Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1072449
A Q U A M A N | P E R S P E C T I V E 6 3 As a visual consultant, it was my job to create images based on conversations with the director James Wan about what the film would ultimately look like. We discarded many visual ideas as the story changed and new ideas were generated— always searching for the most spectacular images. I love that James always wants to create the very best. He is always the hardest working person on the team, which makes everyone else want to work as hard as he does. He inspires everyone around him, and the results show at the box office. When hearing the director's vision, I can visualize the film in my mind, and I work to get that out to the rest of the team. I began developing the visual story of Aquaman in mid-2016 and continued my involvement with the project through to the opening of the movie in 2018. When I started in 2016, there was a story treatment, but most of the film's aesthetic came out of the vision James laid out in those first meetings. Conjuring 2 was wrapping up, it was a smooth transition to roll onto Aquaman. With this project, as with most everything I do, I focused first on the old tried-and-true "what is the essence of the story" as a measure for whether an image stays or goes before I present it to the director. The story is everything. They say an image is worth a thousand words, so the team takes this job seriously. There were several illustrators/story artists on this film, and every one of them is brilliant at what they do. The team included Brendan Tolley, Martin Mercer, Darryl Henley, Collin Grant, James Doh, Matthew Hatton and Josh Sheppard. I am a huge fan of all of their work. Everyone worked so hard on the film to bring James's vision to life, and the images and ideas they contributed are too numerous to list. Collectively, this team of artists produced over ten thousand individual images in the development of this film. Aquaman was a labor of love. ADG A. THE ARRIVAL OF AQUAMAN. B. ARTHUR COMES ABOARD. C. INTO THE MEMORIES OF AQUAMAN. D. MERA AND ARTHUR APPROACH ATLANTIS. E. MERA AND ARTHUR ENTER INTO ATLANTIS. F. DEEP INTO THE UNDERCITY OF ATLANTIS. G. FLYING THROUGH ATLANTIS. H. MERA'S SHIP LANDS AT THE GALLEON. DRAWINGS BY JOHN FOX, DONE IN PHOTOSHOP. C E D F G H