Worker Blog - Worker Studio News on Animation, Film, Events, and Productions in Colorado

1/5/2014

Worker Studio's Barry Kooser: Top 5 Production Design Picks - #4

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Worker Studio's Chief Creative Officer, Barry Kooser was a background Artist and Supervisor for 11 years at Walt Disney Feature Animation, contributing to films such as as The Lion King, Mulan, Lilo & Stitch, and Brother Bear, among others. He also ventured his painterly eye as a Fine Artist, exhibiting his work in galleries around the country. We're lucky to have this master artist inform Worker Studio's production design. We asked Barry what the Top 5 Production Designs that influenced his career in filmmaking are. As you'll see his influences range from classic Disney films to some of the most gorgeous live action films of the past 35 years. This is #4 in a series of posts.

**#4 Star Wars (1977)
Production Illustrator: Ralph McQuarrie
Production Designer: John Barry
Art Direction: Leslie Dilley & Norman Reynolds**

Ralph McQuarrie Concept Art and Production Illustrator Star Wars

A film that inspired a generation of filmmakers, the original Star Wars trilogy was visually informed by the early concept art of Ralph McQuarrie. He was commissioned by George Lucas to illustrate scenes from the script, seen in the images above and below. While the film's production did have some of the best character designers and model makers creating this universe, it was McQuarrie's original concept art that substantially informed the trilogy's production design, from environments, intergalatic ships and even characters such as Darth Vader, Chewbacca , R2-D2 & C-3PO.

Barry noted the ultra-realism in the matte paintings used as an artistic influence. As seen in McQuarrie's concept art of the Star Destroyers below, Barry also gave astute attention to how the size and scale of environments to the ships added to the immensity and vastness of space. It is with this masterful detail that McQuarrie's hand traversed the Star Wars universe through all the original trilogy as a concept artist and production illustrator.