How “Where the Crawdads Sing” Production Designer & Cinematographer Captured Nature’s Challenging Splendor

After delighting in the alluring visual tapestry throughout director Olivia Newman’s adaptation of the beloved novel Where the Crawdads Sing (in theaters now), you might find it hard to believe production faced a crippling onslaught of rain. So much so, that it flooded the practical set of protagonist Kya’s (Daisy Edgar-Jones) home.

Production designer Sue Chan, whose work includes Shang-Chi, Gone Girl, and Punch Drunk Love (the latter two as supervising art director),

“Marcel the Shell With Shoes On” Production Designer Liz Toonkel Appreciates the Little Things

If you closed your eyes, could you picture the hardware on your kitchen cabinets? The knobs on your bathroom sink? When is the last time you stopped to notice your surroundings? Marcel the Shell (Jenny Slate) appreciates all the small things because to him, they’re very, very big.

The star of the viral videos, created by Jenny Slate and Dean Fleischer Camp, is used to oversized adventures, but he is finally making his big screen debut.

“Maid” & “Under the Banner of Heaven” Production Designer Renee Read on Building Trust

Production designer Renee Read is responsible for the look of two of TV’s most successful adaptations over the past two years. For Maid, Read was tasked with helping showrunner Molly Metzler Smith and the rest of the crew adapt author Stephanie Land’s 2019 best-selling memoir “Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive.” The series is centered on Alex (Margaret Qualley), a young woman relying on the Byzantine social services complex to get her and her daughter on their feet.

“Severance” Production Designer Jeremy Hindle’s Dystopian Office Space

“Large room, four desks.” That’s the only description production designer Jeremy Hindle had to work with when he came up with this TV season’s most spookily immaculate office, as seen in Apple TV + series Severance. The high-concept sci-fi thriller, partially directed and executive produced by Ben Stiller from a script by first-timer Dan Ericson, centers on the tyrannical Lumon Industries corporation whose employees (played by Adam Scott, John Turturro, Britt Lower,

How “Morbius” Production Designer Stefania Cella Creates a Brooding Vibe

Stefania Cella has suddenly become one of Marvel’s favorite production designers, more than happy to sink her teeth into Jared Leto’s much anticipated rogue scientist saga Morbius (opening April 1). She also designed the studio’s Moon Knight (March 30) and, at the moment, Cella’s in Atlanta working on Marvel’s much-anticipated Blade reboot. 

Immersing herself in comic book IP has been “challenging,”

“Death on the Nile” Production Designer Jim Clay Delivers Deadly Decadence

For production designer Jim Clay, details matter. In director Kenneth Branagh’s Death on the Nile, a pseudo-sequel to Murder on the Orient Express which returns sharp-witted investigator Hercule Poirot in another case of whodunit, the murder mystery transports viewers to the 1930s Egypt that entangles love and death in the most devilish ways – and may we say stylish? 

“Ken is meticulous in his planning ‘cause when he gets on set he wants to give time to the actors and the performance,” Clay shares with The Credits,

“The Tragedy of Macbeth” Production Designer Stefan Dechant on Joel Coen’s Minimalist Masterpiece

Production designer Stefan Dechant has worked on detail-packed cinematic spectacles like Jurassic Park, Avatar, Pacific Rim: Uprising, and Kong: Skull Island. When he signed up for Joel Coen‘s black and white adaptation of The Tragedy of Macbeth, Dechant had to embrace a new aesthetic, stripping all decorative embellishments that might distract from the drama at hand.

“Spider-Man: No Way Home” Production Designer Darren Gilford on Re-Creating NYC

Spider-Man has always been a proud New Yorker, so naturally, filmmakers planned to shoot a lot of No Way Home in Manhattan. Then COVID hit and pandemic restrictions made it impossible to film on Peter Parker’s actual stomping grounds. Realizing that the Spidey show must go on, production designer Darren Gilford and his team came up with a Plan B for replicating New York locations at Pinewood Studios in Atlanta. “This group of filmmakers,

“Nightmare Alley” Production Designer Tamara Deverell on Creating a Carnival of Creepy Delights

Director Guillermo del Toro pulls back the curtain of a 1930s traveling carnival in a love story that gets downright creepy in Nightmare Alley.

Bradley Cooper is Stanton Carlisle, a quiet drifter who finds himself working for a carnival to make ends meet. After falling for a fellow carny, Molly (Rooney Mara), who quite literally electrifies the crowd, he transforms himself into one of the greatest mind-readers,

“The Suicide Squad” Production Designer Beth Mickle on Creating Gonzo Sets

James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad is a film filled with highly ambitious, no-holds-barred set pieces, nearly all of which are done with practical effects. It’s a story that takes the characters into all kinds of physical environments as they work together to achieve their objective without dying in the process. Collaborating with Gunn to help make his vision a reality onscreen is production designer Beth Mickle. The Credits spoke with Mickle about how she got this high-profile gig,

“Lovecraft Country” Production Designer Kalina Ivanov on Melding History & Fantasy

Production designer Kalina Ivanov‘s work on Misha Green‘s Lovecraft Country was one of world-building and resurrecting. The world-building—which included creating more than 162 sets, challenged Ivanov and her team to create haunted houses, a Korean hanok home to a mythical creature, and a pirate ship (to name a few). For the resurrection portion of her work, Ivanov recreated Tulsa’s Greenwood district, known as “Black Wall Street,” the site of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre,

Production Designer Amy Williams on the Ample Easter Eggs in “Master of None” Season 3

Director Aziz Ansari only appears briefly in the third season of Master of None, which turns its attention to the relationship between Denise (Lena Waithe) and Alicia (Naomi Ackie). At first blush, the pair’s marriage appears to have blossomed away from Brooklyn, in their new rambling, historic upstate home. Life seems as full as their charmingly eclectic abode — Denise is working on her second book, Alicia is getting into the antiques business,

Production Designer Fiona Crombie on the Luxe World of “Cruella”

Cruella de Vil is eternally wicked, but she’s also a villain who knows how to have a riotously good time—certainly more than the original heroes of Disney’s 101 Dalmatians, anodyne dog lovers Anita and Roger Darling. And that’s why it’s this id-driven, luxury-loving, would-be dalmatian coat-wearing scoundrel who gets her own live-action origin story. In director Craig Gillespie’s Cruella, she begins life as little Estella,

“WandaVision” Production Designer Mark Worthington on Creating Wanda’s Ever-Changing Worlds

Unlike WandaVision director Matt Shakman or series creator Jac Schaeffer, production designer Mark Worthington does not consider himself a Marvel expert. “I’m not really a big Marvel person,” he says, “but I was curious when Matt first called me about the show. He described the basic story as it being about Wanda’s grief and how the whole series is motivated by that.”

At first blush, WandaVision would seem like an almost straightforward challenge for someone with Worthington’s skillset.

“The Nevers” Production Designer Gemma Jackson on HBO’s Sci-Fi Victorian-Era Series

Bringing unique worlds to life is production designer Gemma Jackson’s stock-in-trade. So, she didn’t hesitate when offered the opportunity to create the look for The Nevers, the Victorian-era sci-fi series that debuted on HBO in April.

“I think what drew me was a remarkably interesting script and an extraordinary storyline that I’d never read the likes of before,” says Jackson from her home in England during a Zoom interview. “It was predominantly women—women-led—which was a bit of a turn-on.

How the DP & Production Designer Behind “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” Met the Moment

It’s not often there’s a Golden Globe nomination for an African American actress playing a famous blues or jazz singer. This year, there are two of them.

One is for Viola Davis, going chop-to-chop with the late, great Chadwick Boseman in the Netflix adaptation of August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, playing the titular character. The other is for singer and actress Andra Day,

“Clarice” Producer/Director DeMane Davis on Seizing the Moment

DeMane Davis, co-executive producer/director of the new CBS series Clarice which premieres February 11, calls her career “incredibly fortunate.” But Davis was ready when opportunity arose in the form of Ava DuVernay. When DuVernay opened the door for women directors on her groundbreaking series Queen Sugar, Davis burst through it. On crutches.

“I had broken my ankle and I’d had surgery; the cast had just come off and I was still on crutches,” recalls Davis in a phone interview from Toronto where she is shooting Clarice.

Production Designer Jim Bissell Builds a New Kind of Spaceship in George Clooney’s “The Midnight Sky”

Production designer Jim Bissell landed ET: The Extraterrestrial fresh out of college. His latest, The Midnight Sky (now streaming on Netflix) marks a return to the realm of science fiction, but this time he’s forgoing adorable aliens to picture the end of the world as we know it. Director-star George Clooney plays astrophysicist Augustine Lofthouse, the last man on earth stranded in an Arctic observatory. Meanwhile, a crew of astronauts (including David Oyelowo and Felicity Jones) hurtles through the solar system in the Aether spaceship,

Production Designer Mark Ricker on Creating the Sumptuous “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”

During the course of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, based on the 1982 play by August Wilson, blues star Ma Rainey (Viola Davis) reveals the lengths it takes to counter the racial economic exploitation of the 1920s, while down in the practice room, her band members recount the horrors of Jim Crow. The film, directed by George C. Wolfe (The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks), which debuted on Netflix on December 18th,

“You Should Have Left” Production Designer on the Lasting Allure of the Haunted House

The haunted house has been a staple of the horror genre since the early days of silent films. There’s just something about creaky doors and shadows dancing around in dimly lit hallways that send shivers up our spines — especially when it’s a dark and stormy night.

And with most of us homebound for Halloween, what better time to celebrate the haunted house?

“You never know what’s around the corner,” says production designer Sophie Becher during a zoom interview.