International creative studio Framestore has bagged News And Documentary Emmy for its work Alien Worlds on Netflix. The studio received the Outstanding Graphic Design and Art Direction: Documentary award for their creations on the speculative nature series. It blends fact and science fiction as it imagines what life on other planets might look like.
Framestore was given the task of crafting four fully-realised worlds and the specially-adapted flora and fauna that inhabit them. They worked closely with Emmy-winning writer, director and producer Nigel Paterson and Wall To Wall’s executive producer Tim Lambert.
Despite being a work of fiction, the series demanded scientific grounding. Each creature, plant and environment were bound by the rules of biology, physics and geography as we experience and understand them on Earth.
Framestore was a perfect fit for a show with such ambitious scope, given the studio’s deep history of crafting fantastic photoreal characters and immersive, scientifically-accurate worlds.
“Conjuring and then populating whole new planets was no mean feat, but Simon Wood, Richard Thomas, Johannes Sambs, Sebastian Read and their teams pulled the work off with absolute aplomb. The mix of science fact and science fiction seemed tailor-made for the creative minds at Framestore,” said Framestore MD, advertising, TV and immersive, Lottie Cooper.
“Landing a News And Documentary Emmy is the perfect way to reward the team’s stunning work-a huge congratulations to everyone who played a part in bringing Alien Worlds so thrillingly and convincingly to life,” Cooper added.
With each 60-minute episode centering around a different planet on which life exists, Framestore had to design and build four completely fictional worlds. The team had designed a vast array of alien creatures, completely fabricated species of plants and all manner of alien environments. These designs were then brought to life in 30 minutes of full-CG work led by supervisors Richard Thomas, Johannes Sambs and Beau Garcia.
Netflix got a total of four awards at the 42nd annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards ceremony.