My good friend, Darren Gilford, called me with a simple question, “Do you want to work on 'Tron?'”
I had a simple answer, “Do you have the right number?
As I had been working for the past 4 years on creature films, I sincerely thought that he might have not been aware of what I was doing. Unless "Tron" was taking a very unusual departure, was I a good choice? So, I reminded Darren of my current skill set and he reminded me that I was, at the core, an industrial designer.
With that (and the caveat that he can fire me at any moment he saw fit), I embraced the challenge and started "Tron" on day one of the project.
As I was a trained industrial designer, it was pretty easy getting back in the saddle again. In fact, I had been applying my industrial design methodologies to creature, so it was not too long before I shook off the dust (well, most of it).
My first task was the Sirens. At the beginning, they were a bit more robotic in concept, but as they evolved over time, their complexity was reduced. However, the essence established early on still lived inside the end result. This was a good warm-up character, but the next one was to establish the look and feel of all the characters, beginning with Sam Flynn.
As with all things "Tron," the entire art department was collectively
“looking” for the aesthetic. Joe Kosinsky, a trained architect himself, already had a vision and good design sense for what he wanted the new-meets-old world of "TRON: Legacy" to be, so we were in good hands there. Not to mention that Production Designer, Darren Gilford is a trained automotive designer.
My point in bringing that up was that we all had a good foundation to work with developing concepts, but we still had a lot of work to do.
As mentioned, the art department was searching for the cohesive aesthetic and “technology” that would run throughout the film. So, Sam Flynn was a great place for me to start in looking for some of these possibilities.
So, how does one start a design of a costume that is based on such an iconic film and evolve it from a narrative point, instill it with an aesthetic perspective and bring it to life in the “real world” with existing contemporary technologies?
Because, unlike a good majority of the rest of the designs in the film, these costumes had to be “Practical”, i.e., physically wearable with all of the challenges associated with a costume that must be an electrically powered, self contained and fully functioning light-up suit. Honestly, I had no idea at the beginning how complex this challenge was going to be.
But, with the knowledge of the suits ultimately being practical, it is sometimes important to ignore that fact initially and allow you the freedom to pursue a pure aesthetic design.
