CMU School of Drama


Monday, February 07, 2022

Lucille's dressing room in Being The Ricardos

Film and Furniture: “What people want to see in this movie is not what happened on the stage, but what happened backstage” says Production Designer Jon Hutman talking about his design work on Being the Ricardos.

1 comment:

Philip Winter said...

While I don’t ever see myself going into scenic design as I despise drafting sets, I really enjoy scenic dressing. While scenic and props departments usually fight over who runs the dressing side of production, it is absolutely vital to creating an atmosphere within a film or theatrical production. From what I can tell the scenic dressing within “Being The Ricardos” looks spot on. Even in still shots of the inside of the house I feel instantly transported to the 1950’s US. I absolutely love neo-classical architecture especially from the 18th century, but the beauty of this set is that while it is styled in a neo-classical aesthetic it is clearly styled like that of a neo-classical home from the 1950’s. I love that production designers took the time to find the correct wallpaper, specifically reupholstered the chairs, and even built the specific semi-circular dressing table just to get the correct look for the scene. A lot of productions opt to just chuck in some vintage furniture within a set and call it a day, but this set not only creates an amazing atmosphere, but also portrays the styles of that time correctly.