MUSIC VIDEO Church & State - Paul Leonard · 2014-04-26 · JP Leonard Design for Film 213.448.8209...

1JP Leonard | Design for Film | 213.448.8209

MUSIC VIDEO Church & State

Role: Production DesignerDirector: Jill Soloway

This music video starring Jane Lynch and Jordan Peele was a Funny or Die comedic piece about the separation of church and state, envisioned as a break up song - sung by Church & State.

Inspiration for Church & State came from Donny & Marie and Sonny & Cher. I designed the era-appropriate variety show set and prop mics, as well as the custom-fabricated sign that was the centerpiece of the set.

= indicates final frame


FILM Afternoon Delight Winner, Best Direction (US Dramatic) - Sundance Film Festival 2013

Role: Art DirectorProduction Designer: Adriana Serrano

Writer/director Jill Soloway’s debut feature film premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and Soloway was honored with the Directing Award (US, Dramatic Competition).

The independent film was also on Quentin Tarantino’s list of top 10 movies of 2013.

The Espresso Yo’Self set was designed as the backdrop for the stalking by Rachel (Kathryn Hahn) of McKenna (Juno Temple). The moustachioed logo was meant to be trendy but also suggest the light deceit in Rachel taking a fake name for the “chance” meeting.



The home of Rachel and Jeff (Josh Radnor) needed to be hip and contemporary.

The existing location mostly met that criteria, but the master bedroom posed a problem with its mundane built-in dresser and awkwardly placed closet door.

Both were masked: the dresser by blue acrylic sheets cut to size and applied to all exposed faces, and the closet by hiding it with a patterned wall plug.



The artwork that anchors the living room serves to break the symmetry introduced by the hearth’s TV alcove and reinforces the idea of Rachel as a stalker.

The artwork is a piece by LA contemporary artist Kaucyila Brooke, and is a photograph of viewing platforms used in europe for hunting prey.



McKenna (Juno Temple) meets Rachel at Sam’s Hofbrau. The actual location (Chee-tahs in Hollywood) was redesigned to emphasize the “Private Pleasures” inner sanctum where Rachel gets her transformative lap dance.


Official Selection - Sundance Film Festival 2012SHORT FILM Una Hora Por Favora


This short film starring Michaela Watkins and Wilmer Valderrama premiered at Sundance in 2011.

During production, I tailored locations to best emphasize the characters and support the story. A pivotal scene in a bathroom was visually simplified by building walls around a modern glass shower enclosure, giving em-phasis to an existing claw foot tub. Rented shower hardware completed the illusion.

I also storyboarded the title sequence and designed the festival poster.


FILM Valencia


Valencia was an experimental feature film adaptation of a Michelle Tea novella about her experiences in the ‘90s lesbian scene in San Francisco’s Mission District.

Shot in various locations, the lone built set was the interior of a U-Haul truck. I illustrat-ed hero Tarot card props that related to a central character moving out of San Fran-cisco.

I also transformed a vintage suitcase into a hip and colorful portable record player, with a “Valencia” album cover of my design.


Winner, Best Picture, Best Director - 76th Academy AwardsFILM The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Role: Titles DesignerDirector: Peter Jackson

I was hired by Peter Jackson’s production company to design the end titles of the third film in the original Lord of the Rings trilogy. I worked alongside Alan Lee, the Academy Award-winning concept designer of the films.

Alan and I developed a technique for breath-ing life into his illustrations of each key cast member - a fusion of reference photos and Alan’s sublime pencil work.

The 11-minute sequence - set to a song by Annie Lennox - required 37 individually cred-ited names and 57 end crawl layouts.


DIGITAL The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

Role: Art Director, special filmed sequencesDirector of Photography: Alex Funke

From 2000 through 2004 New Line Cinema hired me to design the DVD menus for each of The Lord of the Rings home entertainment releases. This included the 2-disc theatrical editions and the 4-disc extended editions for each of the three films, worldwide.

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Each extended edition required several short filmed sequences, which I story-boarded in California and art directed on set in New Zealand.

The set dressing and props from the mov-ies were used for each filmed sequence (35mm anamorphic) and a hero prop book - Bilbo’s journal - was hand made for the centerpiece of each release.

To accommodate international needs, both english texted and blank journals were made. For the textless journals, tracking dots were used in order for my animators to track the translated text in post-production.

The thousands of assets requiring approval - per film and per language - prompted the creation of an organized develop-ment site with each asset logged and viewable.


SHORT FILM Stuck Winner, Best Production Design (Student) - Los Angeles Movie Awards 2012

Role: Production DesignerDirector: Martin Andersen

My thesis film at AFI was a puzzle piece of a set, in which the hero awakens to find himself buried in hardened cement. His captors return to finish the job, so a second, stunt set was built for a cement drowning sequence.

Some post-production VFX planning was done early, to shoot the “hole” at its correct angle and then composite it in the floor.


TV The Aquabats! Super Show!

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"Mee

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26,

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EXT. GIANT ANTHILL (CRASH CLOSE-UP)

CONCEPT - EXT. GIANT ANTHILL (WIDE)

EXT. GIANT ANTHILL (CRASH ECU)

MINIATURE GIANT ANTHILL: 4'-0" TALL, 5'-0" DIA BASE

SMALLISH ANTS

NOTE:This concept shows a 4'-0" tall, 5'-0" diameter miniature giant ant hill that will be used as both the background miniature and the practical model when Crash grows big.

If the Giant Ant Hill needs to read as much, much bigger - this could be accomplished by making a separate foreground miniature that could be used for wide shots (the foreground miniature and Crash would then not visually overlap).

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NOTE:THE ANT HILL WILL HAVE A COLLAPSABLE TOP, WITH A MAX. HEIGHT OF 2'-0"

THE BASE NEEDS TO BE MADE TO SUPPORT THIS. THE OVERALL SHAPE AND MAXIMUM DIMENSIONS ARE SHOWN AT LEFT AND BELOW LEFT. THE SHAPE IS SLIGHTLY IRREGULAR.

THE BASE CAN BE MADE OF PLYWOOD VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL PROFILES, WITH THE SKIN TO BE ADHERED LATER, FINISHED TO MATCH THE TOP PIECE.

ALTERNATE OPTION WOULD BE TO SCULPT THE BASE OUT OF EXPANDED POLYSTYREEN FOAM, WITH THE SCULPTED EXTERIOR FINISHED TO MATCH THE TOP PIECE.

ELEVATION - GIANT ANT HILL3/4"=1'-0"

PLAN - GIANT ANT HILL3/4"=1'-0"

4' 0

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2' 7

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MAX

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MAX.

MAX.

TOP OF BASEREFLECTS IRREGULAR

FOOTPRINT OF THE SEPARATE TOP PIECE

BASE BELOW,IRREGULAR CIRCULARSHAPE, MAX. 4'-0" DIA.

SEPARATE TOP PIECENOT TO SCALE

Role: Art Dept InternProduction Designer: Helen Harwell

I helped design and build a scale giant ant hill that required a stunt action of it breaking open (reveal-ing tiny hamburgers hidden within).


TV The Aquabats! Super Show!

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#104

"Lau

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21,

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PLAN - INT. DRY CLEANERS - BACK ROOM1/8"=1'-0"

ISOMETRIC VIEWNTS

ISOMETRIC - PLATFORM1/4"=1'-0"

6' 0

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20' 0

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DO

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30' 0

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1' 0"

9' 0

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MINIMUM

2' 8"4"

2'-0" PLATFORM

2" DIA SPEED RAILRAILING36" HIGH

10'-0" DIAPOOL

SKIRT EDGESWITH METAL

AS DIRECTED

2' 0

"

PAINT AS DIRECTED

EXISTING STRUCTURE

INDUSTRIAL WASING MACHINE- REPOSITIONABLE

CLOTHES PRESS- REPOSITIONABLE

10' 0

"

GARMENT RACKS- REPOSITIONABLE

DRY CLEANING RACK - REPOSITIONABLE

10'-0"DIA. POOL

DRY CLEANING RACK

NEW FLAT10'-0" HIGH

GARMENT RACKS

10'-0" DIAPOOL

2'-0" HIGHPLATFORM

INDUSTRIALWASHING MACHINE

CLOTHESPRESS

SLIDING DOOR(MATCH TO LOCATION)

11"

STEPS 8" RISERS, 11" TREADS

24' 4"

ALIGN FLAT W/ EDGE OF EXISTING OPENING

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2' 10

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2' 11"

6' 11"

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2' 6"

1' 3

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TWO DRAWERS BENEATH EACH LOWER BUNK

PLAN - INT. BEDROOM1/4"=1'-0"

ELEV - INT. BEDROOM1/4"=1'-0"


ISOMETRIC VIEWNTS

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2' 10

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2' 11"

6' 11"

3' 0

"

18' 0

"

20' 0"

2' 6"

1' 3

"2'

6"

9"2'

6"

7' 6

"2'

6"

10' 0

"

TWO DRAWERS BENEATH EACH LOWER BUNK

PLAN - INT. BEDROOM1/4"=1'-0"



ISOMETRIC VIEWNTS

I prepared dimensioned plans and elevations of the Aquabats’ bunk room, including a SketchUp Podi-um render of the interior set. For the crew to better block out a stunt sequence of a laundry monster fighting the heros, I created documents of a dry cleaners set.


FILM Untitled Project (sizzle)

Role: Art DirectorProduction Designer: Marcos Lutyens

This sizzle reel was commissioned by the studio as a proof of concept for this Untitled fantasy feature film. The attic bedroom of the film’s teenage hero was the terminal set for the teaser.

The coved wall beyond the teen’s bedroom was painted chroma-key green for a haunting VFX se-quence that occurs as the teen opens the door.


DIGITAL 200 Seconds

Role: Production DesignerDirectors: Ben Olander & Tomas Apodaca

200 Seconds was the pilot for an iPad-specific dramatic serial, in which future corporate warfare is carried out in the guise of WWI-era trench battle. An extensive trench and no-man’s land was excavated in Carmel Valley, and many practical effects and pyrotechnics were used. The pilot is presently in post-production.


TV Transparent

Role: Titles DesignerProduction Designer: Cat Smith

For Jill Soloway’s Amazon series, Transparent, I designed the pilot’s title sequence. We went through many iterations (in-cluding a family tree concept, top of page) before deciding upon simple title cards with a solid bold background color.

With the series now green-lit, I will be rejoining Transparent temporarily in April/May as a Set Designer.


DIGITAL The Simpsons - Season Box Sets

Role: Concept ArtistClient: 20th Century Fox

For The Simpsons season releases on DVD and Blu-ray, I was hired by 20th Century Fox to work directly with Gracie Films for concept development of new animated sequences.

Over the span of nine years (seasons 6 through 14), I drew or art directed the concept and storyboards that - once approved - were handed off to Film Roman (the series’ animation house) to execute.


MUSIC VIDEO The Wellspring - “Missing”

Role: Production DesignerDirector: Talia Osteen

Shot in Vasquez Rocks, this music video for the band The Wellspring was meant to raise awareness of missing american Robert Levinson, the lon-gest-held american captive in history.

I composited the former CIA agent’s last televised plea for help into televi-sion monitors - several defunct tubes and empty shells, their housings lined with chroma key material.

The band’s singers were shot separately on blue-screen and composited over a virtual wall of televisions I created in post-production.


TV The 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards - “The Liaison” sketch

Role: Graphic DesignerDirector: Jill Soloway

During her stint as host of the Emmy Awards, Jane Lynch starred in a Jersey Shore-themed sketch called “The Liaison.”

I created virtual set dressing, transforming green screen photos of Lynch in character into oversized paintings. The “paintings” were then matched to the perspective of the walls of her opulent - though tacky - office.

Anderson Cooper’s scripted introduction used my Godfather-inspired logo and title sequence for the sketch.


EDUCATION AFI Conservatory

Instructors: Joseph Garrity, Lauren Polizzi, Todd Cherni-awsky, David Morong, John Muto, Suzanne Feller-Otto, David Moreau

At the AFI Conservatory I was able to reacquaint myself with former skills (hand drafting and model-making from my archi-tecture years) and acquaint myself with the history, thinking and processes used in designing for story. Exposure to Vector-works, Maya, Rhino and other tools of the art department trade was a plus.


DIGITAL DVD & Blu-ray Menu SequencesRole: Owner & Art DirectorClients: New Line Cinema, 20th Century Fox, NBC-Universal, Sony Pictures, Lionsgate, Warner Bros., The Walt Disney Company

From 2000 through the present, I’ve worked with major Hollywood studios as Company Wide Shut. My company has produced hundreds of motion graphics sequences for film and television releases on home video (DVD and Blu-ray).

The founding principle of my company was that creative inspiration would origi-nate as much outside of the computer as within.

Several custom-fabricated pieces were created over the years, including a chromed chainsaw blade for American Psycho and a janky “time machine” for Napoleon Dynamite.

The company has been a means to teach myself to design for the frame, through storyboarding, prop fabrica-tion, set dressing, lighting, editing and post-production techniques.

MUSIC VIDEO Church & State - Paul Leonard · 2014-04-26 · JP Leonard Design for Film 213.448.8209...

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Transcript of MUSIC VIDEO Church & State - Paul Leonard · 2014-04-26 · JP Leonard Design for Film 213.448.8209...