The Attic Door

Alex Eastwood
Production Designer

Hello to everyone out there on the World Wide Web. My name is Alex Eastwood and I am the Production Designer for the feature film, A Monster in the Attic. I am writing a series of blogs based on my experience on this film, and I will try and tell this story as chronologically and truthfully as possible…

Part 1…
To begin, I have known Danny for ten years. We went to the same high school, and later to the same film program at The University of Central Florida. We have worked together as filmmakers for over five years and his passion for adventurous and endearing storytelling has always lured me to work with him again. He approached me in January to be the Production Designer, which kind of took me by surprise. For starters, I had always worked as his cinematographer on prior projects, and secondly, I had never worked in an Art Department before (let alone been in charge of one)! I think I would have told anyone else that I couldn’t do it, but the chance to work on a feature film, and with Danny again, was quite tempting. I told him to give me a week to think it over.

I had absolutely no experience when it came to production design or to feature filmmaking. I had a full time job that I couldn’t quit, and preproduction was going to add another full time job to my schedule. And I had a wife that I was going to be separated from for 7 weeks if I took this job. (Oh yeah, my right wrist and left elbow were broken from a Christmas skateboarding accident, so I physically wasn’t in the highest spirits either). My wife and I were going over what it would mean if I committed to this job; the chaotic schedule, the financial stress and the marital strain to name a few. Knowing all of this, she was the one who pushed me the most to do it. Even though it was going to be one of the hardest things we’ve done, she knew that filmmaking was my passion, and that only from true risk and hard work came true reward and quality. So with her love and support I felt empowered and ready to tackle the world. I told Danny I would be his Production Designer and it felt great to be back in the filmmaking saddle. The only thing left to do was figure out what a Production Designer actually does…

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