Production Design

Hi there!

My name’s Nicola Galvin and my job was heading up the Production Design team.

For those of you unfamiliar with what production design is, it’s the aspects of a production that relate to visual appearance; specifically, locations and set, costume and makeup, and props. For my job, I was responsible for overseeing all these aspects…

for four different drama episodes!

The first thing I did was read the scripts, making detailed lists of all the necessary locations and sets, costumes and makeup, and props. I ended up reading each script three times, to ensure I had all the details, but also to familiarize myself with the projects well enough that I would be able to bring appropriate and creative ideas to them when needed.

After making my lists, I began talking with the writers and creative teams responsible for each project, as I wanted to get everything organized as swiftly and efficiently as possible. Production design primarily takes place during the pre-production stages of a project, so it was important that we got started right away.

The lists of props and costume that needed sourcing were long and time was short.

For one person, it would have been too much to achieve in just 4 weeks! So, I’m incredibly grateful to the wonderful team of people who I got to work with in the Production Design team.

The most efficient way to deal with the workload was to assign each person a specific part of the production design for a specific drama; this way, I could ensure that all the projects were being thoroughly prepared for.

To give a general overview, the process of production design begins with research (such as what we need, where to source it, etc.), and then after research comes acquisition. The last stage is supervision – members of the production design team needed to be on set to ensure that everything was in place for when it was needed.

Of course, communication and organization must be constant throughout the process, as it’s very easy to lose track of who’s doing what.

I would say that my least favourite aspect of the job was the budgeting; trying to source costume and props on a student budget in a limited time-frame proved challenging.

But that said, I did enjoy this job – I got to work with a great group of people; I got to make a tangible contribution to each drama episode; and I got to be creative!

It’s a big job, but for anyone who likes organization and creativity, I would highly recommend it!