Render Me Dead

I recently had the opportunity to work with a local director, Greg Brotherton on his first feature indy film "Render Me Dead." RMD is a fim noir spoof set here in Seattle with elements of corporate espionage, murder and comic relief. I initially was slated to do storyboards for the film but much to the chagrin of the DP and the rest of us visually minded people he chose not to. I did however act as Art Director for the film's finale in which a makeshift gallery is constructed in a barn and all sorts of visuals created as clues revealing the identity of the murderer.

The location of the finale was about an hour away from Seattle at a place called Smoke Farm. It was a gorgeous place but during the final weekend of shooting the weather was miserable and prevented the crew from finishing.

Aside from acting as Art Director I made some art for the finale. I did three pieces in total. Two were on 8'x8' canvas and a third was done digitally and projected onto paper. The first concept was to create an illustration that graphically captured the crime scene with chalk outline and police tape. The second was to illustrate the logo of a group of corporate thieves known as the Air Pirates.

Alot of time and effort was spent constructing the set for the finale which required frames for all of the art and projections. Each visual was 8'x8' and I worked closely with Ben the construction guy to meet all of the deadlines - which meant alot of sleepless nights. One of the construction set ups required us to drop an eighty pound plexiglass and wood framework down on one of the leads!