When you're doing the set for a movie opening, you spell "premiere" with an "e". That was one of my big takeaways from this project. No, nothing bad happened. I just spelled it wrong on an early sketch version of the design, and I don't think I'll ever live it down. So . . . note taken.
Here we go: the shortened version. Big red carpet premiere (with an "e") of a Netflix original movie. They wanted it big because this is, to date, the largest budget they've had for a movie. With A-List celebs like Dwayne Johnson, Gal Gadot, and Ryan Reynolds they had to give the premiere as much fanfare as possible.
We started off the process about a month ago, pitching several concepts for an alternative red carpet idea. We really tried to turn the idea of a red carpet on its head. But, in the end, we had a pretty straightforward layout.
That layout just had a LOT of scenery. After getting a pre-release of the movie I translated several scenes from the film into scenic vignettes. We also had a giant entrance archway, a long scenic press wall, and an arena stage so that they could have interviews and fan interaction.
It was a lot. A LOT. I have to give it up to the production crew. They really juggled a ton of moving pieces. While I designed a large amount of scenery, that's really my wheelhouse. So I was just fine sketching and drafting and creating graphics like a madman. But the production crew handled a myriad of logistics. They had virtual fan walls, VIP viewing areas, themed bar service, and a lot of celebrity shuffling. It was an impressive amount of work.
Anyway . . . I always try to keep these things short, and let the photos and sketches speak for themselves. So here come the photos. The event just happened last night, so I don't have pics from every area yet. But I thought I'd post some of what I do have, and some sketches of the other areas.
I'd love to show you some of what ended up "on the cutting room floor", but that would make for a very long post. I'll just show you some of these sketches that were actually produced.
It's strange just how much RED ended up in the design. I didn't get that overall impression while designing, until everything started coming together. We went back and forth with color and branding. That's a common thing with heavily branded red carpets. You're often walking a fine line between too much and not enough. And you're constantly weighing what's seen live and what's being captured on video or static photo.
I also didn't realize just how many graphics files I'd created for this show until I looked at the final list. It was a monster. I was juggling a few other projects at the time (more on those later) so it all just blended together after a while. These days, when there's more printing than scenic painting, I often end up doing a lot of graphic work.
Well thanks for reading! Hopefully I'll get some great pics of this event which I can add to the main web site. I've seen some of the scenic on video feed, and it looks pretty good. Take care!
