Biographical Note
Scope and Content
Organization
Conditions Governing Access
Rights Statement for Archival Description
Conditions Governing Use
Preferred Citation
Processing Information
Additional collection guides
Contributing Institution:
Allen Doe Research Center
Title: Rick Carter collection
Creator:
Carter, Rick
Creator:
Bell, John
Creator:
Fangorn
Creator:
Hargreaves, Sean
Creator:
Lowery, David
Creator:
Manser, Warren (Warren Christopher)
Creator:
Teegarden, Jim
Creator:
Verreaux, Edward
Identifier/Call Number: 2289
Identifier/Call Number: 603
Identifier/Call Number: /repositories/2/resources/31
Physical Description:
568.063 Linear Feet
337 boxes
Date (inclusive): 1976-2019
Abstract: Collection contains the papers of production designer Rick Carter (b. 1952), who frequently works with directors Robert Zemeckis
and Steven Spielberg. Movies represented in this collection include
Jurassic Park and
Forrest Gump.
Language of Material: English .
Biographical Note
Rick Carter was born in California on March 24, 1950. He graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz, in 1974
with a degree in sociology and art. His career started in mid-1970s, when he worked as an art director or illustrator on various
feature films and TV mini-series, including
Bound For Glory,
The Postman Always Rings Twice and
The Winds of War. In 1982, he was the Production Designer for Disney's 3D film Magic Journeys, which played at Walt Disney World in Florida
until 1993 and at Disneyland until 1986. Carter first worked with Steven Spielberg when he served as the Art Director for
the movie
The Goonies, which was written by Spielberg, in 1984. The next year, Spielberg hired Carter to be the Production Designer for his TV series
Amazing Stories, which is the only TV series Carter has ever worked on.
While working on
Amazing Stories, Carter worked for the first time with Robert Zemeckis, who directed two of the series' episodes. For the next twenty-five
years, Carter worked almost exclusively on movies being directed by either Spielberg or Zemeckis. These movies included
Back to the Future II and
III,
Jurassic Park,
The Lost World,
War of the Worlds,
Munich and
Forrest Gump. Carter was nominated for the Best Art Direction-Set Direction Academy Award in 1995 for his work on
Forrest Gump. In 2010, Carter won the Academy Award for Best Achievement in Art Direction for his work for James Cameron on
Avatar.
Scope and Content
This collection contains the papers created and maintained by Rick Carter while working as a production designer on a variety
of films and one television show, including
Back to the Future II and
III,
Jurassic Park,
The Lost World,
War of the Worlds,
Munich,
Polar Express, and
Forrest Gump. These papers include storyboards, photographs, negatives, set designs and plans, production notes and memoranda, scripts,
film treatments, artwork and concept art. Also included in this collection are records that document that early production
stages of works that were never actually produced, including
Bad Trout,
Interface
Helen of Troy: EXO, and
The Diamond as Big as the Ritz. Also included in this collection are DVDs, VHS and laserdisc recordings of completed film.
Please see the arrangement notes for individual series for more information.
Organization
The Rick Carter Collection is organized into 26 series, most of which have been further organized into subseries. Each series
that consists solely of papers from an individual movie (Series 1-26) has been organized into the following subseries (depending
on what papers are present in the series): Production Files, Scripts, Research Files, Location Files, Set and Prop Design,
Character (or Creature) Design, Storyboards, Press and Publicity, Merchandise and Memorabilia, Negatives, Photographs, Digital
Media, Analog Media, Oversized Art. The series Miscellaneous Projects and Unproduced Projects are organized into subseries
based on movie or project. Oversized materials are organized in boxes by size; it is assumed that a researcher will be able
to tell the difference between the various films within a box. However, to avoid confusion, artwork and plans from
Jurassic Park and
The Lost World are not found in the same box without identification. Photographs and the negatives from which they were produced have been
assigned reel numbers in the absence of other identifying information (indicated by square brackets).
The arrangement scheme for the collection refined the original order of the collection (which was based loosely on movie).
1.
Magic Journeys
2.
The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai Across the Eighth Dimension
3.
Goonies
4.
Amazing Stories
5.
Talking Walls
6.
Empire of the Sun
7.
Rain Man
8.
Three Fugitives
9.
Back to the Future II
10.
Back to the Future III
11.
Death Becomes Her
12.
What Lies Beneath
13.
Jurassic Park
14.
Forrest Gump
15.
The Lost World: Jurassic Park
16.
Contact
17.
Amistad
18.
Cast Away
19.
Artificial Intelligence: A.I.
20.
Polar Express
21.
War of the Worlds
22.
Munich
23. Miscellaneous Projects
24. Unproduced Projects
25. Personal Papers
26. Dreamworks SKG
Conditions Governing Access
Advance notice required for access.
Rights Statement for Archival Description
Finding aid description and metadata are licensed under an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.
Conditions Governing Use
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Cinematic Arts Library
at ctlibarc@usc.edu. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Cinematic Arts Library as the owner of the physical
items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.
Preferred Citation
[Box/folder no. or item name], Rick Carter collection, Collection no. 2289, Cinematic Arts Library, USC Libraries, University
of Southern California.
Processing Information
This collection is not fully processed.
Additional collection guides
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Scripts
Videotapes
Motion pictures (visual works)
Books
Clothing
Slides (photographs)
CD-ROMs
Motion pictures and architecture -- Archival resources
Unbuilt architectural projects -- Archival resources
Motion picture set designers -- California -- Los Angeles -- Archival resources
Motion pictures -- Setting and scenery -- Archival resources
Future in motion pictures -- Archival resources
Science fiction films -- United States -- Archival resources
Robots in motion pictures -- Archival resources
Computer animation -- Archival resources
Rain man (Motion picture)
Motion picture locations -- Archival resources
Goonies
Forrest Gump (Motion picture)
Lost world, Jurassic Park (Motion picture)
Back to the future part II (Motion picture)
Back to the future part III (Motion picture)
Polar Express (Motion picture)
Motion picture art directors -- Archival resources
Munich (Motion picture)
Science fiction television programs -- United States -- Archival resources
Amistad (Motion picture)
A. I. artificial intelligence (Motion picture)
Jurassic Park (Motion picture)
Cast away (Motion picture)
Motion picture studios -- Archival resources
Costume design -- Archival resources
Cinematography -- Special effects -- Archival resources
Computer drawing -- Special effects -- Archival resources
Storyboards
Feature films -- Archival resources
Negatives (photographic)
Hard drives
Photographs
DVDs
Historical films -- Archival resources
Action and adventure films -- Archival resources
Film adaptations -- United States -- Archival resources
Dinosaurs in motion pictures -- Archival resources
Drawings
Science fiction -- Film adaptations -- Archival resources
Paintings
Dreamworks Pictures -- Archives
Lowery, David -- Archives
Hargreaves, Sean -- Archives
Teegarden, Jim -- Archives
Verreaux, Edward -- Archives
Industrial Light and Magic (Studio) -- Archives
Manser, Warren (Warren Christopher) -- Archives
Fangorn -- Archives
Bell, John -- Archives
Baker, Chris -- Archives
Carter, Rick -- Archives
Zemeckis, Robert -- Archives
Spielberg, Steven -- Archives