Alex Mcdowell

This production designer seemingly has taken up the baton dropped by the late Anton Furst: McDowell's dark, eerie and entertainingly foreboding sets sometimes get better reviews than their films. The boyish-looking Brit opened his own graphics design firm in the late 1970s after studying at London's Central College of Art. He began his career designing album covers and posters before segueing to creating sets for music videos directed by Tim Pope and finding wider audiences with TV commercials (Revlon, Pepsi, Nike) and music videos for performers like ZZ Top, Aerosmith and Michael Jackson. He gained particular notice for his starkly beautiful design of the David Fincher-directed video "Vogue" (1990) for Madonna.McDowell's first film as production designer was the hi-tech thriller "The Lawnmower Man" (1992), Brett Leonard's tale of a "virtual reality" experiment. With the help of art director Chris Farmer, McDowell integrated computer animation and live-action, including a notorious "virtual" sex scene. McDowell's next assignment was a horror film in every sense: Alex Proyas' "The Crow" (1994) required a huge, dark, post-apocalyptic set, visible and effective even when darkly lit. The production was...

This production designer seemingly has taken up the baton dropped by the late Anton Furst: McDowell's dark, eerie and entertainingly foreboding sets sometimes get better reviews than their films. The boyish-looking Brit opened his own graphics design firm in the late 1970s after studying at London's Central College of Art. He began his career designing album covers and posters before segueing to creating sets for music videos directed by Tim Pope and finding wider audiences with TV commercials (Revlon, Pepsi, Nike) and music videos for performers like ZZ Top, Aerosmith and Michael Jackson. He gained particular notice for his starkly beautiful design of the David Fincher-directed video "Vogue" (1990) for Madonna.

McDowell's first film as production designer was the hi-tech thriller "The Lawnmower Man" (1992), Brett Leonard's tale of a "virtual reality" experiment. With the help of art director Chris Farmer, McDowell integrated computer animation and live-action, including a notorious "virtual" sex scene. McDowell's next assignment was a horror film in every sense: Alex Proyas' "The Crow" (1994) required a huge, dark, post-apocalyptic set, visible and effective even when darkly lit. The production was long and troubled particularly by star Brandon Lee's death during filming. Nonetheless, McDowell's work on the released film was highly praised.

McDowell journeyed to Vancouver for the high-style kung fu movie "Crying Freeman" (1995), based on a Japanese comic book. James Foley's "Fear" (1996) was much less complicated: McDowell made the suburban sets for this stalker thriller look benign enough, belying the tension that builds throughout the film. Tim Pope called McDowell back to help with the sequel "The Crow: City of Angels" (1996). This time, the film bombed, but McDowell and cinematographer Jean Yves Escoffier were singled out for praise by reviewers.

McDowell is married to costume designer Kirsten Everberg, with whom he worked on the films "Fear" and "The Crow: City of Angels."

CAST: (feature film)