Alex McDowell – Film Set Design
After finishing up watching American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson, I start thinking about set designs in TV shows and movies. Who designs the sets in movies? Its probably very heavily rooted in interior design. Ive never really looked into it much before, but I wonder what artists have worked to design film sets. This led me to researching into the role a production designer plays on a film set. prospects.ac.uk defines a production designer as “responsible for the visual concept of a film, television or theatre production. They identify a design style for sets, locations, graphics, props, lighting, camera angles and costumes, while working closely with the director and producer.” Ultimately, my research led me to production designer, Alex McDowell, best known for his work on the 2000 film, Fight Club.
Alex McDowell is an award-winning designer and storyteller working at the intersection of emergent technologies and experiential media. He is founder and creative director of experimental.design, where he and his team design immersive story worlds for industries and institutions.
He is a Professor of Practice at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. As Director of the USC World Building Media Lab at the school, McDowell and his interdisciplinary students collaborate to build immersive worlds for storytelling across multiple platforms. The WbML was awarded the prestigious Future Voice Award at the 2014 Interaction Awards in Amsterdam. He also leads the USC World Building Institute, a renowned multi-disciplinary knowledge space. He is recipient from George Lucas of the William Cameron Menzies endowed chair in Production Design.
McDowell has 30 years experience as a production designer of feature films, working with directors David Fincher, Steven Spielberg, Terry Gilliam, and Anthony Minghella amongst others.
As Visiting Artist to the MIT Media Lab (2005-2010) he designed the robot opera “Death and the Powers.” He is a Getty Research Institute scholar, and a member of the AMPAS SciTech Council. In 2006, he was awarded Royal Designer for Industry by the UK’s Royal Society of Arts, and in 2013 UK Designers & Art Directors President’s Award.
Bio Source: http://worldbuilding.institute/people/alex-mcdowell
Featured Image Source: http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/la-design-school
Image Sources:
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