Wynn Thomas + Hannah Beachler + Dierdra Govan
We’re back with another edition of “Black Creatives to Know”. This time we’re featuring production designers - Wynn Thomas, Hannah Beachler, and Dierdra Govan. Production designers are responsible for the visual concept of a film, television or theater production. While working closely with the director and producer, they create a design style for sets, locations, graphics, props, lighting, camera angles and costumes.
Wynn Thomas
Wynn Thomas on set with Robert Deniro. Thomas worked on films for Robert Deniro’s Tribeca Productions.
Award-winning, incomparable Wynn Thomas is the first Black film production designer in history. With a BFA in Theatre-Design from Boston University, he began his career as the resident designer with the world famous Negro Ensemble Company. He also designed sets for Joe Papp’s Public Theatre, Art Stage in Washington, D.C., Great Lakes Shakespeare Co. in Cleveland, Ohio and the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, CT.
Set design for Malcom X, She’s Gotta Have It (1986), and Mars Attacks!
Over the years he worked with directors Ron Howard, Tim Burton, and Robert Deniro’s Tribeca Productions. His work can be seen in A Cinderella Man, A Beautiful Mind, Mars Attacks!, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar. He’s had a 20 year collaborative relationship with Spike Lee working on over 10 Spike Lee joints including She’s Gotta Have It, Do the Right Thing, Malcom X, and Da 5 Bloods.
Many more of Wynn’s firsts include being the first Black production designer to become a member of the Art Director’s Guild in LA and first to be nominated for the Art Director’s Guild award for his work on Mars Attacks!
Excerpt from Wynn Thomas’ interview with African American Literature Book Club
“Movies were still not on my radar. My goal was to be a successful theatre designer which, I might add, was very hard because as an African-American I had few choices. I was known as the guy who did all the black plays, so I was pigeon-holed. I wasn't given the opportunity to do Shakespeare and Molière, which frustrated me because in my teenage years that was the work that I was doing.”
Hannah Beachler
Photo by Jennifer S. Altman / For The Times
Award-winning production designer Hannah Beachler is most known for her work on Black Panther. She began her career sweeping floors on low-budget Lifetime movie sets. As a Black woman, working in the film industry is not always rainbows and sunshine. She’s worked hard over the last 15 years honing her skills and blending disciplines like urban planning, architecture, construction, and painting. Through her vast knowledge of visual storytelling Beachler is able to bring worlds to life.
Her breakout film, Fruitvale Station jump started her relationship with director Ryan Coogler. Her Oscar-winning set design can be seen in Moonlight. For this film, Beachler got innovative with the small budget they had. The Southern Gothic feel of Beyonce’s visual album Lemonade, that was Beachler’s work on 8 of the 11 videos. You can also enjoy her work on the sets of Creed, Zipper, Miles Ahead, On the Run II, Hateship. Loveship., and The Town that Dreaded Sundown.
Beachler’s work for Fruitvale Station, Beyonce’s visual album Lemonade, Black Panther, and Moonlight
An excerpt from Hannah Beachler’s interview with Okay Player
Find a mentor if you want to get into this field. Wynn Thomas, who’s been Spike Lee’s production designer since She’s Gotta Have It, is my mentor.
He’s one of the reasons why I even thought I could do this because I just did not see a black person doing this job. I saw Wynn Thomas, and that was the thing that was like, ‘Oh, okay. Yeah, I can do this.’ He did Tim Burton‘s Mars Attacks! I think mentors and understanding what it is you’re doing and having real passion for that is important if that’s what you want to get into.
Beachler’s role on film sets encompasses more than creating designs, she must break down the script, work closely with the director, and manage the set decorator, costume designer, prop master and construction workers. Often times long-haul road trips are required.
An excerpt Hannah Beachler’s interview with Okay Player discussing Black Panther
I mean look, my expectations don’t really ever have to do with the box office for anything that I do. I think the biggest expectation I have, and hopefully I’ve done it successfully, is basically giving the world a perspective they haven’t seen of African / black folks’ world. That there is a history beyond slavery that we don’t know, and that history is really rich and diverse on its own, you know?
Deirdra Govan
An accomplished multi-hyphenate creative, Deirdra Govan is both a costume designer AND production designer. For over 25 years, Govan has worked in film & television, fashion & beauty, and architecture & interior design. Her deep knowledge sets her apart as a distinctive story teller with an eye for compelling content. As far as film credits, her costume design work is featured in Sorry to Bother You, Roxanne Roxanne, The Sun is Also a Star, and most recently The L-Word Generation Q. She contributed her production design skills to Destined and Gone Fishing.
Govan attributes her design inspiration to her global experiences, cultural anthropology, design activism for social change, and the psychology behind clothing and space. Beyond the screen, she designs experiential and social justice initiatives. Her most recent work can be viewed in Montgomery, AL at The Equal Justice Initiatives new The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration. She is also a consulting partner for Theory of Place Design, a social impact design consultancy.
Govan’s costume design work for Roxann Roxanne and Sorry to Bother You and production design work for Destined and The Legacy Museum.
Govan received her Masterʼs of Science in Interior Architectural & Design from Pratt Institute. At Parsons School of Design she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Fashion Design while simultaneously completing a Bachelor of Business Administration in Strategic Design and Management.
Excerpt from Deirdra Govan’s interview with Hypebae discussing costume designing Sorry to Bother You
The costumes are meant to be a melange of many styles. In the STBY alt-universe of our film, you’re not really able to pinpoint what year we are in. The baseline is centered in Afro-Punk, Afro-futurism and our film is a study in the politics of alt-style. The history of punk was a rallying cry against the mainstream establishment, a subculture. Afrofuturism is a combination of science fiction, fantasy, and magical realism with non-traditional western ideologies. Both of these movements and styles genres have been replicated in popular culture time and again. With Sorry to Bother You, I’ve strategically paid tribute to these various aspects of the costumes I created with each character having its own signature statement of personal style.
