THE GREAT WALL - Crane Corps Flying Rig - DEV

I was tasked to design the war machines of the movie "The Great Wall" in 2014. The director and production designer insisted on a "Chinese Da Vinci look" so I went all out and drew the designs with ink and pen.

This is the development thread of the Crane Rig, which was the main war machine featured in the movie. From there, the Crane Corps, an elite battalion composed entirely of women would leap down to attack the creatures with spears. A martial art looking like ballet, the director Zhang Yimou wanted to have a structure that would give off an elegant feeling but still remain credible. To make things easier he also wanted the whole contraption to be able to hide inside the wall.

I created a lot of versions that had a similar understanding of the mechanics, but alternating with very decorated structures and some more simple ones. Eventually the simpler one but with a crane head on top was chosen and I flew to China to work on the final design.