Production Design for Film & Television

PRODUCTION DESIGN

BIO / CREDITS / PRESS

PRODUCTION DESIGN

MARK'S SKETCH BOOK

Production Design for Film & Television

PRODUCTION DESIGN

BIO / CREDITS / PRESS

PRODUCTION DESIGN

MARK'S SKETCH BOOK

High School Musical 3

High School Musical 3

Walt Disney Studios (2008) / Director: Kenny Ortega

High School Musical 3 follows on the stupendous success of the first 2 HSM films. HSM 3 takes place in the final year of high school for our familiar cast of characters. The musical number “A Night to Remember” opens in this split tuxedo Shop/Dress

Sharpay (Ashley Tisdale) and Ryan (Lucas Grabeel) prepare for their big prom night in their split bathroom set. The bathroom rolls away, and a curtain raises revealing a neighborhood.

The “Neighborhood” sequence from "A Night to Remember". The boys (Zac Efron, Corbin Bleu, Lucas Grabeel & co.) collect their dates (Vanessa Hudgens, Monique Coleman, Olesya Rulin & co.)  and are picked up by a hinged limousine set-piece

The "Garden Party" sequence from "A Night to Remember". The final sequence was conceived as a New Orleans garden party.

Troy's (Zac Efron) treehouse. This house location was established in two prior movies, without a tree or treehouse in the backyard. The third movie called for a sizeable treehouse in the yard that had to accommodate choreography for a duet. This nec

Interior of Troy's (Zac Efron) treehouse.

The junkyard set for "The Boy's are Back". Contemporary junkyards are full of awful-looking plastic, modern cars. I drove everyone crazy demanding we find a junkyard full of ancient American muscle cars, and at last we did. Shacks were built and th

Another view of our classic car junkyard for “The Boys are Back”, with our junked car amphitheater and the amazing, green car-shredding machine as our backdrop.

Detail of shed build in junkyard set for "The Boys are Back"

Detail of one of the sheds we built in the Junkyard set.

Show scrim for the opening of "Senior Year". A lighting change from front to back-lit reveals basketball players in a stylized "Gym"

"Gym" set for choreographed basketball number.

"Gabriella's  (Vanessa Hudgens) House" element complete with Troy's (Zac Efron) climbing tree.

One of Sharpay’s (Ashley Tisdale) many extravagant stage sets.

A view of the "Roof Garden". Established as a humble extension for the school's botany club in the first movie, it greatly expanded into a lush, sprawling roof-top park with huge planter-beds, skylights, trees, etc. to create a verdant and romantic

We had a very short window to transform the work-a-day, red and white school cafeteria into a magical backdrop for “I want it all”, the tentpole musical number of the movie.

“I Want it All” begins in a first-class airplane cabin. We conceived of a moment in the song where overly-entitled twins Ryan (Lucas Grabeel) and Sharpay (Ashley Tisdale) imagine going on a fabulous trip. I created a vaudeville-style rotating set c

After an extremely brief flight, the twins arrive in a tiki-themed, tropical, miniature paradise with a not-terribly-threatening volcano throwing a colorful plume skyward.

After a few beats of tropical sun and coconut drinks, they head to the club for an evening of dancing, then dash off the set for the next beats of the song.

Soon we find the twins rolling in a cab down the sparkling streets of New York. We created faceted silver and gold skyscrapers that moved with the music. This was shot in a functioning school cafeteria, which just prior to this work, we had painted

Soon the cab opens up, revealing it's not a cab at all, but Sharpay's (Ashley Tisdale) Broadway dressing room.

Another great moment during "I Want it All" involved a very Busby Berkeley moment involving dancers rotating custom-built cafeteria tables with a central pivot.

This is the reveal of the final sequence of "I Want it All", the climax of Ryan (Lucas Grabeel) and Sharpay's (Ashley Tisdale) Broadway fantasy.

Here is one of the final moments of the song in all its glory, all in a public school cafeteria.

Troy's (Zach Efron) angsty solo "Scream" required a sort of Fred Astaire moment, but unlike Astaire, his world was turning upside down. We built this chunk of a hallway in a rotating rig, and VFX built the rest.

Oversized Wildcat puppet for the opening basketball game against the rival knights.

This is the fantasy Prom Set from the “Can I Have This Dance” reprise. Gabriella (Vanessa Hudgens) is missing prom because she’s away for a preparatory week at Stanford, and Troy (Zac Efron) drives 1,000 miles to dance with her at their “prom”. So

This shows a rig built for an extremely effective in-camera effect for the closing number that allowed the cast to run from graduation on the football field, have the curtain drop behind them, and with a VFX assist magically end up on the auditorium

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