Exclusive Interview: ‘Gargantuan’ Production Designer Kelley Boonruang Discusses Her Work On The Film

A unique sounding monster movie that should definitely be on your radar is Gargantuan, which is now wrapping up its Kickstarter campaign. The upcoming film features a similar concept to Pacific Rim, with a group of heroes fighting Kaiju from within a giant robot. In addition to giant monsters, the mismatched personalities of the frustrated heroes will also be a huge focus in Gargantuan, and the confirmed R-rating ensures that plenty of humorous profanity will be on the menu as the team members bicker with one another. Filming took place earlier this year, with the Kickstarter campaign primarily being to raise funds for post-production. Director Jordan Noel previously helmed This World Alone and Guacamole Yesterdays, which were both written by Hudson Phillips, who is also the writer of Gargantuan. The cast of Gargantuan includes Liz Atwater, Aaron G. Hale, Cyprina, Nichele Lambert, Charity Cervantes, Elaine Powell, Jade Malka, Jordan Scott, and Troy Rudeseal, with Mirror Box Films being the primary production company.

One of the most interesting aspects about Gargantuan is that it will primarily feature practical effects, in order to make it seem like a classic Kaiju movie from yesteryear. Therefore, fans of old school monster movies will be in for a real treat when they watch Gargantuan, as the film will clearly harken back to a classic era when practical effects were much more widespread, before CGI took over. In order to give us an overview of the practical effects which will be featured in Gargantuan, the film’s very talented production designer, Kelley Boonruang, granted the following interview to Kaiju United. Kelley previously worked in films such as When We Last Spoke and Keys to the City, and she worked tirelessly to bring everything you will see onscreen in Gargantuan to life. It clearly seems like her efforts will help make Gargantuan into a highly memorable viewing experience which fans of monster movies will love.

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David Gelmini: Can you provide an overview of the work you are doing on Gargantuan?

Kelley Boonruang: I am the production designer for Gargantuan, which means that I oversee anything physically represented on camera (sets, props, costumes.) My role is to break down the script and create the world of Gargantuan for our cast to live in. 

DG: How challenging is the process of creating the models?

KB: The biggest challenges were the constraints around budget and time. We had 5 amazing students from the University of North GA volunteer for a few days of pre-production to help build the miniature cityscape, the puppet for Psi-9, and the Monument mech suit.

Additionally, many things were built on set during production (like the Action Teens’ light-up watches/gauntlets and their suits,) since we didn’t have the materials or budget until principal production was already underway. We were all living together on the set, sleeping on couches and turning a basement kitchenette into the “art dungeon,” where we’d be working through the night to finish props and costumes that would be filmed in the morning. We only had 2 members of the art department on set, myself and concept artist Jonny Sims, so many other crew members would get roped into the art assembly line of painting and gluing.

DG: Without going into spoilers, can you discuss the creature design?

KB: The creatures were designed by our concept artist Jonny Sims and executed by VFX Supervisor Vii Kelly. Jonny has an amazing series of sketches that will appear during a montage in the film. He has an incredible eye, his work is a visual riot. There wasn’t explicit direction or description of the creatures’ physical forms written into the script, so he designed them purely off vibes and his own imagination. 

DG: Do you believe there will always be a place for miniature work in an age where everything seems to be done with computers?

KB: I think there will always be a place for miniatures and physical, practical effects to capture the minds of audiences, but I think it will evolve and change, just like how photography didn’t make, say, oil paintings of landscapes irrelevant or obsolete. So much of the industry has already changed with the advent of new technologies like 3D printing. I think the scope of what we can achieve with miniatures will widen greatly, as well. 

DG: What do you hope fans of old school monster movies will take away from Gargantuan?

KB: My hope is that the absolute joy and whimsy of the making of this film comes through in the viewing experience, and that it inspires others to not wait for the perfect celestial alignment of time/money/resources to execute their project. Limitations breed creativity! 

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Gargantuan is now crowdfunding on Kickstarter.