Transcription Designing Sets for the Film Industry with Taura C.C Rivera

Speaker 1 (00:00:11):

Welcome to art in the raw conversations with creative people today, I’m excited to introduce you to my friend, Tara Rivera. She works in the film industry as a set designer, and I know she has a lot of interesting stories. If this is your first time watching, I’m your host and Kelly. Now you might be wondering who I am. That’s fair. In a nutshell, I am someone that’s been fascinated with art music, anything creative. Most of my life, about 20 years ago, I made the decision to move to Santa Fe New Mexico, to further immerse myself in the art scene and to attend art school. I’ve now been working in the professional gallery world for about 15 years now. And I started art in the raw about halfway through 2020 to keep people inspired, including myself. So thanks so much for watching today. And should you wanna know about more about me? Check out the description below. There’s a link to, if you interviews. I did, including one that’s on art and the raw, but in the meantime, I’m excited to introduce you to Tara. Welcome Tara. 

Speaker 2 (00:01:34):

Hello. Thank you for having me. 

Speaker 1 (00:01:36):

Yeah. Thanks for joining us tonight. Where, where are you this evening? Right 

Speaker 2 (00:01:41):

Now? I am at my home in Albuquerque, New Mexico in my office. 

Speaker 1 (00:01:46):

New Mexico is kind of home based, but you’ve lived a lot of places over the past 10 years or so. Is that? 

Speaker 2 (00:01:53):

Yeah, I mean, I’ve, I’ve lived a lot of places over the past course of my life, but I’m actually originally from New Mexico. I was born here in New Mexico in, in Pecos my mother. She was a hippie. So I was born in like this small cabin in Pecos after, after I was born actually less than six months before I was born, we moved to New York and I lived in New York for a short amount of time. And then we moved to Florida for most of my life. I grew up there basically when I, I was 19, I came to New Mexico, but we lived half the year in Florida, half the year in Mexico, cuz my father’s from Mexico. So we would go to Mexico and live there half the year and half the year in Florida. And then when I graduated from high school, we, I moved, I came back to New Mexico to do the architecture program at U N M from there. I I’ve moved on and come back and you know, many different moves, but now right now, right now Albuquerque’s my home base at least for the next couple weeks. 

Speaker 1 (00:02:53):

<laugh> right. Um, and you’ve been working in the film industry recently had, um, had some of your travels related to that or not travels, but places that you’ve called home. Well, 

Speaker 2 (00:03:07):

Yes, I do travel for work a lot. Um, I’ve been in the film industry for about six years now doing primarily set design and that’s working in the art department and then a, um, but I have worked mostly in New Mexico, but I’ve gone to Virginia for six months. I’ve worked in, um, North Carolina, but most of my work’s been here. My next show will be in LA where I’ll be, which I’m already working on, but remotely right now. And then I’ll be working in LA starting, um, April 5th here is home base Albuquerque. So 

Speaker 1 (00:03:41):

You, you went to U NM for, for architecture. 

Speaker 2 (00:03:45):

Yeah. And then I graduated in oh six. How, 

Speaker 1 (00:03:48):

How did the film industry come into the picture? 

Speaker 2 (00:03:52):

Oh, you know, and that’s very, it’s very interesting cuz I, I mean working in architecture, I, I worked at arch firms for about 11 years, you know, in doing different things. I did pretty much everything except for take the exam to get licensed. I even did the study to do the exam, to get licensed as a licensed architecture or as a licensed architect, you have to be licensed in every state that you wanna work in, if you wanna put your stamp and so forth. So I did all the things, you know, I had all of the, like the, the educational credits and all of the different prerequisites that were that’s required, but I never took the exam. I ended up moving to New York, right when I got to that point. Um, I mean the real reason was because I was going to take care of my great aunt who wasn’t doing too well. 

Speaker 2 (00:04:36):

She had moved into, um, like a nursing home and her apartment was just empty. And I had always wanted to move to New York, you know, as an adult to live by myself. So I went out there to help take care of her and just sort of see if I could make it in New York. And I worked for a few, um, real estate brokers and did a lot of, um, architectural design for them and services, not quite, you know, architectural offices where you’re doing buildings and so forth, but mostly real estate type things. And that, I mean, I mean, I was doing that for a while. I was also working at Barney’s because when I worked at Barney’s I was that’s where I made my paycheck. But then I was doing the real estate things to know just to make it <laugh> in New York. Cuz it’s tough when I was in New York, it wasn’t too. 

Speaker 2 (00:05:20):

It wasn’t long before I ended up, it was only about four months before I ended up coming back to New Mexico. My sister Nani, she actually had called me and said, Hey, listen, my boss is coming out to, to New York. He’s got this. Um, you know, he’s got this meeting with II and they’re gonna, you know, do this, you should talk to him because you know, New Mexico needs good set designers and it’s right up your alley. And I was like, no, no, no. Cuz she had tried to talk me into it before I even moved to New York. When I was working at architecture firm, she’s like, come join the film industry. It’s great. And you’ll love it. It’s right up your alley. I was like, no, I don’t do fake. I do real <laugh>. And so like, you know, it’s this kind of snobbish sense that architects get sometimes. 

Speaker 2 (00:06:03):

And um, so I was like, no forever, but she’s like, Hey listen, he’s coming out there. Just talk to him. I was like, okay. So I met with her boss and he ended up telling me, you know, the things and I was like, all right, I’ll give it a try. And so I came out to new in Mexico and I tried it. And then within like what was like two months I ended up set designing on my first show was better. Paul SA I knew one of the other set designers who was an architect that I greatly respect. And my sister had worked with and introduced me to and music. He’s just actually one of my favorite people to work with. And he had, he had told me, he’s like, Hey, I know you wanted to get into set design, brought me on. And I that’s how I ended up doing it. I, I was kind of lured in. I’m like, let me give it a shot. And eventually I was like, okay, this is actually really great. And it is real architecture cuz you really do have to think about real design. It’s not all fake it’s uh it’s you have to think about structural things. You have to think about, you know, the materiality, how it’s gonna be built. So it’s real things that are getting built. It’s just not permanent. It’s you know, there it’s more temporary, 

Speaker 1 (00:07:09):

Right? So it’s it’s all design related. 

Speaker 2 (00:07:13):

Yeah. Oh yeah, absolutely. And I actually have a lot more fun doing at design than I ever did doing architecture cuz in architecture you’re, you know, you’re following codes and you’re sticking to this and that, but like in set design you could do something that’s completely out of this world. You just have to make it look cool and make sure that it’ll hold up this way. And if, if it doesn’t they’ll, you know, they’ll VFX it <laugh> so, and it can digital 

Speaker 1 (00:07:38):

<affirmative> that’s really cool. There’s this uh, photographer David chias who builds these composite buildings out of basically he takes different objects like old refrigerators and such and he deconstructs them photographs, the individual elements. And then he’ll composite thousands of these elements together to build this architecture. And he’s not actually an architect, but his point was he loved working in that way. Cuz he didn’t have to worry about, uh, the laws of physics. So you probably have to worry about the laws of physics to a certain extent, but 

Speaker 2 (00:08:18):

Well, to a certain extent, that’s actually where the set designer does come in. Cuz like, I mean you have to make it work, but really it’s working closely with construction because I can, I can design anything and, and it happens a lot. People design all these things. You don’t know how it’s gonna come together, but then when your drawings go to construction, they’re like, what is this? And so you, I, I do communicate a lot with construction. The people who are gonna build it, cuz even if, even if it is, you know, define laws of physics, there’s different ways of approaching it. So, you know, we’re gonna make it look this way, but that’s not really gonna happen. It’s actually gonna do this up until here. Then we’re gonna cut to here and this is where it’s gonna lead out because that could never happen in real life type of thing. 

Speaker 2 (00:09:03):

Like it’s important to think about physics, especially. I mean, for me, but more importantly is also being in close communication with the people who are gonna build it. Cause they know so much more than I’ll ever know. Like, I mean the, the way these things are all built. If I were to, you know, start building these things myself. Sure. But I’m, I don’t know how to build it, build it <laugh> I know how to specify it. And I think I could figure it out if I had to, but definitely physics TA takes a play, but you can kind of step outside it a little bit as a designer, but you don’t wanna stray from it too much, 

Speaker 1 (00:09:38):

But that seems like the beauty part of the whole collaborative aspect of it where you can just dream these ideas and then perhaps these people say, well, <laugh> this, but if, uh, we don’t do this thing, it’s gonna, I don’t know, fall on somebody or 

Speaker 2 (00:09:56):

Right. Yeah. Well, and safety’s a huge thing. I mean it always, I mean certain things too, even in set design, it is real architecture because oftentimes we’ll have to hire civil engineers to be able to stamp things. Cuz I mean, sometimes you’re digging into earth that requires permits. That requires certain stamps. I mean it depends really on what you’re designing. You could be designing a whole landscape and you know, maybe it’s a fire scene where you have trees that are made outta propane. And so you have to have certain permits and distancing and I mean it’s, it’s, it is a lot real world, a lot more than I originally ever thought it was. I always thought it was like, oh it’s fake it’s Hollywood, but it’s not. I mean, a lot of it it’s very real. You have to get permits for a lot of the things. If they’re really big builds. Definitely 

Speaker 1 (00:10:43):

Earlier today I was, I was browsing through Facebook and I think I saw a friend had posted that they were bulldozing, I think the facade of a, a patio or a restaurant for the new season of better call Saul, I guess maybe they had, I think it was better call Saul. Um, if I read this properly, they had changed the patio between the last season and the season. So they were gonna bulldoze it, film the episode and then build it back how it was. Maybe 

Speaker 2 (00:11:16):

I know most, a lot of, of the crew, but I’m not on it this season I’m I’m on other things. But I, that, that show, I mean they do a lot here in Albuquerque. One thing that’s great about it is that they really showcase Albuquerque. I didn’t start watching it until I was living in New York. And I thought I ended up working on Saul and I did season one, season two, not season three and then season four and I didn’t do season five. I was, I was in Virginia when, when season five was going on 

Speaker 1 (00:11:46):

Working on something else. But yeah, I mean the film industry has really come up in New Mexico past 

Speaker 2 (00:11:53):

10 years. It’s kind of been like on this exponential growth. Like, I mean it’s actually, yeah, it’s been growing a lot even since I’ve been here. The amount of growth is really incredible just to see it happen. 

Speaker 1 (00:12:05):

And Netflix bought the studio. 

Speaker 2 (00:12:08):

Yeah. Netflix bought Albuquerque studios or Q studios 

Speaker 1 (00:12:12):

Definitely need that in New Mexico cuz there’s kind of a lack of <laugh> that type of 

Speaker 2 (00:12:17):

Industry, but it’s well, NBC now has studios here as well. Mm-hmm <affirmative> there. I worked on a show. What was it? Well, it got basically got when, when COVID happened, it got kind of canceled until further notice. But um, I had been working on was an evil canal. It was a show that they were gonna do about evil canal, but that was an NBC show and it was like a mini series type thing, a short series. Um, but yeah, NBC studios is bringing a lot of things in as well and they’re decent studios. It’s a warehouse that’s been converted to a sound station, but it’s actually pretty decent and the offices are really well all done 

Speaker 1 (00:12:54):

Of looking into the future. Do you see yourself spending more time in New Mexico for, for work reasons? 

Speaker 2 (00:13:02):

Absolutely. I love work. I love working in New Mexico and uh, it’s I know all the crew here, so it’s really, it’s really great working here. I mean where, wherever I go to work, you always meet people. You you’re always gonna make friends. I mean, well at least I try to <laugh> if I’m not that annoying person, but I’m always, I try to be like more social and meet people and try to get to know crew. But yeah, definitely. I wanna work again in New Mexico for sure. I’m I’m going to LA um, it’s kind of like the new transition I just made. What’s I’m a four 80, which is the local union here in New Mexico, but just very recently. And why I’m going to LA to work on this show is because I just finally made my 800 local, which is the LA local, which has jurisdiction everywhere, including New Mexico. So I definitely want to come back here, but this one also allows me to go to you say wherever, wherever 800 has jurisdiction. Typically if they’re gonna pull from a pool to travel, it’ll be from there. And, and, and I love traveling. That’s like one of my favorite things. So if, if I had to travel for work, I’ll find time on my time in between when I’m not working to get to know the area. I love meeting new people, meeting like seeing new places. It’s probably one of my favorite things in life. 

Speaker 1 (00:14:20):

Oh definitely. And when that can become part of your job that’s yeah. That’s amazing. In terms of all the shows you’ve worked on so far, is there a favorite you have for any reason? 

Speaker 2 (00:14:33):

Oh my gosh. 

Speaker 1 (00:14:34):

Even just being a fan of the show or, or maybe the cast was great or, 

Speaker 2 (00:14:39):

Well, as far as like being a fan of the show, I really, I really liked working on stranger things, but it was the show that I was working on when the pandemic happened. So there’s kinda like <laugh> there’s that, but so I didn’t, you didn’t quite get the full experience of working on a show, getting to know the crew to the fully extent going through all the episodes. Like it wasn’t that experience. So it was much different. I loved working on walk, dead world beyond, um, that was the one I did in Virginia. And that one was, it was just really cool. Cause it was my first time working on location. I think my favorite feature film that I’ve worked on hasn’t come out yet, but it will be coming out. I think this like late spring, maybe early summer, but it was, um, though was who wish me dead. 

Speaker 2 (00:15:32):

And it’s, it’s an Angelina Jo movie. Um, it’s really cool. I don’t know what I’m allowed to say without breaking my nondisclosure agreement, but I really did a lot of really cool things on, on those sets that were really fun. And it was just like, I learned new things. That was the first time I had ever done a drone survey and a drone can actually capture photo imagery of like 3d photo, geometric image imagery that can actually create topography. We had to survey topography. So basically we had to do some things that we had to alter the topography of the land and we had to make something that would work with what we were trying to do. And so whenever we were surveying, you know, there’s these things that you, I can’t remember the name of ’em. I can never remember what they are, but these like they’re like these long poles, there’s a remote control and you stick it in the ground and it kind of measures, you know, you, you measure 0.0 and then you’ll move it here and you’ll do another point. 

Speaker 2 (00:16:28):

And then it’ll be like, oh, plus two feet. And then you’ll do another point. It’ll be plus three and it’s come kind of how you do like fully correct topography if you wanna have it 3d geometrically, you know, known. So usually we do that, but one of my friends who I had worked with previously said he had a drone he’s like I can do photo geometry. And he had done it on a previous show I’d worked on, but I’d never really worked with him directly when he had done it for them. And so I called him and he came out and he brought his drone and you know, he put it down and he set a flight path on the drone and in like three minutes, the drone flew around and then it was back and then you get this card and it gives you like an OBX file, which for those who don’t know, it’s, it’s basically 3d file that you can import into a bunch of different programs, whether it be Revit or, you know, AutoCAD or rhino or whatever 3d program you work in, you can import this. 

Speaker 2 (00:17:25):

And it was incredible. It even like outlined certain little bushes <laugh>, you know, so it wasn’t just like the land. It was like, you could see the tree and it also has photo geometry. Um, what I ended up doing to map it all out was use, uh, 3d S I mean, well, there’s not 3d max. Um, there’s been 360, so it’s got a bunch of different things. And then there’s like, you can use, um, another point cloud system and it sets point clouds that you then tie into your model, which I’m probably going way into too much detail for this, but it was really cool how the drone captured all of this data and then you could plug it into your program. And then I had it in Revit and that’s where I was, was altered. It, I could do section cuts. I literally just had to cut through the area that I wanted and it would show me the whole topography, so, okay. I wanna build something that’s gonna do this. And that’s, and I knew the topography. It was really cool. It was probably one of the, the coolest new things 

Speaker 1 (00:18:24):

I’ve learned. I suspect we’ll probably see more of that technology or, I mean, maybe as the consumer, I don’t see it. Um, but as someone working in the industry you’ll see more of it. 

Speaker 2 (00:18:35):

Well, yeah, yeah. I mean, actually the architectural field is using it so much better. I’m trying to get the film industry to be more like this, like even working in Revit and having all these different things, the film industry, doesn’t always, you use these, I, it, you don’t need it as much, but, um, but it’s definitely a very, very valuable tool. And so like the more people are aware of it, the, the more they’ll do typically you’ll see a lot of people just using AutoCAD or, um, you know, SketchUp or, uh, what’s the other one. Uh, <affirmative> BRINO, I mean, they’re all great programs. They all do different things. But the beautiful thing about like using the whole, like BIM 360 and BI means, um, building information modeling. So it kind of gives the information all around in like 360 degrees. And it’s just, it’s very efficient if everybody knows how to do it, I do it, but it doesn’t work as well. If you don’t have other people you’re working with to collaborate, to be able to work with you in it. 

Speaker 1 (00:19:41):

So, so this kinda makes me think of, um, this topic that comes up no matter what we’re talking about, which is the whole analog for digital thing. So in terms of architecture and, and set design and film, I, I suspect there are still a lot of people working or maybe not people working in the industry that are considered kind of analog folks. So well, is that true? And if so, what, what kind of, um, how would they be working that’s different? Are they sketching everything from scratch or 

Speaker 2 (00:20:24):

It’s different, you know, there’s different values to different things. The thing with the film industry is, I mean, the more we get into it, the more, you know, time is of the essence and you’re, you’re behind when you start type of thing, you know, they always want it five minutes before they tell you they want it type of thing. So you’re always like stuck with time. The thing with design, and as far as that analog versus digital type thing would be, and for what I do would be hand drafting versus, you know, the digital drafting. And then there’s also even digital drafting. That’s kind of like just a digital pen, you know, um, versus a program that’s, you know, like Revit that I work on, that’s on steroids, but there’s all these different parametric things you have to think about. Um, they’re not all necessary for every job. 

Speaker 2 (00:21:15):

I don’t think that they’re antiquated because honestly, sometimes especially in like the film industry and sometimes you really wanna really beautifully hand drawn drawing when you hand draw something, it really makes, think about it a lot more, cuz you’re, you’re doing it by hand. When I did architecture school, I had to draw by hand. We weren’t even allowed to use AutoCAD at the time. So I didn’t even learn to use AutoCAD in architecture school. I learned it later when I was at a firm. Um, they really want you to think about how you’re thinking about it. When you have to do it all by hand, it really helps. And it’s the same with modeling something. When you model it physically, you physically hold it in your hand and see how it works. Um, with our industry, it is becoming less and less, but there are still, you know, shows that want, want that hand drawn drawing. 

Speaker 2 (00:22:03):

I mean, they’re, they’re beautiful. You can’t draw something by hand. Like you can’t make the drawing. I could print them out and they’re sharp and they’re crisp lines and the line weights are all perfect, but it doesn’t, there’s a different beauty and it’s, I think it’s, it’s more of like an aesthetic thing. It’s not the most efficient timewise, but it might be the most efficient design wise only because you really think about the design. So for, for example, when I worked architecture firm, the architect, I worked for drew everything by hand and then he’d give me his drawings and I would digitize them. But he really thought about the design and how it was working out, cuz it’s kind of just the way he thought things are moving forward. They’re not, they’re gonna be far and few between, but they will still be needed. I think, I mean, there’s just something be about those things. 

Speaker 2 (00:22:50):

And honestly, there are certain art directors and production designers that would rather somebody who drafts by hand than somebody who drafts digitally. The only thing is, is that as long as they have it in their budget for that timeline is the thing. Cuz sometimes you just need it quick and you know, sometimes I’m being told print where you are because they’re like, where is it’s going out right here? And I’m like, but it’s not finished and perfect yet. It’s never gonna be perfect, but they’ll be like, it doesn’t matter print it where it is and we’re getting it out cause they need to build this. And I’m like, oh shoot <laugh> they gotta hurry up. And so then that’s what you just have to do. Um, but, but if you have the time and you have the budget to really think, think about these things, it’s, it’s always, it’s a very, very rare luxury to have time to really think about the design. Cuz typically you’re thinking about the budget and the time is never there. So it really just depends. 

Speaker 1 (00:23:45):

I would, I would suspect maybe there are certain directors or producers or, or, or maybe that just are looking for that type of thing. But I 

Speaker 2 (00:23:56):

Wouldn’t say so much the directors and producers, it would be more the production designer that needs that if it’s the director and a producer, it because it’s something that’s gonna be on camera. So oftentimes, you know, they’ll come to the art department and say, Hey, we have this prop. It would be a prop because it’s something that somebody handles. Um, we need a drawing of this that they’re gonna look at and mark on. And so we’ll do it, but it’s something on camera and they might want a specific look cuz if it’s a period piece, it, how has to be a hand drawn thing where you definitely need somebody who knows how to draft by hand and not everybody who drafts digitally can draft by hand. They really can’t. It’s it’s, it’s a, it’s a very, it’s a craftsmanship technique. Um, I know it a little bit, but I I’m not the I’m I’m much better digitally than I am by hand I can do it, but it, it’s not gonna look like someone who’s more, you know, more experienced and has been doing it forever type of thing. 

Speaker 1 (00:24:52):

Well, and, and I might maybe compare that to the world of commercial photography. I, I can’t imagine there’s that many commercial photographers that are being sent out with the assignment of go shoot this assignment with Phil. It’s usually more go shoot this thing and upload it. Mm-hmm <affirmative> from, from the site yesterday, that type of thing. So, but that’s, that’s, that’s really interesting. I think it was a commercial photographer. I know that photographed a lot of animals in LA that, um, this sounds so weird, but animals that lived in LA for the film industry. Oh yeah. And, and a lot of them were out of work the animals because it used to be if the, the chimpanzee for example, was in the film, like he was in the whole film, but then it kind of shifted to where they would just, uh, shoot maybe a scene with him and digitize him. And then the rest of the film was, you know, 

Speaker 2 (00:25:54):

That’s interesting cuz I haven’t thought about animals being put outta work. Um, I’ve worked on shows where we’ve had a lot of animals. I mean I worked on a show, we had, we had a draft <laugh> we a tiger. We had S like literally you have to have a Wrangler for every type of creature that you have. Um wow. It, it is. It’s interesting. So I remember looking at like the call sheet and seeing aunt Wrangler’s call time is 8:00 AM and like an aunt Wrangler. But it was because they had to have like ants on like a, of old food that was in the hallway of a hotel. It was just, it was interesting, but yeah. Um, yeah, I never thought about the, the animals being outta work. Huh? That’s an interesting thought. I kinda 

Speaker 1 (00:26:43):

Wanna just become an aunt Wrangler temporarily on my resume. <laugh> be amazing. 

Speaker 2 (00:26:51):

And then I’ve worked with scorpion Wrangler too, cause like, say you want like this desert road and like a scorpion runs across. And so they have to have like a Wrangler who’s gonna like tickle it to make sure it goes the direction or whatever. I mean, that’s just like one example. Um, dog Wranglers are very common cuz you have dogs and every cat Wranglers, if, if it’s an animal, there’s a Wrangler for it. And it’s pretty interesting. 

Speaker 1 (00:27:19):

I I’m considering a new side hustle. I, I might wanna start wrangle, uh, for the film industry. I dunno. There’s so many different creative <laugh>, um, positions within it. Yeah. 

Speaker 2 (00:27:32):

Well that’s, what’s cool about the film industry is there’s a position for everything. I mean, if you’re into numbers and accounting there’s that if you’re in into design there’s that if you’re into food, there’s that, I mean, every there’s pretty much a, a, an industry. There’s something for each industry in the film industry. 

Speaker 1 (00:27:53):

That’s cool. That’s really cool. Very cool. And then in terms of Netflix, it seems like that’s been changing film a lot where it’s, especially maybe in this year where a lot of, um, series or, or movies might just go immediately to Netflix, right. 

Speaker 2 (00:28:14):

Everything’s streaming or even like wonder woman going straight to HBO or move on going straight to Disney plus like that was, it was interesting. I was, I was happy to pay it, but you wouldn’t, you think about all the, all the producers who are like, we’re not making that box office money <laugh>, you know, but at the same time they might be making better. I haven’t looked at numbers. Everybody wants to go digital. Everybody, people have home theaters in the summer. I, I bought a screen and a projector. I was just like in my, a backyard watching movies from my backyard at night. I mean, I have like a little aboveground pool. I think. I think if they start marketing it right, you could probably get more money charging for the, you know, for the free, for the, the streaming part. You know, I, I paid for Alan early. I paid for not under woman, but I did pay for her after she was no longer available. <laugh> um, even after I had already seen it it’s I think it’s, I mean, it’s definitely a shift, but that’s, that’s where everything’s kind of going. It’s kind of inevitable. I feel like, you know, definitely. 

Speaker 1 (00:29:21):

Yeah. In the comfort, like 

Speaker 2 (00:29:23):

You’re willing to pay the price and not, you don’t wanna go to a movie theater and now everyone has, has a reason because I mean, now you’re worried about getting a disease. <laugh> you worried about getting a virus that’s, you know, global. 

Speaker 1 (00:29:35):

Well, and now that you know, you can watch a new film from your pool or hot tub or something like that. Right. Why do you even want to, 

Speaker 2 (00:29:45):

I do like going to the movie theater. No, no, no, no. There’s still, there’s still a certain energy about it. I do love going to the movie theater, but I definitely think it’s not everybody. Like, I mean, I like going to a movie theater if I’m, there’s not like, you know, it’s not crowded. I can say it where I wanna sit. You know, it’s one of those theaters that has the recliners that you can like lay down on <laugh>. Yeah. I mean, there’s, it’s all about comfort, but I do like going to a movie theater design, 

Speaker 1 (00:30:11):

I was talking to a friend earlier who’s in the theater and I was asking about design. She was saying, if you have to be as specific because it’s not on film and people are viewing it from the audience. Whereas if you’re doing set design for, for the movies, it’s it has to be way more specific. I’ve 

Speaker 2 (00:30:30):

Always been really interested in theater design. Um, it’s something I’ve never done other than maybe helping paint something. When I was a kid for a play that I did <laugh> you know, other than that, um, but I do, I’ve known a lot of people that come from a theater background and it’s, it’s different. It’s it’s you think more, you really only think one perspective and whereas for a film, you know, even if it’s a single camera type thing, you, it moves in different angles and do 360 degrees of a view sometimes. I mean, with set design with, for film it’s there could be so many scenarios. You might have to build the same thing twice in two different ways. So that one way it’s structural and that the other way somebody could be thrown through it, type of thing with theater, you won’t, you only have one take. 

Speaker 2 (00:31:25):

And so like with film, you have as many takes as you need. Sometimes like if it’s something that’s gonna break, they’ll be like, okay, make three of this chair because it’s gonna be broken over somebody’s head. And if they don’t break it right, the first time we’re gonna have to do a second take, but we’re only making three. Cause you’ve only got three takes and that’s what they tell the actors. They’re like, okay, you got three takes for this type of thing. So yeah, it’s definitely very different. I would love to do theater. I think it would be really fun, but it’s, it’s also a specialty. It’s not, it’s not my background because my background’s more architectural. I do a lot more real life type design in, in what I do love doing like period pieces or when, you know, going to the seventies or the, or the forties or something, you know, a very specific time and you have to design specific and think about realistically how it happens. 

Speaker 2 (00:32:15):

And actually as somebody who has an architectural background, it gets me into trouble sometimes, cuz they think of things a little too practical. Cool. You know, as far as like how it’s gonna function, how it’s gonna work, it needs to be like this. And then whereas film, people tend to think, you know, if they have like a, you know, a film, educational background versus an architect background where you have to think about codes and this and structure and all these different exams we had to take back then. And they’re like, no, well that doesn’t matter because it’s not like they’re really gonna do it. You could just make it go like that. I’m like, yeah, but it wouldn’t really ever do that. And they’re like, yeah, just do it. <laugh> so sometimes like that, that hurts me sometimes. Like I’m like, oh it shouldn’t be like that. 

Speaker 2 (00:32:57):

But I get caught in, in my head cuz I want it to be practical. The thing with, yeah. The thing with, uh, theater versus the set design is it’s it’s I mean, it’s, it’s just one, take one perspective. You don’t have to think about it practically. Oh, this wall’s gonna fly this way. This wall’s gonna fly this way. This curtain goes up, this one comes down, you know, it’s much different. It’s it’s more like layers. Actually. If you think about it versus being 3d theater would be more like if you know, Photoshop or anything that has layers, it’s more like layers this layer on this layer, off this layer, on this layer off. I just, I’ve never done it. I’ve I’ve never done theater design, but I think it I’ve always been fast needed by it. Cuz it would be really fun to, I don’t know, take a, take a shot at it, you know, 

Speaker 1 (00:33:45):

And not to say that’s necessarily analog versus digital, but maybe to a certain extent. 

Speaker 2 (00:33:52):

Oh, well definitely. Theater’s one of the most, it’s the original scene really? You know, now we and have all kinds of scene, but theater’s the original scene. That’s all, that’s your screen right there is is the theater, but it’ll never be, but, and that’s actually, that’s a good point cuz it’ll never be obsolete. People love that. And it’s the same with, you know, clocks. People still love their, their regular wrist watches versus their apple watch. 

Speaker 1 (00:34:21):

Right. You could have one or the other, but yeah, they’re 

Speaker 2 (00:34:24):

Different or both depending on the day 

Speaker 1 (00:34:26):

<laugh> right. Maybe one on each wrist. <laugh> 

Speaker 2 (00:34:29):

My, I always get made fun of because I’ll be like, oh what time is it? And I go like this. I never wear a watch <laugh> ever, but I still do that. Like don’t know, it’s just like right. 

Speaker 1 (00:34:38):

Cause you used to right? Yeah. 

Speaker 2 (00:34:41):

Well, yeah like when I was much younger, but I don’t think I’ve worn one in like 20 years. Probably maybe years. I don’t wear watches anymore. Not since the cell phone came out, then I just, I stopped wearing watches, 

Speaker 1 (00:34:55):

But there’s that memory of it to the point where you’re looking at your wrist expecting. Yeah. 

Speaker 2 (00:34:59):

It’s there’s still a memory of it. That’s time. 

Speaker 1 (00:35:03):

That’s 

Speaker 2 (00:35:03):

Great. 

Speaker 1 (00:35:04):

That’s great. So you were, you were talking about period pieces a little bit and, and something I’ve seen in well or something you hear about in film a little bit over the years is when I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily set designers, maybe costume designers, somebody on the set makes an error where maybe the film is set in 18, 10, but there’s a character wearing a digital watch or something like, oh yeah. 

Speaker 2 (00:35:31):

Oh it’s not, it’s not just costumes. <laugh> 

Speaker 1 (00:35:35):

I mean, it’s gotta come up in set too, right? Like you’re oh 

Speaker 2 (00:35:38):

Absolutely. All the time. Yeah. Now you have to do your research. I mean, if you’re working with a good designer and honestly I’ve been very lucky to work with really great designers. I haven’t gone to the point where I’m like, are, are you serious? You’re doing that. <laugh> um, it’s like when it comes to something like that, cuz sometimes it’ll be, people will be like, oh that’s fine. But when it comes to like a time period, you have to be very vigilant. And especially if it’s episodic and you also have to think about continuity and making sure that that same thing is in the same spot. Definitely like even if you think about a doorknob, you know, all of the older doorknobs, they’re all is gonna be knobs. That’s why they’re called doorknobs. But nowadays it’s like, you have the ADAS and it’s just like, it’s like you got the handle, it’s a door handle and it’s and you push it down because if in case you can’t grip it, you know, you just need an elbow, you can open that door and that’s an ADA thing, but that’s like one example, you wouldn’t see a door like that in a 90 fifties <laugh> or thirties or, you know, pre pre ADA basically. 

Speaker 1 (00:36:45):

Right. So is there somebody, uh, that is in charge of, um, reviewing that type of information or 

Speaker 2 (00:36:53):

Uh, I mean there’s a lot of people in charge of that primarily when it comes to at least the design, it’s gonna be the art director and the production designer, the production designers, the designer who designs the whole look, you know, he talks with the set decorators, the set designers, which is what I do, the art directors, the props people. I mean he’s, they kind of design the whole look of it. And then the art director makes sure that that look is fulfilled throughout the things. And if it’s something specific, like a time piece that’s that would kind of fall on the art director. And then, um, my boss is always the art director and the production designer and they, you know, the art director is kind of the manager. So for the things that we do, I guess it would fall on the art director, but essentially it, you know, it all falls on the top. So the production designer, 

Speaker 1 (00:37:49):

Right. So if you, if you accidentally slip on a door handle or something like that and it makes it to the final production. 

Speaker 2 (00:38:00):

Yeah. That, I mean, honestly if I have time to do hardware, which I often time don’t, I can, I can be like, okay, look, look for something like this. I won’t specify it. Exactly. That’ll usually be like an assistant art director. We’ll find the hardware or, I mean, I do, I have done it freak when it depends on the show and the size of the show, but yeah, definitely the, it would be like an art director. That would be the one that would probably take the fall. I’m I think, I think <laugh>, luckily I, we haven’t had that kind of a thing happen in, 

Speaker 1 (00:38:38):

But you hear about that and it’s, it’s always kind of that funny thing or, or for example, and I won’t mention specific movies, but my boyfriend’s a mechanic and we saw a movie about a year and a half ago, uh, that was mostly filmed in garages and he was pointing out things like, oh, none of this technology existed in this time period. And I would assume probably the general population doesn’t actually realize that. Cause they’re not mechanics. 

Speaker 2 (00:39:07):

I am that person all the time when I’m watching a movie, I’m like, no, they didn’t do their homework. That’s not supposed to be, be there. Like, and especially like if it’s something that I know a lot about, I’m like, Nope, definitely not. And so when you’re designing for these things, hopefully you do all the research. But even when it comes to translating a language onto a sign, that’s gonna be in the background. You know, if, if it’s somebody who’s looking up, Google translate, it’s not always gonna come out the way it should sound. Right. But no, the mistakes are made in every show. You just hope that people don’t catch ’em <laugh> 

Speaker 1 (00:39:47):

Right. And is the specific people that are even looking for that. Um, 

Speaker 2 (00:39:52):

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I look for the things in the background, always trying to see like as a set designer, I’m like, oh, that’s definitely a location. That’s definitely a set, like on a stage. Like I, I try to differentiate, you know, what’s real and what’s not real or what’s a location or a set. I’m always looking in the background. I lo I love looking at the way other people that’s how you learn is just by seeing what other people do. 

Speaker 1 (00:40:17):

So if there was any set you could build, like they were just like, do whatever you want. Is there a specific type of set you would wanna? 

Speaker 2 (00:40:31):

My, my dream job I think is to work and don’t laugh. I just wanna work on a live action Disney movie. Like I like, like a classic that’s being made live action. Like, oh my gosh, if I could have worked on beauty and the beast that would’ve been the dream, but I mean, or a Ladin or, you know, any, any of the live actions, like it’s one of my favorite things. My favorite types of movies is to watch live actions of classics that I was in love with when I was a kid and seeing how they come to life and like the technology that we have these days. So that’s kind of what cuz Disney movies have. I don’t know. They have some sort of magic about them that if you can create it, I think that it’s really exciting, you know, just the magic of it and it doesn’t even have to be Disney to be, you know, any of ’em any of the, like a live action type cartoon, that’s a classic, 

Speaker 1 (00:41:29):

Well, all that comes from our, our childhood and I’d never actually been to been to Disney work. I’d never been to Disney land actually up until a few months before the pandemic randomly decided to go. And didn’t actually realize how, um, yeah, no, it just, it, it, um, ended up happening and it was, I can’t believe how amazing the timing was and it was really a lot more magical than, than I expected. Um, just any of it. So I could definitely, yeah, definitely see that 

Speaker 2 (00:42:04):

For sure. Yeah. I’ve never been to Disney land, but I grew up going, I, I grew up a Disney girl. I, we would go to Disney world like one or twice a year, cuz I had mentioned earlier, I lived in Florida and in Mexico, like half the year, but we would drive from Florida to Mexico. And so on the way up, we’d stop at Disney world and we’d do that whole Elcot magic kingdom, you know, and whatever it was that we were doing and then we’d drive onto Mexico and then we’d typically do it on the way back. Um, but this one was um, so that’s kind of like one of the things, but I’ve never been to Disneyland. So now that I’m moving to LA, I’ll have to pay a visit. 

Speaker 1 (00:42:45):

Well, um, yeah, when, when things open up a little bit more, I kind of wanna go back and uh, so maybe we 

Speaker 2 (00:42:54):

Stay 

Speaker 1 (00:42:54):

With me. Yeah. I’ll come stay with you and we’ll go to Disney and it’ll be awesome. There we go. <laugh> 

Speaker 2 (00:42:59):

Sounds like a plan. 

Speaker 1 (00:43:01):

In addition to working as a set designer, you’ve also been involved in the, um, film festival along with some other family members for a minute here, you’re a board member and, and um, 

Speaker 2 (00:43:16):

I am I um, well actually when my sister had told me to come to New Mexico, she had brought me out here and before I started doing set design, she had me volunteering with her at the film festival. And so I was just helping her and we ended up putting, pulling off a whole film festival. And then shortly after that, um, was when I started working in, in, in the film industry. But it was, it was my, it was kind of like my, my crash course of like learning the film industry and getting to know things and it’s, it’s become something that’s actually really fun. The, I started, I guess in 2014 was when I started volunteering and then maybe it was 15. I became a board member and then every, you know, every year I’m as involved as I possibly can. If I’m working, I tend to not be as involved, but it’s, it’s definitely a family, a family fair. 

Speaker 2 (00:44:09):

My, my, my other, my sister N is the one who runs it. She’s the chair. And um, I’m the director. I mean, she’s, she wears pretty much every hat when it comes to the film festival and I help her wherever I can. Um, but it’s, it’s so fun cuz you get to meet like the independent world, which I’ve never had the opportunity to work on an independent film. I’ve really only worked on, you know, bigger shows. Um, other than, you know, my, my introduction with that is the film festival, but then you get to watch these movies and see, you know, E there are some really incredible independent artists that make shows just as good of quality as you know, these major features that have he huge budgets and, and they work with what they can and then the stories they have to tell are so much more personal too, you know, watching, watching the film festival stories, um, during the festival, it’s always, I don’t think, I think maybe I watched half a movie or three quarters of a movie during the festival because whenever I would go in to watch a movie I’d end up having to leave, to go take care of something or prepare for something else. 

Speaker 2 (00:45:19):

And so I never watch films during the festival. I usually just do help with events and, you know, go to different things. Um, but I’ll get to watch them screening cuz you know, whether it’s on without a box or film free way or, or whatever, I think they’re consolidating now. There’s just one. But um, it’s, I, I really enjoy doing the film festival and it was actually my first introduction even before I started doing set design. So my sister really is the one who, who introduced me to the film industry and she had gone, she went to school for it at the, what was it? Uh, college Santa Fe. She did the film, the moving image arts program at college of Santa Fe. And um, yeah, she’s, she’s kind of my, my introduction to it all. And, and we, she, we, she still does the festival. 

Speaker 2 (00:46:03):

This year was interesting. It was all digital. And we did everything through this, um, this partner of ours, ER TV, they actually really, um, are have, it’s basically an online streaming and what they do is they have different independent films from different film festivals. So film festivals that have already, you know, aired these things, they get in touch with the film filmmakers and they have this whole streaming database. I mean, if you ever, if you ever wanna check out, it’s not very expensive to join, but it dessert TV, it’s spelled X, E R B. And they were the platform for all of our filming this year. So it’s, it was streaming this year and no, there were no events where you had to, you know, go watch a, uh, you know, a movie in a theater because it’s been COVID. So we did everything digitally, everything was aired, oner TV. 

Speaker 2 (00:46:51):

It actually was a really good turnout. It was interesting to see they went VI the, the festival went viral this year, which was really cool. That’s really cool. I, I had wondered how it was actually, I think it was easier to handle primarily cuz it was all digital, you know, during a festival it’s like, oh the video’s not working here. You gotta go run over. And you know, like I said, I really watch movies cuz sometimes I have to go put a fire out because something could be going down and, but you have to go out all these places, but everybody was in the office, nobody, nobody had to go anywhere. Everything was digital, it was manageable. Um, you don’t get that, you know, comradery of like, you know, socializing with people and having that energy, but it’ll be back soon, but it was nice that we were still able to keep it and you know, at least continue another festival online. 

Speaker 1 (00:47:43):

That’s something I’ve been thinking about is I I kind of feel like maybe it would be helpful. <affirmative> when things normalize in, in lieu of the way we used to do things, adding the digital thing as well, because that makes it a little more, um, well just open to more people, whereas not everybody can come to Santa Fe for the film festival, but a lot of people are gonna prefer to do the, that, but people in, uh, all parts of the world can buy digital tickets. So right. 

Speaker 2 (00:48:17):

I feel like maybe yeah, exactly. It opens up the market. Mm-hmm <affirmative> a much larger market. Um, a actually a couple years ago, not this year, but back in 2020, when we did the festival, we had our whole, um, award ceremony, streamed online and we were already kind of moving towards that. And so this year just kind of like, all right, let’s get what we’ve already. And the year before that with ER TV, we had already started establishing, like we were the first festival with them to start contacting our filmmakers and asking them for clearance, certain things, you know, they’re under contract or you know, different distribution contracts. They, they couldn’t all join on. So, but we had already started this digital platform. And so when it kind of hit us, we had, we were already a little ahead of the game. I mean, not by much, nobody expected us, but we were already starting to think in the digital world. I mean, as everybody is now, so this year we really had to tap into it. Oh 

Speaker 1 (00:49:17):

Yeah. So it’ll be interesting to see next year, how that all plays out. Mm-hmm <affirmative> okay. So there there’s a few questions I like to ask all the guests on the show. Is there anything you collect? Um, 

Speaker 2 (00:49:29):

I have a lot of, to be for the basic souvenirs for all the countries I go to. I usually get a key chain for sure. And other things. I definitely get a magnet and I get a shock glass, but I also collect knives, not just like a regular knife, but like fancy knives, like DERs and like one of ’em has like a, like it’s a double edged. 

Speaker 1 (00:49:53):

Do you have any double edged knives in the room with you? No pressure. Not in the 

Speaker 2 (00:49:58):

Room, but in a box in my bedroom 

Speaker 1 (00:50:03):

Somewhere travel has been really important to you over the years and is often a part of work and you miss it. If you could time travel, do you know where you would wanna go? Like the, the, the past or the future specific place? 

Speaker 2 (00:50:24):

Oh my gosh. Past future. Now we’re now we’re going into like X, Y, Z. Like you can go anywhere. Yeah. Really world war II would be a really fun time if, I guess, between like the forties and the sixties are a really cool time period for me, it’s like one of my favorite to design for at least. So just to sort of see that live would be cool, but it depends who I was. You know, I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t wanna be at the lower end of the economic scale. 

Speaker 1 (00:51:01):

Well, since we’re time traveling, you can be anybody you want and you can go anywhere you want. Um, um, it’s kind, it’s kind of great like that. And this past year has kind of felt like that. Like going even just traveling to the next state has seemed impossible. Right. So why not tra time travels in terms of, you know, imagining we’re imagining right now? <laugh> 

Speaker 2 (00:51:27):

Well, right now I would time I travel back to the powder day, back in January when I was at Wolf Creek and there were like 18 inches. That’s what I can think of at the top of my head. But that’s super question to answer. 

Speaker 1 (00:51:43):

I mean the powder day in January, like that, that makes sense to me as a fellow snow butter hound. Yeah. Powder hound, all that. So, so, OK. So how about just in terms of, um, in the near future, when you can travel anywhere in the world in the current time is there and, and, and money is not a factor just if, 

Speaker 2 (00:52:10):

Yeah, no, I was gonna, I already know what I, next travel is gonna be. I was supposed to go for new year’s 2020, which was right before the pandemic happened. So it was feasible travel wise. I didn’t think it was gonna become such a thing at the time, but I was planning on going to first to New Zealand. They have this festival, um, new Zealand’s the first country to see the sunrise. And so they have, I forget the name of the festival. I wanna say, uh, I can’t remember the name of the festival, but it’s this like four day festival during the week of new year’s like during new year’s and, and it’s a music festival and it’s just all kinds of music they party from, you know, Don till dusk. It’s, it’s a, it’s a really great experience from what I’ve seen and researched. I was supposed to go there 2020. 

Speaker 2 (00:53:03):

The only reason I didn’t is because I was working at the time and I was supposed to be finished in November. The show I was on, got pushed like basically a month. So we didn’t get finished till December. And at that point I would, I only had like a week to prepare and I was also moving out of my apartment in New York. So it just, nothing worked out timewise to be able to make it there for new Years’s. But after New Zealand, I was gonna go to Australia, you know, spend a week in New Zealand or four days, and then go to Australia, spend a few days there and then go to like go to Southern like Asia and, you know, go to Thailand and se and like, you know, just sort of backpack. I love backpacking. It’s one of my favorite things and I’m, I’m very kind of bougie and I’m like, I’m I over pack for everything. 

Speaker 2 (00:53:51):

But when I’m traveling, I literally pack two. We like, I can, I, I have a backpack, like on my back, that’s carry on only. So it’s, it’s not much bigger than like, okay, if, if we’re fitting it in the screen, it’s a little bigger than that, but not much. So I, I, I totally forget about myself and my, my things that I think I need when I travel and I just sort of let go, and I just wanna like experience as much as I can. So that’s what I was gonna do. And I didn’t, I didn’t do it in 2020. So I’m hoping for 2022, cuz I didn’t do it for 2021, either <laugh>, but I’m hoping for 2022, I’ll be in New Zealand and I’ll leave probably like two days after Christmas. I’ll spend Christmas here and then get there by new year’s and then be in New Zealand and figure it out from there. 

Speaker 2 (00:54:42):

Like the beautiful thing about the film industry is you have a few days like you were, but once you’re done, unless you jump onto another show, you can turn down jobs. You can say, I’m sorry, I’m not available. Or you can say, yep, I’m available. Or you can say, I’m not available, but I will be here. Can you hold off type of thing? Like you can work as much as you want, as long as you’re getting calls for the work. So that’s the beautiful thing about it. Once I finish the show I’m going on to now, which will be done about October, November, I, I plan to not work and I’m gonna take off until probably February and just take a couple months off and I just wanna travel. And that’s what I wanna do. New Zealand, Australia, south Asia, where, or that may leave me. 

Speaker 1 (00:55:29):

Right. Cause when you’re working in the film industry, it’s long days. So you’re gonna need a little time off or, 

Speaker 2 (00:55:37):

Oh yeah, no, I mean it’s, I mean, you do need time off, but you don’t always take it. Honestly. One of the good things that has come of pandemic is learning how to balance things. For example, I was the type of person, like I hadn’t, I would schedule my time to leave the country, but I’d be going and going and going. It wasn’t like it was downtime. Cuz when I’m traveling, I’m not trying to relax. I’m trying to do as much as I can, but I was kind of forced to relax and not do things. So the beauty of it is that I don’t feel like if I’m not, if I’m not going on vacation, I need to go onto another job. Because for me typically I, I work like basically 11 months out of the year, 10 to 12 hours a day, sometimes 15, five to seven days a week. 

Speaker 2 (00:56:36):

And that really doesn’t allow much like you finish your work after working 12 hours. And you’re like, okay, I’ve got like four hours hours before I have to force myself to go to bed. And that’s like, whatever it is, whether it’s cleaning the bathroom or washing your dog or walking your dog, <laugh>, you know, it’s all these things that I end up actually paying people to do for me. Like walk my dog or take care of ’em if I, if I’m working, cuz I’m not usually at home. The good thing about working at home was I can take her for a walk myself. I’m like, okay, I’m gonna force myself. I used to smoke cigarettes, but I quit. And so now I’m like, I’m just thinking of walking my dog as like my cigarette break that I used to take. And so now I still go out, I get the fresh air, I take her for a walk, but I’m I’m at home and she’s here when you’re at the office, you don’t have that luxury. 

Speaker 2 (00:57:21):

Um, but definitely that was that. That was the good thing that it forced me to force some downtime. So I don’t wanna jump from show to show. I need to allow some time in between allow some time to travel. Even if it’s not travel maybe within the state or something, something relaxing. I, I tend to, I, I tend to make like a grid and a calendar and, and it’s not to dictate it’s more to guide, but I try to stick to it. <laugh> and I, I hate to be that like regiment person, but I try to be as much as I can, which is not always the best thing. And so now, like this is, this is one of the good things that’s happened is I’m not so regimented, like, all right, whatever happens happens. 

Speaker 1 (00:58:07):

Right. It’s it’s been a good lesson in that. Mm-hmm <affirmative> I kinda said that to myself early on is I guess I better learn to just roll with it. Cause mm-hmm, <affirmative>, I’m, I’m a tourist and that’s not really a tourist thing, but I thought, well, I guess I better figure that out. 

Speaker 2 (00:58:25):

Those two things <laugh> 

Speaker 1 (00:58:27):

Yeah. Mm-hmm <affirmative> 

Speaker 2 (00:58:28):

So no, I always feel along with TAs. 

Speaker 1 (00:58:32):

I dunno if this is an easier or harder question based upon your film industry involvement, but recently, do you have any favorite movies or, or shows 

Speaker 2 (00:58:44):

Recently? My favorite TV show, which is actually not even a TV show, it’s a mini series that I’ve recently watched was Queens gambit. Mm-hmm <affirmative> love Queens gambit. That’s like, it’s probably one of the best shows that I’ve seen this year. I would have to say 

Speaker 1 (00:59:04):

That that’s actually been one of the most popular shows from art and the raw guests so far. Yes. It’s 

Speaker 2 (00:59:13):

Very, it’s very good. Other shows. I love shameless. I mean, it’s very raw, very dirty, but I love the rawness of it. It’s just so the writers do well. They do well at like making things genuine, cuz you just see how raw like people really are and everybody’s to a certain degree like that. Not to that degree, but in a, we all get raw at some points and I love, I love shameless. Um, 

Speaker 1 (00:59:45):

Is that on Netflix? 

Speaker 2 (00:59:48):

It’s well, it’s originally a Showtime show, but it is on Netflix up to season 10. You have to go to show time for season 11, 

Speaker 1 (00:59:55):

Any like classic childhood favorite movies. 

Speaker 2 (00:59:59):

I would, if, if I would say, if I were going to childhood mm-hmm <affirmative> clueless would be well and Titanic and Romeo and Juliet <laugh> this would be like my childhood favorites. And of course the lion king and the little mermaid and beauty and the beast. I it’s hard to say a favorite of anything. Really so 

Speaker 1 (01:00:23):

Many good movies. It’s it’s hard to pick. Have you been revisiting music from the past? 

Speaker 2 (01:00:31):

Yes. It’s interesting. You asked that question cuz I’ve been listening to more sappy music. If you will like emotional mood music, like, okay. I always like the party scene and like the up vibe and the reggae and the, this and that. But sometimes you wanna hear something that’s kind of sappy and girly mm-hmm <affirmative> and if you’re alone at home, why not? <laugh> so I would I’ve I’ve had have this playlist. I I’m always on Spotify. I have this playlist and it’s called I’m just a girl and cuz I’m just a girl. And like people think of like girls as listening to happy music, we listen to everything, but this is why I called it that. So like it’s called, I’m just a girl, but it’s got like Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey and like Alanis Morse set. And I made this list a long time ago, but I never listened to it for a very long time and I definitely found myself listening to it. I also find myself listening to more. 

Speaker 2 (01:01:38):

I don’t know, I guess more, more, more music. I haven’t heard in a long time, like, like my, I have a playlist called like a rolling stone. It’s like Bob, Bob, Dylan. It’s like the doors, it’s the rolling stones. Um, it’s like a bunch of like classic rock and just sort of getting back into the classic for a while. You weren’t hearing new music during pandemic. So you just kind of like, all right, what do I wanna do here? And you would listen to what you listen to, but yeah, definitely hitting into like the more nostalgic music has definitely been a thing recently for me. 

Speaker 1 (01:02:16):

Yeah. But I do think there was something about this past year 

Speaker 2 (01:02:19):

And, and revisiting absolutely well, that’s like one of the most beautiful things. It really makes you reflect on not just this past year, but you know, the way things were before this year, you know, it makes you actually analyze the things you’ve been doing and thinking, oh wait, what was I doing there? Why was I doing that? Why was I not thinking clearly? And why was I just bulldozing through all this stuff? And I should be thinking about it. Like, and, and even they could be something as simple as relationships like, oh friends not responding to texts because you’re so busy with work. We get so stuck in this automatic reply mode. Like you don’t even have to type anything. It’ll be like, oh yeah, great things. 

Speaker 1 (01:03:01):

I do feel like we were all kind of in automatic reply, automatic reply mode for 

Speaker 2 (01:03:05):

A minute there. Oh. And you know, there’s so many outlets with architecture. It’s, it’s kind of where art meets engineering type of thing. It’s that it’s that type of world. And so even in the art department doing set design, it’s kind of the same thing where like Hollywood meets the real world type of thing and we make it happen. So that’s one, that’s one very interesting thing. Like the, like having an architectural degree gives you a lot of different, um, shooting off points, like starting points that you can go in many different directions. And this same goes for if you wanted to do, um, uh, not just design if you, like, they say, if you could, if you can design, like I, by what I mean is architectural design. They say, if you can design one thing, you can design anything. So if you know how to think about the way things work, whether it even be like, you can think of a building, a website. 

Speaker 2 (01:04:01):

And so if you think of it as like a physical space and even the way I work in my program, like you, I think of it as a physical space because you think about this and this, and if you don’t get caught up in the numbers and the, in the weirdness of it, it all translates to something like when it comes to design, when it, it design is physical, it can’t can be flat. It can be 2d, but the 2d is representing something that’s 3d. So if you can think about it in both ways, I don’t know. It’s, it’s a, it’s a beautiful thing. And that’s one of the great things that I learned from architecture school is like, it taught me how to think in different ways and in different capacities, whether you want it to be actual architecture role, dealing with codes, dealing with, you know, permitting and that type of thing. 

Speaker 2 (01:04:45):

Or if you wanna think outside the box and, you know, do something that could never happen, you know, in this world with gravity and so forth, but you wanna pretend there’s no zero gravity, you know, it, it that’s one of the valuable things. I would definitely say architecture degree was one of my best assets, even in the film industry. Like it, it kind of gives you an upper hand if you will. Um, just cuz you think about things practically, but then it, it can also hinder you. But when it comes to design and art, there is no, there’s no box. It’s all about what you wanna do. And so if you wanna think about it with gravity or without gravity, you can think about it however you want. And that’s the beautiful thing about art. And I love that you’re doing art in the raw cuz it’s kind of like the essence of kind of what I’m saying is that it’s just, it’s raw. It’s whatever you wanna do. And if you can design one thing, you can design anything and just take it where you want to 

Speaker 1 (01:05:43):

Making the show throughout the past year has really kept me inspired, seems to be naturally building this little community. Um, thank you for being part of it. 

Speaker 2 (01:05:54):

Well thank you for having me. This has been such a joy. I, you I’ve I’ve I’ve been seeing your podcast and I always thought they were so interesting and I’m just glad to be part of it now. Or I don’t know if that’s what it’s called, not a podcast, but you know what I mean? <laugh> 

Speaker 1 (01:06:09):

I know what you mean. No, I, I was looking into that myself technically because it has a video element it’s technically yeah. What would it be? But I don’t know, like we said, we’re kind of blowing up the box. So like why, why does video make it not, I don’t even know what to call it. Who 

Speaker 2 (01:06:25):

Needs to label it? This is, this has been a great experience. Thank you so much for having me. 

Speaker 1 (01:06:30):

You’re welcome. Thanks for joining. And um, yeah, it’s art in the raw we’re we’re blowing up the box and a we’re gonna keep doing this and, and we’re gonna have some parties too. Sounds great. Well, thank you so much. Great chatting and um, and have a good night. 

Speaker 2 (01:06:47):

Thank you. We’ll see you soon. Yeah. 

Speaker 1 (01:06:51):

Thank you for watching art in the raw. I hope you enjoyed the episode. If so, please like comment and keep the inspiration and the conversation going. Have a good night.