Jean Harrison

Production Design

 


Bringing a story to life…

A great story engages you, great camera work takes you on a journey, but great production design is invisible. This is my goal for every film project I am a part of, to create a world so fitting that it immerses you in the story and makes that world real.

Set design, set construction, and prop making are some of my favorite parts of the preproduction process. This is why I love working on historical fiction, fantasy, and horror films. You get to bring the audience into a world less like their own and have a greater opportunity to inspire their own creativity.

Below is a look at some of the worlds I’ve created. For a list of other film projects I’ve been a part of please visit my IMDb page at: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2759379/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1


 
 
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The Nightmare Emporium

2019 Horror Film Anthology Interstitial

 

The Nightmare Emporium is a horror anthology, short film festival, in its third year in 2019. For Nightmare Emporium 3, the host poses as a carnival fortune teller. This world consisted of two sets. The first set was the tarot room. The more “business” side, surrounded in softer but more vibrant draping and adorned with colorful hanging lanterns. The second set is the living space, utilitarian storage, and more private section. Denoted by rougher, more faded tent canvas, this side served as the haphazard storage of the host’s collection of haunted items (each a key item for a film in the anthology). This was also the home to the severed head character that required adapting modular shelves to create the illusion through practical effects. Below is a behind-the-scenes look at the production.

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The Jennifer Conversation

2019 Short Film

Shot for the 2019 Nightmare Emporium Film Festival. The Jennifer Conversation is a horror film about a murderously influential deck of cards. The primary art department elements to this film were creating realistic practical effects for on-screen gunshot wounds and stabbings. For this project, I also created a new completely washable blood formula. This is a big deal if you’ve ever tried to wash the traditional food color blood off of white walls and counters.

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Where Sheep May Safely Graze

2012 Award Winning Short Film

 

Where Sheep May Safely Graze was created for the Albuquerque 48 Hour Film Festival in 2012. Winning best overall film locally, among other awards, and went on to win best screenwriting nationally. For this project, we had less than 24 to create a period film. To sell the idea of the story being set in the late 1940’s I used a few key period-accurate wardrobe pieces and props in a historically maintained house that we removed as many modern elements as possible from.

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Claim 24: A Dark Fairytale

2008 Indie Short Film

 

Set in the mountains of New Mexico. Much of this western fairytale was filmed on location at Eves Movie Ranch and Rowe Creek. The key build for this project was the “abandoned” miner’s shack. This was built to 1/2 scale in order to create the illusion of a larger-than-life creature(not pictured) living there.

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In The Wind…

2008 Independant Feature Film

 

In the wind was the first feature film I worked on back in 2008. It was a post-apocalyptic sci-fi film adapted from a stage production of the same name. The majority of the story takes place in a one-room bunker which I build and dress as a full 360 set. This allowed maximum set visibility and range of motion for the camera operator with minimal set adjustments. Shot on a micro-budget, the majority of the set decor, props, and wardrobe were donated to the production by the crew and cast. Bringing the art department budget to under $100, which was primarily make-up and wardrobe.

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