Exclusive: PACIFIC RIM Concept Art and Interview with Henry Fong

Check out exclusive concept art from Pacific Rim by Henry Fong!

Pacific Rim is a visual feast and I got an exclusive interview with one of the concept artist's Henry Fong, who told me about working on the film and the key to designing a disaster scene. Plus, you'll see gorgeous concept art of Hong Kong, Hannibal Chau's secret lair and the Jeager airlock.

Henry Fong is a professional concept artist and art director who's worked on Hollywood films like Immortals (2011), The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008) and Mirror Mirror (2012).

Check out the rest of the pictures after the jump (click to enlarge).


Maurice Mitchell: Thanks for joining me Henry. What was your main job designing for Pacific Rim?
Henry Fong: I worked at the Pacific Rim art department in Toronto as a concept artist. My job was to create environments and set concept art for the Production Designer, Andrew Neskoromny. My work served as visual reference to communicate with across different departments (set decor, construction, Props..etc).

The sets I was involved with were:  Hong Kong streets, Hannibal Chau's secret lair, the Hong Kong underground evacuation bunker, The Alaska Shatter dome/"Suiting Up" airlock, The Hong Kong disaster zone and mood development on Shatter dome launch bay/repair mmezzanine, as well as some on-set prop design.

MM: A wide variety of sets and designs, Man. What was the most challenging design on Pacific Rim for you?
HF: One of the most challenging designs we faced on Pacific Rimwould be the Hong Kong disaster zone, the aftermath from the battle between the Jaeger and Kaiju.

The challenge was, how can we make a disaster area filled with building debris look convincingly dangerous enough, but also interesting for the viewer to look at while at the same time convince viewers this takes place in the middle of the city of Hong Kong.

So we studied thousands of aerial photos of Hong Kong City from Guillermo and the location scouting team, disaster videos and iconic photographs of war and earthquake zones from different cities around the world. It was a painstaking process to look through all the disaster imagery...it got really depressing. 

But at the end we overcame this problem by creating a "center piece" around tons of building debris. A 75 foot long and one story high, half destroyed rooftop helipad that resembled one of the iconic buildings in the Hong Kong skyline… although we had to go through many revisions to get it perfect.

Ultimately, it's all worth it when I walk on to the set. It really gave me a feeling of standing in the middle of an destroyed Hong Kong financial district.

 
MM: It's all onscreen Henry and it looks great! HF: What are a couple of upcoming movies you worked on?
You will see more of my work on The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) and X-Men: Days Of Future Past (2014) next summer.

Thanks for your time Henry! See more of Henry Fong's portfolio at henryfong.ca

Click on the links if you want to see more of Henry Fong's work and Pacific Rim on my blog.

What do you think of the designs?

Official Pacific Rim Synopsis
When legions of monstrous creatures, known as Kaiju, started rising from the sea, a war began that would take millions of lives and consume humanity’s resources for years on end. To combat the giant Kaiju, a special type of weapon was devised: massive robots, called Jaegers, which are controlled simultaneously by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge. But even the Jaegers are proving nearly defenseless in the face of the relentless Kaiju. On the verge of defeat, the forces defending mankind have no choice but to turn to two unlikely heroes-a washed up former pilot (Charlie Hunnam) and an untested trainee (Rinko Kikuchi)-who are teamed to drive a legendary but seemingly obsolete Jaeger from the past. Together, they stand as mankind’s last hope against the mounting apocalypse.

Directed by Guillermo del Toro.

Starring: Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, Ron Perlman, Robert Kazinsky, Max Martini, Clifton Collins, Jr., Burn Gorman, Larry Joe Campbell, Brad William Henke, Diego Klattenhoff 
Cinematography by Guillermo Navarro
Production Design by Andrew Neskoromny, Carol Spier

Official Site: http://www.pacificrimmovie.com

Release date: July 11, 2013

© 2013 Copyright Legendary Pictures