Alex McDowell

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Alex McDowell at FMX 2012

Alex McDowell (* 1. April 1955 on Borneo ) is a British Designer ( production designer ).

Life

McDowell was born in Borneo and his family is from England .

McDowell initially wanted to be a painter and studied at the Central School of Art in London , where he graduated at the height of punk's heyday. He founded the group Rocking Russian Design in 1978 and started his career as a designer of record covers for punk rock bands ( The Sex Pistols , Siouxsie and the Banshees , The Clash , Iggy Pop and others). At the same time he experimented with primitive digital graphics as art director for the video magazine "Rewind", together with Terry Jones, a disreputable British designer, he developed the first issues of ID fashion magazine.

In the 1980s, with the advent of MTV , he began making some of the earliest music videos with Tim Pope . In 1986, after over 100 music videos, he moved from London to Los Angeles , where he began his career as a production designer, first in advertising. His knowledge of painting and graphics influenced him again and again in the processing of visual codes, atmospheres, color schemes, characters, stories and textures.

In 1991 McDowell began working as a production designer for the cult virtual reality film The Lawnmower Man , followed by The Crow and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas . In the 1990s, while drafting Fight Club , he began incorporating digital design into his work.

He refined this process in 1999 with the first fully integrated digital design department while preparing for Steven Spielberg's Minority Report : For this film, he consulted with futurologists and technicians of all kinds to create a realistic version of a world in 2054. With the help of 2D and 3D design of all kinds, he made it possible to efficiently combine set construction, camera work, prop production and visual effects of post-production.

He built a complete airport terminal for Spielberg's terminal , and for Charlie and the chocolate factory , his sets filled all the halls of Pinewood Studios and a large part of the backlot twice in a row . For this work he was nominated for the British Academy Film Award in 2006.

McDowell is one of the world's most famous production designers today. He often works with directors like Tim Burton , David Fincher or Alex Proyas . In 2002, he won the San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Production Design for Minority Report and the Art Directors Guild Award for Excellence in Production Design for Terminal .

McDowell is the founder and active member of the revolutionary design and technology think tank matter .

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alex McDowell. In: David Steinitz: Future visions in the cinema - "Science fiction has changed my thinking". , in Süddeutsche Zeitung , December 30, 2017
personal data
SURNAME McDowell, Alex
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British production designer
DATE OF BIRTH April 1, 1955
PLACE OF BIRTH Borneo