Design File
Behind the Scenes
Friday, January 28, 2011
The date was 9.02.10
WHAT? I really bought a plane ticket to fly to LA on 90210 and I was headed to the west coast…on a flight to a place where dreams come true! Yes, I was hoping to see some old friends at The Peach Pit, and maybe I did bump into Richard Simmons, but this was a business trip for me! I was about spend the day as a Set Designer on ABC’s Brothers & Sisters. OK, so I have an in…my brother, John Kazlauskas, works for the show…and maybe this was a trip to visit him, but for this one day MK Design was going to work on a real TV show.
Next to design, my second passion is Hollywood! The gossip, the lights, the shows, the drama…I love it all, so when the opportunity arose for me to spend the day “working” with the set decoration team, I jumped at the chance.
Not only is a guided tour of Nora Walker’s home a decorator’s dream (have you seen her wallpaper?) but as a self proclaimed Disney Nerd I was enamored with the pure history in the sound stages. These are the same halls that Mary Poppins walked! In fact, almost every Disney movie you can think of was filmed here.
As I began my day as a set decorator I was handed a script to read, and I could barely stay in my seat. I was left with a cliff hanger at the end of last season and here I am reading about Scotty cheating?!? So much has happened in only five episodes, but there is no time for questions. In fact, there was no time to even finish reading the script -- all the scandals will have to wait -- as we set out for our morning of shopping. Now to be honest, I was hoping to decorate a beautiful space with exquisite details (perhaps a table scape in Nora’s dining room?) but not today…today we are shopping for a vending machine! Carrell Shaw, set design shopper extraordinaire, was my guide for the morning. Carrell has loads of experience in “the biz”, having worked on many feature films and television shows. (Wisteria Lane was her previous address before landing with The Walker’s). And although we were searching for a vending machine to be used in a scene shot in the hallway of a court house, she was prepared to give me the tour of some of the best prop houses in city.
I thought I had an idea of what to expect at a prop house since I’ve been to some local furniture rental places for home staging work, but I could have never imagined what was in store. A few of the stops on our shopping trip were Omega Cinema Props, Air Designs & Universal Prop House. The warehouses were enormous and housed anything and everything you can imagine! Endless aisles with rows and rows of period décor, bedding, drapery workrooms, beautiful antiques, street lights, even the dumpsters outside the building were for rent.
But this was Hollywood, and if someone can write it then the talented set decorators have to be able to source it…and trust me they can!
Pirates and Cannons and Bears…Oh My!
We ended our tour at RC Vintage, or as I like to call it, a time machine! This place was amazing. I’m quite certain that the entire set of That 70’s Show was there. It was very impressive to see everything in such pristine condition since I tend to see things this age more beat up at antique stores. I definitely had some childhood flashbacks!
But let’s get back to the vending machine. For television, it has to be free of any logos or advertising of any sort. And it had to actually work, as part of the scene is Kevin getting frustrated when he puts his dollar into the machine and nothing comes out. (Come on, we’ve all been there!) Nora calms him down and they begin to talk about the real issues he’s dealing with…it’s a TV drama, so obviously there are issues! Any fan of the show wouldn’t even think about the fact that two lovely ladies spent the day shopping for a rental soda machine, no, they would just enjoy the scene. I guess that’s the beauty of set decoration…a job well done is often a job no one even notices!
The second part of my day was spent watching an episode shoot. I was so excited to be sitting in a fancy director’s chair behind the cameras, crew, and monitors. I was listening to the dialog on headphones and the stars were on set…the first few takes were AMAZING, then, well, by about the 10th take I started learning the lines myself. OK, so I’ve determined I don’t want to be an actor, but having the chance to meet Calista Flockhart was pretty cool. Let’s face it, with two young boys a lot of my day is about her husband, Indiana Jones / Han Solo.
I took too many pictures to post in this Design File, but there is plenty more to see! Head over to my Facebook page for the rest of the pictures.
And be sure to tune in to Brothers & Sisters THIS Sunday January 16th for their 100th Episode…and YES it was written by my brother!
It’s all about Brothers & Sisters…right?!?
Stay tuned for more from MK Design in 2011! Have an idea for an upcoming Design File? Just send me an email at
WHAT? I really bought a plane ticket to fly to LA on 90210 and I was headed to the west coast…on a flight to a place where dreams come true! Yes, I was hoping to see some old friends at The Peach Pit, and maybe I did bump into Richard Simmons, but this was a business trip for me! I was about spend the day as a Set Designer on ABC’s Brothers & Sisters. OK, so I have an in…my brother, John Kazlauskas, works for the show…and maybe this was a trip to visit him, but for this one day MK Design was going to work on a real TV show.
Next to design, my second passion is Hollywood! The gossip, the lights, the shows, the drama…I love it all, so when the opportunity arose for me to spend the day “working” with the set decoration team, I jumped at the chance.
Not only is a guided tour of Nora Walker’s home a decorator’s dream (have you seen her wallpaper?) but as a self proclaimed Disney Nerd I was enamored with the pure history in the sound stages. These are the same halls that Mary Poppins walked! In fact, almost every Disney movie you can think of was filmed here.
As I began my day as a set decorator I was handed a script to read, and I could barely stay in my seat. I was left with a cliff hanger at the end of last season and here I am reading about Scotty cheating?!? So much has happened in only five episodes, but there is no time for questions. In fact, there was no time to even finish reading the script -- all the scandals will have to wait -- as we set out for our morning of shopping. Now to be honest, I was hoping to decorate a beautiful space with exquisite details (perhaps a table scape in Nora’s dining room?) but not today…today we are shopping for a vending machine! Carrell Shaw, set design shopper extraordinaire, was my guide for the morning. Carrell has loads of experience in “the biz”, having worked on many feature films and television shows. (Wisteria Lane was her previous address before landing with The Walker’s). And although we were searching for a vending machine to be used in a scene shot in the hallway of a court house, she was prepared to give me the tour of some of the best prop houses in city.
I thought I had an idea of what to expect at a prop house since I’ve been to some local furniture rental places for home staging work, but I could have never imagined what was in store. A few of the stops on our shopping trip were Omega Cinema Props, Air Designs & Universal Prop House. The warehouses were enormous and housed anything and everything you can imagine! Endless aisles with rows and rows of period décor, bedding, drapery workrooms, beautiful antiques, street lights, even the dumpsters outside the building were for rent.
But this was Hollywood, and if someone can write it then the talented set decorators have to be able to source it…and trust me they can!
Pirates and Cannons and Bears…Oh My!
We ended our tour at RC Vintage, or as I like to call it, a time machine! This place was amazing. I’m quite certain that the entire set of That 70’s Show was there. It was very impressive to see everything in such pristine condition since I tend to see things this age more beat up at antique stores. I definitely had some childhood flashbacks!
But let’s get back to the vending machine. For television, it has to be free of any logos or advertising of any sort. And it had to actually work, as part of the scene is Kevin getting frustrated when he puts his dollar into the machine and nothing comes out. (Come on, we’ve all been there!) Nora calms him down and they begin to talk about the real issues he’s dealing with…it’s a TV drama, so obviously there are issues! Any fan of the show wouldn’t even think about the fact that two lovely ladies spent the day shopping for a rental soda machine, no, they would just enjoy the scene. I guess that’s the beauty of set decoration…a job well done is often a job no one even notices!
The second part of my day was spent watching an episode shoot. I was so excited to be sitting in a fancy director’s chair behind the cameras, crew, and monitors. I was listening to the dialog on headphones and the stars were on set…the first few takes were AMAZING, then, well, by about the 10th take I started learning the lines myself. OK, so I’ve determined I don’t want to be an actor, but having the chance to meet Calista Flockhart was pretty cool. Let’s face it, with two young boys a lot of my day is about her husband, Indiana Jones / Han Solo.
And be sure to tune in to Brothers & Sisters THIS Sunday January 16th for their 100th Episode…and YES it was written by my brother!
It’s all about Brothers & Sisters…right?!?
Stay tuned for more from MK Design in 2011! Have an idea for an upcoming Design File? Just send me an email at
