New Batman's props designed by Fenton High 'band geek'

Concept artist Daren Dochterman worked on three movies you might see this year. Maybe you've heard of them?

"Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice."

"Independence Day: Resurgence."

And "Star Trek Beyond."

"It's been a good year," the Bensenville native and Fenton High School graduate said.

"Batman v Superman" opens this weekend and features props conceived by Dochterman and brought to life by others.

"It's different from previous incarnations of Batman," he said. "So, all of his gadgets and hand props have to have a new, specific look to them. The movie's setting is very gritty and real, so in terms of these devices that Batman uses, they need to look like they're an existing thing.

"They can't look like toys. They have to look like they could function. You may see some of these things on the screen for, at most, five or six seconds. They have to be able to read as real right away."

If you see the "Batman v Superman" trailer, you'll see a Dochterman creation: the sharp-edged flying Bat-arang stuck in a wall after the Caped Crusader gives it a toss.

"When I saw that up on the screen, I went 'Woo-hoo!'" Dochterman said.

So, exactly how does he do his job?

"I can build the props on the computer, then get them approved by the director and the prop master," he explained.

"Then I can take those files, grow them, and have a real thing 'built,' directly from my machine to the manufacturer. That gives them a full-sized prop they can use to create the real one."

Dochterman achieved his dream of working in movies through dedication, hard work and rolling with life's punches.

"I'd been interested in movies since I was a little kid," Dochterman said. "I saw '2001: A Space Odyssey' when I was 6 years old, in a theater. That imploded my mind!"

"Star Wars," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and "Superman" completed a quartet of inspiring movies for Dochterman.

"Those films kicked it into my head that this was something amazing," he said. "Then I found out there were actual people making these things and doing these jobs. I realized that somehow I could do that in the future."

After graduating from Fenton, Dochterman moved to L.A. where he tried seven times to get into the University of Southern California Film School. And failed.

"Either my grades weren't good enough, or I wasn't related to someone in the industry, whatever," he said.

"I never made it in. But that didn't stop me from taking all the film courses available to the non-cinema school students."

(We should point out that USC is also famous for turning away a young Steven Spielberg.)

After two years, Dochterman dropped USC because of funding issues. For a year, he worked at whatever jobs he could find to pay the rent.

Then came James Cameron.

Through a friend, Dochterman snagged his first real movie job creating "study models" for Cameron's undersea science-fiction epic "The Abyss."

"For 13 months, it wasn't a trial by fire. It was a trial by water," he said. "To start my career, I picked one of the hardest shoots in Hollywood history."

Twenty-eight years of making props and illustrations for 60-plus movies and TV productions followed. He worked as a production illustrator for such films as "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and "Tron: Legacy." He worked as a conceptual illustrator on "Iron Man 2" and a conceptual artist for "Monster House," "X-Men: The Last Stand," "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island" and "Independence Day: Resurgence."

"Most of the time, I'm just part of a group of artists, and no specific things can be traced back to me," he said. "It's all mostly collaborative."

At least he can claim credit for designing the bad guys' spaceships in 2004's "The Chronicles of Riddick."

"And I'd like to remove my name from 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' remake," he joked.

Dochterman gives credit to his parents, Grant and Roseann, for being "100 percent, completely behind anything I wanted to try."

Dochterman also credits music for his success in films. He started playing the clarinet at 7 and become a self-confessed "high school band geek" at Fenton.

"Movies and music are extremely related in that both have a beginning, middle and end," he said. "They are products of timing, rhythm. They speed up. They slow down. They pause. A musical ear, a musical mindset, really helps with a storytelling mindset."

As for his next two big movies, Dochterman can't say much because of nondisclosure agreements. He would like to stay employed.

"I can't imagine doing anything else!" he said. "I've been doing it for 28 years. Don't tell anyone, but I would have done all of this for nothing."

- Dann Gire

• Jamie Sotonoff and Dann Gire are looking for suburbanites in showbiz. If you know one who would make a good story, contact them at jsotonoff@dailyherald.com and dgire@dailyherald.com.

Artists vs. illustrators?

So, what’s the difference between being a “concept artist” and a “illustrator” on a movie?

Dawn Brown, whose credits include “Star Trek,” “Alice in Wonderland” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” says, “The concept artist creates visuals to define a world or a character or something that serves the story.”

Typically, concept art is not seen by the public. Meanwhile, the illustrator creates visuals that actually tell the story.