Friday 27 June 2008

Designing Kaleidoscope Man

A big part of making a movie like K-Man is in the planning. I knew from the outset that the film was going to be extremely visual and when writing the script there was a lot of exposition explaining some of the spectacular set peices, spaceships and locations. This made the story seem clunky and over complicated and I knew I needed to be able to show people exactly what I was after, quickly and powerfully.

My Nephew, Steve Cheshire was teaching at the local art college and told me to look at the work of one of his students, Matt Allsopp. When I saw Matt pictures my jaw hit the floor. This 18 year old was producing work to the quality of Ralph McQuarrie (the original concept artist on the Star Wars movies). So we met, he read the script and came up with about 5 images that he felt summed up Kaleidoscope Man.

Well, to say he hit the nail on the head was an understatment. The guy nailed it, absolutley and completely. At last I had a look for the film and over the next few months, Matt produced some 500 storyboards and concepts for the film. I've added a hand full of his early works and hope to produce an 'Art Of' booklet when the film comes out.

To find out more about Matt, visit him at: www.matthewallsopp.com