487 - Shane Valentino

Shane Valentino is the Production Designer on Tom Ford's latest film Nocturnal Animals and he gives us a long look at the world of film. As a Production Designer it is Shane's job to capture the emotion and ambiance of a film using color, lighting, and the set choices that make the entire universe the characters exist in. The tricky part is that his decisions go up and down a huge chain of people, all with their own creative input, and Shane has to synchronize all this to elevate the explore the themes throughout the film. Straight Outta Compton, Beginners, The Normal Heart, and all the projects he's worked on allow him to explore how to express so many different emotions through storytelling.  Shane is guided by his love of film and his desire to continually push his sense of style with each new project he takes on. From conceptual thinking to its practical application... this is design at a whole new level.

Talking Points

• The space between Straight Outta Compton and Nocturnal Animals.
• Letting your previous work start a conversation about tone, color, and texture.
• Honoring a period.
• Does half a budget mean you work twice as hard?
• Getting past a guesstimate.
• Two competing sets that frame the idea of an event.
• Sourcing saturation to convey emotion.
• Collaborating on the elements in the frame.
• Making place a character and turning building blocks on their heads.
• Sending a postcard to your audience on where they're headed.
• How do you curate a fictional body of work?
• Initial pitches and studying film from an analytical perspective.
• Starting with color, tone, and space.
• Switching to the practical approach with your fully articulated bible.
• Getting on the other side of the screen and playing house.
• Holding the visual keys and strategizing to get your way with what you unlock.
• Working in concert and setting up a team based leadership system.
• Start with what's good and tweak what needs work.
• Being the best cheerleader you can be.
• Wallowing in 40% or working on the 60% you got!
• Trusting who you work with and overcoming the concept of celebrity to make great art.
• Did race play a factor when working on Straight Outta Compton?
• Diverse people in powerful positions.
• Capturing the chaos on a budget.
• a 90 second pace versus a 90 minute pace.
• Hitting your stride and still pushing your stylistic approach.
• The hardest part of production design and the freedom of a finite position in film.
• Leveraging commercials.