Interview with a Production Designer: John Barry

Production Designer John Barry is best known for his work on Star Wars: Episode IV (1977), A Clockwork Orange (1971) and Superman I (1978) and II (1980). Barry started his career in the Art department on the 1963 epic, Cleopatra, Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and is now well known in the film industry (IMDB). In 1979 Barry collapsed during filming of Star Wars: Episode V (1980), and later died of meningitis, but his imaginative design work still lives on (IMDB).

I was reading a book the other day and came across an interesting quote by Barry:

“I like doing science fiction and fantasy films. You can let yourself go. I prefer designing surrealist things. I find it much easier, too, because you’re free to choose. When you’re in a jam, you can simply change the rules.”

(Ede, L. 2010. P169)

I think this is a really good quote and really helps me with my project. I agree with Barry that designing surrealist things are much more fun as your imagination is the only limit to what you can create. The last part about how you can “simple change the rules” is perfect for answering my research question. To create fantasy nature you just simply change the rules of real nature. You make water plants live on land, small plants large, large plants small, combine animal species, fuse organic and manmade together, the list goes on.

I can simply... change the rules

Ede, L (2010) British Film Design: A history. I.B.Tauris,

Theory: Dystopia

Dystopia or Cacotopia is defined as “a society characterised by human misery, as squalor, oppression, disease and overcrowding” (Dictionary.com), this is in contrast to the more well-known Utopia meaning “any real or imaginary society, place, state, etc, considered to be perfect or ideal” (World English Dictionary, Dictionary.com).

There are several variations on the dystopian idea, looking at different social elements; society, social groups, politics, economics, nature, caste systems, technology etc. In most cases of the use of Nature in a dystopian society, Nature is considered dangerous, hostile or something to be feared; like in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

A good example of a Distipian World would be that found in film The Matrix (1999), Directed by the Wachowski brothers. The real world, as opposed to the virtual world of the Matrix, has undergone total destruction by machines, leaving it void of animals and plants. Humans are now grown in huge metal farms for producing energy for the machines, the sky is tainted and the atmosphere pushed out of balanced. A total sense of chaos and destruction has taken over the planet.

Dystopia is a good idea to base the world of Charn on for my project. Jadis, The White Witch, has destroyed all living things in her world using the Deplorable World, leaving behind a dying sun hanging over a deserted palace. Dystopia would fit well in Charn.

Research: Charn

I just put some images together into a mood board to show some possible looks and characteristics I could use for Charn. The images were all created by a Concept Artist called Daniel Dociu (tinfoilgames.com)

Work: Plant Adaptation- Clockwork Tree

I’ve been designing some fantasy plants again but this time I’ve been trying to stick with the Style Guide that we produced for the Magicians Nephew. I decided to design a Clockwork tree combining a Willow-style tree and some clockwork mechanisms.

Clockwork Tree sketch

I sketched out some Ideas and decided on the following design. I Scanned in my sketch and put it through Illustrator (which I’m still getting to grips with). I tried rendering it in Illustrator but I still can’t quite get the look I want using Illustrator so I put the illustrator outline into Photoshop to Digitally Paint.

Illustrator render

In the style guide we said we wanted the look to be quite dark and a little bit sinister so I rendered the tree using dark colours making it look creepier. I also decided to add a eerie glow as if a light source was hidden within the Willows branches- this added a bit of mystery to the design. My colour pallet comprised of mainly dark greys and cool blues.

Original Painting which printed too dark

Photoshop Render

On my screen the final image looked fine but when I printed it, it was very dark and hard to define so I had to go back and play with the levels. The dark nature of this tree would fit well in my project as part of Charn’s environment or even the outskirts of the Wood between the Worlds.

Second Render

I did a rendering variation of the tree but this time increasing the lightness and adding some blue glowing fireflies around the trees. This makes the tree look less sinister and more magical...I’m not sure this is quite suitable for Charn but maybe appropriate for Narnia.

Pokémon: The Phenomenon

Pokémon Wallpaper accessed 24-02-12
http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs26/f/2008/090/4/9/Pokemon_Wallpaper_by_gamingaddictmike125.png

Pokémon was released in 1996 by Nintendo and Satoshi Tajiri as a simple role-playing video game, it soon became a franchise of anime, manga, trading cards, books, toys and even a TV program and films. The franchise celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2006. Containing over 649 species of “pocket Monsters”, the TV series soon became loved by children all over the world (Bulbapedia). The franchise even has its own website- 16 years after Pokémon first hit the stores (www.pokemon.com/uk/). Films are still being released based on new characters- the first being Pokémon The First Move: Mewtwo Strikes Back (1998) and the latest being film number 14 released in 2011, Pokémon the Movie: Black- Victini & Reshiram and Pokémon the Movie: White- Victini and Zekrom.

I brought some Pokémon cards into Studio and wrote down people’s reactions. Here is a small sample:

“Ahhh...I used to have the cards, I used to play the game. I want to

watch the series again now.”

“Ooh I used to have the cards! Reminds me of the fat one I used to

have...Chansey! It was shiny!”

“Aghh POKÉMON!!”

“I used you really like Pokémon! I liked the fact that they all have

little stories and personalities.”

Here are some of the Pokémon cards that I own:

This is Bellsprout and Weepinbell. There and hundreds of plant based Pokémon. This is a good example of how characters can be created based on a plant theme.

This is Bulbasaur and Ivysaur which are another example of plant based monsters. I really like the flower that grows on the back of Ivysaur.

Dratini and Dragonair are two of my favourite Pokémon. Not necessarily based on their looks, although the ear formation and jewels that grow on Dragaonair are nice, it was more about their back-story. Dratini evolves into Dragonair and both creatures were shrouded in mystery- they were very rare and often considered extinct. This element of mystery made them more appealing to me.

Goldeen and Seaking are fish based Pokémon and they look very beautiful.

This species of Pokémon was very unusual. The basic Pokémon Eevee could evolve into any of the three alternatives. Vaporeon controlled the element of water, Jolteon the element of electricity and Flareon the element of fire. I like the idea of fusing animals with elements.

Metapod evolves into Butterfree. These two Pokémon are clearly based on a chrysalis and butterfly, but with a fantasy twist.

These sets of Pokémon are unrelated. The first is Hoppip (these are Japanese cards). It is another plant Pokémon that resembles a sort of turnip. The fiery Pokémon is Slugma. Slugma is a fire Pokémon that lives in a volcano- I like the idea of animals living in normally inhospitable environments. The final card is Chinchou. It is an electric Pokémon that looks like some kind of bug or Snow Drop flower.

This is Mantine, Magnemite and Dark Gloom. Mantine is based on a Manta ray and Magnemite is based on electrical conductors. I like the way that Magnemite is a living creature yet is made completely of metal and screws. I have included Dark Gloom in here because it shows how the Pokémon franchise created extra character based on existing one. Gloom is the original character but they have adapted her to create an evil version. This could be useful for when I create my own creatures, I could have original creatures in Narnia and Darkversions in Charn.

Porygon is a very unusual Pokémon. It is based on geometric shapes yet you can still tell that it is supposed to be a living organism. This is useful for showing how it’s possible to take an animal design to an extreme based on simple geometry. Onix is a snake-like creature made completely of rock and Rapidash is a horse infused with a fire main and tale.

 

Pokémon is a good reference for how the natural world can be fantasised and adapted to create new species of animals and plants. They created hundreds of animals all with different characteristics and traits and all fitting into an overall ecosystem. I love it

Quote: How to create Fantasy

I was in Hannah’s tutorial group the other week talking about our collaborative project and one of her tutors said something really interesting:

“To create fantasy you first have to create reality, once you have that, it’s the process of breaking it where fantasy is made.”

Sean Myatt, MA Puppetry & Digital Animation tutor

This is so true!! If you think about it when you see a Fantasy film full of nature, say Avatar for example, they have created a world based on fact and then done something to warp it, to make it magical, to “break” it. So to effectively create fantastic nature I first need to create regular nature, and then break it in some way.

Alice: Madness Returns

"...the worlds that Alice leaps around are stunning, mind bending, and unbelievably cool."

GamePro.com

I recently purchased a book called The Art of Alice: Madness Returns. It’s the design accompaniment for the Video game by American McGee and Spicy Horse Games. The story behind the game is that Alice has recovered from psychotic episode in which she was locked away in an asylum. The game is based on her realisation that the death of her family, for which she blamed herself causing her breakdown, was in fact the doings of another. Just as her own world has been turned upside down and ruined, her beloved Wonderland has also been taken over by a dark force rendering it evil, twisted and on the verge of collapse. Alice must find the evil in both Wonderland and the real world in order to survive.

Ken Wong was the Art Director for Alice: Madness Returns, American McGee and the design team at Spicy Horse Games produced the Art Of book showing stunning visuals and descriptions of the process they went through to create the beautiful yet frightening world of New Wonderland.

The Following is a trailer advertising the game and showing many of the environments Spicy Horse designed for gamers to explore:

Here are some of the images taken from the book that are significant for my own project of the Magicians Nephew:

Martins F, Kerslake B, Lei H, Lei (ART) J, Melo (ART) L (2011) Art of Alice: Madness Returns. Dark Horse Books, Milwaukie

This is the Cover design for the Art Of book. It instantly captures the mood of the game and what people can expect as the venture into the world of Wonderland. This is a good way of showing for a film (or in this case a game), what kind of atmosphere and visual impact a production is going to make.

This is an early exploration for the forest environment by Sun GuoLiang. I love the idea of a floating forest or tree structure, existing in the clouds above us. It feels quite magical.

I like the use of colour in this visual. The monotone effect with a single focus colour works well to create an exciting atmosphere.

This is a good example of clockpunk being graphed onto organic elements. Clockpunk is one of the styles we are going to incorporate into our telling of The Magicians Nephew so as a visual reference of how this can be effectively done this image is useful.

Another example of clockwork being fused with nature (inside the trees).

Again I like the use of colour in this image. The chrome base with highlights of blue work well to create a sinister atmosphere. I also like the illustration of the Caterpillar- this looks like it was done using a graphics tablet.

MAPS!!! Its all about Maps! We really want to create a Map for MN showing how the all the worlds around Narnia link together through The Wood Between The Worlds. This would not only be a useful visual explanation of how the story proceeds but it also has the potential for a beautiful visual.

Another stunning visual incorporating Clockwork. I like the panoramic quality this visual has and good use of colour.

Some examples of how the design department made trees look more 'fantasy-like'- using a stylised colour pallet, mushroom-like canopies and placing it on top of a giant snail.

Nice monochrome visual with a single colour to add significance.

I like the composition of this image- the dark ship at the bottom and swirling light effects overhead.

Nice use of contrasting colours with the Blue being the main colour of the image with highlights of orange. We wanted to use contrasting colours in our design to create drama.

The oriental style motif works well here and its stand-alone nature makes it a nice example of how I could sketch develope ideas before I place them into an exact environment.

This is a good idea for how we could design the elements for Charn (the dying world)- the tower formations would look good as the twisted towers of Charn and the figure heads are useful for Hannah when she looks at the statues of the kings and queens found in Charn's Great Hall.

I like the way this image of the Queen of Hearts Castle has been rendered- it looks like photo collage and illustration combined- the photos give it a realy nice texture giving the whole thing a rough and gritty feel about it.

This is a Colour Script they created to show the different colour schemes and moods through all the different worlds. This is good practice used in the film industry also to show at a glance the kind of mood each location has or needs. We will produce one of these for MN.

I’ve really enjoyed looking through this book- they have made some stunning images and really creative ideas for the environments. I will try and take on board some of their techniques when I do some of the designing for MN. I think Atmosphere is one of the most important things I’ve got from looking through the book- without an appropriate atmosphere a scene will have no depth and won’t look visually interesting, without atmosphere the storytelling cannot be enhanced.

Work: Plat adaptation- Water Lettuce

For my project I need to create as many plants, animals, landscapes, forests, geological formations etc as I can as examples of my own practice for answering my research question for the year. After my previous blog post Research: Weird looking Plants (18/01/12) looking at some examples of existing and very unusual looking plants and fungi, I started to sketch out some ideas. I had already learnt through writing this post that nature can look very bizarre so I felt I was free to create some quite wacky and unusual plants, but I decided for this first attempt to base the design on an existing plant- the Water Lettuce.

The Water Lettuce was first discovered in Africa but now can be found in nearly all tropical or subtropical waterways. The plants leaves float on the water’s surface with its roots submerged below the surface.

This is my adaptation of the common water lettuce. I have vastly increased its size from around 30cm to 30meters. I have also transformed the root structure from a few fibrous tendrils to thousands. The main adaptation I made to the plant is that it no longer dwells in water- the large pod found nestled in the centre of the leaf formation contains a helium-like gas which the plant naturally produces, allowing it to rise into the air becoming a floating land plant.

I have designed many more details for this plant as to how it feeds, reproduces and how humans could use it but I will add these at a later date when I have produced a visual to show them. For now here is the Digitally Painted plant (which still needs a name):

My friend Cassie Peng (cassiepeng.blogspot.com) has been teaching me how to do Digital Painting in Photoshop. There are still a few things I want to work on with this image like texturing etc but I will sort those out later. As a first draft I am really pleased with how this image turned out- thanks Cassie you’re a good teacher!

Film Focus: Avatar

"For years to come it will define what movies can achieve"

Richard Corliss, The Times

In 2009 James Cameron’s Avatar was released and soon became one of the most popular sci-fi/fantasy films to hit the big screen. Showing in 3452 screens in its opening week it earned $77,025,481 in the USA alone, and by November 2011 had grossed $2,782,275,172 worldwide (IMDB).

The art department itself won countless awards, in 2010 alone they won:

Oscar
                Best Achievement in Art Direction

                Best Achievement in Cinematography
                Best Achievement in Visual Effects

Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA, Saturn Award
                Best Director
                Best Music
                Best Production Design
                Best Science Fiction Film
                Best Special Effects

Art Directors Guild, Excelence in Production Design Award

BAFTA Film Award

                Best Production Design
                Best Special Visual Effects

Broadcast Film Critics Association Award, Critics Choice Award

                Best Action Movie
                Best Art Direction
                Best Cinematography
                Best Editing
                Best Visual Effects

...and the list goes on (IMDB).

With a budget of $237,000,000 (estimate) (IMDB) the designers behind this movie phenomenon created an entire ecosystem including plants, fungus, animals, humanoids, geology, weather systems etc to enable Cameron’s vision to become a reality.


I’ve been reading through two books:

Fitzpatrick L, Jackson P, Landau J, Cameron J (2009) The Art of Avatar: James Cameron’s Epic Adventure. Abrams

Wilhelm M, Mathison D (2009) Avatar: An Activist Survival Guide. HarperCollins


Together they make an excellent guide to the world of Pandora and Avatar. The books are filled with beautiful concept art, visual references and insider information about the entire world of Pandora. Avatar is an excellent visual reference for my own project because of the amount of detail into the planets flora and fauna that the art department carried out. The activist’s survival guide has pages and pages on all the different plants and animals that were created for Pandora and how they work and what their purpose is within the ecosystem.

The following are some images used in The Art of Avatar book:

Floating rocks of the Hallelujia Mountains

Examples of plants created to populate the Pandoran echosystem

Example of how the Na'vi may use plants to produce clothing

Visuals of Pandora

Concept sketches of the Tree of Souls

Sketch of plantlife on Pandora

I can use these images as examples of how an art department develop the look of a film in the Pre-production stage using concept sketches, illustrations, detailing and 3D modeling.

If I can produce images of a similar quality I will be very pleased!!

Work: Style Guide

Hannah and I printed out lots of mood boards showing visual looks, colour pallets, character ideas, location ideas etc and pinned them up in our work are in the MA studio. We then annotated them noting down what we liked and why. With these notes we then created a Style Guide we would both use when designing the different aspects of Magicians Nephew- this would then create a coherent design style.

Mood Boards:
Style Ideas: bright colours, Style Ideas: Contrasting colours, Style Ideas: Single colours, Victorian Posters & Circus Visuals, Clockpunk, Biopunk, Steampunk, Deiselpunk, Final Fantasy, Polly & Digory, Stawbery the hourse, Uncle Andrew, Jadis the white witch, Aslan, The Jabberwocky, The Magicians Nephew, The Dream-quest of the Unknown Kadath.

Research: Clockpunk

Another Cyberpunk genre we looked at for the project is Clockpunk. Clockpunk is based on the idea that technological advancements developed through clockwork, cogs and springs. There are two types of clock punk- historical and non-historical. Historical clockpunk looks at how the world may have looked if technology had developed based on clockwork or similar devices. Non-historical clockpunk is based on parallel world theory where clockwork technology is the main source of technology. 

This is a nice simple style that I think would work really well for MN. I like the idea of nature being fused with clockwork creating a mechanical-organic hybrid.