Earth Calling Mars – The Martian

Territory Studio crafted around 400 screens of on-set playback graphics for Ridley Scott's The Martian, working with Production Designer Arthur Max and drawing on expertise from NASA and the European Space Agency. As a story mediated by technology, screens form the lens through which the drama unfolds.

NASA Mission Control was the biggest set, featuring approximately 100 screens including a bank of LED monitors 18m x 6m. The brief was to keep things looking real — balancing factual screen content with visual design, giving each screen a clear purpose, and establishing a unique identity for the set through realistic video feeds and telemetry data.

Several scenes required satellite imagery of Mars showing the Hab, weather, and terrain. Territory created these in 3D, basing the geography on NASA-provided satellite references. The HABitat facility on Mars took a more modernist approach — a clean white research-facility aesthetic with bright white and blue typography against dark grey, offering a balance of advanced tech with recognisable data streams.

For the Pathfinder communication sequences, factual accuracy was paramount. Territory reproduced the actual way images were decrypted in the key scenes where Mark Watney uses the rover camera to communicate with Earth.

The Hermes spaceship required an advanced avionic interface with a contemporary twist. Referencing NASA R&D projects and SpaceX console design, Territory developed a bright blue, green and white palette on black, with a clear grid structure — balancing authentic data, visual impact, and modern aerospace aesthetics.

Helmet displays for biometric crew data were designed for legibility through a visor: clean, simple layouts with white and orange data on dark backgrounds.

Client: Twentieth Century Fox