Latest / The iDesign Lab Podcast / Michael Manasseri: Designing Reality for Film and TV
Transcript
- 0:00Voice Over: This is iDesign Lab, a podcast where creativity and curiosity meet style and design.
- 0:05Voice Over: Hosted by Tiffany Woolley, an interior designer and a style enthusiast, along with her serial entrepreneur husband Scott, idesign Lab is your ultimate design podcast where we explore the rich and vibrant world of design and its constant evolution in style and trends.
- 0:21Voice Over: Idesign Lab provides industry insight, discussing the latest trends, styles and everything in between to better help you style your life, through advice from trendsetters, designers, influencers, innovators, fabricators and manufacturers, as well as personal stories that inspire, motivate and excite.
- 0:40TIffany Woolley: Welcome to the iDesign Lab podcast.
- 0:43TIffany Woolley: My co-host today, my darling husband Scott Woolley, is going to introduce our special guest.
- 0:50Scott Woolley: Our special guest today isn't a designer or an interior designer, but many of our listeners have seen his work.
- 0:56Scott Woolley: His name is Michael Mandessari.
- 0:58Scott Woolley: Michael's an actor, a producer, a director.
- 1:01Scott Woolley: He began his acting career in community theater at the age of 10.
- 1:05Scott Woolley: Within a few years, michael made his Broadway debut in Oliver and later toured with the late Yul Brynner in the King and I.
- 1:12Scott Woolley: Michael made his first big screen appearance as Charles in A License to Drive, which starred Heather Graham, corey Feldman and Corey Hamm.
- 1:23Scott Woolley: After a number of sitcoms and guest appearances on shows such as the Wonder Years, charles in Charge, wings, quantum Leap and Eeyore, michael took on the role which he is best known for today, that of Wyatt Donnelly in the television series Weird Science.
- 1:41Scott Woolley: By 2005, michael had jumped from in front of the camera to behind the camera as a producer and a director.
- 1:48Scott Woolley: As a producer and a director, michael has been pumping out one or two documentary projects and films each year.
- 1:55Scott Woolley: Many of them have received greater critical acclaim at film festivals around the planet.
- 2:01Scott Woolley: Michael, as a producer, and especially as a director of a movie, is very involved in the overall design of the film, from the sets the film is shot on to how they are decorated, to how they will be lit, to the costumes that the actors will wear.
- 2:15Scott Woolley: All of which leads us to why Michael is sitting in our studio today.
- 2:19Scott Woolley: We wanted to spend some time exploring the design process that a film or television show goes through Really not that much different than what a homeowner goes through in designing and decorating a home.
- 2:32TIffany Woolley: The attachment, the curation.
- 2:35Michael Manasseri: Yes, that is all correct.
- 2:36Michael Manasseri: Wonderful introduction there, Scott.
- 2:37Michael Manasseri: Thank you very much.
- 2:38TIffany Woolley: I know, and then I want to go back to a question that we saved from before.
- 2:42TIffany Woolley: But I wanted to know has Michael done a podcast yet?
- 2:46Scott Woolley: I have done yes, I've done a couple of podcasts, yes, well he's probably done a few, because he just recently won the 2020 Independent Spirit Award for a film that's out there right now.
- 2:59Scott Woolley: I think Netflix has it and Amazon.
- 3:01Michael Manasseri: It's on iTunes and Amazon, but it came out theatrically last year.
- 3:04Michael Manasseri: It's called Give Me Liberty, yep, and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2019, and then we went to Cannes and then, fortunately, this year, we won it's called the John Cassavetes Award, which was the best feature film made for under $500,000.
- 3:19Scott Woolley: So director or producer?
- 3:20Michael Manasseri: on that Producer, I was one of the producers on that, yes, but back to what you were saying yes, absolutely, Producing, directing, it's all about.
- 3:30Michael Manasseri: It really is.
- 3:32Michael Manasseri: It's all about design.
- 3:33Michael Manasseri: It's the designing of what an audience is going to see and take in on the screen, and all of the elements, all of the questions.
- 3:41Michael Manasseri: They're really similar to what a designer would need to ask from a homeowner or a client.
- 3:48TIffany Woolley: So what part do you bring in?
- 3:51TIffany Woolley: Your set designer, like we would be brought in when a client decides what plot of land they're going to build, they've selected an architect, a builder.
- 4:00TIffany Woolley: Like that whole team comes together at the very beginning Wondering when does your set design, or is that part of?
- 4:08TIffany Woolley: I know when you read scripts they'll say oh, in a warm cozy by the fire.
- 4:13Michael Manasseri: I mean part of it is indicated in the script, usually in the scene directions or the action elements.
- 4:20Michael Manasseri: Yes, of course they talk about, they'll talk about the environment.
- 4:22Michael Manasseri: They won't talk too much about the environment there.
- 4:24Michael Manasseri: But then once you have a director on board and then you start in pre-production to bring your team together, one of the first people you will bring on is a production designer and that person is responsible for everything that you see on.
- 4:38Michael Manasseri: You know whether it's the walls or in the rooms or in everything in that scene, whether it's the walls or in the rooms or in everything in that scene, not the costumes, et cetera.
- 4:46Michael Manasseri: But it's a collaboration between director, producer, production designer and those key department heads who are going to start asking all of those questions.
- 4:55Scott Woolley: So it's similar to what an interior designer would be.
- 4:57Scott Woolley: When it comes to the set design, yeah, they're picking out.
- 5:05TIffany Woolley: Well, I feel like set design probably has so many different facets as well.
- 5:07TIffany Woolley: It's like a condo versus a townhouse versus a host, you know, a single family home when it's a movie design versus like a sitcom.
- 5:16TIffany Woolley: That's always been like something that's intrigued me in the background like a sitcom design I mean it's all going down.
- 5:24Michael Manasseri: I mean you could have a production designer for a sitcom and a production designer for a film.
- 5:27Michael Manasseri: I mean it's the same title and they'll have people under them, just like an interior designer will have people An assistant.
- 5:33Michael Manasseri: Yes, we'll have people under them dealing with set dressing, dealing with construction, dealing with all those different elements of putting something together.
- 5:40Michael Manasseri: The production designer, with the director, is calling all the major shots and, yes, dealing with the details as well, but they'll delegate certain things.
- 5:49TIffany Woolley: I mean, do they really get down to details as far as accessories or drapery colors, everything?
- 5:57Michael Manasseri: I mean, look, it depends on, for example, if you have a homeowner.
- 5:59Voice Over: Your budget, your budget.
- 6:01Michael Manasseri: It absolutely depends on your budget and it also depends on, you know, is your directing producing team fastidious?
- 6:09Michael Manasseri: Are they?
- 6:09Michael Manasseri: You know how detail-oriented are they?
- 6:11Michael Manasseri: There are some directors who just might be.
- 6:13Michael Manasseri: I just want to.
- 6:14Michael Manasseri: You know, we're here, the building's here, let's just shoot, let's go.
- 6:17Michael Manasseri: It is what it is.
- 6:18Michael Manasseri: You have people like that, but usually, Even at the smallest of budgets, you know if you care about the project, like a homeowner or someone will care about their house and what they're going to see every single day of their lives.
- 6:32Michael Manasseri: You know what is lying on top of the couch in this scene, what is on the table, what kind of silverware are they using?
- 6:53Michael Manasseri: Well, that silverware doesn't match the 80-year-old character that we're dealing with that.
- 6:57Michael Manasseri: Silverware will be something that a 20-year-old will get at Ikea.
- 6:59Michael Manasseri: We're not going to use that Right.
- 7:03Scott Woolley: Yeah, so there's a fair amount of research that's needed to be done.
- 7:06Scott Woolley: I was just going to ask too like do?
- 7:07TIffany Woolley: you have a.
- 7:08TIffany Woolley: Does this set designer?
- 7:10TIffany Woolley: Do they provide a presentation, a package to bring your plan?
- 7:15TIffany Woolley: Do you give them like a really good synopsis of?
- 7:18TIffany Woolley: You know I do mood images to try to you know get where the client's head's at.
- 7:23Scott Woolley: Well, it's very much like when Michael came into the facility here today, passed one of your tables where you're preparing for one of your clients and you've got everything laid out Right.
- 7:35Scott Woolley: It's very similar.
- 7:36Michael Manasseri: Yes, very much.
- 7:37Michael Manasseri: So.
- 7:37Michael Manasseri: It's like if you're going to sit there and you go, well, here are the seven materials I think are going to work out for the couch, or are going to work out for the curtains, and you're going to want to have this look and the room is going to.
- 7:48Michael Manasseri: You know, we want the trim on the windows to match what's going on in the walls.
- 7:49Michael Manasseri: All of that comes into play in a production designer.
- 7:52Michael Manasseri: It's a.
- 7:53Michael Manasseri: It's well, there's different phases of design, let's say, even for a movie, because in the beginning, your director, so I'm working on a film.
- 7:59Michael Manasseri: Right now we're going to be shooting in in spain, hopefully sometime in the next four or five months, depending on what's going on in the world.
- 8:05Michael Manasseri: When we're making this podcast, people can, you know, remember the pandemic of but those, so there's a co-directing team on this project and they're incredibly visual.
- 8:17Michael Manasseri: And so when you're putting together a project, in the beginning and Scott knows about this, but you also know about this in terms of your particular work you know you put together a lookbook and that lookbook is basically to say this is the mood of the film, this is what, and it's everything.
- 8:36Michael Manasseri: It's the vibe of the entire picture, it's the style we want to go for, and it also comes down to the lighting, to the styles, to the sets, to what we imagine.
- 8:47Michael Manasseri: And then so, from there, you know, from that, with this script that will also go to the production design team and that enables them to start now bringing their points of view, their talent, their experience to the table.
- 9:01Michael Manasseri: Because, as a good producer, a good director, you don't want to be the one who dictates everything.
- 9:06Michael Manasseri: You want to come with your ideas, but you want to hire people who also have great ideas.
- 9:09Michael Manasseri: Trust, yeah, trust the expert Exactly.
- 9:11Michael Manasseri: Because otherwise you're a control freak and nobody wants to work with you, and because if you can't, trust people Agreed, you know what I mean and you actually miss out.
- 9:19TIffany Woolley: I feel like on something.
- 9:20Michael Manasseri: It's one of the things that person a designer, set designer, interior designer trust them Because otherwise, you're missing out on what you brought them to the table for Right, you're hiring them because of their past work and their years of experience.
- 9:35Michael Manasseri: If I hire you, I want you to know a lot more than I know.
- 9:39Michael Manasseri: Right you know, and so it's the same way on a movie, if you're going to hire and hopefully you can look when you start out in movies or start out in TV let's say movies because TV is a different world in terms of money and budgets that are usually always there.
- 9:52Michael Manasseri: But for films or independent films, a lot of times, in the beginning especially, you do not have a lot of money.
- 9:57Michael Manasseri: You also may not be able to work with the most experienced people because you don't have a lot of money, and so that might be….
- 10:05TIffany Woolley: It's like using the best furniture manufacturers and the best fabrics, right?
- 10:08Michael Manasseri: right.
- 10:09Michael Manasseri: So that might be a learning experience where you know maybe you're actually working with an art student, maybe you're working with you know somebody who's never production designed but they've been an assistant on three other projects but you're giving them a shot and so maybe in that world, they kind of sometimes step up on that.
- 10:25TIffany Woolley: Yeah, exactly, maybe in that world they kind of sometimes step up on that?
- 10:27Scott Woolley: Yeah, exactly Tiffany.
- 10:28Scott Woolley: I think she forgets, but she's gone through a few of those types of projects.
- 10:33Scott Woolley: So I had a project it was actually with Don Mishner, who's done a lot of award shows and specials.
- 10:38Scott Woolley: He had a special that he needed done for Spike TV, the network, and they were bringing in a design team from LA, but the budget interfered with that.
- 10:50Scott Woolley: They couldn't do it.
- 10:50Scott Woolley: Last second they called because I was producing it and they said we need a house.
- 10:56Scott Woolley: I think it was about 14,000 square feet decorated.
- 11:00Scott Woolley: Within like three days I turned to Tiffany and I said you've got a quick project 14,000 feet of furniture into a house.
- 11:08Scott Woolley: Do you remember that?
- 11:10TIffany Woolley: That's crazy.
- 11:11Scott Woolley: Yeah, and that happened a lot, so that was a staging project really.
- 11:14TIffany Woolley: Right staging versus.
- 11:17Scott Woolley: But a lot different from the normal process that you go through, where it's pre-designed and time is being spent and it's being laid out.
- 11:26TIffany Woolley: Yep, no, I was going to go back to the Spain movie set.
- 11:32TIffany Woolley: So is it being shot in Spain because you're looking to enjoy Spain or take in some of that Money?
- 11:39Michael Manasseri: budgets, film incentives, the production company that I'm working with and all of the.
- 11:44Michael Manasseri: I mean this is maybe not a design part of the conversation, but it's basically all of the.
- 11:46Michael Manasseri: I mean this is maybe not a design part of the conversation, but it's basically because of the production company that I'm working with on that that I'm partnering with.
- 11:53Scott Woolley: So does the story set around Spain, or it could be anywhere it could be anywhere it could be anywhere.
- 12:00TIffany Woolley: What a bummer.
- 12:01Michael Manasseri: Can't you put a?
- 12:04TIffany Woolley: twist in that.
- 12:05Michael Manasseri: Well, we might listen, certain things might.
- 12:07Michael Manasseri: Actually, you know what?
- 12:08Michael Manasseri: Now there might actually be more of a Spanish angle coming to it whenever this thing gets done.
- 12:14Michael Manasseri: But the point of mentioning that project was about that lookbook, and that really I mean to the co-directing team on it.
- 12:23Michael Manasseri: They're so intensely visual, wow, and so when they put their lookbook together to show to whether we're showing it to other investors or we're actually showing it to actors, so you know, to bring our actors on, because I mean again an actor, not only do they have to look, so you're enticing people with your lookbook.
- 12:41Michael Manasseri: You're enticing people, just like you're exactly Just like when you're going to somebody who owns a 50,000 square foot mansion and you're like this is why you should hire me to design this house.
- 12:51TIffany Woolley: Evoking that feeling to draw you in Also.
- 12:57TIffany Woolley: Going on to the design part, how is lighting design carried on through?
- 13:03TIffany Woolley: Because obviously there's lighting everywhere for set design.
- 13:06TIffany Woolley: I would think that has to be a huge thing incorporated into the I mean, it's really that scott mentioned in the beginning.
- 13:13Michael Manasseri: It's all design.
- 13:14Michael Manasseri: I mean you're, you're, really, really is, and it is lighting, that's what you call it.
- 13:17Michael Manasseri: You call it lighting design and and so, in terms of, uh, the director of photography, that you, that comes on to the project, and again, the director.
- 13:27Michael Manasseri: What kind of mood does the director want to set for the entire film, for certain sections of the film?
- 13:31Michael Manasseri: I mean, you watch a movie and sometimes everything suddenly changes.
- 13:34Michael Manasseri: They'll go from maybe warm colors to this intense cold blue light, depending on what's going on in the story.
- 13:41Michael Manasseri: So all of those design factors, I mean it really is.
- 13:46Michael Manasseri: It's a daily discussion of detail, of detail when you're in pre-production and when you're in production, it's it's a thousand questions being asked every day and answered when you're shooting.
- 13:58TIffany Woolley: How closely does that look book generally reflect the finished product?
- 14:05Michael Manasseri: I would.
- 14:05Michael Manasseri: I would say usually it say usually it's really really close.
- 14:08Michael Manasseri: I mean, usually, once you do those, the directors have done their research, they know where they're.
- 14:14Michael Manasseri: Basically what could change?
- 14:15Michael Manasseri: It would be Budget, budget.
- 14:18Michael Manasseri: Like, let's say, we had a lot of money when we designed this and all of a sudden we only have a fifth of that now, and that changes your locations, that changes people that you hire, also as well in terms of skill.
- 14:31Scott Woolley: Let's say, but the lookbook also helps guide you with the budget too.
- 14:34Scott Woolley: Correct, Correct.
- 14:35Scott Woolley: So if you follow that lookbook, it's going to hopefully follow your budget.
- 14:40Scott Woolley: Keep you on budget.
- 14:41Michael Manasseri: Right, you don't want to make a lookbook for what you think is a $50 million movie when you know you only have $5 million.
- 14:46TIffany Woolley: Right.
- 14:46TIffany Woolley: Well, same goes for my part of the world too.
- 14:50Voice Over: Yeah.
- 14:51TIffany Woolley: Definitely want to stay on target.
- 14:53Scott Woolley: Yeah, the difference that you have is that in a film or a television show, everything starts with the budget and most interior decorating that I've experienced with you.
- 15:05TIffany Woolley: We don't like budget People don't.
- 15:06Scott Woolley: Well, it's not that you don't like or we don't like.
- 15:09Scott Woolley: It's the fact that most people don't want to discuss or even mention what their budget is, for a number of reasons.
- 15:16Scott Woolley: One is they don't want to mention it because they think that's what you're going to spend, or try to spend a little bit more.
- 15:22Scott Woolley: Sure, they'd rather you spend a little bit less.
- 15:24TIffany Woolley: When I'd rather know a budget myself up front so that I can finish a product and, you know, put it together as a cohesive plan.
- 15:34Michael Manasseri: I'm much more like that too.
- 15:35Michael Manasseri: I mean, I would rather have people.
- 15:37Michael Manasseri: I mean, look, sometimes I'm actually responsible for going and finding the money or even investing the money.
- 15:41Michael Manasseri: I'm on both sides a lot.
- 15:44Michael Manasseri: Sometimes I'm the investor producer, sometimes I'm the hired producer who comes on.
- 15:48Michael Manasseri: If I'm the hired producer coming on, I just want to go to the investors and say what do we have?
- 15:54Michael Manasseri: Just tell me what we have, so I can actually do this correctly From the beginning.
- 15:59Michael Manasseri: There's no reason that you need to keep this a secret from me.
- 16:02Michael Manasseri: That's how I go at it, that's how I approach it, knowing, though, at times, like you said, they might not really be telling me everything.
- 16:12Scott Woolley: The other aspect of budget I'll mention that I've noticed is that in the interior design side, because Scott is also crossing over.
- 16:20Scott Woolley: Sure sure.
- 16:22TIffany Woolley: Scott has gone from major production background into really really helping drive my bus right now.
- 16:30Scott Woolley: Right, but one of the things that I've noticed is and you'll get a kick out of this, mike is that there's a percentage of clients that don't want to discuss the budget because they want to project to you that they have endless deep pockets when they, quite frankly, have a very limited or a very finite amount of money.
- 16:53Scott Woolley: But they want to project to you that money is no object for me.
- 16:56Scott Woolley: I have whatever it takes.
- 16:58Scott Woolley: So there's an ego aspect Interesting.
- 17:01Scott Woolley: Which is very similar to us in doing projects and talking to investors.
- 17:08Michael Manasseri: Talking to potential investors.
- 17:10Scott Woolley: Yes, we get yes yes, we sit with an investor who really wants to get in it because of whatever the reason is.
- 17:18TIffany Woolley: But at the end of the day they don't quite have the money they claim they have Correct.
- 17:22Michael Manasseri: You know there will be a couple of nice lunches.
- 17:24Michael Manasseri: Sometimes we will end up paying for those lunches.
- 17:27Michael Manasseri: There will be a couple of nice lunches Sometimes we will end up paying for those lunches and then when it comes time for the pens and the paper, things like that, things suddenly change.
- 17:34Scott Woolley: Which is a little of what Tiffany experiences with some clients and then she has to work through that to try to help them manage what they can spend and what their expectations are.
- 17:46Scott Woolley: So for her it's a little bit tougher.
- 17:48Scott Woolley: At the end of the day doing a movie or a film if you don't have it, you can't do it, right right.
- 17:55TIffany Woolley: Have you ever personally worked with an interior designer?
- 18:01Michael Manasseri: No, I have not.
- 18:02Michael Manasseri: I have not.
- 18:03TIffany Woolley: What about for a movie?
- 18:04TIffany Woolley: Or has there ever been that part?
- 18:07Michael Manasseri: I think that on some commercial work so I've done, I mean similar to Scott, you know I've produced numerous commercials, as well as films and TV.
- 18:18Scott Woolley: Michael's also started quite a bit.
- 18:20Scott Woolley: He's been in a number of commercials himself McDonald's.
- 18:25TIffany Woolley: I'm sure you could recognize your voice anyway, Wow you're taking it back to the beginning, man.
- 18:33Michael Manasseri: Lots of commercials, yes, but as a producer on commercials I've worked with some interior designers for homes and things like that that we've had in commercials, but really everything else has been more of production designers.
- 18:50Michael Manasseri: But again, you're designing a house.
- 18:53Michael Manasseri: You're designing a house.
- 18:54Michael Manasseri: You're going back to the sitcom to the house and the sitcom.
- 19:00TIffany Woolley: I mean it's the same question what's the couch, what's the color?
- 19:02TIffany Woolley: So the houses in the sitcoms, for example, when there's a stairs and they're going upstairs, are they really going upstairs?
- 19:09Michael Manasseri: They're going upstairs, but they're not going anywhere.
- 19:12Michael Manasseri: They're going to a landing.
- 19:13Michael Manasseri: Unless it's a real house, well, but in a sitcom.
- 19:17Scott Woolley: No.
- 19:19TIffany Woolley: So sitcom is technically on a soundstage.
- 19:23Michael Manasseri: Situation comedy.
- 19:24Michael Manasseri: Well, I don't know, maybe now, but in the days when I was doing situation comedies, it was always live audience, live audience on the stage Like Schitt's Creek or something like that.
- 19:34Scott Woolley: So you, didn't have four walls that you were dealing with to decorate as well.
- 19:38Michael Manasseri: Right, you usually had three walls.
- 19:40Michael Manasseri: It was more illusion, I guess.
- 19:42Scott Woolley: Or sometimes two if the budget was less.
- 19:44Michael Manasseri: So if you go to well, maybe a lot of people have now, but we so that TV show that I used to be on called Weird Science.
- 19:49Michael Manasseri: So we shot that at Universal Studios Real fortunate.
- 19:52Michael Manasseri: We were there for four years and almost everything was on a soundstage.
- 19:55Michael Manasseri: Sometimes we'd go out into the world, but when we didn't go out into the world we would go to the back lot.
- 20:01Michael Manasseri: Okay, okay, if you visited you know a lot of people have visited Universal Studios and gone to the back lot.
- 20:08Michael Manasseri: So those houses you know.
- 20:10Michael Manasseri: So my character lived in a neighborhood and we would, you know, get off the bus and we'd go to our house and then you'd enter the house and you'd shut the, you know, on the other side of the house there's nothing Right.
- 20:21Michael Manasseri: You know it's just a facade.
- 20:23TIffany Woolley: I know so that god, so that's uh, you know some movie magic that everybody kind of knows by now so how do they, kind of in the scope of the television world, decide what is going to be on a sound stage and what's going to be in a like?
- 20:36TIffany Woolley: I know now, like the bachelor per se has a house, like it's now, like but for years for years.
- 20:43Michael Manasseri: I mean, we, you know, before there were houses.
- 20:46Michael Manasseri: No, it was just you would build your sets, right, but it all came down to the production designer.
- 20:50Michael Manasseri: The production designer was in charge of all of that, and then they would delegate Again.
- 20:55Michael Manasseri: There would be construction, there would be a lead man, there would be his crew, there would be set dressers, there would be plant people who would be in charge of the plants the fake plants the real plants.
- 21:03Michael Manasseri: Wow, all of it.
- 21:04Scott Woolley: It's staging the prop people with all the little accessories, right.
- 21:08TIffany Woolley: Which staging became a big thing in our industry as well.
- 21:11TIffany Woolley: I don't necessarily do staging, but it definitely is another part of interior design that crosses over into set design.
- 21:18TIffany Woolley: Yep Especially in the work of staging.
- 21:21Scott Woolley: Well, I consider staging to be temporary.
- 21:23Scott Woolley: Temporary it is Temporary interior decorating To sell a house is like the main reason somebody stages.
- 21:30Michael Manasseri: Sure, I would say, on sound, so you never know how long the show's going to be on.
- 21:34Scott Woolley: Well, it's pretty much the same Staging because of a stage.
- 21:37Scott Woolley: It's temporary, it's not there permanently and then.
- 21:39TIffany Woolley: So like on shows, for example.
- 21:41Voice Over: I never really watched Friends myself, but like I know people in the world did.
- 21:47TIffany Woolley: And I think I had to go to bed that time.
- 21:52TIffany Woolley: But how many sofas, for example, do you think really exist of the famous red?
- 21:59Michael Manasseri: couch, I mean now.
- 22:01Michael Manasseri: I mean, isn't there a whole line?
- 22:02TIffany Woolley: Right, there is Like Pottery Barn or something, I don't know.
- 22:05TIffany Woolley: It is.
- 22:05TIffany Woolley: It absolutely is.
- 22:06TIffany Woolley: It's the Friends Furniture Collection.
- 22:07Michael Manasseri: Friends Furniture Collection yes yes, so I would think now there are a lot.
- 22:11Michael Manasseri: Now they're mass produced in a factory somewhere, unbelievable.
- 22:16Scott Woolley: Oh, unbelievable those are trends, but for the show itself in the beginning there was probably one, they probably had two, oh yeah, they probably beat it up and like once a year they'd bring in a new one, just to refresh.
- 22:29Michael Manasseri: Or if they just like the beat up, look, because it was supposed to be an apartment forever.
- 22:33Scott Woolley: So yeah, it's a lot like a movie and certain aspects of a movie, especially wardrobe.
- 22:37Scott Woolley: Depending upon the movie, they may have multiple jackets or multiple, whatever it is for that particular part.
- 22:47TIffany Woolley: So, for example, like when you were on Weird Science for four years, did you have the same bedroom for four years?
- 22:52TIffany Woolley: Pretty much, yeah, pretty much, I mean unless you made the same bedroom for four years?
- 22:54TIffany Woolley: Pretty much, yeah, pretty much, I mean.
- 22:55Michael Manasseri: Unless you made it an aspect in an episode of the show of I want a new bedroom Right, but otherwise no.
- 23:01Michael Manasseri: I mean the living room, the kitchen, the fake stairs going up the stairs to nothing.
- 23:09Michael Manasseri: You know that didn't change, that barely changed.
- 23:12TIffany Woolley: So the set was always in place.
- 23:14Michael Manasseri: It was always in place, but of course I mean, if a little bit of time went by, maybe the set dresser or production designer would say, hey, let's change up these flowers on top of the table, or something like that.
- 23:24Michael Manasseri: I mean, if something was going to be intensely featured in an episode, then of course they would just make sure that whatever's being featured has to do with that period of time, that episode, et cetera.
- 23:40Scott Woolley: Well, that's another difference of interior decorating for home.
- 23:41Scott Woolley: And then compared to the entertainment industry, because it's all temporary, right, I mean think of.
- 23:46TIffany Woolley: you did a couple of sets for me, balancing Act you did when we first launched that, when you guys set them up and took them down quite a bit.
- 23:53Scott Woolley: Right, you helped me.
- 23:54Scott Woolley: You put together a set for the CNBC show that I did with Jack Kemp.
- 23:58Scott Woolley: Yeah, okay, that was temporary.
- 24:00Scott Woolley: That lasted the same exact set for the four years the show was on the air.
- 24:05TIffany Woolley: And we used the chairs for the foyer of the building.
- 24:08Scott Woolley: Right, but once the show was over, everything either went into garbage or got donated or given away to someone.
- 24:16Michael Manasseri: Repurposed.
- 24:17Scott Woolley: In Los Angeles, depending upon the studio or the facility it goes into a warehouse to maybe be used later on, yes, in a warehouse with 2,000 other selfies.
- 24:28TIffany Woolley: And typewriters.
- 24:29TIffany Woolley: Whenever you see those pictures, it's like the old-fashioned typewriters.
- 24:34Michael Manasseri: I mean, but there's also.
- 24:35Michael Manasseri: So, for example, this movie that I did last year called Give Me Liberty, that was all real locations.
- 24:42Michael Manasseri: In Milwaukee we had a production designer, because certainly in some of those real well, I would say real locations but for example, there would be a house that we would be shooting in that would end up being the house for a family in the movie obviously not the family who lived in that house.
- 24:59Michael Manasseri: So of course things would have to be adjusted and redone pictures?
- 25:02TIffany Woolley: do they do all that, all of?
- 25:03TIffany Woolley: That, all that stuff so do they do pictures?
- 25:06TIffany Woolley: This is total sidebar.
- 25:07TIffany Woolley: When they're using pictures of a real person, which is actually an actor, do they put the old when you're like so you were on a show and in the picture frame is you as a toddler.
- 25:17TIffany Woolley: Is that really?
- 25:18TIffany Woolley: Like your mom giving them toddler pictures For those kinds of things.
- 25:22TIffany Woolley: Sorry to interrupt.
- 25:22TIffany Woolley: No, no, no, no, it's fine.
- 25:24Michael Manasseri: For those kinds of things.
- 25:24Michael Manasseri: They would certainly ask for old pictures and stuff like that if they wanted to be you, or they'll Photoshop stuff now.
- 25:30TIffany Woolley: Oh, that's true.
- 25:30TIffany Woolley: So give us a picture and we'll Photoshop your head into this other picture.
- 25:37Michael Manasseri: But again that aspect of production design for a movie of the budget of Give Me Liberty, which was also everything about that movie was authentic.
- 25:47Michael Manasseri: I mean, we had two real actors in the whole movie.
- 25:49Michael Manasseri: Everybody else played basically a version of themselves, and the two real actors that we had, they were both from Russia.
- 25:54Michael Manasseri: Wow, and if you see the movie by the way, please go see the movie it's called Give Me Liberty, or you can click on something now, where can?
- 26:02Michael Manasseri: you find it.
- 26:03Michael Manasseri: You can find it on iTunes, amazon, I mean, it's on almost every platform.
- 26:07TIffany Woolley: And everybody's got a lot of sofa time right now, so no excuses, it's a feel-good comedy there, you go, no excuses.
- 26:13TIffany Woolley: It's a feel-good comedy.
- 26:14Michael Manasseri: New York Times loved it.
- 26:14Michael Manasseri: La Times, a lot of people love this movie.
- 26:16Michael Manasseri: But in terms of production design on that, that's a you know for what that movie is and the authenticity of the people and the characters in the film.
- 26:30Michael Manasseri: You know our production designer on that one probably had to do a completely different style of research, of work, than what he could have done on the movie that he did just before.
- 26:40Michael Manasseri: That, I mean, it's you know it's.
- 26:43Michael Manasseri: Milwaukee 2018, blue-collar neighborhoods different cultures.
- 26:50Michael Manasseri: You know there's a big Russian element in the film.
- 26:52Michael Manasseri: You're also in the African-American community in the film.
- 26:54Michael Manasseri: We are also in the African-American community in the film.
- 26:56Michael Manasseri: Also, that film deals a lot.
- 26:57Michael Manasseri: It has a lot to do with disabled adults and where they live and where they work, and so all of these different factors, you know, going to those real places.
- 27:07Michael Manasseri: But even within those real places, what are the things the production designer has to change for the director's vision?
- 27:14Michael Manasseri: You know just so many details.
- 27:17Michael Manasseri: This is an aside from, let's say, interior design or production design, but chicken plays a very big part in that movie, literally the making of chicken.
- 27:30Michael Manasseri: So there's a grandfather, a Russian grandfather character.
- 27:33Michael Manasseri: Is it almond chicken or whatever.
- 27:36Michael Manasseri: No, no, no, but he's Russian and it's very important that he makes his chicken.
- 27:40Michael Manasseri: Like the whole movie, this guy's got this thing about making chicken.
- 27:44Michael Manasseri: What do you mean?
- 27:46Michael Manasseri: Making chicken?
- 27:47Michael Manasseri: Cooking chicken?
- 27:48Michael Manasseri: Cooking chicken a certain way Preparing the chicken and because so in the beginning of the movie he should not be cooking and he is making chicken and he's in his 80s and a little forgetful, and let me just say the dynamics of the entire film shift because of chicken.
- 28:04Michael Manasseri: But the point of this story and this might just be an aside, but I think this is funny and it's about independent filmmaking it's about small budgets, it's about independent filmmaking, it's about small budgets, it's about design.
- 28:17Michael Manasseri: So we are on maybe our second or third day of shooting and we are working in this apartment building where a lot of the film was based in Milwaukee, where a lot of Russian immigrants have come over.
- 28:30TIffany Woolley: I had no idea to Milwaukee.
- 28:32Michael Manasseri: Yes, there's a Russian-American or Russian, basically community in Milwaukee.
- 28:38Michael Manasseri: I didn't know this until I signed on to the film, and so, anyway, we were in this building and we were in the social room.
- 28:46Michael Manasseri: That's where we were basically had our base camp, where we all would meet and talk, have our meetings, have our lunches, etc.
- 28:50Michael Manasseri: And so I walked in this morning.
- 28:53Michael Manasseri: It's really early, everyone's tired and, and I see the production designer talking to his assistant and the look on her face, I knew something was wrong.
- 29:02Michael Manasseri: She just it was just.
- 29:04Michael Manasseri: I mean just, you know, it's a podcast, nobody can see what I'm doing, but my jaw dropped.
- 29:09Michael Manasseri: Oh my God, something is wrong.
- 29:11Michael Manasseri: And, as a producer, these are I already know immediately.
- 29:15Michael Manasseri: Well, these are the problems that I'm supposed to be solving.
- 29:17Voice Over: No, I don't want anybody to have a face like that Something's wrong.
- 29:22Michael Manasseri: So I went up and I said what's going on?
- 29:23Michael Manasseri: And the production designer turns to me and goes somebody stole the chicken.
- 29:30TIffany Woolley: So was he actually cooking the chicken?
- 29:32Michael Manasseri: Well, in the film the character is walking around with chicken, a lot Frozen chicken, walking around with chicken and then eventually, yes, the chicken gets cooked but we had 20 pounds of frozen chicken, of chicken that was left in the freezer that night because we thought you know where the people thought who's gonna take 20 pounds of frozen chicken?
- 29:51Michael Manasseri: But I mean, but I showed up and you know and I this was a really difficult movie to make for many reasons and it was was a wonderful experience and the movie turned out great.
- 30:01Voice Over: Did you taste the chicken?
- 30:02Michael Manasseri: Eventually, I had to let it go and it was cooked, but at this point, like that chicken, even in a production design, a movie sense, that chicken was working in like the next scene, that frozen chicken was supposed to be in the next scene and we didn't have the frozen chicken and now we had to go out and get 20 pounds of frozen chicken and he only had a set budget.
- 30:24TIffany Woolley: So basically, you had to pay for the chicken.
- 30:26Michael Manasseri: Well, we had to pay for the chicken, but it was just like it's 7 am in the morning, where are you going to go to get 20 pounds of frozen chicken?
- 30:33Michael Manasseri: That's going to work at 8 am Anyway.
- 30:35Michael Manasseri: So that's my chicken story.
- 30:37Scott Woolley: But that's in dealing with a production designer talking about chicken.
- 30:41TIffany Woolley: That's just so funny.
- 30:42TIffany Woolley: Yes, at least it wasn't pickles.
- 30:48Michael Manasseri: Ah, that was good.
- 30:49Michael Manasseri: That was good.
- 30:50Michael Manasseri: I made a pickle movie.
- 30:53Michael Manasseri: For those of you that just went, what are they talking about this?
- 30:55Michael Manasseri: It was a pickle movie.
- 30:56TIffany Woolley: And he gave out pickle pens at the premiere.
- 30:59Michael Manasseri: I mean, I think I stole 14 of them it was a pickle movie.
- 31:01Voice Over: And he gave out pickle pens at the premiere.
- 31:02TIffany Woolley: I mean I think I stole 14 of them.
- 31:02Michael Manasseri: It was a hilarious movie.
- 31:03Michael Manasseri: It was a great movie, thank you.
- 31:06Scott Woolley: It's another one people should watch.
- 31:07Michael Manasseri: There you go, you're sitting at home, you want to watch a feel-good movie, the Pickle Recipe.
- 31:11Michael Manasseri: So, yes, that one I directed and dealing with production design on that.
- 31:16Michael Manasseri: Similar questions, similar, similar.
- 31:18Michael Manasseri: You know, how do we want the pickles to look?
- 31:19Michael Manasseri: I mean, really, how do we want to?
- 31:21TIffany Woolley: look what's the canister gonna look like.
- 31:23TIffany Woolley: What are they gonna?
- 31:25TIffany Woolley: Look like all that, yeah, yeah that is just so interesting which is one of the reasons when I started the podcast is I just feel like everybody has such amazing stories to tell, and I mean you probably could go on for hours, with the exception of even design just just all the stories that you daily.
- 31:44Michael Manasseri: I mean when it comes to and Scott knows this too when it comes to production, the stories.
- 31:50Michael Manasseri: Actually, the stories can be more interesting than the actual films and TV shows that are being made, the stories behind it, because the other thing- about it is.
- 32:00Michael Manasseri: Well, I think some people are.
- 32:02Michael Manasseri: But if you bring, you're bringing 50 or 100 people together to work on a project, which also means you're bringing 50 to 100 people and their stories and their personalities and their problems.
- 32:14Michael Manasseri: It is fascinating.
- 32:16Scott Woolley: And everyone works together closely, tightly.
- 32:18Scott Woolley: It's a great unit, almost becomes a family, and 30 days later, everyone's gone.
- 32:26TIffany Woolley: Stay in touch with them.
- 32:29Michael Manasseri: It's interesting.
- 32:30Michael Manasseri: So some, I absolutely do.
- 32:32Michael Manasseri: But you do realize over time, if you've done this long enough, that you do absolutely go.
- 32:39Michael Manasseri: Man, I was so close with those people for two months and none of us talk to each other anymore, Because what happens is you.
- 32:45Michael Manasseri: Then, if you're fortunate enough to keep doing this, you're, you know a couple of months later, you're on to the next one, and you're on to the next one and you keep.
- 32:53Michael Manasseri: You know, you keep having these really intense, almost familial relationships and everybody's keeps going on to the next one and they're usually very intense, they take up all your time.
- 33:02Michael Manasseri: So you're really like you're in it when you're in it and then you're never, in it.
- 33:08Scott Woolley: But it's the same thing with interior decorating, like some of the projects you have right now.
- 33:13TIffany Woolley: I love that, Like they become family for me.
- 33:15TIffany Woolley: I love knowing about their children.
- 33:17Scott Woolley: I love watching the other generation, but it's also the vendors, the crew, the people who are the subcontractors.
- 33:25Michael Manasseri: All of them.
- 33:25Scott Woolley: Right, and there's certain ones that you become very friendly with, and then a project's over and everybody's got to move on.
- 33:34Michael Manasseri: I know Everybody's got to make a living Right.
- 33:36Scott Woolley: But I think in the interior design side and your side of it is the ones that are really good you're reaching out to them again?
- 33:44TIffany Woolley: I guess that's what I was trying to ask before.
- 33:46TIffany Woolley: Michael, Is there your go-tos, for example?
- 33:50Michael Manasseri: Certainly as a producer and a director.
- 33:51Michael Manasseri: Now it is more like that.
- 33:53Michael Manasseri: I mean, if I so, for example, when I went off to Milwaukee to make Gimme Liberty, I didn't know any of the people in Milwaukee.
- 33:58Michael Manasseri: So that group of people, they were all new to me and they were wonderful, incredible, and I've worked with some of them since then on other projects.
- 34:06Michael Manasseri: Um, but in terms of my regular go-tos because for a long time I've been based out of Detroit, I certainly have, you know, as a producer.
- 34:15Michael Manasseri: I have directors I work with regularly.
- 34:17Michael Manasseri: I have other producers, production designers, et cetera.
- 34:20Michael Manasseri: I will keep going back to and I'm sure it's similar with you in the business.
- 34:24Michael Manasseri: Once you can actually trust someone and if they're doing a good job, that's important, so important.
- 34:30Michael Manasseri: So you want to keep working.
- 34:32Michael Manasseri: I mean, if you can keep working with friends that you trust, that are there for you, that you can rely on that's the best, I agree.
- 34:42Scott Woolley: It's pretty much like for me with the specials that I do TV specials I use the four to five same people travel with me that have particular important positions, but the rest of the crew 50, 60 people are all hired first time and typically, unfortunately, last time because it's typically in another state, right, just in another city.
- 34:59Scott Woolley: 50, 60 people are all hired first time and typically, unfortunately, last time because it's typically in another state, right it's in another city.
- 35:04Scott Woolley: But those four to five key people have been with me for years.
- 35:08TIffany Woolley: So when you're doing set design in a key city, do you hire the set designer from that area, or who do they bring you?
- 35:16Michael Manasseri: Not necessarily, yeah not necessarily for production design.
- 35:19Michael Manasseri: It's a similar thing where, if you can bring someone you work with and you trust in the past and you know they're right for this project, look, there are people that I've worked with who I know are wonderful, but I know they're right for something, they're not right for something else.
- 35:31Michael Manasseri: So you know, that's where I will depend on other people that I'm working with references things like that and we'll bring somebody in that we feel is really really right for the project.
- 35:44Michael Manasseri: But usually with cities, if you're talking about that, that would be locations, people, things like that.
- 35:53Michael Manasseri: Or maybe we'll bring in a key location person but then they'll hire everybody locally because those local people are going to know the answers to the questions.
- 36:01TIffany Woolley: So when you do hire a location scout, do they then look into hiring, like if somebody wanted to film a movie in Delray Beach, for example?
- 36:11TIffany Woolley: How do you go about your location?
- 36:15TIffany Woolley: I?
- 36:15Michael Manasseri: mean?
- 36:16Michael Manasseri: So let's say they wanted a three-bedroom house on the water in Delray.
- 36:21Michael Manasseri: I mean the location scout would be given, basically, instructions from the location manager, from the production, from the producers.
- 36:28Michael Manasseri: This is the kind of house we're looking for, this is the kind of money that we have.
- 36:32Michael Manasseri: So do you?
- 36:34TIffany Woolley: rent it.
- 36:34Michael Manasseri: Oh, I mean well, the scout would go out and knock on doors, call people, leave flyers, basically oh, he drives by a house and says, man, that house is perfect.
- 36:44Michael Manasseri: Usually we'll take a flyer and say, hey, we're thinking about filming on a property like yours.
- 36:50Michael Manasseri: We'd love to talk to you about it.
- 36:51Michael Manasseri: Please give us a call at such and such number if you're interested.
- 36:54Michael Manasseri: That person would call back and then it's basically it's a conversation.
- 36:58Michael Manasseri: You describe what the situation is and then it's basically it's a conversation.
- 37:01Michael Manasseri: You describe what the situation is and then is it see inside?
- 37:03Michael Manasseri: And it's money.
- 37:05Scott Woolley: Most major cities have people who are location scouts.
- 37:10TIffany Woolley: My house growing up was used for a movie.
- 37:14Michael Manasseri: Grand Rapids.
- 37:15TIffany Woolley: No, in Boca.
- 37:17Michael Manasseri: Oh, okay.
- 37:17Scott Woolley: In Boca.
- 37:17TIffany Woolley: Raton in here.
- 37:18TIffany Woolley: Yeah, michael and I both have Michigan connections, but I remember that it was Little Women of the 1990s or something.
- 37:27Voice Over: It was an.
- 37:27TIffany Woolley: Italian film and I, little Women.
- 37:32TIffany Woolley: It was an Italian, but it was like.
- 37:34TIffany Woolley: Little Women of the 90s.
- 37:35Michael Manasseri: It was like a remake of Little Women Okay, the Italian remake of Little Women, something like this.
- 37:40Michael Manasseri: That sounds hilarious.
- 37:41Michael Manasseri: Why did I not produce this?
- 37:42TIffany Woolley: I know and I actually want to look back and see it these days, because they hosted a party there and it just was like my whole family moved out for a week.
- 37:53Voice Over: Sure.
- 37:53TIffany Woolley: But I was able to stay because my mom was like you need to still go to school, You're in high school.
- 38:02Scott Woolley: You need to have a very unusual temperament pertaining to owning a house and allowing a crew to come in and take it over.
- 38:04Scott Woolley: I'm just going to say this oh no, yeah, we need a new carpet.
- 38:06Michael Manasseri: I'm going to say this If you are listening, and if somebody comes to you because they want to use your house for a movie or a commercial, you probably should just say no, that's why I said you need an unusual temperament, right, or they're going to give you a lot of money because, basically, your house will be taken over.
- 38:27Michael Manasseri: It will be taken over by 50 human beings who might want to be respectful of that property.
- 38:33TIffany Woolley: There was catering trucks outside.
- 38:36Michael Manasseri: But now it's just their workspace, Like that's it.
- 38:39Scott Woolley: And they will move everything and anything and it's a deal.
- 38:45Michael Manasseri: And they will try not to break things.
- 38:47Michael Manasseri: Try not to break things.
- 38:50TIffany Woolley: That's like the opposite.
- 38:51Michael Manasseri: I guess Watch I'm going to need a house for a movie and someone's going to say I heard you on a podcast.
- 38:56Michael Manasseri: Well, this is so fun.
- 38:57TIffany Woolley: Yes it is.
- 38:58TIffany Woolley: I know.
- 38:58TIffany Woolley: Well, I'll say on a podcast Well, this is so fun.
- 39:02TIffany Woolley: Yes, it is I know.
- 39:04Michael Manasseri: Well, I'll say one thing briefly.
- 39:05Michael Manasseri: So around 2004, 2005, when I actually started to produce, that is also right around the time I met the Woolies.
- 39:16Michael Manasseri: Is that when it was yes, it was yes.
- 39:18Michael Manasseri: Yes, the first movie that I produced.
- 39:22Michael Manasseri: Well, let me tell you this?
- 39:24Scott Woolley: So Santa Monica, no, not Santa Monica, melrose, it was on Melrose, I believe.
- 39:28Scott Woolley: Yes, yes and I remember pulling into a parking lot.
- 39:31Michael Manasseri: Fred Siegel.
- 39:33TIffany Woolley: That's correct, fred Siegel the guy who owns Fred Siegel now lives in Boca.
- 39:35TIffany Woolley: Ah, okay, so.
- 39:36Scott Woolley: Fred Siegel, the clothing store on Melrose.
- 39:39Scott Woolley: I remember pulling in the parking lot and all the trailers and so forth and we got guided into a shoe store and it was a pretty funky.
- 39:48Scott Woolley: I remember like really outrageous shoe store with wild walls and colors.
- 39:53Scott Woolley: Was it Fred Siegel?
- 39:55Scott Woolley: I don't think so.
- 39:56Michael Manasseri: The property was Fred Siegel was, I think.
- 39:59Scott Woolley: We took over the space and we did, and that's where I met you, I think first time, yeah, in that shoe store okay in that fake shoe store, which was a fixed, wasn't it?
- 40:09Michael Manasseri: no, it was a real, wasn't it, but it was an interior design.
- 40:15Scott Woolley: You talk about interior design that I don't think it was interior designed or built for.
- 40:21Scott Woolley: The movie was there, I think.
- 40:23Scott Woolley: But it was quite a set, an unusual set for a shoe store, not your typical shoe store.
- 40:28Scott Woolley: But it also wasn't a typical movie.
- 40:31Michael Manasseri: No, it was not.
- 40:32Scott Woolley: Because I remember having a conversation with you after I met you, and then what was it?
- 40:35Scott Woolley: Jenny McCarthy comes walking by asking you a question and then Carmen Electra comes walking in and shooting a scene.
- 40:44Scott Woolley: Those were the days, guys.
- 40:45Scott Woolley: Those were the days.
- 40:46Scott Woolley: Yeah, it was a pretty outrageous scene too.
- 40:48Michael Manasseri: Yes, yes, it was, that's right.
- 40:50Michael Manasseri: Wow, yeah, I mean, look, I remember Fred Siegel, that's about it.
- 40:52Michael Manasseri: Good memory, scott.
- 40:55Scott Woolley: All I remember is the fish.
- 40:58TIffany Woolley: Oh yes, oh my God, I kind of vaguely remember this story.
- 41:02Michael Manasseri: This is when we changed the subject.
- 41:05Michael Manasseri: Yes, Back to interior design and fresh flowers, and then I came to Delray About four months later I came to Delray.
- 41:12Scott Woolley: Right Then we ended up doing a project with William Shatner together.
- 41:16Scott Woolley: Yes, yes, it was a lot of fun.
- 41:17TIffany Woolley: I know we have a fun history, that's only just begun.
- 41:20Michael Manasseri: That's right, that's right.
- 41:23TIffany Woolley: And I look forward to embarking on some more fun.
- 41:25Michael Manasseri: I look forward to more iDesign podcasts.
- 41:28TIffany Woolley: Thank you, yes, very much.
- 41:29TIffany Woolley: Thanks for joining us today.
- 41:30TIffany Woolley: You got it.
- 41:31Voice Over: Thanks for having me iDesign Labs Podcast is an SW Group production in association with the Five Star and TW Interiors.
- 41:38Voice Over: To learn more about iDesign Lab or TW Interiors, please visit twinteriorscom.