Episode 11: Alex McDowell on world-building, production design, and Ready Player One

Alex McDowell ranks among America’s most accomplished production designers. His contributions extend from Madonna’s “Express Yourself” to Fight Club, from The Crow to Minority Report, from Watchman to Man of Steel. Moreover, he thinks deeply about his craft and the ways that the kinds of systematic approaches to the design of fictional and historical worlds for the screen might offer a mode of analysis that can be applied to real world problems. This focus on the real world applications of his craft and expertise has driven him since he has become a faculty member at USC Cinematic Arts School and has created his own world-building lab,  He is one of our most articulate and intelligent thinking partners, so it was a blast to sit down together one on one for this podcast.