Here's the first Teaser Poster for The Dark Tower.  So far so Good :)

Thor Ragnarok - First Pics in EW

See this... It's gonna be Awesome!

Some selects from Ice Development

A few Ice Costume design Drawings.

Final Ice City Design Paintings

Ice City Design Drawings.

Hobbiton

Believe the hype. Beautiful location and well worth the visit for anyone checking out NZ. Matamata was great. Lots of fun to do a little bit of work on design renovations at Hobbiton over the summer.

What I'm up to in 2017

Working on a film in Wellington New Zealand. Extremely pleased to be back in my home town for a project :). Talented team and ambitious project.

Finished a great 2016 in the Gold Coast working with the brilliant team behind Thor Ragnarok. Will be a hugely anticipated film and I think well loved. I was invigorated by the design process. Many surprises.

Between jobs I started a collaboration with YA Author Andrew Smith.  Some exciting work already produced and the bigger ideas around a graphic novel are gestating. Can't wait to share a large drawing I produced that will coincide with a future publication. :) This work will happen over a long arc around the film jobs but I'm very excited and dedicated to have this art happening.

I'm contributing a little bit of art and design to an Australian Indy film too. Finding the time is nearly impossible but I do my best to say yes to anything I can help with.

I've put my children's book Shadowlands project on the back burner. Still not too sure what the audience for it was and my approach to the work wasn't sustainable.  May return to it over time. Some short film ideas bubble up to the surface once in a while, Minos especially remains an unrequited artistic expression.  My main criteria for work at the moment though  is that it has a clear collaboration and audience. Any other creativity lacking clarity I take my time with as way of exploration. To be honest my exploration is spent more in the Kitchen at the moment. Where my audience is my lovely Family Jade, 5 yo Finn and any friends brave enough to taste my concoctions. :) time is precious but there is a lot to enjoy :).

Fingers crossed Wellington weather improves then we'll be getting some beach time in too :) Lots of time hanging with Finn in Eastbourne. Rock n Roll!!

First consideration of spatial design for Film.

At it's most fundamental production design is about creating space that directly fulfils the necessary character movement/travel relating to narrative. A character is always driven toward achieving something. How that journey is experienced and paced is the first consideration of spatial design. From there the design is elaborated upon with visual language to express time, place, metaphor and poetics of space.  Finally these elements are broken down into being manageable for budget, studio space and scheduling. Throughout the limitations of production the look can be embellished or compromised, adapted and skewed but that fundamental element of spatial pacing cannot be. When budget and time gets tight fulfilling that fundamental task becomes the cornerstone of the design decisions.

Back to work on Shadowlands.

New Ice Fantasy Poster

Thoughts after the Flag Debate.

The Flag debate is over.  It begs the question…What debate? A vote on an aesthetic choice did not generate the argument I expected.  Where were the poets, artists, philosophers, indigenous leaders and lawmakers of NZ? We live in a time where the concern of corporate influence on the structure of the state and international responsibility is very real for most citizens, myself included. Should this not have been the context of arguing how our nation will be perceived in the future? Should a Flag not arrive from rigorous criticism of our values and the global perception of those values? I am no clearer today than before the flag debate of what NZ’s thinkers and leaders have to say about independence, freedom, justice, state, our Treaty and our international identity. As a result of this outcome, for me, the flag debate failed.  

After the First World War Woodrow Wilson traveled Europe spreading the argument for independent nations rather than Empire. Empires were blamed for that terrible conflict.  Across the globe new Independent nations were formed. With them came new flags and identities. A rebranding exercise of Empire to Commonwealth saved the British influence and strength for a time.  There could be no clearer context though for designing a new flag than independence. For the past 100 yrs the process of independence from colonial roots has continued with new nations, invigorated constitutions and with them new flags. 

New Zealand remained part of the commonwealth and does to this day. Though we no longer identify with Great Britain any urgency that might have existed to announce that has gone. There seems little desire for an independence that many perceive we have already achieved through time and patience rather than through conflict or abrupt change.  As a nation we are not without our shames and failures. We can though take pride in being leaders in indigenous settlement claims and civil rights. Our relative small size has seen us become early adopters to change if not instigators of it.  Have we not thrived in all fields of social, cultural, scientific and business excellence? It seems though there is a growing misconception that we get where we are through passivity. Do we now wear ‘Not rocking the boat’ as a badge of pride? I think remaining with our old flag is a reflection of that passivity.  I also believe the leadership behind the campaign left us with no other choice. I had hoped we would hear stories on how change, excellence and nation forming were earned rather than given. Surely we are not without our struggles and conflict? I had hoped we would be arguing who we are, that the world would have listened and the chosen flag would have reflected a robust sense of self.

I consider myself an artist and designer. My area of experience is in creating cinematic spaces in support of storytelling. I am no expert in statehood or history. I had hoped others would bring this conversation forward. I looked forward to learning something.  I am experienced in designing spaces that can hold the value of complex ideas and stories and I looked forward criticizing a Flag design from that perspective.  For a graphic artist the flag could have been this same opportunity. Sadly no complex ideas and values were ever presented. The challenge a NZ artist could have risen to wasn’t given. This reflects a great lack in leadership. Not leadership in design but rather leadership in debate and ideas which was the responsibility of the Government that instigated the debate.

I would like to think that if the debate had been one of our values against our place on the international stage the resulting flag design would have been inconsequential. It would have been ours. Aesthetic value wouldn’t matter. We wouldn’t discuss liking this one or that. We wouldn’t consider good and bad. We would simply agree on it being right. ‘Right’ to fly a new flag based upon a reinvigorated belief in ‘who we are’ as a nation of people. I haven’t learnt any more of who we are or where we are heading therefore it seems only natural to me that the flag remain the same.  I wanted change but I was never left with the self-belief that we had earned it. I certainly wasn’t offered a design that expressed any such achievement. I suspect though that we have earned it, many times over in fact.  Sadly the leaders that bought us the flag discussion didn’t seem ready to have our values questioned or perhaps their values questioned in a way that would have taken us there.  They left the debate to chance which in my opinion is the equivalent of no leadership at all.

It is fair to criticize John Key. This was an opportunity to give voice to a debate that could resonate around the world and strengthen our identity. It could have been an avenue to educate ourselves and others. Instead it became a discussion on ‘what we like’. With all our core beliefs put to the side ‘what we like’ just didn’t seem all that important and neither did a new flag,

2016 - New Projects

2016 has started with quite a lot of work. Off the back of the Fantasy TV series in China I've been asked to contribute to the design of two further Televisions series. These are English speaking. Both are high concept and design heavy stories involving multiple worlds and characters.

There's a tonne of work to generate. Which means lots of reading, research, drawing and creating.

As of now I cannot share any of the art work or further details but I will post more often about the process.

The China Experience – Post 5

I’m back from China.

It is necessary to write a final post about my experience. It is difficult.  I realize now there is no finality to working in a country like China therefore no illuminating conclusions. At best there is an opening of questions.  

The film industry there gave me an insight into China’s hunger for escapism through success.

One young man described China as without hope. He asked if I thought it ironic that China looked to America and saw Hollywood instead of seeing justice or freedom. It surprised me as much as him. Perhaps my surprise was at his own clarity. 

I was interviewed a number of times. I was asked what I thought of Chinese Cinema and how China could be more like Hollywood?  The Chinese took great pride in their status as the 'soon to be' greatest film market in the world and eagerly want the worlds attention. They are worthy of attention. They also desperately want to make films to rival the (American) films they love. How can we do it I was asked?

My thoughts on Chinese film were difficult to address. I am guilty of knowing very little Chinese cinema history. I thought it odd actually. Why? I have found, Italian, French, Japanese, Korean even Indian film so much more accessible. I answered that film was as accessible through story as it was through a lineage of filmmaking. Lineage will take time. The Cultural Revolution left a break in Chinese Cinema lineage. It will take time for artists to build the necessary bridge.  

The above task of course may be difficult when enthusiasm is channeled toward commanding a market place rather than embracing cinema as an artistic discussion.  I found it difficult to answer the question of how does China match Hollywood? Deep down I though it was the wrong question.  The best I could answer was that they were already doing everything they should. Making movies and investing in artists is the only way I know of to improve in making movies.  I hope it's the path toward great movies.

I was able to identify the strengths of their art department and construction as well as their weaknesses around leadership.  I had a great time developing a design language and a creative structure with the artists in my team. The artists were outstanding. A few rivaled anyone in the world. There was no lack of talent and creativity.  Channeling it in the right direction was the key. I hope I instilled confidence in those artists as well as the producers to empower them further.

I suspect the Chinese film industry is more mature than it knows. Like anywhere in the world it is trying to find a balance between art and industry when in reality there is no balance between the two. It is in its nature a conflict, rather than a communion, that bears fruit. At the moment the China Industry is a heavyweight. Soon, I suspect, the world will meet the artists that can match that weight class. I can't wait!

The young man I spoke of earlier had said ‘China is without hope. We can’t trust the air. We can’t trust the food. We can’t live off our earnings.  The only hope we have is getting rich.  That’s what the Hollywood images promises. Wealth.

No wonder there is a hungry market for movies. Escapism is in high demand. But aren't we all guilty of this?  Fortunately in my experience there is a great deal to be hopeful about.  The people I met in that pursuit of success were also hungry to make great work. They wanted to make art and potentially something that China would be proud of.  They want Films the world would take notice of.  In that journey there will be much more to success to discover than just wealth. I learnt a great deal and am honored to have had the experience to develop filmmaking a little further with an outstanding team.

I look forward to the show. I have no doubt it’ll smash records in China. The footage was outstanding.  How they are pulling it off still leaves me in awe. As I said in the beginning this doesn’t feel like an ending. Instead I have had an insight. An involvement in something far too big for me to fathom. The experience will resonant for a long time. The impact will be clearer in time with the benefit of hindsight and hopefully a stack of great Chinese films to watch.

Cool Poster for SyFy's 'Childhoods End'

'The Boy' Teaser Poster and Trailer Released.

Midway through last year I got the chance to do the character design for 'The Boy'. Here he is in the recently released trailer. I can't watch creepy films but pretty fun to contribute to them :). I may just have to bring myself to watch this one. I love this image. So Great! :) And the script was fantastic. this film will be one helluva ride. :) Link the the trailer here too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPxybc_aJWU

Ice Fantasy - First Character Costume Pics Released.