The first set you ever design and build on your own is for a community theater production of Shakespeare's Othello. Unfortunately, the play isn't the only tragedy—on opening night, your set collapses and most of the cast dies as a result. Prison, not a career in the film industry, is in your future.

You'd love to move to Hollywood and make it big as an art director…but you don't have the money you need to leave your dinky hometown. You spend the rest of your life teaching drama at the local high school and weeping for your dead dreams.

You rack up years of paid and unpaid experience in set design and creation. While many independent filmmakers are happy to hire you, you never quite manage to get your foot in the door with a Hollywood studio.

You rack up years of experience in set design and creation in Hollywood. Because the industry is so competitive, however, you never quite manage the jump to art director.

You've worked as an art director on some of the biggest, most beloved movies of the last decade. The money is good and you're constantly employed. Only one thing still eludes you: the Academy Award for Best Production Design. Two of your production-designer bosses have won the little golden man, but not you. Never you.