Ramsey Avery is the Production Designer of Marvels latest film, Captain America: Brave New World. In this weeks fxpodcast, we speak to him about the films challengesand his perspective on the relationship between production design and visual effects.In Captain America: Brave New World, Sam finds himself involved in an international incident after meeting with President Thaddeus Ross. He must discover the reason behind a nefarious global plot before the true mastermind has the entire world seeing red.Red Hulk/President Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford) in Marvel Studios CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. 2024 MARVEL.Marvel Studios Captain America: Brave New World stars Anthony Mackie, Danny Ramirez, Shira Haas, Carl Lumbly, Xosha Roquemore, and Harrison Ford. The film is directed by Julius Onah and produced by Kevin Feige and Nate Moore.Ramsey Avery, the Production Designer of Marvels Captain America: Brave New World.Ramseys past credits include The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2., Tomorrowland, and earlier in his career Minority Reportand A.I. Artificial Intelligence. His vast experience allows him to implement the newest digital tools and collaborate with VFX to immerse the audience into the worlds he is creating. In this fxpodcast, he discusses the relationship between Production Design and VFX, which is crucial as technology plays a greater and greater role in filmmaking. He discusses in detail how digital design tools helped build the crucial sets in Captain America: Brave New World. Ramsey also shares here the behind-the-scenes images of how he was mindful of making VFX team jobs easier on this film by sometimes building more of a set to save them time and money and thinking about post-team in design.ScreenshotAt the end of Avengers: Endgame, Steve Rogers passed on his vibranium shield to Sam Wilson, who had stood beside the Avengers as the winged Falcon. But the decision to take on the mantle of Captain America was more complex for Wilson, and his journey from Falcon to Captain America was explored in Marvel Studios The Falcon and The Winter Soldier series for Disney+. This was naturally the jumping off point for the film both in terms of plot and visuals.(L-R): Director Julius Onah, Xosha Roquemore, and Anthony Mackie behind the scenes of Marvel Studios CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD. Photo by Eli Ad. 2024 MARVEL.This return to the Captain America franchise is also a return to the tone of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, meaning a more grounded, more geopolitical landscape punctuated with issues that feel relevant and timely. Says Nate Moore, We have a hero who doesnt have superpowers but is very well-versed in the political and military landscapes, so this film puts Sam squarely back into the genre of the political thriller.Captain America/Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie)Principal photography on Captain America: Brave New World began in Spring 2023 with the director tasking his brain trust of creatives, including cinematographer Kramer Morgenthau (Creed III) and production designer Ramsey Avery, working with visual efects supervisors Bill Westenhofer (Life of Pi) and Alessandro Ongaro (The Adam Project) to blaze a new path for Captain Americas next chapter.Production DesignConcept Art from Averys teamConcept Art from Averys teamColour PaletteCapturing it all on camera in a compelling way would be essential to realizing Onahsvision. Leading the charge was award-winning director of photography Kramer Morgenthau, known for his innovative camera work and dynamic lighting design. We wanted to achieve a look that was as close as humanly possible to shooting photochemical film but with digital cameras. So, in prep we shot extensive tests and dug deeply into color science and vintage anamorphic lenses to achieve that look, explains Morgenthau. We created a set of rules around camera movement, color, composition and texture. The goal was for the film to pay homage to some of the great 8 paranoid thrillers of the 1970s but also have the visual space for the extensive action and spectacle that Marvel Studios films achieve on the highest level.Mood board showing the colour palettes for the various scenes.Below is more of the concept art, combines with the colour palette from the Production Department.Taking full advantage of the versatile environments and topography in and around Atlanta, Georgia, which was home base for the production, the filmmakers looked to veteran production designer Ramsey Avery to establish the multi-layered visual landscape.Left: Director Julius Onahand Production Designer Ramsey Avery on setAverys first conversations with the director yielded a focused, more intentional and relatable sense of realism for Captain America: Brave New World to further the materials tone and narrative and allow for a transition away from the visual vocabulary thats been a mainstay of Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. For Brave New World, in particular, Julius [Onah] wanted the aesthetic to be very specific and feel like it was something that could be happening now within the current space, says Avery. He also wanted to veer away from those elements that can sometimes take an audience out of the storytelling. It really was important to Julius and Kevin [Feige] that this story felt of the moment and mimicked the characters as they move through a very real and honest world.WashingtonWhile the films settings are far-reaching, the majority of the productions film schedule was completed at Trilith Studios, with cast and crew traveling to Washington, D.C. to film exterior scenes for a week amidst iconic landmarks like the White House, the Capitol Building and Pershing Park. Practical trees were then extended digitally by VFXWorking closely with the productions location team overseen by Ilt Jones (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), Avery, set decorator Rosemary Brandenburg, construction coordinator John Hoskins and their respective teams of talented crafts people, transformed buildings, streetscapes and other locations throughout their home production city of Atlanta to mimic the films diverse settings in every way.The practically built Rose Garden setThe practically built Rose Garden setsThe Tyler Perry Studios White House SetAmong the sets practically built were the White House Bunker Situation Room, Camp Echo, the Oval Ofice and the White House Rose Garden and Hains Point exterior sets. As Avery discusses in the fxpodcast, in Atlanta, Tyler Perry Studios has one of the largest production facilities in the country, showcases forty buildings including a 3/4 scale real physical built copy of the White House.Prison Set /Lab SetIn Captain America: Brave New World, the production design and VFX teams collaborated closely to create an extensive range of environments, seamlessly integrating practical sets with digital extensions. One of the films most striking sets is the prison set, at hidden black site in West Virginia called Camp Echo One, which reveals the secret lab of Dr. Samuel Sterns. This showcased the scale and complexity of the physical builds required for the film, but again linked to live action locations near principal photography, as Avery reveals in the fxpodcast.With the film embracing a more grounded tone, the production design was meticulously crafted to maintain a cohesive cinematic language. This was reinforced by a carefully structured color palette that threaded through both the physical and digital elements, ensuring visual continuity. The integration of in-camera set pieces with VFX-driven expansions highlights the balance between tangible world-building and digital artistry, a hallmark of Marvels evolving cinematic approach.Captain America/Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) in Marvel Studios CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD . Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. 2024 MARVEL.Captain America: Brave New World debuted on February 11, 2025, with a high-profile premiere at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood before its nationwide release on February 14 as part of Phase Five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film has securing the position as the third-highest-grossing film of 2025 so far.