The Scene And The Unseen - The Work Of A Concept Artist - The Development Of A Project

What You See & Don't See In Movies Or TV

The process for producing a television and movies involves many talented individuals. Often the whole process starts off with a story idea. From there a script is developed. Sometimes this process involves one screenwriter but there can be several who work on the script. For instance. I have credit for story concept on a script that was principally written by someone else. It has gone several major revisions over its history. Nick Andrews is our very talented screenwriter on the project. But for each new major and sometimes minor revisions of the script Nick and I would spend many hours working with plot, character, set and settings. Sometimes you will have a director attached to the project right away but usually it is a screenwriter who really gets the ball rolling.

From there hopeful movie producers shop the script around through various means to find an interested studio, producer, and director for the project. Some really great movies have taken years to get into development waiting for the right party to say, "Hey, that is a great story. Here is a big check to help you get things started". The industry is changing in a lot of ways and getting things made is more difficult than it was in the past because you have to consider so many markets and content developers and providers. For instance there is a shift with many large studios to do remakes and sequels because of several factors. First a full theatrical motion picture can cost millions and millions of dollars to make. The internet has made getting paid from movies much harder. Often you can steal a movie that comes out on or before the date that it hits theaters. So the major studios are shifting their strategies. For instance, several of the major studios are moving more into development for TV because the revenue model is better. So a lot of the new stuff that is coming out that is original is being made by companies like Netflix, HBO, etc. Because they have a subscription model that makes development of unique content more important to them to bring in more subscribers.

Somethings Change & Some Remain The Same

Even the process of development is changing. Because of the very technical nature of developing these productions many different types of artists are involved early on just to develop the look and feel of a story. Usually there is a director at this point, along with the screenwriters and managing producer, and perhaps some of the key actors that are signed up for the project. But just because these positions are staffed does not mean that the project will see the light of day. Many projects have died at this stage for a whole host of reasons.

It is at this point that often concept art is developed. In many situations this look development falls on the shoulders of a concept artist. Most of the time there is a director and perhaps a art director / production designer involved at this point. I am currently working on a project that is at this stage of development. It is for a TV program that would hopefully air sometime next year. But for the first time in my life, I am the concept artist and there is no production or art director to assist me with look development. So there is an interesting relationship developing for me with the director who is taking on the other roles.

I would say that the vast majority of my experience has been to take the work that concept artists develop and turn them into production ready assets. Very often I focus on architectural and environmental art but from time to time I do other items. On this project I have had to do all sort of various science fiction assets as concept work.

The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

This image is one of various tries that I have made on doing various different types of corridors for inside of space ships, buildings, and space stations. I am having to use some software that I am not completely used to for various reasons. So this adds a little extra stress because while I am trying to be highly productive at producing images to move the project along, I am also having to do R&D that would normally be done at a later stage to illustrate the look that the director wants. In this case setting is very important. But a few of the images have come out horribly. The image above is one of those images that just tanked for me completely. After hours of rendering it is still filled with noise, the lighting is off and the reflections of the surfaces are out of control.

So part of the challenge for me on this project has been technical while also trying to produce a large enough variety of looks to help steer the production art while not spending too much time on any one type of item. So I am doing things like reusing some things like props and textures to make as many iterations as possible while struggling to maintain consistency in feel and design. To illustrate that point I have posted numerous different looks on corridors with different light, contrast, and colors on here just to show how experimental concept work on this project has been. Already there are the half dozen pictures that I have posted here and a host of other pictures just on corridors alone.

Practical Magic

All of this asset and concept work takes ton of time. I am low on sleep and getting worn out trying to get a large volume of concept work done. It is interesting thing is that all of it, the look and feel, could completely change when actual production is underway. This can happen for a number of reasons. A concept may go well beyond the ability of a set to be built because of monetary reasons, story changes, or just the practicality of physical construction of sets. Sometimes this can be fixed through the use of digital set extensions and "green screening in actors". Very often the work of a concept artist who is very talented will end up never being seen by anyone other than senior production staff and will completely change by the time the finished product comes out.

This new role is really making me appreciate the work that concept artists do. I would love to see a way for concept artists to get more of their work seen because they are an invaluable part of the process of bringing a production to the screen. Many of these talented people go on being the unsung heros of the production process. Yeah, often their name appears in the credits but the actual art that is often stunning work never sees the light of day after all the work that goes into producing them.

Your Support

I really appreciate those people who have followed me and supported me along the way. The Steemit community has many talented and really nice people. I want to thank everyone for their support. Please consider resteeming this article to help me get the message out about the valuable work that a concept artist does and to help people understand what it takes to bring something from a written script to a movie or television show.