How Mood & Lighting Established Tone in The Last Black Man in San Francisco
The Last Black Man in San Francisco marks the feature debut for director Joe Talbot, an allegory that puts a spotlight on the childhood dream and the effects of gentrification.
Inspired by the real-life story of Jimmie Fails, who plays a fictionalized version of himself, Fails, with the help of his best friend Mont (Jonathan Majors), go on a journey to take back the family home his grandfather built but lost ownership of when he was a young child.
How Rent: Live‘s Production Designer Created a 360-Degree World on Live TV
One of the most ambitious TV projects of this year that didn’t include CGI dragons and battles with ice zombies happened on Sunday night, January 27. This was the moment when Fox aired a live version of the iconic musical Rent. To call staging a live version of Rent on TV ambitious is probably underselling it. The musical, which focuses on seven artists living in New York City’s East Village in 1996,
Sharp Objects & Big Little Lies Production Designer on Creating Signature Worlds
If you had not one but two critically acclaimed HBO series under your belt, you’d be permitted to gloat. If those series were wildly different yet deliciously unforgettable, you might even be expected to brag a little. But that’s not production designer John Paino‘s way. The laidback pro was happy to discuss his work on Sharp Objects and Big Little Lies without any unnecessary braggadocio. With Big Little Lies back for season two,
Production Designer Akin McKenzie on Recreating Reality in When They See Us
When They See Us, Ava DuVernay’s four-part series on the 25-year aftermath of a 1989 rape and assault that took place in Central Park, was originally going to be titled Central Park Five. That moniker quickly became the shorthand for the five boys from Harlem — four African-American, one Latino — who were wrongly accused and convicted of the attack. Instead of a name reflecting only how these teenagers were viewed by the media and public,
Building Beasts With Godzilla: King of the Monsters‘ Production Designer
There hasn’t been a film that has lived up to its title quite as thoroughly as Godzilla: King of the Monsters. In director Michael Dougherty’s Kaiju cage match, Godzilla goes clawed toe to clawed toe with some of the biggest beasts on the planet, including King Ghidorah, a three-headed dragon whose provenance is one of the film’s many twists. Every time these monsters clash—and the film doesn’t skimp on these colossal skirmishes—they do so in increasingly inspired locations.
Building Thousands of Years of History in Amazon’s Good Omens
“Corners are where everyone makes decisions. This is the point where you change directions.” And corners are usually located at crossroads, to boot, the very place—especially if you’re a Mississippi bluesman—where it’s said deals with the devil can be struck.
The corner in question, however, concerns an angel, and the London bookshop that he owns—part of Michael Ralph’s production design on the upcoming Amazon/BBC adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens.
How Chilling Adventures of Sabrina‘s Production Designer Creates the Occult
Based on the “Archie” comic book series “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” Riverdale creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa cast another spell with Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. The series takes the source material from the comics and infuses them with equal parts horror and humor. Here Sabrina (played by Mad Men‘s Kiernan Shipka) struggles with trying to reconcile her two very distinct natures—she is half mortal,
The Dirt‘s Production Designer on Recreating Mötley Crüe’s Wild Ride
Netflix‘s The Dirt focuses on the wild, often sordid and ultimately stratospheric rise of the seminal heavy metal band Mötley Crüe. Directed by Jeff Tremaine, The Dirt is based on the band’s 2001 New York Times best-selling autobiography, which detailed how they managed to go from sharing a truly disgusting apartment and booking gigs on the Sunset Strip to selling out stadiums and becoming one of the most infamous acts in the world.
How Color Created Character in Brie Larson’s Unicorn Store
Captain Marvel aside, Brie Larson makes her feature-length directorial debut with Unicorn Store, now on Netflix. First screened at the Toronto Film Festival in September, the fantastical allegory written by Samantha McIntyre follows Kit (also played by Larson), a colorful art student who receives mysterious invitations to visit The Store where she’s granted owning the unicorn of her childhood dreams.
The use of color was fundamental to the story as it painted a metaphor for Kit finding her identity.
Dumbo’s Production Designer on Building Real Sets for a Flying Elephant
Tim Burton’s live-action Dumbo is not for children faint of heart. The iconic baby elephant with his signature oversized ears is ripped just as mercilessly from his mother in this modern update as he once was in Disney’s original 1941 animated feature. This time around, however, Dumbo’s got bigger, better allies. Upgraded from Timothy the mouse we now have the Farrier children, Milly, and Joe (Nico Parker and Finley Hobbins),
How Highwaymen‘s Production Designer Recreated the Pursuit of Bonnie and Clyde
Production designer Michael Corenblith has a gift for recreating period films focused on real people including McDonald’s mogul Ray Kroc (The Founder), Walt Disney (Saving Mr. Banks), Davey Crockett (The Alamo) and astronaut Jim Lovell (Apollo 13). Now comes The Highwaymen. Opening Friday [March 15] and streaming March 31, the film casts Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson as real-life Texas Rangers Frank Hamer and Maney Gault.
Meet the Creative Team That Helped Captain Marvel Soar
Captain Marvel‘s Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) is a part human part alien superhero who can 100% kick-ass. Seriously. Watch out Thanos. Directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck propelled Marvel’s most potent superhero to the big screen this weekend and the results are a critical and commercial smash. Meet the creative team who helped Boden, Fleck and Larson create a Marvel movie unlike any other.
The Krees and SkrullsThe allegory catapults us to the Kree home planet of Hala where Danvers already touts her powers and is training as a member of Starforce,
Building Sets in Malawi for Chiwetel Ejiofor’s The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
Today Netflix is releasing actor Chiwetel Ejiofor’s directorial debut, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. Based on the 2009 bestselling memoir, co-written by its subject, William Kamkwamba, and Bryan Mealer, the film depicts Kamkwamba’s teenaged years in Malawi during a famine, when he successfully built a windmill irrigation system based on an old library book and using parts from a scrapyard. Prior to its Netflix release, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind premiered at Sundance in January and was screened at the Berlinale film festival.
Roma‘s Oscar-Nominated Production Designer on Recreating Mexico City in the 1970s
*In the run-up to this Sunday’s Oscars telecast, we’re sharing some of our favorite interviews with nominees.
Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma is one of the most astonishing film experiences of the year. The word experience fits, as Cuaron and his team created a lush soundscape that’s nearly as captivating as the shimmering black-and-white cinematography. Then there’s Roma‘s exquisite design, which recreates Cuaron’s hometown of Mexico City,
The Favourite‘s Oscar-Nominated Production Designer Re-Makes History
*In the run-up to this Sunday’s Oscars telecast, we’re sharing some of our favorite interviews with nominees.
England’s Queen Anne, who only reigned from 1707 to 1714, is hardly the most notable female British sovereign, but to watch her played by Olivia Colman in director Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Favourite, one might wonder why this the first we’re hearing of her in so long. True to history,
Black Panther‘s Oscar-Nominated Production Designer Hannah Beachler Builds a new Nation
*In the run-up to this Sunday’s Oscars telecast, we’re sharing some of our favorite interviews with nominees.
Everyone on the set of Black Panther had the weight of being a trailblazer. Realizing Wakanda for the screen meant reclaiming a painful history, honoring a rich heritage, and imagining the hope of the future right now. It also has the potential to confirm the demand for more diverse storytelling.
Back to the Future With Star Trek: Discovery’s Production Designer
Star Trek: Discovery has been boldly going places even past incarnations of the iconic TV series have never been. It took a mere two episodes for the show to break completely new ground; the Starfleet’s first mutiny carried out by the star of the show, Sonequa Martin Green’s Michael Burnham.
The major advances are not the only narrative. Behind the scenes, a top-flight crew has been making the most of the latest technology and some very special locations to pull off the kind of show Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry would have loved and made,
Star Trek: Discovery Set Designer on Developing New Worlds
Since 1966, Star Trek has been boldly going where no one has gone before. Through dozens of planets and vast reaches of space, the series has explored the most wonderful and most fearsome places the universe has to offer. Set designer Emilie Poulin is charting the Starfleet’s newest adventures on Star Trek: Discovery.
The locations on Star Trek: Discovery are very active. Because the storylines are rooted in exploration,
How Glass’s Production Designer Utilized a Defunct Psychiatric Ward
Are superheroes real? The central characters in Glass, M. Night Shyamalan’s conclusion to the trilogy that began with Unbreakable 19 years ago and was followed by Split in 2016, aim to find out. Chief among them is Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson), an unorthodox psychiatric doctor who places David Dunn (Bruce Willis) and Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy) under her care in a sparsely populated Philadelphia sanitarium.
Oscar Watch: The Favourite‘s Production Designer Re-Designs History With a Flourish
England’s Queen Anne, who only reigned from 1707 to 1714, is hardly the most notable female British sovereign, but to watch her played by Olivia Colman in director Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Favourite, one might wonder why this the first we’re hearing of her in so long. True to history, Lanthimos’s depiction of the queen shows her nearly constantly ill and in other ways unwell—she is in possession of 17 rabbits,