Last week I worked alongside Jonathan Paul Green (Production Designer) and Louisa Morris (Art Director) and art team, for Episodes series 2, staring Matt LeBlanc and Steven Mangan.
Hat Trick were the production team behind the series, and they were a great production team to work with.
The first day on set was at Balham. Matt LeBlanc walks in the set with a golden globe award for the series and well deserved I say! An ordinary english restaurant was converted into a LA style deli. I helped dress the set with food props and making small props. Then watched the scene in action with Matt and Steven. Take after take, the mayonnaise dip had to be carefully filled up every 2 minutes after Matt diped it in his bread each time. Some great looking sandwiches were made for the scenes but decided I don't want to be a master art - sandwich maker for production.
Second location was set at Bracknal ice rink. There wasn't much going on in the town of Bracknal apart from the ice rink. I got to the location pretty early and got to catch Matt practising his ice hockey moves, and a professional he was!
The last location was set at a house in Twickenham. Grand Piano, open planed house. The set was made to be a LA million dollar house. The car on set was originally red, it had to get coated white to match the car that was shot in LA. Stephen Mangan and his facial expressions on a certain scene were hilarious!
I learnt a lot from working alongside Jonathan. He started out graduating at St Martins in sculpture design and started work making puppets for 'Spitting Image'. His worked on sets for TopGear to Kelloggs Crunchy Nut Campaign with Bruce Bowls. For anyone trying to get into set design he has a truly inspirational write up on how to get started in a production Art Dept Art Dept write up.
It was a great privilege to have met and worked alongside of the director Jim Field Smith, the writers David Crane & Jeffrey Klarik, and Exec Producer Jimmy Mulville. Not forgetting the fabulous actors Stephen Mangan & Tamsin Greig, Matt LeBlanc and Mircea Monroe.
Great insight to the world of TV production!
