Decorating Pages

In this episode I speak with Production Designer Neil Patel. Neil is currently shooting Showtime’s “Shaka: King of the Zulu Nation” in South Africa and promoting the new series “Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin” on HBO Max. Neil came off of designing AppleTV+ ‘s 19th century spin on Emily Dickinson’s life story called “Dickinson” to take on “PLL” during covid. We talk about the locations and the builds of “PLL” and how his intriguing design becomes another charter in this horror series. We also talk about the influence of his background in theater design on dozens of Broadway, West End plays, and Operas that have lead him into designing for TV and film. Subscribe to Decorating Pages Podcast on Apple (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/decorating-pages-tv-and-film-design/id1387136186), Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/0CxWTxXRhDD8D8gXcy5CHz?si=S0nUVKToTImm6unW8oPa9A&nd=1), Pandora (https://www.pandora.com/podcast/decorating-pages-tv-and-film-design/PC:32723?part=ug-mobile&corr=89933272&_h

Check out this episode with Production Designer Joshua Petersen. With his new show "Everything's Trash", on Hulu, he designs an exciting and fresh look of modern day Brooklyn, NY. The show centers around a young female podcaster who is juggling her messy life and her podcasting career. Originally from Oregon, Joshua had a passion for drafting and had a love for film and tv design. Working his way up on projects like "Marriage Story", "Wolf Hour" his other Production Designer credits include "That Damn Michael Che", "Life with Beth" and more. jpetersenfilm.com

In this episode I talk with Costume Designer Kathleen Felix-Hanger. Starting out on the film “Waterworld” as a Costume PA, she quickly learned her trade on the job. Working her way up to costume supervisor on shows like “Judging Amy”, “West Wing” and then becoming Costume Designer on “Dexter”, “VEEP”, and now HBO’s “Hacks”. She is currently nominated for her second Emmy for Outstanding Contemporary Costumes for “Hacks”. She has a beautiful instagram at showing not only the beautiful meals she prepares but also her gorgeous family and a peek into the world of costume design.. Her work is currently on display at FIDM in “The Art of Costume in TV” exhibit running till September.

On this episode I speak with Set Decorator, Jennifer Lukeheart about her career and how she is currently nominated for two Emmy awards. Outstanding Production Design for half hour  for “Hacks” and Outstanding Production Design for One Hour Contemporary “The White Lotus”. Jennifer got her start as a PA on music videos and as she describes was inquisitive and was able to work her way up. She decorated staple music videos of the early 2000’s including videos for Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Gwen Stefani, Shakira and more. Moving into films like “500 days of Summer” and then to scripted TV. Jennifer has Set Decorated the revamp of “Arrested Development”, “The Goldbergs”, “Two Young to Die” and then in the last has had three huge shows with HBO’s “The White Lotus”, “Hacks” and Showtime’s period drama “Gaslit”.

Pat Irwin has been making music in New York City since the late 1970’s. He was a founding member of two bands, 8 Eyed Spy and The Raybeats. In 1989 he joined The B-52s and toured and recorded with the band through 2008. He then transitioned into writing music for film and television and recently composed the score for “Dexter: New Blood” on the Showtime.His other scores include the Netflix series “The Good Cop”, Showtime’s “Nurse Jackie”; HBO’s “”, And many animated series including “Rocko’s Modern Life” (Nickelodeon); “Pepper Ann” (Disney); “Class Of 3000 with OutKast’s Andre 3000” (Cartoon Network.) He has also contributed to the “SpongeBob SquarePants” animated series. Pat currently teaches a seminar in film music composition at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Music Theater Program as well as Music for Film and Television at CUNY, Brooklyn College, Feirstein School of Cinema.

In this episode I speak with Production Designer Eric Schoonover. Eric took over this season on HBO’s ”Barry” in its' third season. Having been the Art Director for the first two seasons and nominated for their work for the show, he talks about taking over, and the show's turn in storytelling. He has previously Production Designed seasons of “Portlandia” and came from non-union work filling many of the positions in the Art Department and Set Dec.

Production Designer Liz Toonkel's new film “Marcel the Shell With Shoes On” is a whimsical film about a little shell who lives with his grandmother in an Airbnb and is on a quest to find his family. It is adorable! Liz and her team designed a magical little world for Marcel. Using household items at the scale of the shell and making a home and fanciful little gardener this adorable character. Liz is also the Production Designer of the HBO Max mini series “The Lady and the Dale”. The films’ wonderful use of multimedia storytelling mixed in with recreations of this fascinating life of a conartisit / entrepreneur makes for a must see.

In this episode I speak with Production Designer Laurence Bennet who is best known for his work on his Oscar nominated films “The Artist” and “Crash”. His current project "The Offer" on Paramount Plus, is a monumental effort to pay tribute to one of best films of all time “The Godfather”. This period limited series gives a behind the scenes of the making of this iconic film and shows how we all work to get our passion to the screen. For the past several years he has taught at Escuela Internacionál de Cine y Televisión, in San Antonio de Los Baños, Cuba—the multi-disciplinary film school founded by Gabriel García Márquez. We also touch upon how he designed the pilot of the 19 year running of “Gray’s Anatomy”, working with Robert Redford and how I actually worked with him on a show that was quickly canceled before it even aired ;)

In this episode I speak with Set Decorator William DeBiasio. His story is interesting because it goes to show it’s never too late in life to start in this business. With his desire and drive, coming from a retail background, he started at a prop house, then a set dresser,  continued to buyer and eventually a Set Decorator.  He had long stints on "The West Wing", "Alias", "Chuck", "Melrose Place", "Pretty Little Liars" and more. He currently is on the fifth season of “The Rookie '' which has its  season finale airing this week. WIlliam has extensive knowledge of Hollywood history and behind the scenes stories of some iconic shows and films like “I Love Lucy”, “Hello Dolly”, “My Fair Lady” and more. I never knew he had this talent!

This is part two of my interview with Director of Photography Simon Dennis. We deep dive into dorking out about our love for the film “The Conversation”. He talks about shooting “Peaky Blinders”and “Black Sails”, and the super cool set up he has on set to adjust color, and bring up references. I hope you caught last week's episode with him. We talked about how he got into being a DP, not knowing who Ryan Murphy was, then working together for five years on his project such as “Pose”, “Ratched”, “Hollywood”, ”American Crime Story: Impeachment”. You can watch his latest work "Candy" airing now on Hulu.

In this episode I speak with Director of Photography Simon Dennis. Simon has been working the last 5 years non stop in Ryan Murphy world and making it look stunning. Growing up outside of London, Simon was making films when he was young like a lot of us. He even admits to making his mom be the gaffer. Starting out making shorts, small films, and then springing into the mainstream with ”Dr. Who”, “Peaky Blinders”, “Pose”, “Politician”, “Hollywood”, “ACS: Versace”, ''Ratched". I worked with him on''ACS: Impeachment” and it was a delight. His new project is the limited series “Candy” which will air on May 9th on Hulu.

"Better Call Saul" - In this episode I chat with Set Decorator Ashley Michelle Marsh of "Better Call Saul". Originally from Oklahoma, Ashley Michelle March moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico to pursue a career in TV and film as a Set Decorator. Starting as an assistant on the film “Observe and Report”, then coordinating on the TV series like “In Plane Sight” and “The Client List” she moved over to Set Dec Buyer on “Better Call Saul”, “The Night Shift” and “Longmire”. Ashley began decorating and jumped into “Mr. Robot”, “The Girlfriend Experience” and films “El Camino”, “The Ultimate Playlist of Noise''. “Better Call Saul” is airing now and Ashley should be very proud of this final season.

In this episode I speak with Set Decorator Kimberly Leonard. Growing up in Los Angeles, and being inspired by her uncle, Donfeld, a costume designer, Kimberly studied design at Parsons and then hit the ground running on features, “Wheel of Fortune”, “Married with Children”, even working in a prop house till finding the set decoration buyer position. Kimberly mastered the position on shows like “Star Trek: Voyager”, "Star Trek: Enterprise’, “Boston Legal”, “Bones”, “Weeds” and more. Kimberly started Set Decorating on the Robin Williams comedy “The Crazy Ones”. Her Set Decorating credits include “Jane the Virgin”, “The Grinder”, “Blindspotting”, ”Counterpart”, “The Mosquito Coast”, and just recently Hulu’s “The Dropout”.

This is part two of my interview with Production Designer Marek Dobrowolski. His new film that has just been released is “I’ll find you” about A Catholic opera singer and Jewish violin virtuoso dream of performing together at the legendary Carnegie Hall in New York City, but the German invasion of Poland tears them apart. Shooting the whole film in his native Poland Marek was able to select historically accurate locations for scenes and give the film its period feel. We also talk about his start as a theater designer which led to a series of nine fairy tale TV movies in a year! We speak about his designs on “Mr. Mercedes”, “Last Action Hero”, “Under the Dome”, “Hitler: Rise of Evil” which he won an Emmy for his designs and more. He is also designing the last season of “The Walking Dead” which was in last week's episode.

In this episode I speak with Production Designer Marek Dobrowolski. Marek has designed a number of historically rich stories that have taken him to locations all around the world. After winning an Emmy for his work on “Hitler: Rise of Evil”, he continued his epic designs with Steven Spielberg’s “Into the West ' which he was also nominated for.His other designs include “The Craft”, “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles”, “Justified”, “World Without End”, ”The Company”, “Under the Dome”, “The Last Ship”, “Mr. Mercedes”, the current season of “The Walking Dead”. His latest film, “I’ll Find You”, is a wonderful story of love conquering all set in the Nazi background of World War 2. He shares that he got to go home to Poland for filming and was able to have a full Polish crew. He is a wonderful storyteller, as you will hear, sharing about his designs and research for each of these marvelous projects.

In this episode I speak with Oscar winning Set Decorator Shane Vieau. Shane’s work has a dynamic effect on screen which you can currently see in his Oscar nominated work on "Nightmare Alley". He has decorated huge films like “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”, “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”, “Crimson Peak”, “Suicide Squade”, “xXx: Return of Xander Cage”, “The Shape of Water”(Oscar) and “It: Chapter Two”, He also decorated 2015’s Best Picture “Spotlight”and that lil’ indy film “Juno”.

On this episode I speak with Production Designer Ethan Tobman. Ethan is nominated for and ADG award this year for his design of Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well” in Short Format: Web Series or Music Video. He won the ADG award last year for “Black is King” in the Variety Special category. Ethan studied at NYU where he wrote, directed and production designed a short film at the age of 19 that went to Cannes Film Festival. From there he worked his way up on film to a Production Designer for films, TV  and music videos. Currently airing now on Hulu, Ethan Tobman also Production Designed “Pam and Tommy”. His other projects also include “Free Guy”, Beyonce’s “Lemonade” and “Formation”, multiple videos with Taylor Swift, “The Report”, and the chilling story “Room”.

On this episode I speak with Set Decorator Amber Richards. Amber is a Set Decorator in New Zealand and is nominated for an Oscar this year for her work on “The Power of the Dog”. This film was shoot in New Zealand for Montana by director Jane Campion and is stunning in it's period decor. As I spoke with Amber I got a better sense of how crews work in New Zealand compared to the US. We talk about how the responsibilities of the Set Decorator reach to different decor like wallpaper and hardware in her department. Amber was nominated for an ADG award last year for her work on “Mulan”, a huge scope of sets in that period film also. We discuss how Set Decorators have pieces fabricated for set as she did for “Mulan” and “The Meg”. Amber started as a set dresser on some of the biggest films of our time including “The Lord of the Rings” series, “The Last Samurai”, “King Kong”, “The Chronicles of Narnia”, “Mission Impossible: Fallout”. Amber is currently jumping in on “Sweet Tooth” season 2 on Netflix!

On this episode, I speak to Production Designer Steve Olson, Set Decorator Jerie Kelter and Art Director Raf Lydon. These three are now nominated for an ADG award for their work on “Live in Front of a Studio Audience: “The Facts of Life” and Diff’erent Strokes”. Exciting to hear how these three collaborated to make these iconic sets come back to life. From the linoleum floors, the moldings, and matching furniture to a T! Steve, Raf, Jerie and their crews brought these classic sets back to life and made us remember the design of minicams in the 80’s.

In part two of this interview with director Craig Zisk we speak about how he decides to shoot a scene, and gives a great example of the one-er (scene shot in one take) he did on the show “Smash”. We talk about guest directors being visitors on long running shows and how he works in that environment. The importance of the Tone Meeting with the showrunner. We discuss “Cop Rocks”, “The Larry Sanders Show”, “Brave New World” and “The Looming Tower”. He has been directing for 30 years, and is still excited about every project …I hope I get to work with him again soon.