Justice League Art Director Damien Drew (who is working alongside Production Designer Owen Paterson and Supervising Art Director Hugh Bateup) recently consented to a brief interview, though his confidentiality agreement with Warner Bros. prevents him from speaking specifically about Justice League.
VOICES FROM KRYPTON: Considering your credits — among them the Matrix films — is the genre something you seek out or, instead, is it something you’ve just fallen in to?
DAMIEN DREW: I haven’t sought out “genre material” specifically. A large proportion of film productions in Australia in recent years have been in the Sci-Fi and Fantasy genres. I think this has been a studio trend. These are also the productions that generally require large scale set builds of “other world” environments.
VOICES FROM KRYPTON: With what you do, are films like Justice League, The Matrix, Superman Returns and Star Wars more creatively fulfilling?
DAMIEN DREW: I am equally interested in other film genres, but these types of films do afford exciting design opportunities by their nature.
VOICES FROM KRYPTON: What are you responsibilities on a film?
DAMIEN DREW: My responsibilities as an Art Director bridge both creative and management roles. The Art Directors are often facilitators, ensuring that the Production Designer’s creative goals are implemented through the skills and talents of the many different crew in the art department. This begins with the development of concept art into sketch models and plans for physical sets, supervising the development of construction drawings and following through the construction, painting, dressing and delivery of the sets and locations to meet the shooting schedule. As the film making process is increasingly influenced by digital technologies, the Art Department also develops and designs environments that will only exist in the realm of Visual Effects.
VOICES FROM KRYPTON: When you work on the films you’ve been involved with, is there a personal sense of excitement to become a part of a larger mythos or legacy?
DAMIEN DREW: It is certainly exciting to work on projects where I may have had a relationship with characters or stories as a child. Star Wars has been a big part of many children and adults’ lives from its inception. Likewise the Superman character and its history are iconic. These projects were both hard work and lots of fun to be involved with.
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