BRIGHT  



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Set in a world where fantasy creatures live side by side with humans. A human cop is forced to work with an Orc to find a weapon everyone is prepared to kill for.


Production Design by: Andrew Menzies


Working on this show was a wild ride. I had the pleasure to work on many key designs ranging from sets, vistas, vehicles, props, creatures.

My designs may not have always made into the movie, but working across from Andrew’s office, in the art department was the place to be.

In a highly demanding environment, where extensive iteration, frequent script revisions and long hours are a constant, keeping your wits about you can be a challenge. However, when you can feed on the buzz of the production, in house, it becomes a worthwile challenge.

A lot gets lost in translation on the phone or by email. I think I had the most to contribute by being able to attend meetings and having direct communication with the people I was working with.





LAPD CRUISER


In a world with centaurs, giants and orcs that can lift cars, Police cruisers need to be beefed up. To avoid the police from feeling like a minitary organization, I referenced European riot-modified vehicles.

Sometimes, lots anf lots of little changes are asked for..





SUV


This concept below is the closest to what appeared in the film. The look is supposed to suggest extensive civil unrest. In an attempt to look like evrything is in order, officers do their best to keep their vehicles in good condition. They will not leave the sation without getting rid of graffiti, but they can’t change windows and repaint the whole body every day either.

I explored many options for how protecive cages might be retractable. Ultimately, cages were dropped because of the difficulties they present for pulling focus and lighting shots.



These were more armored versions:

SHRINE TO EVIL



While the Vice Hall was being developed, this was a concept for a dark shrine, mocking the tree of life. This went through some iterations to make it more and more disgusting. Can you spot the rats?

JIRAK



Jirak is a kind of patron saint to the orcs he is emblematic for the orcish race’s connection to evil. From humble origin as a small farmer, he becomes a general in the dark lord’s army. At the decisive turn in the battle where good triumphs over evil, Jirak turns on his master after seeing the light.

MAGIC WAND


The wand was challenging to design to avoid it from looking too much like a prop out of Harry Potter. The idea was to make it look like it was made from a bone from an ancient powerful wizard (or Bright). A functional catholic relic. 
To borrow from the film’s dialogue, the wand is a nuclear weapon that grants wishes. flintlock pistols werean inspiration for some ideas.


Below was where I left off from working on the wand. The final design is a sharpened version. The wands tends to be glowing and hard to distinguish in most of the movie, with one exception, when the Inferni chase the heroes through the Abrams neighborhood. I had a lot of fun sculpting the filigree in Zbrush.
The wand was my first time working with prop master Kris Peck. His perspective on the design on a prop comes primarily from actor interaction. I was getting caught up with the symbols an aesthetics, over fundamental action/interaction. I’m happy to have been able to continue to work for him on Ad Astra focusing almost exclusively on props.