Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1514626
Illustrator Nathan Schroeder worked with me to create the interior of the SABER space elevator and Art Director Chris Peters oversaw the set build. Spaceships were a big part of the film. One of those main spaceships was the home of Captain Marvel—aka Carol Danvers. The ship was to be her home in the cosmos and was a pretty hard nut to crack. The idea that developed was that this would be Carol's "van life" in outer space. We created a backstory that her ship would have been theoretically built by an alien race as the spaceship version of an airstream trailer. After an exhaustive exploration, trying out various ideas to see what worked, Concept Artist Paul Chandler created the selected design and the ship was his baby throughout the production of the film. I worked with Art Director Rhys Ifan to develop the interior—a complicated set which also became his main set for the length of the film. I very much wanted the interior to be modular, with the idea that the space could transform depending on Carol's needs. We looked at and referenced modular tiny homes and apartments, high-end camper vans and experimental modular storage systems. The set of Carol's ship became a set divided into various sections with different functions. The kitchen/office was designed with islands that folded in and out of the space. The bedroom/dining room composed of a daybed for Carol designed to "collapse" into the floor; additional guest beds were engineered to fold out of wall paneling; and the floor could retract open to reveal a sunken dining area. Fae Corrigan's Unreal animation was crucial to visually communicating the ideas. Rhys Ifan worked closely with SFX so the set could be practical. SFX also rigged the cockpit on a gimbal so the heroes could be tossed around realistically during flying scenes. This set was also built inside of a custom volume by ILM Stagecraft, which would display nebulas and flying animations—giving us real interactive light. The whole process took nine months, and once we started filming, we joked we had finally given birth to Carol's ship. D. INTERIOR CAROL'S SHIP CONSTRUCTION PLAN BY ART DIRECTOR RHYS IFAN. E. CAROL'S 88-FOOT X 31-FOOT SHIP WAS BUILT ON A CUSTOM STEEL DECK TO HANDLE WITH WEIGHT LOAD, WITH THE COCKPIT BUILT ON A GIMBAL. A 142-LINEAR-FOOT POP- UP VOLUME WAS BUILT AROUND THE SHIP BY ILM STAGECRAFT. SET PHOTO BY SCOTT SCHMIDT. F. CAROL'S SHIP WAS DESIGNED AS THE ALIEN OUTSPACE VERSION OF AN AIRSTREAM TRAILER. CONCEPT ART BY PAUL CHANDLER. D E F