Testing out the look of a scene from X-Men: The Last Stand. ™ and © 2006 Twentieth Century Fox. All rights reserved. X-Men character likenesses ™ and © 2006 Marvel Characters Inc. 

Although the collaborative relationship between conceptual artists and vfx departments appears to be improving on larger, effects-driven features, the people skilled with pen and brush that design the overall look of a film still find their craft a solitary one. As Daren Dochterman, a veteran concept artist, puts it: “By the time the vfx company has started, and brought their own artists on, the pre-production artists have been laid off.”

As for collaboration between the two, Dochterman suggests it is very rare in the early stages. “The only people actively working on the film early in pre-production are the people in the art department. If it is a visually complex movie, this usually includes concept artists. At this point, the company that will ultimately perform the vfx duties isn’t even chosen. So, there is little chance for collaboration.”

Dochterman, with a long list of credits, including Poseidon, X-Men: The Last Stand and Monster House, believes this is an effect of compartmentalization. “Hollywood has always involved different ‘factions’ working on a film, from the director to the art department to production to special effects to set dressing to visual effects. The only real collaboration happens in countless early meetings where the department heads and their key people discuss the script.”

Mark Goerner, who has worked on such features as Minority Report and Constantine and is currently working on James Cameron’s upcoming Battle Angel, agrees: “The collaborative relationship between post-production artists and concept/pre-production artists is a rarity in feature film work. Most of the translation of content is done through the art directors and agents for the vfx companies. My personal belief is that any production that has interest in breaking new ground, or at least achieving an especially honed product would benefit from the occasional cross-pollination of ideas and methodologies from those two spheres of labor.”

James Clyne, who is also working on Battle Angel and lists X-Men: The Last Stand, Poseidon and Polar Express among his credits, doesn’t experience much collaboration in the early stages of a production either. “When I first start, it’s usually only myself, a director and maybe a production designer. We go over the broad strokes of a script with the director or production designer or both and hack out or block out the beats of the script. Then as the production progresses, I get more involved with collaborating with set designers, art directors and nowadays there’s lots of collaboration with the previs guy.”

Neil Miller paints the New York skyline for United 93. © Universal Pictures. 

&atypeFor Neil Miller, an artist/matte painter who has worked on The DaVinci Code and United 93 for Double Negative, echoes that the process in the beginning is a solitary one. “Each new matte painting/concept requires a research period to source subject, materials and specific periods in time. Beginning this process and developing the matte/concept work is normally fairly isolated: usually just dealing with the vfx producer and director to establish the required look. When a shot is more complicated and needs 3D elements and big camera moves, this is when teamwork is essential, but this is later on in the process, after the look/concept has been approved.”