Art Department Head
Fool God yourself (2025) Directed by Chloë Nguyen-Drury, is a short film that takes place in a Cult Victims Investigation Unit Interrogation room. This was our first film we did in our time in Screen Arts. I was very excited to do art department for the first time and Chloë is such an amazing director to work with and I look forward to working together again in the future. I found a reference image of an interrogation room set and because the room would be so minimalistic we decided to paint the top and bottom of the walls different colours for some contrast. We built the set and got to painting. The door we had was a glass door that was see through. We made some panels from foam core and put them over the glass and left a window. We then cut some chicken wire and put it infront of the window with something like a diffusion sheet in-front of it so when the light shines through you see the shadow of the wire. We also wanted a one way mirror and so we sourced a mirror and put a border around it to make it look like it was an interrogation room mirror. We had the issue of a huge window next to the door because all three productions were using the same set and we did not want to see the window. We used sound panels to cover the window and put them all around the room, it fit in the sets world and grounded it in reality in my opinion. We painted the floor to look like cement and the finishing touches were the set dec that was very minimal and filling the file with photos and papers. I am grateful for my amazing crew and to those who helped with making the items such as the coat with the department on it for the agent, and the agents badge. I am happy with how the set turned out for a first time doing art department and for one of our first films.
Another thing I found my love for through this production was aging, especially costume aging. Me and the director aged the cult victims dress and it was one of the highlights of the entire program. Making different mixtures that felt like potions and running around distressing it and using a bunch of tools as well as being introduced to schmere for the first time was such a fun time that I hold close to my heart. I have enjoyed aging things for productions and have improved my techniques and methods since then.