Arte del Frederico: Designing Time and Space

Friday, August 7, 2015

Designing Time and Space

By far, the most impactful location in "Time Turkeys" (FreeBirds) was the Government Time Travel Facility. I began doing research and sketches on the launch facility in 2009 and work continued for several years after. The initial idea for the Time Travel Facility was it was a underground test chamber. The original production design had the world the turkeys inhabited visually based in the late 1960s.

Hidden Gov't Farm design

Visibly, the concept for the technology the time facility used was based on the research of Nikola Tesla, supposing the US Government made a secret deal with Tesla after the world adopted Edison's theory for the transmission of electricity. My feeling was, the very existence of a time machine validated an parallel universe. 98% of the world in "Time Turkeys" would be recognizable, the rest would be an altered reality.

These are very rough thumbnail sketches for the Time Machine launch platform. The shrinking scale of the facility can be seen in the following designs.

The playfulness of the initial styling was lost in favor of a more realistic direction.

Design inspired by a Pizza Oven and the Hadron Collider

Design inspired by WW2 Airplane Engine and Astrolabe

The vehicles the Government uses in the Time Facility would reflect Tesla's influence and evolution. Helicopter blades are replaced by rotating tentacles of electricity that alter the polarity of a vehicle in relation to the magnetic pull of the Earth.

Small "Tesla Copter"

Large "Tesla Copter"

The HazMat workers wear electro magnetic boots because of the weightless environment the Time Machine creates during launch. The design possibilities were countless. They carry "grounding forks" to eliminate the risk of electrical shock and can also use them as "cattle prods" (eliminating any risk of notes from the producers or production company for using guns).