My friend Mary Holyoke tried to talk me into becoming a set designer back in 2004 or so.  I was managing architectural design and construction projects for the public school system at the time and told her that I would like to do that perhaps in five years.  So when the time came, she put me in touch with Art Director Marisa Frantz.  She was working in Santa Fe at the time. About six weeks later, we finally connected and I showed her some of my architectural drawings.  Four days later, I received a message from Marisa asking if I would like to come to the studio and meet the Production Designer, Robb Wilson-King.  I showed up the next morning and after 5 minutes meeting with the art department crew, Robb said, “Everybody who wants Ricardo to join us raise your hand; (pause) now raise your hand.”  I raised my hand too, making it unanimous.  I was told there was two weeks of work for me, perhaps three.

Thus did my career in film making begin.  Marisa taught me most of what I needed to know to make the transition from architectural design to set design.  The builders don’t want to know how to build it, just what it should look like.  It’s about the surfaces, defining the edges and the planes.  Two weeks later, Marisa offered me the position of Lead Set Designer on Breaking Bad Season Two.

I develop the set designs based on the Production Designer’s vision and the Art Director’s direction.  Changes are common and whole sets of drawings are often scraped when changes come from the Production Designer, writers or producers.  We often reuse sets as well, making necessary modifications and surface changes.  I never know what I will be doing the next day or the next minute and often I work on numerous sets as priorities change.  I draw construction documents for approval by the Production Designer and Producers that the Construction Coordinator “W” Gilpin” uses to have the sets estimated and built.  I was amazed upon delivering a set of set drawings to “W” Gilpin to see that the sets I had delivered drawings for the day before had already been built!  The pace is always express or super-express.

I use pencil on velum to develop the construction drawings.  Stage Plans showing where each set goes on the sound studio stage are developed with ink for each episode.  Directors plans are done in ink and used by the director and crew to note and diagram each scene for each set.  This often involves going to locations and measuring the spaces to be used, both interior and exterior, so rapid surveys are performed before the drawings can be created.  I also use Google Earth to develop larger site plans in ink when needed.

I thank Sony, AMC and the producers of Breaking Bad Season 2 & 3 for permitting the inclusion of drawings and my photographs on this site and associated content copyright resides with them.  Similarly, I wish to thank the respective producers of In Plain Sight Season 3, The Book of Eli and Pirana 3D for permitting the inclusion of my drawings and images of built sets  and the associated content copyright resides with them.

Check back soon as I am now developing this page of my website and it will be changing often.  I will be attaching drawings and photos from Piranha 3D in the next few weeks.

I am committed to and love the people I work with.  I consider this my community and together we make great movies in New Mexico and this in turn makes money for New Mexico.  Enjoy!

Ricardo

505-417-0140

ricardoguillermo7@gmail.com