Book Review: The Art of the Matrix

The Art of the Matrix is essentially the storyboards and shooting script for the first Matrix movie.

There are over 600 storyboard drawn by Steve Skroce. They are done in noir style to make everything dynamic and dramatic, as requested by Larry and Andy Wachowski. The storyboard reads like a comic book except there's no speech balloons. Steve Skroce's caption by the panels explain the shots and the differences between the movie. It provides a very good understanding into the demands of the story.

The concept art is done by Geof Darrow. They are line drawings for the infirmary, main deck, neb chair, fetus stalk, cockpit, neo's room, sentinel, fetus harvester and battle suit. These subjects take a page or two to themselves so there are not a lot of pages devoted to concept art.

Finally there's the shooting script and some film stills.

Here's the list of artists who worked on the film:
Steve Skroce (black and white) and Tani Kunitake (colour) are the principal storyboard artists. Geof Darrow for concept art. Additional art are provided by Warren Manser, Collin Grant, Larry and Andy Wachowski.

That's not a lot of artists, strangely, considering the whole world is created from imagination.

What the book doesn't go into is the production process. But otherwise this is a great book for storyboard artists and fans of the movie.

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