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This week on Below The Line, R29 movie critic Anne Cohen talks to production designers Erin Magill and Katie Byron about what Hollywood will look like post-pandemic, and how to design a space that tells women's stories. Watch this video to hear what they have to say.

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Transcript
00:09Music
07:34Hi.
09:34Yeah.
12:08Yeah.
13:16Yeah.
14:27Yeah.
14:35Yeah.
15:03Yeah.
15:33Yeah.
17:44Yeah.
17:55Yeah.
19:35Yeah.
30:19You worked as an art department production assistant on Mad Men.
30:26um what was that like tell me that had like the most production design of all time tell me about
30:32it i i will say it was actually i thought about it recently this one of the uh this woman
30:38that
30:39i worked with for a few years at pixar reminded me when i came back years later to visit that
30:43she's like remember when you left because like when you gave you were telling me like wouldn't
30:47it be amazing to like get to work on something like mad men and then i was like i said
30:52that
30:52i didn't remember that i said and yeah so i was incredibly lucky that um one of my faculty at
30:59in grad school had worked with the designer dan bishop before and dan um really looked at um
31:07his role as the designer and the art department assistant as really as a mentorship and so every
31:12season he would uh bring on a new uh a new assistant ideally someone that definitely was looking to get
31:18into design and had an mfa some somehow relatable um yeah so it was it was obviously it was it
31:26was
31:26a dream it was incredible um in terms of i'd say again something right away it felt like pixar to
31:34me
31:35it's another very different obviously but in the sense that you know i could there was a palpable energy
31:42of these people are really good at what they do and they really care about what they do and there's
31:48just like the bar keeps is up way up here in terms of like um you know attention to detail
31:55and excellence
31:56and but all again similar rooted in really great you know a really great script and really good
32:02storytelling and you know i think even though they were all incredibly um talented and good what they do i
32:10think the other thing it was a wonderful experience in terms of the art department there um they're
32:16you know incredibly also well while they're very talented you know they're incredibly humble people
32:22and you know just it was a invaluable lesson in really realizing yeah you if you're gonna spend a
32:29lot of time you want to spend a lot of time with people you enjoy the company of and you
32:33know a lot of
32:34those people that was 2013 seven eight years ago you know um i've i've worked for many of them since
32:42or
32:42you know people that we've met through there you know i've i've hired or they've hired me and it's just
32:47it was really great people yeah and i learned a lot from dan bishop uh on design for sure katie
32:57i'm curious
32:58because you you worked on book smart and zola which you both have women directors and are both about women
33:03how does that how does that affect you know how does that relationship affect your ability to tell
33:08women stories um you know it's funny i feel like i get asked this question quite regularly because i
33:15i work predominantly with females on an accident um the past couple years it's just been like you know
33:23female dps 80s producers directors and so it's like it's very interesting because i i um
33:32there was a point in my career where i wanted to work with more women and more people of color
33:37more
33:37like you know sort of you know open up my my perspective and in in storytelling and i um
33:46um i remember it was you know before the me too movement and it was really frustrating because it
33:51was uh it was it was rare to get um to get a project that you know that fit that
33:57criteria and
33:59then when the me too movement happened all of a sudden it was like this rush of um of you
34:04know letting
34:04women um take the lead and create the stories and um and i think you know like there was just
34:11that so
34:12so with with female directors it's like um it's almost just become like normal now and i know that
34:20it took so much work to get here so i'm deeply like grateful for all of the work that that
34:25went to
34:26like to make this normal um but yeah and and you know i i tend to like i feel like
34:32even mike mills has
34:34like a feminine you know nature to him and um you know like i one of the things that i'm
34:39just really
34:39excited about is when we start when when we are um i guess more gender fluid in general you know
34:46with
34:46the film film industry and that like you know men can act like women women can act like men we
34:52can all
34:52dissolve into like you know this genderless utopia um but i think that yeah it's it's it's i i feel
35:01like uh
35:01in answer to question yeah just it's i never even think about it and um and i feel really grateful
35:07that i that i don't have to anymore because there was a time that i did yeah i think that's
35:13the goal
35:13i mean if we can get there um we have to start wrapping up but i'm going to leave you
35:18with one
35:18question what's your like ideal end-all be-all in production design if you think of one movie like
35:24what's your like gold standard like a movie that exists or just like the the criteria for the best movie
35:32oh a movie that exists that you're like oh this is like this is the best production design i've ever
35:36seen
35:46but like i would love a crack at indiana jones like i want you know like i want like i
35:52want to work on like a really
35:53complex adventure fantasy film i think that would be um be the the the goal that'd be a really fun
36:01time
36:04yeah i think it's it's hard i mean the same way you know it's like the oscars when you have
36:09to they
36:09give you know it's a period film versus marvel but you know it's hard it's hard to compare to compare
36:15them so i think but for for me i've always felt like and i still always go back to it
36:22um and it's the
36:25is children of men a movie that i just absolutely love and um i think that that same that idea
36:33of
36:33just kind of the world building but world building in this way that's really kind you know subtle and
36:39believable and like something like that is really interesting to me and i've um i love that film and
36:45i'd love to do something in in that idea that way awesome well thank you so much for joining me
36:52this
36:52was amazing um and yeah um watch us next time thanks so much for watching um i hope you guys
36:59enjoyed
36:59the conversation thank you for letting us have a voice in all this it's really it's really special yes
37:07thank you thank you thank you
37:10you
37:40so
37:49so
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