Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/610353
P E R S P E C T I V E | N OV E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 5 27 There were two fully driveable all-terrain Mars rover vehicles whose concepts were developed first in Los Angeles by Illustrator Jaime Jones, and then expanded further in the UK by Oliver Hodge, Senior Art Director for vehicles with his team. Custom built for the film in Hungary, one 4-wheel model was allegedly destroyed by the storm and then stripped of its batteries to augment the six-wheel version which also towed an eight-wheel cargo trailer retrofitted to it with additional batteries, solar panels and life-support system modules. The Mars rovers were based on actual high-clearance agricultural vehicles fitted with all-wheel hydraulic drive and independent suspension systems. Modifications were made to the chassis components, upgrades to the engine, suspension and hydraulic pumps to give the vehicles their 25 mph speed capability on irregular desert ground. The original driver's compartment was completely removed and then a custom-designed cab with gull wing doors was fabricated and fitted over the original chassis. Also, a half-ton remote-controlled telescopic swing arm lift was fitted to the rear chassis deck, as were fully practical cable winches slung under both the front and rear of the vehicle's chassis. They were all fully functional machines and worked beautifully both on stage and in the Jordanian landscape. The decision to take the film to Hungary was based principally on the opportunity to use the very new Korda Studios' Stage 6 which currently is the largest stage in the world, as large in floor area as the previous record holder, the 007 James Bond stage at Pinewood, but much higher at sixty-six feet to the grid. It also has a wider, more orthogonal proportion than the Bond stage, which enabled the creation of a huge Mars surface landscape made of four thousand tons of a mixture of three different-colored sands to match the Jordanian desert. It was big enough to accommodate the 40-foot diameter, fully upholstered crew habitat set, with its additional dormitory pod and fully rotating roof radiation shade. A complete duplicate of this entire set was reproduced in Jordan. It also accommodated a 48-foot diameter set of retractible tripod landing legs for the Mars Ascent and Descent Vehicles which stood at the other end of the same stage. The huge scale of this stage had several other advantages. It allowed the Mars rover vehicle, forty-five feet long with its trailer, to drive freely from one end of the stage to the other at 25 mph and then loop around for another take. It gave cinematographer Dariusz Wolski enough throw distance to realistically create a single-source sunlight beam as well as evenly light the world's largest green screen to date, approximately 68,000 square feet of cyclorama. There was also enough space for the special effects department to arrange a battery of giant wind machines and blow tons of dust and vermiculite particles evenly across the set to create a believable Martian dust storm. There was enough space as well to blow a complete air lock more than twenty feet in the air and sixty feet from its original position. Above, top to bottom: Mark Watney, once he has recovered from the sandstorm that stranded him, contemplates his future in the habitation pod. The pod itself is a scientific laboratory, with a large number of resources, but it lacks one of the most basic elements of long-term survival: a way to grow food. Mineral-rich soil from the planet's surface can create a usable truck garden, when amended with astronaut manure. Watney, observing his happy potato plants, declares: "I am the greatest botanist on this planet."