Go behind the scenes to learn from Sundance Advisors in our new Conversations from the Labs series. This collection of videos will deepen your understanding of all the creative disciplines that are supported through our Labs including Feature Film Directing and Writing, TV Writing, Emerging Media, Documentary, Producing, Film Music, and Theatre with many of our Lab advisors.

Production Designers are tasked with the huge responsibility of building the visual world of a film, from the largest decisions on set design and location to the intimate details of every prop in a character’s home. In this conversation from the 2020 Director’s Lab, Inbal Weinberg (Suspiria, I Know This Much Is True) leads a conversation with fellow Production Designers Akin McKenzie (Weiner Dog, When They See Us) and Beth Mickle (Half Nelson, Drive) on their roles and individual working styles, their collaboration with directors and cinematographers, managing stress during production, and working with both cast and crew to achieve a successful design on a movie.

More conversations in this series include actor/director Ed Harris, writer/director Karyn Kusama, writer/director Rick Famuyiwa, editor Dylan Tichenor, and others.

Panelist
Beth Mickle began her production design career with independent films such as Half Nelson and Cold Souls. She has gone on to work with visionary directors such as Nicolas Winding Refn on Only God Forgives and Drive, for which she received an Art Directors Guild nomination. Last year she collaborated with Edward Norton on his film Motherless Brooklyn, receiving a Golden Satellite Award for her work in the period drama. Most recently she has partnered with director James Gunn on the upcoming films The Suicide Squad and Guardians of the Galaxy3. She lives in Hudson, New York with her husband, production designer and fellow PDC member Russell Barnes. more...
Panelist
Israeli-born, New York-based production designer Inbal Weinberg received her BFA in Film from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts in 2003. Her career includes collaborations with directors Dee Rees (Pariah, The Last Thing He Wanted), Cary Fukunaga (Beast sof No Nation), James Schamus (Indignation), Martin McDonagh (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), Luca Guadagnino (Suspiria) and Derek Cianfrance (Blue Valentine, The Place Beyond The Pines, and I Know This Much Is True). Weinberg is also the co-founder of the Production Designers Collective, a global community of production designers interested in sharing knowledge and promoting the craft of production design. more...
Panelist
Production Designer Akin McKenzie has been steeped in the streets of New York since the winter of 2003, having traveled from Los Angeles where he received a B.A. at UCLA's School of Film and Television. He has had several films at Sundance including Todd Solondz's Wiener Dog and Paul Dano's directorial debut, Wildlife, which is now a part of the Criterion Collection. Other recent works include Terence Nance's Peabody winning HBO series Random Acts of Flyness described as "breaking the mold of what we think television can be, especially televisual blackness," and Ava DuVernay's Peabody nominated Netflix miniseries When They See Us. His latest work includes Space Jam: A New Legacy and cinematographer Rachel Morrison's feature film debut Flint Strong. more...

Join the Discussion