After initially beginning out as movement designer in promoting, I got here to AFTRS two years in the past to check manufacturing design.
My former business was fast-paced and creatively demanding, however over time I discovered myself drawn to storytelling that was extra intentional, layered, and collaborative. Manufacturing design offered that shift—permitting me to suppose extra critically about how visible particulars form narrative, construct immersive worlds, and replicate broader social realities.
AFTRS lecturer and manufacturing designer Virginia Mesiti emphasises that always probably the most profitable movie design is invisible, as we talk about how the business has modified in her two-decade lengthy profession.
Why did you resolve to check at AFTRS?
I studied at AFTRS within the early 2000s and was drawn to the hands-on method and business connection. I discovered the movie world alluring, fascinated by how designed environments might form storytelling, and I wished to learn to create worlds that would evoke emotional responses from audiences.
What appealed to me most was the intersection of artwork, structure, and narrative. Manufacturing design felt like the right marriage of my inventive pursuits with tangible craft abilities.
What are a few of the most vital classes you gained out of your first jobs within the business?
Working with restricted sources taught me invaluable classes about inventive problem-solving and the significance of clear communication. Whenever you’re in distant places and one thing goes mistaken, you may’t simply come out to a prop home. Among the most rewarding — albeit hectic — experiences concerned improvising set dressings from pure supplies discovered on location, which enhanced the venture’s genuine really feel. I learnt that limitations usually develop into your best inventive benefits.
How has the manufacturing design self-discipline developed with quickly altering visualisation applied sciences?
After I began within the business it was widespread apply to make use of analogue methods; bodily fashions and lead pencil drawings on hint paper had been customary apply. I keep in mind the primary unbiased function movie I labored on, the placement photographs had been nonetheless taken on 35mm movie cameras, and the runner must get them developed earlier than anybody might see them.
Right this moment’s manufacturing designers want fluency in modelling software program, VR previsualisation and might use photogrammetry to 3D print prototypes. These instruments permit us to plan areas extra precisely earlier than development.
Nonetheless, whereas the instruments have modified, the muse abilities stay fixed. I’ve discovered {that a} hybrid method works greatest – beginning with hand sketches to seize the emotional essence earlier than transferring to digital instruments for precision and communication.
What’s been a profession spotlight for you?
Engaged on George Miller’s Three Thousand Years of Longing with Roger Ford and Lisa Thompson was really a dream job for me. The venture offered extraordinary inventive challenges, requiring the artwork division to create completely different time durations and fantastical realms. What made it important was how design parts turned energetic storytelling instruments slightly than simply backdrops. Seeing Tilda Swinton reply to environments I helped create was extremely rewarding, and jogged my memory why I selected this path.
Past particular productions, there’s fulfilment in my twin function as each a working manufacturing designer and educator at AFTRS. Educating has made me a greater designer, by forcing me to articulate processes that had develop into intuitive.
Good design usually feels invisible — it seamlessly serves the fictional world whereas resonating with the viewers in a approach that feels pure. How do you obtain that stability?
Sure, that’s the humorous paradox — if our job is finished properly, no person notices it! I’m all the time acutely aware that viewers needs to be targeted on the story, not considering ‘oh, what a ravishing set.’ After I’m designing, I begin with the emotional core of the story and the characters’ experiences, then construct outward with particulars that really feel genuine.
I really like fascinated about the lived historical past of areas. What would truly accumulate on this character’s residence? What would present put on and tear? These small touches may by no means get a close-up, however they create a sense of reality that helps the performances.
What excites you probably the most in regards to the work you do?
What continues to excite me after twenty years within the business is the alchemy that occurs when all parts come collectively — whenever you see actors inhabit an area you’ve designed, and it genuinely impacts their efficiency. That second when a set involves life below lighting for the primary time nonetheless appears like magic.
Educating has added one other dimension of pleasure. That second when a scholar finds their distinctive design voice is as energising as seeing considered one of my very own designs come to life.
What’s the very best piece {of professional} recommendation you’ve ever been given?
One thing that stayed with me early on was to ‘gather experiences, not simply references’ — which means that my greatest design concepts ought to come from lived experiences and observations, slightly than merely scrolling via on-line picture searches. That is one thing I’ve discovered invaluable all through my profession.
In our digital age, there’s a temptation to design from references slightly than from understanding. Essentially the most compelling manufacturing design emerges from emotional and mental engagement with the story slightly than visible sampling.
What recommendation do you may have for these of us moving into the business now?
Develop your observational abilities, domesticate a design course of that balances instinct with mental rigour, and develop into a beneficiant collaborator — perceive that the very best concepts can come from wherever and that your function is to boost the general storytelling, not simply your division.
Lastly, preserve curiosity all through your profession – the designers who thrive are those that proceed studying, adapting, and discovering contemporary inspiration. This business evolves always, however the elementary means to create significant visible narratives stays at its coronary heart.
Oh, and doc every part! Your course of work is commonly extra precious than the ultimate product with regards to growing your craft.
Study extra about learning Manufacturing Design at AFTRS and its instructional programs right here.
