Epic sandworm rides across the desert of Arrakis, a thrilling gladiator battle involving a rhino and a display of the unmitigated feeling of pure Anxiety —those are just a few scenes and characters that have entertained audiences this past year, none of which would be possible without the artisans who make the magic happen behind the scenes.
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00:00Thank you. Thank you to Jocelyn Barnes and director Rommel Ross.
00:04Thanks to Plan B and Orion and MGM.
00:07Especially to Rommel Ross who didn't know what a production designer did,
00:13which was fun, and making it a collaboration in a conceptual way.
00:19Designing Nickel Boys in a lot of ways was conceptual
00:23because working with a director who is a visual artist,
00:27a photographer, an academic,
00:29means that we were pulling references from all over,
00:32not just our historical references.
00:34Of course, we dug into the historical references of the 60s,
00:37the Jim Crow South, the textures, the patterns,
00:41but we're pulling from everywhere.
00:43And that is part of being behind the camera and creating a world
00:48and every bit of your crew being part of creating that world.
00:54From the wallpaper in Hattie's dining room that was from the 1930s
00:58to the timelessness of Nickel Academy,
01:00the tiled walls, the linoleum floors,
01:04a reminder that Dozier, the basis of Colson Whitehead's book,
01:09didn't close until 2011.
01:12So the question is,
01:14we need to imagine that those walls and those floors
01:18are witnessing another 50 years of that history
01:22and that it is actually not history, it's now.
01:27As a black designer of a film shot entirely from the POV
01:31of being inside of a black body,
01:34designing this film is a reminder
01:36that there is a continuity to our lives
01:38and the spaces that we inhabit
01:41and the spaces that we create and that we're looking at.
01:47Thanks to my partner, Sam,
01:49and our four-year-old
01:51who loved the weekly second lines in New Orleans so much
01:55that she dressed up as a tuba for Halloween while we were there.
02:00And thank you to my incredible New Orleans crew
02:03because they were all amazing.
02:04My art director, my dressers, my construction crew
02:08and my incredible scenic crew
02:11and the one and only Monique Champagne, my set decorator.
02:14She's amazing.
02:16So thank you to everybody behind the scenes who made this movie.