I'm sitting on the bridge of one of the Beltre ships from the expanse universe and as you can
see it tells the story of the belters it votes their entire philosophy and exactly how all the
things in the military universe actually look a set like this is the end result of hundreds
of painstaking hours of welders and carpenters rigors set dressers art directors but it all
begins in the pen and the mind of the production designer Tony I Annie and I'm just about to talk
to Tony but we're gonna start outside this set because I want you to see just how plain it looks
on the outside before we come back in and talk about how it gets done so Tony yes I I'm assuming
that a production designers job is different before production starts as opposed to when
production starts so walk me through what your days are like right now right now our days are
about reading the script planning for each of the sets that we need right consulting with with our
show runners and producers yeah and especially with the director today for example we we were
out on a location skate yeah in the woods looking for something for the next block okay and now I'm
back in the office and have to think about our next set how much do you have to show up on set
to put out fires or design new ideas or they never have you have a large team that works underneath
you that dressers art directors how big is that team currently construction have about 150 people
yeah I mean maybe 75 in the setback Department Wow there are 30 people in the art department long so
it's a good team it's a lot of stuff possibly over the years I mean I'm I was here two years
ago there's a lot more sense now than there used to be yeah last year this studio was entirely the
Ross amante right here about 25% Rossi and the rest of the Moreau brand-new this is crazy um
what is this ship we're about to walk inside this is this is currently the DeWalt which is drummer
ship okay man this has been in multiple seasons started in season two and it was a different
ship Ness then it was then it was the excuse me the time L&R okay and then it was repurposed in
season 4 season 3 season 3 so on three and three give me weeping some nebulous okay season four
was the DeWalt okay now before we go and I have one more question which is this bracing here is
this for like a fight scene together if someone gets thrown against the wall and it shouldn't
move no these are called pump jacks okay you're used to wild oh this wall which is particularly
heavy oh this is just a fly this wall away CDs I'm filming here we pump up the jacks lifts up
the wall two inches and we pull it up fantastic I of course you have to design that into every
set don't you if think about it it is where the cameras go all right there you go in absolutely
all right there we go oh I just I never I never get tired of there like looking at the wood on the
outside and walking in and I've been a completely immersive I'm gonna take advantage of a lot of
different materials right from Season one that we started using real metal in the past a lot
of people will use pipe like plastic pipes and try to paint it but it's a lot easier to use a
real mattock if the final finish it's not painted it's you know it rusts yeah and especially for a
belter ship it's nice to see that of extra layer of patina it also must be great for the stunts
and that it doesn't move yeah I mean the stunting is is is really important to us you know when we
design a stunt we have to reinforce walls or add padding or do stuff like that a lot of times we
we take padding my painted to look like metal or some other material right but it's actually just
a foam so a ship like this how does this get started on your drawing board you're the one
that starts the genesis of this where does it begin that's a really good question you know in
concept we talked with with the producers and the directors we start figuring out a certain
shot patterns and what we want to do with the ship what the ship is supposed to do all of our ships
are vertical we have to decide you know where did they enter what are they coming up what is
the what is the purpose of the ship where is it going there's a lot of there's a lot of detail
so it's all narrative is the first discovery we're really lucky we're working with a series
of books six right now we're on book five right but this this series of best-selling books and
the authors are with us right so I mean there are wealth of knowledge I have book five in my office
and it's just full of post-it notes this is this listen and when somebody starts to something said
I basically hand them the book and say read that chapter yeah and that's how it starts when you're
when you're looking at the eventual dressing of walls like this how granular is your attention
on the details do you give broad strokes like I'm given board and then let your team absolutely I
have a great set that team I mean I also have great construction and paint but my set thick
team is wonderful his name is Justin Craig yeah huge who's Seyfarth in loves the business and is
just he just tastes the next layer there he just puts the he puts the final touches on after after
like spending so many years you've been on this since season one that was your director this is
work so after so many years on this do you watch other science fiction movie sometimes I think
ah maybe but I try not to use it so what kind of inspiration would you give your team about
like what this would look like what the walls in this strip should look like how dense it should
feel that's a general that's a general you know brushstroke for me says you know this belt or this
ship up unless that's what really happy with it and so that means Pacific aesthetic choice for us
it does I mean to the point where the the scenic Department and I have worked out a scale Wow yeah
the Tainan which is placed in place Ashford ship we call that a hundred whereas the UN that was a
zero or one okay but we always try to put a little bit of Aging we can't have just plain flat walls
it just it doesn't it doesn't work that right and also monochromatic yeah so if I said no idea
they know what it means then right you know so this is about a ninety and then obviously as the
art department goes you come in occasionally to kind of give guidance and openness that whenever
there's a new set once the once we've established that I don't I don't have to go back but I do yeah
but if it's a new set I'm there in the morning are there times that you roll up your sleeves and
get dirty on the side of too yeah I'm not really allowed to yeah I'm curious when you were a kid
you probably had an artistic bent did you did you ever how did you get started drawing and did you
ever imagine to be doing this I never thought in the world that I would I would be able to
do this I went to school and in our high schools very good our program three three classes a day
three hours a day then I went to a great college Ontario College of Art you know I studied graphics
primarily when I left school the graphics business kind of crashed a bit so computers uh I went to
work in a retail store and one of my buddies at the store his wife was a film coordinator she kept
trying to get him into the film business doing craft service okay and I said well do that and
so I started on a craft truck I have did that for two years and funny god symphonia someone
asked me into the art department obviously after these many years you guys are like we talked about
this ship has been repurposed three times how much of is that that must be a whole extra bit
of aesthetic challenge that you can't really train for taking this cutting it up and making it a new
set um yeah I don't think there's a new specific training for that there's a lot of people that
you know weigh in on that as well you know even even in my art department they'll say well we had
the ship would come use that and it's like yeah so it's always a team there's a great team I've said
everything this right from the start Robert my construction coordinator and Brian are Keith paint
or head painter they're just wonderful that you know let's cut until we do that's use that yeah
guess the feeling I'm getting on the set as I walk around and interview people is that despite the
fact that there are so many thousands of square feet of sets in all these different environments
belter earth or Mars there's still not enough room you guys still have to tile puzzle even
most amazes me strike to set to build another set right now we're standing in the dwell by
episode 5 6 or 7 I've deterred Dan put a cast of Brasi ship or the machine shop from the Rossi and
we're not gonna use it as the machine shop we're gonna use it as as another strip because that was
original Rocco from season 2 so it's just this constant you know shuffling the cards and then
those pieces have to go into storage sometimes and then you've got to be able to put the whole
thing back together absolutely so your continuity photos absolutely well it's it's it's an ongoing
process for us it makes me tired just think it's a lot of fun I think it is thank you so much
show me around basis or amazing environments just pleasure created and it's just a life impossible