Director: Serge Rashidi-Zakuani

Producer: Silvano Griffith-Francis

DoP: Tom Cressey
Production company: SVG production
Role covered: Production Designer

In this drama film I designed the locations to reflect the characters and their emotions. The atmosphere had to be dark and sad, to match the main characters who were keeping secrets from the other family members. I needed to know their backgrounds and asked many questions such as their social levels, what their jobs were, how they met, what they liked to do and what they did each day.
To design for it, I analysed the script, figuring out the characters, the locations and the movements they had to make inside each room. After my script breakdown I had an initial idea of what I needed in terms of props and dressing. I was ready to meet the Producer, Director and DOP and do the location scouting. We chose furnished houses and my job was to change them as much as required within the budget we had to build the characters’ backgrounds.
After several meetings I worked out how to modify the locations, which items to put inside them and the kind of props I had to find.
Every day was a challenge. Because of the budget I had to be very creative - more than usual.
In a low budget project, creativity and problem-solving are the keys to success.