I Try To Make Their Vision Come Alive

Set decorator Tina Jones tells us about her job in the film industry.

FILMS are getting ever larger, with the next two “Avengers” movies being produced together with a budget over $1billion – the biggest in history.

Along with quality acting and writing, the authenticity and design of a production can be crucial to its success, which is where Tina Jones, set decorator, comes in.

Tina was responsible for the set decoration behind recent cinematic hit “King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword”, as well as “Game Of Thrones”, Michael Fassbender’s “Jane Eyre” and “The Bourne Ultimatum”, amongst many others.

“I always liken it to being an interior designer but on screen. I work very closely with the director and the designer. They have their vision of how they want it to look and then I try to make their vision come alive.

“It’s then the process of sourcing everything from wallpapers to carpets, furniture to window coverings and door handles.

“If it is an exterior set or location, then it would be everything for the exterior, so if it was something contemporary you would be doing all the street dressing and bins and phone boxes and drainpipes, etc.

“If it was a period film and, say, they are having a market there would be all the market stalls and floor covering and awnings.

“On something like ‘King Arthur’ I probably had about five months in prep, doing a lot of research.

“I would go to museums – if you are doing something that is period you get a lot of inspiration from paintings depicting something, say, fifteenth century. It would give you ideas and colours.”

Different projects come with different levels of creative freedom, too.

Projects that are essentially fantasy allow the design team to come up with something different, but you have to stick to the rules in other cases.