Production Designer Rachel Payne works on set.

This Post is in a series of posts that is directed at the members of the IAWTV/Streamy Awards. The content will highlight different members of the Compulsions team. These are meant for both awareness and as a guide to showcase what each individual brought to the project.

When you approach Rachel and ask what a Production Designer does her response is, “A Production Designer is the person that is in charge of everything in the frame…that doesn’t move…and is usually out of focus”.

From Producer Michael Tohl: Given the gritty tone of our show, it was a natural dilemma… how do we balance our budget while pulling off sets that “sold” on screen? My favorite creative solution to a production design challenge we faced, can be seen in the climax of Episode Eight. At the end of the episode, Justine goes to pick up “the package” in a vacant parking structure. When she goes to the drop off spot (a hole in a pillar behind a parking sign) the package is not there, and all we see is the chunky inside of a concrete pillar. That pillar was a fake pillar, that she handmade hours before we shot that scene! It only cost us a few bucks, and it looks great on screen. That is one example of her excellence, but there is also so much fine detail work that she did, and as long as you don’t notice it… that means she did her job well.

Janna Bossier stands in front of the false pillar in episode 8

From Director Nathan Atkinson: Rachel Payne is my “go-to” Production Designer, period. I’ve done a few projects without her (due to availability) and when others simply couldn’t, I always found myself saying, “Rachel would’ve been able to make it work.” She has simply never failed. No matter how outrageous the request, she always comes up with a (ridiculously practical) solution… even if it’s constructed of nothing but “gaff-tape.” For example, we needed a pillar in a public parking garage with a hole burrowed into it. She made one out of paper mache for next to nothing… and, every time I watch, I truly forget that it’s fake. She’s really that good. Other times it’s a priceless antique. “Rachel, that’s amazing, where in the world did you find that?” Rachel, with her ever-disarmingly thick Alabama accent, “Well, none of the Prop Houses had one, so I said to myself, I’ll just make one … and then I found this at a Thrift Store.” To be perfectly frank, Rachel took our shoe-string budget and made everything you see in front of the camera look just as real as if this were a documentary – or better, in some cases. She’s simply the best.

From Creator Bernie Su: In reality most Art Direction is hard to notice, and in reality most production design you really shouldn’t notice. But in highlighting the skills of Rachel Payne I’m going to point out what’s fake to appreciate what she brought to the table.

Craig Frank stands above his tool bench.

Interrogation Room – This is THE set piece of the series. Here you can see the details of what Rachel brought. Early on Rachel envisioned a bevy of tools to place at Craig Frank’s arsenal, but not only tools. She wanted a bench, an artificial quick to strike table that added to the simplicity and the fear of the scene. Thus Rachel went about constructing this table from scratch. Morning of she yanked out her power tools, goggles and away she went building  her bench.

Annemarie Pazmino in the Cassandra set.

Cassandra’s room -We always envisioned this as the 2nd setpiece of the series. It really is just a room, but we went as big as we could. 4 Monitors, all active with two floating on arms. We got an obsessed voyeur here, so Rachel went all out. A great little detail of this scene is the DVD rack behind her, a mass archive of all the footage the character has acquired from her victims.

One final note on Rachel. The Office set seen throughout the show was originally a completely vacant office. Everything you see from the stationary, the supplies, the white board, to the copier were all artificially brought in by Rachel. There is nothing like walking in on that set you get completely lost in, “Wait, this isn’t a working office?”.

So please consider Rachel Payne from Compulsions for Best Art Direction in the 2010 Streamys.