Tag Archive: Elysium: The Art of the Film
Delve deeper into the world of Alita: Battle Angel in Dr. Ido's Journal
Filed under: Backstage Pass, Comics & Books, Movies, Sci-Fi Café — Leave a comment
We have a review of the first of three tie-in books to the new Robert Rodriguez film Alita: Battle Angel coming your way. Alita: Battle Angel should appeal to any fan of cyborgs–the story as envisioned by James Cameron was a pet project of the director for several years, one he'd picked up from Guillermo del Toro. When Cameron decided to pursue management of his several Avatar sequels directly and finally handed over the project to Rodriguez he did so with more than 600 pages of notes he'd prepared. The film is an adaptation of the manga Battle Angel: Alita by Yukito Kishiro, a story about self-discovery and empowerment via a centuries-old human brain that finds its way into the cybernetic body of a young girl. A part-time doctor, part-time bounty hunter, Doctor Ido, played in the film by two-time Oscar winner Christoph Waltz, takes center stage in Alita: Battle Angel–Doctor Ido's Journal, the new release by writer Nick Aires for Titan Books.
After losing his human daughter's struggle to live, the Dr. Frankenstein-inspired Dr. Ido finds the "core" of a cyborg in a scrapyard with a surviving, living human brain. He uses the prosthetics and futuristic body parts he'd designed for his daughter to rebuild a new girl, quasi-Pinocchio style, naming her Alita after his daughter. The sci-fi story follows Alita as she tries to learn about her past and survive in a dystopian world that mixes inspirations from John Carpenter, Ridley Scott, Neill Blomkamp, and George Miller. The visions of each of these directors' best futuristic films comes through in Doctor Ido's Journal, an in-universe document which reprints concept art, sketches, and photographs from the film, combining them with a diary entry narrative written by Aires in the place of Dr. Ido. Doctor Ido's Journal will be familiar to fans of Aires' past in-universe books, including Oliver Queen's Dossier, S.T.A.R. Labs: Cisco Ramon's Journal, and Arrow: Heroes and Villains and works by others reviewed here, including Alien: The Weyland-Yutani Report, The Book of Alien: Augmented Reality Survival Manual, and the Batman v Superman Tech Manual. Fans will first find a cleverly designed flex-cover that mimics metal (a great design effect that would make for an attractive blank journal), followed by pages of dense notebook entries that track the action of the film, all from Dr. Ido's perspective.
The artwork is exceptional, vivid engineering-level drawings like those found in Mark Salisbury's Elysium: The Art of the Film, reviewed here at borg, and the combination of horror and beauty found in production artists Dan Hallett and Matt Hatton's elaborate designs in Alien: Covenant: David's Drawings, reviewed here (it's worth noting the Weta Digital created much of the designs for both Alita: Battle Angel and Elysium, and the similarly realized scrap-metal worlds of Blomkamp's District 9 and CHAPPIE). At times the gear-heavy animatronics inside the cyborgs echo the real-world 19th century automaton past of these creations, making these modern borgs into something that feels almost steampunk.
Here are some preview pages from Alita: Battle Angel–Doctor Ido's Journal courtesy of the publisher:
Tags: Alien Covenant: David's Drawings, Alita Battle Angel Doctor Ido's Journal, Alita Battle Angel Doctor Ido's Journal book review, Alita: Battle Angel, animatronics, automatons, Battle Angel Alita, borgs, Christoph Waltz, concept art, cybernetic technology, cyborgs, Elysium: The Art of the Film, Frankenstein, futurism, games of the future, George Miller, Guillermo del Toro, James Cameron, John Carpenter, manga, Motorball, Neill Blomkamp, Nick Aires, Pinocchio, Ridley Scott, Robert Rodriguez, steampunk, Titan Books, Weta Digital, Yukito Kishiro
New book delves into the concept art behind The Force Awakens
Filed under: Comics & Books, Fantasy Realms, Movies, Sci-Fi Café — Leave a comment
Not just another visual guide to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, a new art book from Abrams looks behind the creative process in making a major motion picture. The Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens is unusual in that it doesn't rely on film stills or the typical art design imagery you might find in a making-of movie work. It is closer to The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Chronicles–Art & Design reviewed previously at borg.com here than say Star Trek: The Art of the Film
, discussed here, in that it is an exhaustive account of the trials and discarded concepts that come along with creating a new story for an established franchise.
Also, like the Hobbit Chronicles book series, Lucasfilm chose to use one of its own to chronicle the pre-production of the film. Author Phil Szostak, who has a long history with the art department at Lucasfilm, was embedded in the art department of The Force Awakens crew as a conceptual researcher and archivist from December 2012 through the end of the making of the film.
The Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens provides many possible paths that might have been taken in creating the look and feel of Episode VII. The most surprising may be that Rey and Finn were going to be called Kira and Sam for nearly the entire production process. Many members of the press have used imagery from this book to assert that somehow scenes were deleted from the final cut or that the concepts and ideas in the book reflect the original plan, but that's really not the case. The ideas thrown around in the planning stages are the same types of ideas used in any production–some ideas are good and are used, others don't make the cut for any number of reasons. This is illustrated well in the pre-production for Neill Blomkamp's Elysium, as seen in Elysium: The Art of the Film, reviewed here. Many good ideas just get left behind for the needs of the plot and the timing of the film.
Tags: Abrams Books, concept art, Elysium: The Art of the Film, Michael Kaplan, moviemaking books, Phil Szostak, Star Trek Ships of the Line, Star Trek: The Art of the Film, Star Wars, Star Wars: The Force Awakens soundtrack, The Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Chronicles--Art & Design
Elysium: The Art of the Film spotlights work of Weta creators
Art designers or aspiring art design students will want to pick up Mark Salisbury's new look at creating sets, costumes and props for a world of the future in Elysium: The Art of the Film. Incorporating commentary from the up-and-coming science fiction director of the geo-political sci-fi thriller District 9, Neill Blomkamp, this new large format hardcover delves into the creative process from early ponderings to the imagery that made it to the final film cut.
Like listening to the first demo tapes of your favorite band or scanning the rough sketches of your favorite artist, taking a peek at the development of Hollywood magic through various aspects of a film can teach you a lot about a designer. Watching the development of a cyborg exo-skeletal costume from inception to final crafted piece challenges the reader to agree or disagree with what is cut and what isn't. What physical elements, like utilitarian tubes and pipes, plastics or metals, make us think of the visual "future"?
Tags: Blade Runner, borg, District 9, Elysium, Elysium: The Art of the Film, Elysium: The Art of the Film review, Lord of the Rings, Mark Salisbury, Matt Damon, Neill Blomkamp, Syd Mead, Tron, WETA Workshop
Anovos displays replica movie costumes at Comic-Con