This week, Warner Bros. film 42 opens in theaters, showcasing concept art and matte paintings by Art Center alumnus Brandon Gonzales, Entertainment Design class of 2011.
Directed by Brian Helgeland and starring Chadwick Boseman and Harrison Ford, the film is about the life of baseball player Jackie Robinson. 42 focuses on the 1946 deal that signed Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers as the first African-American player to break the baseball color line.
Gonzales created the matte painting that became the movie poster art for the Jackie Robinson film 42.
“Before we even started, I did a lot of concept work on what the stadium could look like by researching black-and-white images of those stadiums,” said Gonzales. “This way the director and production designers would be confident we could make the stadiums look like they did when [Robinson] actually played there.”
One of the matte paintings he worked on became the final one used in the movie poster. “It was one of the main shots I worked on,” said Gonzales. The final picture shows baseball player Pee Wee Reese with his arm wrapped around Robinson on the field.
