Disclosure Day: Art Department

Framestore’s Art Department reunited with Production Designer Adam Stockhausen to design the mysterious aliens and their ship for Steven Spielberg’s much-anticipated return to science-fiction. With Martin Macrae at the helm, Dan Baker in the cockpit for the ship designs and Sam Rowan nurturing the alien designs into life.

Concept Design

Concept art from Disclosure Day, showing a triangular UFO emerging from the clouds in front of an aircraft

The UFOs

For Disclosure Day’s mysterious alien spacecrafts, Framestore’s Art Department needed to depict solid, functioning crafts emerging from the clouds, rather than plasma or energy-based UFOs. The creative challenge was a dream come true for Art Director Dan Baker.

Disclosure Day concept art showing a circular UFO emitting bright light above the clouds and a small plane

Disclosure Day concept art showing a fighter pilot in his cockpit looking at various UFOs amongst the clouds

“UFOs and related phenomena have been a passion of mine since childhood,” says Baker. “I revisited historical sightings like the Calvine photo, which features a distinct diamond shape, and crash sights like Roswell and Kecksburg to incorporate elements of those into the UFO design.”

A design for Disclosure Day's UFO, formed of rotating triangular sections

A UFO design for Disclosure Day showing a triangular metal craft

The main challenge was to design recognisably alien and awe-inspiring designs that would remain obscured by clouds and lens flares. “We had to find the balance of showing just enough to make an impact on the audience,” Baker explains. “We iterated on the designs with various levels of detail and functionality of the craft, ultimately choosing to obscure most of it to preserve the sense of mystery.”

Concept art for Disclosure Day depicting a UFO emitting bright light above a suburban house with onlookers taking pictures

Concept art showing a mysterious UFO shining in the sky above a gas station, with people leaving their cars to take pictures

With the film’s alien conspiracy dating back to the 1940s, the Art Department needed to replicate the aesthetic of old cinema footage in their designs, lending a sense of historical authenticity to the film’s dramatic reveal.

Concept art depicting old footage of a crashed UFO being analysed by the army

Disclosure Day concept art showing a UFO crash site being analysed by scientists

The Aliens

Director Steven Spielberg wanted to maintain the traditional and recognisable ‘Grey Alien’ look for the film’s extraterrestrials, which are revealed to have been imprisoned and experimented upon for decades by the government. A task Sam Rowan mainly undertook.

Disclosure Day concept art showing a tall alien design alongside a human for reference

Disclosure Day concept art showing a tall alien in a specially designed wheelchair alongside a human for reference

Disclosure Day concept art showing a short alien design alongside a human for height reference

“The main challenge was landing on a design that felt original, while adhering to the audience’s ingrained expectation of the ‘Grey Alien,’ with its large head and eyes. We paid a lot of attention to details like rib cages and how their skin would interact with lighting, to create something that didn’t feel generic.”

Disclosure Day concept art showing an aged alien face

Disclosure Day concept art showing an aged alien face from the side

Rowan wanted to emulate the distinct, non-human quality often described in accounts of alien abduction. “Our design maintained a sagacious facial expression,” he adds. “We described it as being fish-like, in that you can’t look into its eyes and relate to it on a human level. To elicit some sympathy from the audience, we added subtle brow movements and extensive wrinkles, with the idea that the alien’s been on earth so long it learned to slightly mimic our expressions.”

Disclosure Day concept art showing an alien in a specialised wheelchair

Disclosure Day concept art showing the design of a specialised alien wheelchair

Disclosure Day concept art showing an alien body in a glass container

Design elements like leg length and posture were influenced by the need to interact with a custom wheelchair and medical equipment, also designed by the Framestore Art Department. “The idea was to have this very old alien sit in an adapted but familiar medical apparatus,” Rowan explains. “That familiarity grounds the audience in the reality of the scene.”