Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/859699
Left: Model Maker Brett Phillips built this colored physical model of the interior of the hidden ape fortress. The design of the set, built on stage at Mammoth Studios in North Vancouver, emulated and expanded upon the design of their home in DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES. Below: Another view of Brett Phillips' model of the fortress. This set wound up being almost entirely digital but was initially designed to be practical. The physical models helped determine how much would need to be built. Bottom, left and right: Two views of the main courtyard of the ape fortress, hidden behind a massive waterfall, drawn by Illustrator Joe Studzinski in Photoshop. This set was a combination of locations, physical sets and digital extensions. Seeing the apes backlit against the waterfall was one of the first ideas that launched the design of the fortress. for the biggest scope possible, and I got to work designing environments that would take advantage of the gifts that this large format brought. Prep was a two-headed beast: the team in Los Angeles was fleshing out the sets and, on the locations side, an intensive search looked for locations in Canada and the western United States. The ambition of the last film was to ground the world in the familiar, to scaffold the faith of the audience as they traveled into a world without humans. Dawn created a vision of San Francisco and its surrounding countryside. This time, a journey of the apes across the state was the focus. My first trip to California while still in college had brought me down the coast of Oregon into Northern California. The massive bluffs and dunes in southern Oregon had always gripped my imagination. Apes riding horses on the beach was an image I felt I could build around to start the journey. I had spent some time on Vancouver Island the last time in Canada, and I knew the coast there would have the needed scale. My first scout to the area found a stalled condo/golf