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Alex McDowell

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For the Pennsylvania Congressman, seeAlexander McDowell.
Alex McDowell
Alex McDowell at FMX 2012
Born(1955-04-11)11 April 1955(age 69)
Borneo,Malaysia
Occupation(s)production designer,creative director,professor of practice
Years active1975–present
SpouseKirsten Everberg
Children2

Alex McDowell(born 11 April 1955) is a Britishnarrative designerandcreative directorworking in narrative media.

Early work

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Alex McDowell was born inBorneo,Malaysia, to British parents. His father, H Blair McDowell, was anengineerforRoyal Dutch Shell,and his brother, Jonathan McDowell, is a London-basedarchitectat Matter Films. He attendedQuakerboarding schools from age 7 to 18.

McDowell studied fine art at theCentral School of Art and DesigninLondonwhere in 1975 he andSebastian Conranstaged theSex Pistolsfirst headline concert. He then designed and printed T-shirts forMalcolm McLarenandVivienne Westwood'sKing's RoadshopSex.With musicianGlen Matlock,he founded graphic studio Rocking Russian Design in 1978, which is whereNeville Brodystarted his career.[1]McDowell designedalbum coversforpunk rock groupsand musicians, includingRich Kids,Siouxsie and the Banshees,The Clash,andIggy Pop.[2]

In 1979, McDowell was commissioned to design Pop'sSoldieralbum. Iggy asked him to make his first threemusic videosforSoldier,and so, a year before the launch ofMTV,McDowell became aproduction designer.In 1981, he co-founded design studio Da Gama, alongsidetypographeranddesignerJohn Warwicker.[3]He began to work with directorTim Pope,designing a series of videos forThe Cure,among many others. Pope and McDowell made a video withDepeche Modeat theBerlin Wall,withQueenin Munich, andNeil Youngin California. In 1986, McDowell moved permanently toLos Angelesto work in the burgeoning music video and commercials industry in Hollywood.

During the late 1980s and 1990s, he designed the sets for over one hundredmusic videos,including artists likeMadonna,[4]Michael Jackson,ZZ Top,Aerosmith,[5]and others. He moved from production company Limelight, where he designed and directed music videos, including "Paradise"(1988) for Nigerian singerSadeto thePropaganda Films,co-owned by directorDavid Fincher.McDowell worked for a year with Fincher, designing sets for Madonna's videos "Express Yourself","Oh Father",and"Vogue",amongst many others, and commercials for companies likeLevi's,Converse,Nike,Pepsi,Revlon,Sony,Coca-Cola,andChanel.[citation needed]

McDowell's first feature also featuresvirtual reality,The Lawnmower Man.Back at Propaganda Films, his work was seen by directorAlex Proyas,who asked him to designThe Crow(1994), an independent fantasy action film starringBrandon Lee,which opened at the top of the box office and went oncult status.

Filmography

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Production design

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Beginning withThe Crowin 1994, McDowell began to production design features, working with directors likeTerry Gilliam(Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,1998) and again with David Fincher for a controversial film,Fight Club(1999). In 1999, he was asked bySteven Spielbergto designMinority Report.This film, which involved two separate pre-production design phases, made McDowell develop a new design methodology that built a holistic world for the narrative, within which the script evolved, and created a fully digital art department.[6]The film was released later in 2002.

Production

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Current work

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McDowell currently serves as a professor of cinema practice at theUniversity of Southern California.[7]McDowell was named theWilliam Cameron Menziesendowed chair inProduction Designin 2014.[8]

He directs the USC World Building Media Lab (WbML).[9]In 2014, the research lab was awarded the Future Voice Award at theInteractionAwards.[10]The lab tried to develop a new visual language for molecular biology, expressed in the World in a Cell. It was a funded partnership with the USC Bridge Institute.[11][12]

World Building Institute

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In October 2008, McDowell founded the World Building Institute.[13]From 2007 to 2016, the World Building Institute hosted the Science of Fiction Festival every eighteen months. Based on art-science projects, the event reached upwards of 300 participants each year. Since 2008, Juan Diaz Bohorquez has been the European Director of the World Building Institute.[14][15]For the past 14 years, Juan Diaz Bohorquez has closely collaborated with Alex McDowell.[16][17]The World Building Institute has hosted workshops at theBerlin Film Festivaland at theBerlinale Talents.[18][19][20]

Awards

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In 2002, he won aSan Diego Film Critics Societyaward in the Best Production Design category for his work onMinority Reportand, in 2004, anArt Directors Guildaward for Excellence in Production Design forThe Terminal.In 2006, McDowell was namedRoyal Designer for Industryby theRSA,a design society, and was appointed Visiting Artist at theMIT Media Lab.In April 2015, McDowell was awarded theBritWeekBusiness Innovation Award.[21][22]

References

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  1. ^Wozencroft, Jon; Neville, Brody (2001).Brody: the graphic language of Neville Brody.New York, N.Y.: Universe.ISBN9780789306531.
  2. ^Garrett, Malcolm."From Punk to production design: the widescreen career of Alex McDowell".Eye Magazine.Retrieved6 July2015.
  3. ^Warwicker, John."About – CV".Johnwarwicker.Archived fromthe originalon 24 July 2015.Retrieved24 July2015.
  4. ^"Film Production Designer Alex Mcdowell to Deliver Glimcher Lecture at Wexner Center".Wexner Center for the Arts.The Ohio State University.Retrieved6 July2015.
  5. ^"Alex McDowell".Hollywood.Retrieved24 July2015.
  6. ^Farley, Jordan."Interview –Minority Report's Alex McDowell ".GamesRadar.Future.Retrieved29 July2015.
  7. ^"Alexander McDowell".USC Cinematic Arts.University of Southern California.Retrieved6 July2015.
  8. ^Gilmour, Ryan."George Lucas endows three new cinematic arts chairs".USC News.University of Southern California.Retrieved6 July2015.
  9. ^"The World Building Media Lab".USC School of Cinematic Arts.University of Southern California.Retrieved6 July2015.
  10. ^"2014 IxDA Future Voice Award".USC School of Cinematic Artsaccess-date=6 July 2015.
  11. ^"World in a Single Cell > Bridge Institute > USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences".dornsife.usc.edu.Archived fromthe originalon 2018-02-26.
  12. ^"World in a Cell: an artscience collaboration".Staging.worldinacell.Retrieved2020-12-12.
  13. ^"About".World Building Institute.Retrieved20 July2015.
  14. ^"Juan DiazB | World Building Institute".Worldbuilding.institute.Retrieved7 March2023.
  15. ^"5D at the 2011 Berlinale Talent Campus | World Building Institute".Worldbuilding.institute.Retrieved7 March2023.
  16. ^"Member Portal | GOFA".Futurearchitects.Retrieved7 March2023.
  17. ^Stolz, A.; Atkinson, S. A.; Kennedy, H. W. (19 March 2020)."The Future of Film Report 2020"(PDF).Kclpure.kcl.ac.uk.Retrieved7 March2023.
  18. ^"Production Design Studio".Berlinale-talents.de.Retrieved7 March2023.
  19. ^"Play as Process: Worldbuilding and New Ways to Imagine".Archived fromthe originalon 2020-06-06.
  20. ^"World Building Live: Alternate Histories of our Future".Archived fromthe originalon 2020-06-06.
  21. ^"BritWeek UKTI Business Innovation Awards".Archived fromthe originalon 7 July 2015.Retrieved6 July2015.
  22. ^"The 2015 BritWeek UKTI Business Innovation Awards".Getty Images.Jesse Grant.Retrieved6 July2015.
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