TOTOM BLOG
Inside The Art Department
The People Who Shape the StoryMost people have never heard of a Production Designer. But they have seen their work. Every room, street, hospital ward, period interior or alien landscape you see on screen, whether in a film, TV drama or commercial, was designed, built, dressed and finished by a...
Belle Mundi, Set Decorator
Big Boys. Am I Being Unreasonable? The spaces in those shows feel so lived-in you forget they were built. Belle Mundi is the Set Decorator behind them. Belle Mundi is a Set Decorator with a background in fine art, theatre design, opera and film. Her route into the art department has taken her...
Oskar De Rozario, Art Director
You may have watched Argylle, Cleaner or The Hitman's Bodyguard without giving a thought to how those sets came together. Oskar De Rozario is one of the people who made sure you didn't have to. Oskar De Rozario is an Art Director and Graphic Designer with a background in fine art, drawing and...
AI in the Art Department
What’s Changing, What Still Matters, and Where Human Judgement FitsThere's a question sitting underneath most conversations about AI at the moment in every workplace, even when nobody asks it outright: will this take my job?"You're not going to lose your job to an AI, but you're going to lose your...
At Scale
What Changes When a Build Is This Big?Large-Scale Exterior Set Construction: Three Builds, Three Challenges.Most film and television sets are built to be seen, not to survive. They're designed for the camera, dressed for the lighting, and taken down when filming wraps. The conditions they face are...
Production Designer – Brian Sykes
Finding Inspiration Through Story, Atmosphere and SketchingWhen Production Designer Brian Sykes begins a project, his first question is not what the set should look like. It is, “What story am I telling?” From there, he develops storyboards and drawings that begin to shape not just the scenery,...
Before the Build – Research
How Research Shapes Set ConstructionWe tend to notice the finished set, not the work that made it possible When a set is doing its job properly, you are not meant to stop and admire how much planning sits behind it. You are meant to believe in the world in front of you. You are not supposed to be...
Where Comedy Happens
The spaces that shape comedic storytellingSome of the funniest moments in television happen in places that feel completely ordinary. A living room sofa. A kitchen table. A bar where characters gather at the end of the day. These environments have long been the backdrop for some of television’s...
Beyond the Studio
Set Construction in Real-World EnvironmentsMuch of our work in film and television set construction is built for camera. It is framed, lit and edited before an audience ever sees it. Not every environment works that way. Alongside studio builds and location work, we are often asked to deliver...