We just wrapped up a reboot of POWER RANGERS. The last time we saw a Power Rangers feature film was in 1995. Our version takes the production value up a few notches while we try to bake in the fun. Director Dean Isrealite understands teenage drama after his successful Project Almanac feature, so he knows how to navigate the complicated emotions and conflicted motivations of five teenagers who accidentally become superheroes.

It was great to team up with Production Designer Andrew Menzies and Supervising Art Director Sandy Cochrane again. We did Monster Trucks together two years ago. This time around, the stakes were higher with a bigger budget and expectations to honour the franchise yet make it something new and exciting. One of the toughest designs to crack was the new suits. I can’t tell you how many iterations we went through under extreme time pressure to deliver the suits in time for production. Luckily we had one of the best special effects makeup/costume makers on the job – Weta Workshops! They worked with Andrew directly on the designs before giving the final approval to start building the final custom-fit suits for the actors as well as their stunt doubles.

I worked with two other art directors on this production. Margot Ready, Gwen Margetson, and I shared a big office that became the one-stop shop for all things art directors. My main sets were the Power Ranger cockpits, the quarry where they discovered their superpowers, and a few other locations including the one in a popular film location called Steveston in the city of Richmond. I also did a freight train box car that was built over a truck but we never used it. We had planned a very cool sequence to introduce the big risktaker in the Power Rangers team – Zack played by Ludi Lin. He was going to make these daredevil moves on top of the moving box car while filming himself for social media of course! At about the same time that we were planning this sequence, Maze Runner: The Death Cure was also being shot in Vancouver. Its lead actor Dylan O’Brien had a very serious accident on set while trying to perform his own stunt on a moving train. Well, that gave our producers pause so our train stunt was cut.

Watch our Power Rangers when it comes out in March 2017!