Oscar-winning Dune production designer Patrice Vermette and David Grinspoon, an astrobiologist at the Planetary Science Institute, discussed exploring and building worlds and science and science fiction at SXSW London on Tuesday.
Their dive into the intersection of science and storytelling ranged from imagining alien worlds to visualizing the future of humanity.
Canadian Vermette, who won the Academy Award for best production design for Dune: Part One, early on mentioned to the audience that Dune 3, starring Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Javier Bardem and Anya Taylor-Joy, would be hitting cinemas on Dec. 18. But he didn’t provide any spoilers.
But AI does not seem ready to play a major part in his future. “When it comes to the push for AI, I push it back,” Vermette shared during Tuesday’s event about his take on using generative artificial intelligence in his work.
“I’m more comfortable” with analyzing storytelling needs and creating or recreating things via problem-solving, he explained. Working with 3D models, for example, allows him to analyze designs and shapes to see “how a model interacts with the space and how I react to it,” opening up a space to build a world through exploration, analysis and understanding. “That’s just part of my process.”
Vermette shared that you could call his approach not method acting but “method designing.” In comparison, he summarized the AI process this way: “Enter a prompt and [sound effect].”
He also recalled having extensive “scientific jam sessions” with Stephen Wolfram, a computer scientist and physicist who was a scientific consultant on Villeneuve’s Arrival, to brainstorm possible solutions to storytelling problems the creatives were facing in the cinematic world, including aliens, that they were creating.
Vermette also shared with the audience what the process of thinking through challenges to find the fitting solution for the world being created for each film has taught him. And this lesson is simple: “trust your instinct.”
Given all his sci-fi experience, Vermette also shared a thought on time travel when he discussed music. “It’s also the only true time-traveling machine, because feelings go back” when you hear music.
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