Ian Gracie APDG received the 2018 APDG Award for Excellence in Screen β Acknowledging excellence in Design and Practice or Artisan Excellent on Australian or International Productions for his work as Supervising Art Director on Alien: Covenant.
1. Do you have any fond (or not so fond) memories of working on Alien: Covenant?
Pictures of that scale & expectation often have moments of elation & disappointment unfortunately. Yes demanding, yes infuriating, yet amazing. Recreating the iconic Engineers’ Dreadnaught from the original Alien was definitely a highlight. Ridley Scott was everything I had expected, he demanded excellence & set a high bar, always entertaining, generous & loved a story, even if it was often the same oneβ¦ Filming across 2 countries is never straightforward but with the right team as we had it came off as arrogantly seamlessβ¦
2. You worked with an awesome team of art directors and accredited APDG members including Damien Drew, Michelle McGahey, Jacinta Leong & Charlie Revai. Can you give us any insights on how the team worked together?
If I am good at anything it’s supporting the Production Designer with the bestΒ availableΒ talent. All of our team, experienced Art Directors & all incredibly talented, a wonderfulΒ cross-section of specific skills & when a team is that strong there isnβt a lot of supervision required!
3. Why did you decide to enter your work on Alien: Covenant into the APDG Awards?
As a Supv Art Director I actively try to draw as little attention as possible & have mostly enjoyed award anonymity as the Production Designer & Set Decorator are the ones historically accredited with awards or nominations. Having said that a lot of productions I work on are off shore or based O/S & as such, in the past ineligible. To be honest I was worn down by others & as it was the first time that specific βArtisan Excellence on Australian or International Productionsβ Award was included thought it probably as good a time as any.
4. What do you think makes a work βaward winningβ?
That is & will always be theΒ β64 Dollar questionβΒ (Google that)β¦ it is all in the eye of the beholder & there is just no constant in that eye. If I could tap into that cordial Iβd be a genius,Β besides once our work during production is completed, it is then up to many others to convert that raw material into aΒ success, or not. Some pictures have a good feeling at the time, however that doesn’t always convert into visual or financial reward.
