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Isabelle Guay is a Production Designer and Art Director who developed her film design sensibility working with some of our most innovative and acclaimed filmmakers. From creating the 17th century world of Barkskins (National Geographic, Fox21 Television; created by Elwood Reid; starring David Thewlis and Marcia Gay Harden) to expressing the Cold War tensions played out on a chessboard in Pawn Sacrifice (directed by Ed Zwick; starring Tobey Maguire, Liev Schreiber, Peter Sarsgaard) to designing the misanthropic comedy Bad Santa 2 (directed by Mark Waters; starring Billy Bob Thornton, Kathy Bates), Isabelle’s projects are marked by her unique creativity. Most recently, she completed Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice, a contemporary action-comedy written and directed by BenDavid Grabinski, starring James Marsden and Vince Vaughan for 20th Century.

 

As Supervising Art Director, Isabelle’s credits include the Oscar-winner The Revenant (directed by Alejandro Iñàrritu; starring Leonard DiCaprio) which also won 2016 Art Directors’ Guild, Excellence in Production Design, Period Film;  Oscar-nominee  Arrival (directed by Denis Villeneuve; starring Amy Adams, Forest Whittaker);  the celebrated horror film Mother! (directed by Darren Aronofsky; starring Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem); and Midway (directed by Roland Emmerich; starring Patrick Wilson, Woody Harrelson).

 

She was Supervising Art Director on Steven Spielberg’s The Terminal starring Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta-Jones. The film received the 2005 Art Directors’ Guild Award. George Clooney chose Isabelle as Supervising Art Director on his directorial debut Confessions of a Dangerous Mind starring Julia Roberts and Sam Rockwell.

 

The breadth of her talent is reflected in the scope of her credits which include contemporary, horror, period and fantasy films such as White House Down (Roland Emmerich, director; starring Channing Tatum, Jamie Fox), Mirror Mirror (Tarsem Singh, director; starring Julia Roberts, Lily Collins), The Fountain (Darrren Aronofsky, director; starring Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz), Gothika (directed by Mathieu Kassovitz; starring Halle Berry and Penelope Cruz).  She has also worked with Oscar-winning production designers Jim Bissell (Spiderwick Chronicles, 300), and Jeannine Oppewall (The Sum of All Fears), as well as the highly respected designer Nigel Phelps (The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor).

 

Isabelle has wide experience with international locations. Her work on Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan took her to Paris and Morocco. In Morocco and Rome, she prepped the Dale and Erica Johnson project The Soldier. The Netflix limited series The Thai Cave Rescue was filmed in Thailand. For the as-yet-to-be-produced Scott Free film directed by Jake Scott, she scouted locations in Namibia and Cape Town.

 

 

Isabelle comes from a fine arts background.  She received her Baccalaureate in Architecture at the Université de Montréal – a rigorous programme with an emphasis on built construction and engineering.   This training has given her the skills required to plan and execute a design vision that has informed all of her film work.  Isabelle was accepted into the DGC as Art Director in 1994. And became a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2017.

 

Isabelle has successfully managed to balance her visual creativity and love of design with disciplined attention to logistics, budgets, schedules and crew management. She has the necessary knowledge to realize a great artistic design on time and on budget.  She also has a thorough understanding of the visual effects process, critical to filmmaking in contemporary culture. 

 

Isabelle currently resides in Montréal, Canada.  In addition to her film work, she has a love of photography, which she combines with a passion for scuba diving in tropical and arctic climes.  She is fluent in French, English and Spanish.

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Renowned projects and collaborators
 

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Midway  .  White House Down

Director: Rolland Emmerich

Production Designer: Kirk Petruccelli

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Arrival

Director: Denis Villeneuve

Production Designer: Patrice Vermette 

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Mirror Mirror

Director: Tarsem Singh

Production Designer: Tom Foden

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The Fountain  .  Mother

Director: Darren Aronofsky

Production Designer: James Chinlund

Cinematographer: Matthew Libatique 

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Renowned Production Designers

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300  .  Spiderwick Chronicles  .  Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

Production Designer: Jim Bissell, Oscar winner

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The Sum of all Fears

Production Designer: Jeannine Oppewall

 

 

 The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Production Designer: Nigel Phelps

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Renowned Cinematographers

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The Revenant

Cinematographer: Emmanuel Lubezki, 3 times Oscar winner 

 

Spiderwick Chronicles

Cinematographer: Caleb Deschanel

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The Terminal

Cinematographer: Janusz Kaminski

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