Directed by Muriel Naim
Short Film, Role: Costume Designer
Screened at the The Santa Barbara International Film Festival for the ANORA X Kodak Short Film Showcase, curated by Sean Baker.
Faygeleh
Receiving a job that requires deep research is always a thrill, for me. Muriel is a method, detail oriented director. She demanded accuracy and excellence, and I was happy to deliver. Much of prep involved learning all the dressing nuances of the hyperspecific Hasidic sect, Bobov. From materials that determine class differences, to the shoe styles that exemplify attitudes towards modernity, every piece signaled something significant.
Most major pieces were loaned from generous contacts that I made, creating a sense of authenticity that films featuring Orthodox Jews rarely obtain.
Directed by Jonathan Mizrahi
Short Film, Role: Prop Maker
A part of the 52 Films collective.
Feed the Meter
Feed the Meter tells the tale of a parking meter with a gory payment system; demanding (human) blood as opposed to cash. As the prop maker on this micro-short, I had the crucial responsibility of creating this puppet from scratch. This creature had to be janky, disfigured, and animated. And, he had to look heavy but weigh close to nothing.
I carved styrofoam for the base, bent and stacked thick metal rings for the head, and covered the frame in a layer of chicken wire. Then a layer of plaster, followed by silver paint, then clay for the shaping and affixing of droopy eyeballs. I added some curated junk to its body.
A hand puppet was then sewn and given sharp plastic teeth, before being handled by a puppeteer through the gumball-slot mouth, and voila! He came alive.
Check out the process above!
Thinkin’ About Thankin’ by Benny Friedman
Directed by Motty Berkowitz
Music Video, Role: Costume Designer
Semi Viral Music video, amassing 200k views in less than a month.
Benny Friedman is one of the most prominent singers in Jewish Pop. This joyful music video was one of the first times he appeared in a music video without a suit, wanting to fully commit to the characters he and his dancers would be portraying.
For believabilities sake (and for the mindset of the dancers) I created roles for each member of the construction crew. “The Hardworking Bear”, “Slacker in Green”, and “Nerdy Engineer" to name a few. Designing based off of characters and personalities allows me to avoid cliches and uniformity, and create a believable, homogeneous array of outfits. And, of course, staining was a huge part of the process. Everything was aged and and sprayed with dust and dirt in a therapeutically aggressive process.
Future Dance by Yaakov Galen
Directed by Mia Friedman
Music Video, Role: Production Designer, Costume Designer
This full bodied, exciting and glamourous music video by the media company, Thank You Hashem was a joy to work on. We created the glitz of a retro disco party, complete with shimmering backdrops and hanging disco balls, and full color jumpsuits and checkered elastic suits. The appeal was to children and nostalgic parents, creating a party of dancers, musicians, singers, and influencers that no one would want to miss.
Five Minutes by Car
Directed by Derek Myers
Short Film, Role: Production Designer, Costume Designer
This horror-comedy-drama short was so full of detail and wit. Derek, my good friend and writer/director of this film and I worked closely to perfectly curate this nightmarish world to life.
The protagonist of 5 Minutes comes face to face with chilling villains— from singing white saviors, to spine-chilling white supremacists and their heroin addicted friends.
The rural landscape of this world was dusty, and much of my job was to age and stain every prop and article of clothing into oblivion.
And unfortunately during the filming process, when a location was suddenly made unavailable (possibly by a real white supremacist?) my assistants and I had a few hours to materialize a long empty field into a drug and trash infested den, complete with tents, fire filled trash cans, tires, and all the lights we could find at Walmart. Unexpected roadblocks are always exciting to navigate!!
Lullaby
Directed by Mussy
Short Film, Role: Production Designer and Costume Designer
Lullaby was a sweet and touching tale of a reconnection between grandmother and grandson. The director, Mussy, wrote the script for his Columbia MFA thesis, and we took many cues and experiences from his early life in creating the story. Therefore, we had plenty of discussions about his memories, family, and background before building.
Spot Dessert Bar: The Harvest
Directed by Kwang Min Lee (coming soon)
Commercial, Role: Production Designer
This experimental and nostalgic commercial follows a young girl's memories of her mothers garden. The ad spotlights Spot Dessert Bars signature dish, ‘The Harvest,’ a molten lava cake imitating a potted plant.
The setting was a 90’s Korean home, and prep time was spent researching and collecting fitting imagery. Many flowers and plant pots were acquired to create this blooming space, both inside and outside (flower arranging is quite fun for me), and I also enjoyed creating the young girls room, laden with delicate origami paper cranes.
Octopus
Directed by Shoshana Ehrenkranz
Short Film, Role: Production Designer, Costume Designer
‘Octopus’ tells two stories— of a lonely man in a sexless marriage who discovers tentacle pornagraphy, and a struggling artist embarrassed of subjecting herself to drawing it.
The vision was to create aquatic motifs everywhere, from the couples dining room table, to the artist's therapist's office. Another role of mine was, of course, to create the tentacle porn. I love creating digital art, and I have a special interest in human anatomy, so this was a fun mission for me!
Amal
Directed by Fatimah El Zahraa Zeni
Short Film, Role: Production Designer
Featured in A MAGAZINE curated by.
This project was an immense undertaking. The story is of a young girl and her father, attempting to get through and survive the (at that time, ongoing) Syrian Civil war. The film takes place almost entirely in their tent— their tent which is their life. The director, Fatimah, and I spoke at length about what these two family members would have/would have saved. We collected many images and references, and listened to interviews of refugees to maintain accuracy.
Along with the research, the actual building of the tent was quite a task. For filming purposes it was decided that the tent would be significantly expanded (while still feeling small) in both height and width. I built the frame from PVC pipes and the tent from a combination of rain-proof tarp and worn cloth. It was layered in more fabric, and the floor was covered with Persian rugs. The tent was made to be assembled and disassembled relatively easily from the soundstage location to exterior one.
One of the most special parts of this project was to watch the child actress interact with the space. It can be so beneficial for an actor (especially a younger one) to feel totally immersed in a place, to be able to roam free in it and make it theirs.
Like Clockwork
Directed by Lauren Anderson
Short Film/Proof of Concept, Role: Production Designer
Winner of Best Proof of Concept Award at the Austin Short Film Festival Fall 2024.
‘Like Clockwork’ is a dreamy, coming of age romance with a ‘Wonderland’ theme— emphasising the passage of time and the rushing end of youth.
The picture was meant to be stress inducing and overwhelming. Using the palette of a stressed student and nagging roommate, I coated the walls with layers of text and hoarders’ decor to bury the audience in anxiety.
The most satisfying set to build was the Wonderland/Queen of Hearts themed birthday party, especially the creation of this specialty headpiece (above) that I sculpted out of playing cards and ribbon, as well as creating and decorating a three tiered Birthday cake out of styrofoam and plaster (above).
It's All From You by Shaindel Antelis
Directed by Mia Friedman
Music Video, Role: Production Designer
‘It’s All From You’ was a delightful set to be a part of. Shaindel was a powerhouse of passion, and working with a children’s choir is always so sweet.
It was also a great practice in pivoting when plans go awry! Initially, the shoot was to be in a garden, with all my plants and gardening equipment as supplements to an already existing greenery. However, the plans suddenly shifted to shooting on a rooftop, when my flowers and garden supplies would be the main feature.
I cut a grass lawn from home depot into stepping-stone-like grass patches, and “planted” long plastic glass stems between the rubber tiles of the rooftop. We covered gas valves with tarp and ribbon, and braided flowers into the railing. It came out so beautifully and intentionally.
The Hand That Reaches out
Directed by Casey Carbone
Short Film, Role: Production Designer
Nominated for Nominated for Best Production Design at Brooklyn Colleges 40th annual Film Festival.
The Hand that Reaches Out was a very personal project to the director, who wrote this story in reference to her own experience with grief. I worked closely with Casey to create a serene space for her characters to drift through, sprinkled with references from her own life.
Flowers were a major visual element in this story. I designed and arranged dozens of sympathy bouquets (bottom left corner) and dried dozens of flowers weeks prior to filming, then strung and hung them from the ceiling (middle left and bottom right). My favorite piece, however, was the haze of Polaroid’s we strung up (middle and bottom middle). Hundreds of photographs hung from the ceiling, a tangible memory that the actors could walk through and interact with.
Domini
Directed by Eilon Ben-Nissan
Short Film, Role: Production Designer
Winner of Best Short Film at the Near Nazareth Film Festival.
Nominated for Best Short Film at Star International Film Festival.
This dreamy, existential film was filled with subtle, slightly off putting little details. Placing things like specks of paint in the grass (middle left) and colored sand stewn at the beach (top right) allowed us to softly give the film a feeling of being in near-reality. The colors leaking into the scene also gave a stark contrast to the more contained, depressing side of the film portrayed in black and white.
There was a recurring sequence of Domini that saw the protagonist waking up in bed. To achieve this shot in the limited space, I tied and sewed the bedding and the actor onto an upright mattress (bottom left) Another fun task for Domini was the painting of the canvas on the final beach scene. This painting was meant to match an important previous shot. I’m a bit fixated on the details, so you can see me (bottom right) making some last minute adjustments to the clouds in order for the painting to match.
Oceanside
Directed by Richard Imburgio
Short Film, Role: Production Designer
Winner of Best Production Design at Brooklyn Colleges 41th annual Film Festival.
Winner of Best Short Film at Brooklyn Colleges 41th annual Film Festival.
Oceanside was a murder mystery set in old fashioned middle America. Curating antique props that matched the era and area were a priority. Additionally, the props had to dispel a certain subtle eariness. Little figurines, and rusty sharp objects carefully placed, set an uncanny mood.
The most exciting part of the process had to be the cult ceremony scenes. After much searching for the perfect carved idol for the cult to worship, I ended up sculpting and painting one myself (above), as well as the stone colored masks that the cult members wore above) for the most haunting affect.
From Boy with Love
Directed by Quinn Holmes
Short Film, Role: Production Designer
From Boy With Love was a wild ride. We wanted an ultra maximalist space, full of bright colors and excitement at every turn. There was a ton of creative freedom, so we went crazy with decor. We covered one room completely, entirely, in small doodles and drawings (middle photo). And instead of wallpaper, I decorated the other room with faux neon fur, cut and sewn into a cow print pattern. Huge and tiny childrens toys were set up everywhere throughout the set- creating a bursting and overwhelming space.
This is not a Pipe
Directed by Erica Core
Short Film, Role: Production Designer
This is Not a Pipe is the story of an artist breaking down as she finds her style. It lives in the uncanny valley, so the production design is ominous, but casually rooted in reality. The protagonist is followed around by images inspired from the paintings of surrealist Rene Magritte (‘The Great War’, left image. ‘The Portrait’, center image). Wanting to stick to his aesthetic, I handpainted many of the props (e.g the umbrella in the left image and eyeball in the right image.
Leon
Directed by Jonathan Mizrahi
Short Film, Role: Production Designer, Costume Designer
Leon takes place in a cramped apartment of a large dystopian city. It’s a tragic story of a grieving young woman, so the set had to remain human and somewhat familiar despite looking deeply futuristic. The thought process was to collect items that might have survived the decay of pure human history and the increasing presence of machines.
The most exciting part of the process was creating a miniature city (left image). We built the world of of painted cartons, retired electronics, any pieces of plastic we could find.
Bildungsroman
Directed by Shoshana Ehrenkranz
Short Film, Role: Production Designer
Bildungsroman follows a young Jewish girl questioning her family’s weekly tradition- the Sabbath. This home was exciting to decorate; I went to my own hometown and collected Jewish art and Judaica from my own family and friends. I learned through this films process that the most believable set is often one curated by real people in real time.