宣誓效忠于女王陛下。

20 hilarious   

adj.充满笑声的，欢闹的；[反]depressed

参考例句：

• The party got quite hilarious after they brought more wine.在他们又拿来更多的酒之后，派对变得更加热闹起来。
• We stop laughing because the show was so hilarious.我们笑个不停，因为那个节目太搞笑了。

21 muses   

v.沉思，冥想( muse的第三人称单数 )；沉思自语说（某事）

参考例句：

• We have listened too long to the courtly muses of Europe. 欧洲那种御用的诗才，我们已经听够了。 来自辞典例句
• Shiki muses that this is, at least, probably the right atmosphere. 志贵觉得这至少是正确的气氛。 来自互联网

22 nomination   

n.提名，任命，提名权

参考例句：

• John is favourite to get the nomination for club president.约翰最有希望被提名为俱乐部主席。
• Few people pronounced for his nomination.很少人表示赞成他的提名。