Architectural Digest: For Little Fires Everywhere author Celeste Ng, visiting the set of her novel turned Hulu series was a walk back in time. Production designer Jessica Kender gave the best-selling writer a tour of the sets she created in Los Angeles to stand in for tony Shaker Heights, Ohio, on the show, and was pleased that Ng recalled memories of her own teen years in the Cleveland suburb.
3 comments:
It seems like the designers had a lot of influences and places they could go look for inspiration. Having the author already giving as many details as possible, but then also available for notes and walkthroughs later would mean that the image created would be the best possible. I also thought it was interesting how the actors can provide some guidance for the designers. The designers have to understand these characters and their lives, but sometimes the person who is giving up their own reality to play another will understand them on a different level. I liked reading about how Kerry Washington gave notes to the designers about how her home wouldn’t have a lot of furniture in it. That’s something that I wouldn’t have really thought about, but I realize that it could make a big statement (why move all of this heavy stuff in if you’re just going to take it out again?)
I used to not be very interested in production design, but over the past few months I've seen some really incredible films and shows that has made me very enthusiastic about it. I think the production designer for Little Fires Everywhere did a really incredible job. The design popped enough for me to take notice when I watched the show, but it blended in just enough for it to not distract from the drama of the show. I think something that was important to hit in this show was familiarity. Most people have been in a setting like this, so it was really important to be able to recognize these homes. In this show, so much about the characters' personalities, social statuses, and time period is revealed through these homes, so getting them wrong would be detrimental to the stories and characters. I think in a movie or show, production design can help the story so much. The audience sees the design before they get to know the characters or hear a line of dialogue, so getting it right is crucial.
I still think it is really cool reading these design process articles. I think that there is so much to learn about the design process and what works for you as a designer. And the thing is, so much can be learned from seeing how others go about it in their own projects. Jessica Kender’s process of how she found the inspiration for and the research for the production design for Little Fires Everywhere is really cool. Hearing the resources and the specific catalogs that she looked through to get the look that she was wanting is very helpful as someone who is looking at declaring scenic design, this information could be very helpful and give me some jumping off points for research if I at some point design for a show that takes place in a similar place and time. Overall, I found this article very helpful due to its insightfulness.
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