Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1177962
Future Man is a show that pays homage to science fiction classics. Its design vernacular is a love letter to the Blade Runners, the 2001: A Space Odysseys, the Back to the Futures and the Mad Maxs that came before it. For season one, this dark science fiction comedy had the main characters jumping through space and time to save the future and mankind. Returning for season two, the show's heroes are found trapped in an alternate future of their own making in the year 2169. It's a world defined by two very different communities with two very different outlooks on technology and its effect on the world. The first community, called the MONS, consists of true-believers, those who are living in a world shaped by technology and a belief that their leader, Stu, is going to save them from environmental collapse on Earth by transporting them to a new life on Mars. The second community, dubbed the NAG (New Above Ground), is living in post-apocalyptic squalor where technology has been banned. One of the great things about working on this show is that the creators are very open to collaboration. This season they began with only the roughest of parameters regarding the character of the communities, and let us have a great deal of creative freedom to bring these two very different communities to life. This collaboration began from a pragmatic standpoint. The season started in stages that were converted warehouses, which presented the challenges of limited space and low ceilings. With such tight quarters and all the permanent sets appearing in the first block of episodes, it quickly became clear there wouldn't be enough space to build all three permanent sets on stage. A backlot would need to be created. The showrunners were open to this idea, and with a show set one hundred fifty years in the future; this would have to be a build. For the sets built on the stages, the biggest challenge was how to create the sense of scope that these new worlds demanded. In season one, the characters from the future had lived in sewers. For the NAG, the writers wanted the characters to have "improved" their lot by moving out of the sewers, so Jess pitched the idea that they were now living between the sewers and above ground by residing in an abandoned quarry. This solved multiple issues, the biggest being the problem of creating natural, outdoor light on stage, while also tying in some of the visual identity from season one. It was important to the creators that the space feel both outside and not claustrophobic, so setting it deep in a quarry could give an explanation for the shadows that inevitably happen in exteriors on stage. The one other request from the writers was for a version of the town marketplace—an area where death battles happen and the sounds of communal sex are muffled. One stage became the dedicated marketplace and the second stage that housed the NAG's residences was attached through a shared elephant door. A A. AERIAL VIEW LOOKING DOWN INTO THE QUARRY HOUSING THE NAG (NEW ABOVE GROUND). CONCEPT SKETCH EXECUTED IN PHOTOSHOP BY ART DIRECTOR STEVEN MILOSAVLESKI. B. GROUNDPLAN OF THE NAG SET WITH INDIVIDUAL SHOPS CALLED OUT, DRAFTED BY SET DESIGNER ARTHUR CHADWICK. NOTE THE YELLOW ARROWS INDICATING FUNCTIONAL SET DOORS. C. WHITE MODEL OF NAG MARKETPLACE USED TO HELP DETERMINE PLACEMENT AND NUMBER OF CONTAINERS THAT WOULD FIT ON STAGE. D. ORIGINAL CONCEPT SKETCH OF NAG MARKETPLACE BY ART DIRECTOR STEVEN MILOSAVLESKI. SKETCHUP MODEL, FINISHED IN PHOTOSHOP.