How Production Designers Reuse Material to Make Whole New Worlds on TV

Production designers and art teams go to incredible lengths to make the impossible look real, the past look present, and the contemporary seem sharper. But what happens to sets once a production is finished with them? 

The IndieWire Craft team recently reached out to Emmy-nominated production designers and took the opportunity to ask them about sustainability practices on set. Are productions able to recycle or repurpose what they buy and build? Where is there work still to be done on making sure that series have as green a footprint as possible? The answers to these questions, as so many inevitably do, hinge on time and money. 

“Budgets are always tight, and time is a huge pressure,” Martyn John, production designer of “The Gentlemen,” said. “Sustainability is not always possible as productions never want to allow a budget for such areas; there should be a budget for sustainability. This in my opinion is where things need to change.” 

John was able to inflect a little change of his own by utilizing some sets another series built that were going to be skipped over and said that it gave the stylized, posh Netflix comedy an element of surprise that wouldn’t have existed without them. And getting very creative about recycling seems to be the strategy for what production designers can do on their own, even without sustainability built into the budget. 

“We re-used all manner of building materials and paint supplies left in the studio from other productions. Most of our decorative fusuma panels were painted and printed on remnant textured wallpapers that had been discarded. Our artificial roof thatching has been carefully taken apart row by row and will be used on future projects,” Helen Jarvin, the production designer of “Shogun,” said. “Yes, sustainability is very much a potential, and with careful management can really stretch your budget.” 

‘Shogun‘ Courtesy of Katie Yu / FX

Stretching the budget can also, frankly, come down to hoarding as much as possible. Shayne Fox said that the “What We Do in the Shadows” art team recycles as much as they can not by sifting through debris and discarded material but by adapting existing sets, repainting and repurposing, and changing out walls just so. 

“It really is schedule-dependent, but we are always trying to be mindful about the simplest way to pull something off that has the biggest and most creative impact while also being the most cost-effective and reusing as much as we can,” Fox said. “Over the six seasons of ‘What We Do in the Shadows,’ we have recycled a heap of furniture and sets as well as lights and decorative items.” 

Jon Carlos, who designed the heightened high-society world of “Palm Royale,” said that planning for that wholesale set repurposing is something that sustainability-conscious production designers do from the start. “Oftentimes, we design sets in a way that we know can be repurposed and re-birthed into variations. We work hand in hand with our construction coordinator to recycle lumber and materials from one set to the next, and at the conclusion of a show, we research where we can donate portions of the set that are no longer required, be it donating to local schools, scene shops, or centers such as Habitat for Humanity,” Carlos said. 

Laura Dern and Ricky Martin Lucas in ‘Palm Royale’Courtesy of Erica Parise / Apple TV+

This is a welcome change from how things used to be. David Gropman, who designed the lush world of Netflix’s “Ripley,” remembers seeing countless theater and film sets thrown into dumpsters upon completion. “Thankfully those days are gone,” Gropman said. “I’m a big fan of location work for the real authenticity it brings to the story. Location work also means less scenery to discard. On ‘Ripley’ our large studio sets sat on platforms assembled from rental metal trusses and legs. All the rest was sold or reused whenever possible.” 

Even within location work, finding objects that are themselves reused or can subsequently be donated to decorate sets goes a long way, according to “Fargo” production designer Trevor Smith. It’s not just good sustainability practice, either. “I prefer objects and scenery with history. It adds an invisible layer of truth to a film,” Smith said. “One piece of tired old material can elevate the whole set and lend an authenticity to a freshly built baseline. It’s difficult to find time to recycle, with our breakneck schedules, but even on ‘Fargo’ Season 5 I was able to use abandoned buildings and scraps of ranch life to build the Tillman Ranch, and give it a believable thickness in texture, and worn quality.” 

Patrick Howe, who has to inject a lot of fun and very particular New York character into the apartments of “Only Murders in the Building,” told IndieWire that demanding the repurposing of scenery and furniture is a production’s best defense against unnecessary waste. But it requires planning and isn’t necessarily straightforward to do. 

‘Only Murders in the Building’HULU

“Many departments do their best to plan for sustainability when it comes to recyclable materials, reducing the amount of printed scripts and schedules, or how water is delivered to crew and talent,” Howe said. “The biggest challenges are getting the scenery reused, repurposed. This even includes giving/donating scenery to educational institutions or other not-for-profit arts outlets. What would make this process easier is if at the corporate level the liability could be lessened (removed really) from shows making donations to charities and schools.” 

The extra time it takes is another incentive for Howe and other production designers to hold onto as much scenery as possible for as long as possible. The longer it’s around, the easier it is to eventually reuse or find a new home for it. 

Increasingly, that new home can be with fans, too. “The Crown” production designer Martin Childs was responsible for more than a thousand sets over the course of all six seasons of the Netflix series and told IndieWire that their art team combated that potential for waste by partnering with Bonhams to auction key props, with the funds going to The National Film School Fellowship. 

Not every TV series can do that, but they can all be smart about holding onto material and repurposing it as new needs arise — and they can make that instinct to reuse part of the culture of the series, too. “The production’s efforts to educate every crew member in sustainable production practices was such that sustainability became instinctive,” Childs said.