You may not realize it, but every time you watch a film or TV show, everything you see in each frame is informing your opinion of a character. Even the tiniest, seemingly insignificant details are agonized over before cameras start rolling. From the coffee mug holding pens on a character’s desk to the bathmat outside their shower, nothing is an afterthought, nothing is inconsequential. This type of thought, care, and design is all thanks to set decorators like Brandi Kalish.
From designing the stage for Korn at the Apollo Theater to receiving an Emmy nomination for her work on HBO’s “Silicon Valley,” Kalish has left her mark on an array of sets during her decades-long career. Most recently, her work can be seen on Netflix’s “Dead to Me,” which features sets so draw-dropping in their design aesthetic that Kalish routinely fields questions from people asking where they can get the same furniture, pillows, and drapes for their own homes.
While in quarantine waiting for L.A. productions to start up again, Kalish spoke with Backstage about breaking into the business, what her job entails, and how the color of a character’s sofa can say a lot about who they are.
What does a set decorator do?
The set decorator is a department head that is responsible for their crew, but also all the decor on set. Lighting, art, rugs, furniture, custom-designed furniture, character layers, fabric, bedding, drapery—all those things.
I have a huge crew of people that helped me make that happen. I have buyers—a union position that can be an entryway into becoming a set decorator. There are set dec PAs who run all over the city, go to the fabric district, bring me samples, etc. There’s a lead person that is responsible for the logistics of my crew; they’re the people putting the decor in the sets and I’m telling them “move the couch a little over to the left” or, “let’s try these legs.” There’s the set dresser who’s dedicated on set, behind the camera when we’re not there as a representative of the set dec department, so if a lamp gets moved, he or she makes sure that continuity stays the same. And then there’s a set dec coordinator who helps me budget. It’s a lot of paperwork and number crunching. People forget that a big part of being a set decorator is staying on budget!
Nothing is ever the same. And I think people get drawn to the set decoration department because of that. All of my crew, they’re all artists in some way, shape or form and they’re all creative and just such kind, hard-working people. It’s a really special place to end up if you’re looking for a career where you love furniture and you love decor and you love art and then you want to be in film.
Crew 101: Everything You Need to Know About Getting Your First Job On Set How did you become a set decorator?
I met my mentor after designing the stage for Korn at the Apollo Theater when I was 19. He asked me to move to L.A. and I became his apprentice. He’s the person who told me what a set decorator was, who trained me. And then I got into the union. I did go to art school, I’ve always been super interested in decor, design, furniture, fabric, drapery, lighting, art… but I remember [my mentor] having me memorize TASCHEN’s “1,000 Chairs.”
It definitely took some years, but we segued from doing stage design to music videos, then commercials. For instance, the Hughes brothers were doing Korn’s music videos, then they were doing Adidas and Sprite commercials, which they hired us for. Then we got hired on movies and TV shows. I think I was 24 when I got into the union as a set decorator through those commercials.
But your journey doesn’t stop there. Once you’re in the union, there are still mountains you have to climb to get to the point where I’m at now. It’s taken a lot of hard work and dedication over the last 20 years. It’s like an art army: there are ranks and titles. Usually, someone would apprentice or PA so they’re around all the people in the department, learning from them. You do whatever it takes to support that department at that level, then you just keep working and growing. By no means do you ever feel like you can just sit back and be like, “okay, I’m here.” Every single day is like your first day on the job, you still have 110% deliver. Make sure your crew is happy and healthy. Everybody’s working hard for one goal, work with the show creator, work with the production designer, and constantly be innovating.
What does a typical day look like for a set decorator?
There is no typical day for a set decorator, and that’s what makes it fun. No day has ever been the same in my entire career. One day we’re custom-designing a coffee table, the next day I’m working on a freezer that rats are going to have to run under but it also has to be filled with frozen food but the food can’t really be frozen and the back has to be cut out so I have to figure out how a camera can get in there… Every single day is different.
I’m constantly checking in with my crew, the producers, construction coordinator, all the different elements, and crew. Like, “ok, I have to buy these lights and I need 20 of them. I need to talk to the DP, make sure they’re ok for his lighting standards, then I can get the buyer on the phone to get the lights shipped here in time, but then there’s a shipping issue.”
Every single day, there’s a challenge. It’s not just shopping all day long, going to Crate & Barrel, picking out beautiful stuff, and putting it in a room. It’s way, way more complex than that. I have to constantly be thinking about the budget, making sure I’m on-budget.
We work long hours—12-to-14-hour days, sometimes longer. I do a lot of research, my crew does a lot of research. A lot of communication, a lot of phone calls. The most fun part is when you finally have all your stuff and you get that time once the set is built by construction to try different things and decorate the set. Then the actors and everybody walk in the set and say, “Oh my gosh, this is incredible.”
But no matter how big or how small [a project is], I put the same amount of care, effort, love, ideas, and core design into it. We still bring it every time—that’s the goal.
When production wraps, we have to return everything—hopefully unscathed—to all the prop houses. When we purchase stuff, I always try to get deals to save money and stay on budget. That stuff gets categorized as assets and the studios have storage places that my set dressers will take everything to so if the set ever comes back or they do reshoots, those purchased items will be on ice waiting for us.
It’s a revolving door when you’re shooting because you don’t just shoot the whole thing and then—boom—you wrap and take it all back. You shoot and wait. You’re either block-shooting or shooting episodically, so you’re constantly picking up and returning, picking up and returning, picking up and returning. That’s what the lead person is for: logistically making sure all of that is done perfectly.
Who else do you collaborate with outside the art department?
“It’s a really special place to end up if you’re looking for a career where you love furniture and you love decor and you love art and you want to be in film.”
I basically work with all the department heads, and it starts from the top. Liz Feldman [the creator and writer of] “Dead to Me,” is incredible and so talented, and so trusting. We have endless meetings about the look of the show, the characters, the locations, the sets we’re building, colors. I work closely with the production designer [L.J. Houdyshell] and we discuss the character layers and I’m thinking about what paint color they’re putting on the walls so what color sofa I’m going to put against that wall—what meaning is inside of a painting that’s in one of the bedrooms, it’s all very connected. There’s not one thing haphazardly put on a set, every single thing down to a pen on a nightstand is thought about.
I work closely with the lighting department, the DP, the grips because there might be a light that I choose that only takes an LED bulb where they’re wanting halogen or incandescent. Every single thing is deeply, deeply discussed, and thought about.
There’s a lot of communication and that really is key to being successful because if everybody’s communicating and talking about every detail, why, what, how, where, that’s how we’re successful.
How do you hire your crew?
After doing this for 20 years, you become like family with your crew. My leadman, Tom [Bartlett], is incredible. I’ve worked with him now for God, I don’t even know how many years, but you know. My buyers, Emily [Shafer] and Julia [Moquin], they’re so talented and you know, I love hearing their ideas. I basically bring the same crew on every show that I do if I can. There can be conflicts, like if there’s a gap between us working, obviously everyone has to stay employed and if they choose to go to another show, we talk and figure it out together. But mostly, a set decorator keeps their same crew and they’re very loyal to me and I’m loyal to them and we try to work together because we have a shorthand. And it’s fun! We all care about each other very much and trust each other.
That also goes for me getting hired under a production designer. There are a handful of incredible production designers that are just so talented and I love working for them. I always hope to have the scheduling work out where it can.
How + Why You Need to Build Your Crew Network How do you get your jobs now?
I have relationships now after doing this long enough with a handful of production designers. If I hear of a job that I'm really interested in doing, I'll try to piece together the people who could at least get me an interview. But typically, we all stick together and grow together and help each other stay employed. Production designers will reach out to me, producers reach out and say, “I have this project, I heard from this other production designer/producer/creator that you’re really great” or, “I really liked your work.” So there are multiple ways that I get jobs but it’s taken a lot of hard work and time to get to this point where I’ll get the consistent calls.
What’s your favorite “Dead to Me” set?
Jen’s house was my favorite set, but it also had its challenges. The actual location of the house is in Sherman Oaks, but the interior of the house is onstage. It was just so fun, really thinking deeply about Jen Harding and her character, the two boys, how Judy came into the picture, what Jen does for a living. We research on Zillow, we researched on Instagram, Tumblr, we went down and looked at open houses to really get the vibe of Laguna Beach and see what kind of decor a real estate agent would have in Laguna.
Jen’s house is a representation of her and her family and her career as a real estate agent and her city. We really thought deeply about making sure it was aspirational. That was a really important word in researching and making her house what it is. And then all the little layers: she has two sons, so there’s a Rubik’s cube thrown in a corner, there are different little tchotchkes to make it known she has two boys living there.
Is there set decoration that has inspired you or that you would recommend other aspiring set decorators look to?
All the old stuff. All the Bela Lugosi [films], Elizabeth Taylor’s “Cleopatra.” I love “The Devil Wears Prada,” I absolutely love it. I love “Beetlejuice,” incredible set decoration because so much of that stuff was custom and very, very out of the box. I love “Memoirs of a Geisha,” it’s such an incredible example of set decoration. I talked to the director actually and he was like, “we built that.” I couldn’t believe it. Even being a set decorator myself, I was just really, really impressed. I love watching all film and all TV, old, new, present-day, whatever, you know, it all has its own challenges of set decorating.
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