RUDY BRAUN

Pacific Rim was a fun project. Along with the Loccent, which was the mission control center and Newt's lab, I designed alot of the doors in the movie. Huge blast doors and smaller entry doors- all had a mega industrial look to them that made it interesting.

Visual effects did alot of the heavy lifting in this movie but there's always something interesting to do.  I worked on the White House sets among other things. I feel like if I ever visit the West Wing, I could walk through blindfolded and not miss a step.

What I find so interesting about film work is the fact that from one project to the next I can find myself learning about the past or inventing the future.

The Hulk was probably one of my favourite movies to work on. I designed over 2 million dollars worth of scenery and was pretty much mentally exhausted by the end of it but in a good way. We had to design an entire Harlem city block (in Hamilton) where Hulk and Abomination battle. The scenic painters did an amazing job of putting on the layers of history to the facades.The demolished courthouse where the helicopter crashes and the final battle takes place was also fun to design.

Bits and pieces of some of the many projects over the past 18 years. I started out on a drafting table with pencils and gradually joined the 21st century and the incredibly useful tools it brings.  I do love beautiful hand drafting though!

The Expanse was an interesting and challenging project because everything had to be invented. With films set in the present or the past you have history and research as aides to design but with scifi you are inventing the future. I loved working with Seth Reed (production designer) because he was very open to letting the set designers free rein to let their imaginations soar.

I've done quite a number of tv series. One of my favourites was Warehouse 13 because of the diversity of projects involved. Alot of it had a steampunk aesthetic that blended old and new which was very interesting.

Having been a big fan of the book series it was a thrill to be able to be part of the small screen adaptation. I was one of the art directors on the first season in charge of the locations including the town build which began as a corn field outside of Toronto. It took about 6 months from breaking ground to the town that’s in these photos which was to me an incredible feat on part of the construction, paint set dec and greens crews.

Before I worked in Film I was a set and costume designer for theatre. I graduated from The National Theatre School in Montreal and designed about 20 odd shows over 5 years. I love theatre design because it is an intimate and imaginative interaction with the ideas and text of the play. 

I will post things here from time to time. I love to paint and draw but find that I have less and less time for it.  I've also lost alot of documentation of things done in the past so I will keep this up with more current stuff.

These are selected images from a children's book I wrote and illustrated that has yet to find a home in the publishing world. It is about a mouse who dreams of flying. It is set in Renaissance Florence where Ren (the mouse) meets Leonardo and has a chance to realize his dream.

I've been re-acquainting myself with watercolour and am determined to teach myself this elusive medium. My contemporary heroes in watercolour are Alvaro Castagnet and Joseph Zbukvic.

Pachinko Season 2 was an incredibly interesting project to work on. Myself and another colleague were tasked with creating the pre and post WW2 Tsuruhashi market neighbourhood of Osaka. We had a starting point from season 1 (shot in Vancouver). We added the train trestle wall as an anchor and arranged the buildings in rabbit warren fashion. when all the elements came together the results, (in my opinion) are pretty spectacular.