Longtime WWE set designer Jason Robinson recently spoke with the folks from the METRO UK media outlet for an in-depth interview covering his career with the industry leader in sports entertainment.
During the interview, the WWE set designer who dates back to 1995 with the company, spoke at length about the process of building the set for WrestleMania shows, and how the set for “The Grandest Stage of Them All” has been inspired by the Star Wars franchise in the past, reveals what the original set for SmackDown was patterned after and makes a tease for the set for this year’s WrestleMania 37 two-night extravaganza.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the new interview.
On his favorite color schemes being inspired by the Star Wars film franchise: “One of my favourite colour schemes that I use was inspired by Empire Strikes Back, the deep blues, purples and orange backgrounds during the lightsaber duel between Luke and Darth.”
On the original set for SmackDown being based off of a spacecraft: “That’s one of my favourite colour combinations. I bet we get fans looking out for the colour combination in WWE now that they know! ‘Even now, sci-fi is an influence. ‘The curves on the SmackDown! set that create the forced perspective were inspired by a sci-fi spaceship drawing found during some creative research.”
On his process of sketching ideas and concepts throughout all points of the day: “My favourite thing is carrying Post-It notes around with me and sketching ideas. And those ideas sometimes come at three in the morning or in the show,’ Jason admitted, adding that once he has an idea, it’s up to Kevin Dunn to greenlight it. ‘As soon as i know that I’m in the right direction, that’s where the work because really fun.”
On his favorite part of the WrestleMania season process being the night before “The Show of Shows”: “My favourite part of the whole design process is the night before WrestleMania. When it’s all quiet, we’ve taken months and months to design and fabricate the set. ‘I’ve done many site surveys and hours of planning. It’s 1am in the morning, all the rehearsals are complete, the stadium is quiet. ‘The lighting guys still have all the lights on and the programming is finished, and we get to quietly look around at the final design before going on air the next day.”
On how fans will be impressed when they see the set design for WrestleMania 37 this year: “A lot of sports fans around the world have just seen the stadium. So they know what it looks like. ‘Now it’s our turn. We’re going in there to do something different. ‘I don’t think it matters whether fans are seeing it again after the Super Bowl or for the first time with WWE, they are going to love what they see.”
Check out the complete interview at Metro.co.uk.
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