Interview

Production Designer

The Invisible Architects: How Two Visionary Production Designers Launched a Global Movement

If a film’s visuals tickle the eye, scorch the heart, or linger in the consciousness long after the credits roll, you can thank the production designer. Whether the project is a blockbuster or a low-budget indie, the production designer is tasked with creating that elusive “look” of the film and translating the director’s vision into visual reality.

“A complaint often raised with production designers, like other ‘below the line’ [artisans],

By Loren King  |  October 17, 2025

Interview

Director, Screenwriter

“Roofman” Writer/Director Derek Cianfrance on Casting Real People from Jeffrey Manchester’s Incredible True Story

The real story behind co-screenwriter and director Derek Cianfrance’s new feature Roofman (co-written with Kirt Gunn) is almost too bizarre to believe. In the late 1990s, North Carolina, a financially strapped father and army veteran, Jeffrey Manchester, broke into 45 McDonald’s locations by cutting through their roofs at night, robbing the employees at gunpoint in the morning. He gained the nickname Roofman, but was also famously very polite and kind to the employees,

By Leslie Combemale  |  October 13, 2025