Caro Story

Out on Hulu (or Disney plus internationally) from 14th November 2024.

Designing Say Nothing, based on Patrick Radden Keefe’s award-winning book, was a profound responsibility. The Troubles in Northern Ireland, one of the most photographed and documented conflicts in modern history, carry immense emotional weight. From iconic images of British soldiers in Belfast to mothers shielding their children amid rubble-strewn streets, these visuals are deeply etched into public memory. Capturing this period authentically while honoring the people and stories it represents was both a challenge and a privilege.

Our design approach began with extensive research into the era, not only in Belfast but across Northern Ireland, London, and Ireland. We aimed to create a world that was immersive, relatable, and emotionally resonant. It was vital that our sets transported the cast and audience into a living, breathing version of the past, not a monochrome reconstruction. We wanted the cast to feel as if they were stepping into the very spaces their characters inhabited—spaces shaped by resilience, loss, and an often-contradictory vibrancy of life.

One of the central design challenges was recreating the Divis Flats, a key architectural and narrative landmark in Belfast. The Flats were a hub of the Troubles and home to Jean McConville, the story’s moral epicenter. Abducted by the IRA, her absence left a devastating legacy for her ten children. The original Divis Flats were demolished in the 1980s, leaving only the Divis Tower, so we reconstructed this vital location by combining a Sheffield location with a backlot, stage builds, partial exteriors, and extensive VFX set extensions. Every detail, from window frames to building textures, was painstakingly recreated to ensure accuracy while seamlessly integrating the multiple elements into a cohesive, believable world.

The backlot itself was designed with versatility and dynamism in mind. Streets, alleyways, shop interiors, and house interiors were interconnected, allowing for continuous camera movement during chase sequences or intimate character moments. This flexibility enabled the actors to move fluidly through the set, creating an immersive experience that heightened their performances. It also allowed us to redress and transform areas to depict different parts of Belfast, maximizing the set’s functionality and storytelling potential.

A crucial aspect of our design was capturing the era’s surprising vibrancy. While the Troubles are often remembered in stark, grayscale images, our research revealed rich colors in the homes and streets of post-war Britain and Ireland. Advances in technology made bold wallpapers, vivid paints, and layered interiors more accessible. Even in hardship, people invested in their homes, filling them with a sense of pride and care. By incorporating these elements, we brought warmth and life to the characters’ environments, contrasting the tension outside their doors.

Ultimately, the design of Say Nothing was about balancing historical accuracy with emotional depth. Every detail—from the texture of rubble-filled streets to the vibrant interiors—was crafted to honor the stories of those who lived through this era. It was an opportunity to tell a story of conflict, resilience, and humanity with authenticity and care, ensuring that both the visual and emotional landscapes felt true to this pivotal moment in history.

as Supervising Art Director

Directors: Hiro Murai, Donald Glover, Ibra Ake

Production Company: FX

As Supervising Art Director.

It was fantastic to Supervise on this film for Designer Simon Bowles, and Director Florian Zeller.

We built the family apartment on a stage in North London as we were unable to shoot the entire film in New York. Wonderful Backdrops by Rosco helped set the scene as well as fantastic set decoration by Mickaela Trodden.

We scoped out many fantastic London locations that we shot as New York and then made sure that they would seamlessly cut with the exterior New York scenes.

as Supervising Art Director

Prod Designer: Catrin Meredydd

Created by: Frank Miller and Tom Wheeler

Prod: Netrix

Dir: Johnny Hopkins

DOP: Polly Morgan

Producers: Mark Lane, James Harris

Slumber tells the story of Alice, a rationally minded sleep doctor, who is forced to abandon scientific reason and accept a family is being terrorised by a parasitic demon which has existed in every human culture since records began. 

DIrector: Niall MacCormick

Designer: Kristian Milsted

Producer: Helen Gregory for HatTrick

Set in the 1850's Doctor Thorne is about Dr Thorne and his niece Mary Thorne and her relationship with the wealthier family at nearby Greshamsbury Park estate. 

Dir: Andrew Goth

Prod Co: Terra Mater, Red Bull, Warner Bros

A group of young bio-engineers discover they can use quantum physics to transfer motor-skills between human brains.
Believing this to be a first step towards a new intellectual freedom, they freely distribute the technology. But as the mysterious past of one of their group is revealed, dark forces emerge that threaten to subvert this technology into a means of mass control.

Andrew and I wanted this film to be super stylish and tech savvy while still within reach of today's reality. 

We found the exterior of the faculty in a brand new university complex in Vienna and build almost all of the interiors in Media Pro studios in Romania. I used the university complex as a palette inspiration and developed this further in the interiors embracing polished concrete and warm metallics as the base materials for the film. 

Brutalist architecture became a source of inspiration as well as a few contemporary architects including Grafton Architects in ireland and Zaha Hadid. Grafton uses alot of large angular shapes to create open spaces and these angles played very well when paired with sweeping curves inspired by Hadid's work. 

Director: Chris Boyle

Producer: Helen Power for Spov. 

We shot the opening sequence for Tom Clancy's The Division by Ubisoft in West London Studios and combined our work with GV's shot by a crew in New York and CGI shots created by the Spov team.

Directors: Iain and Jane

Designer: Kristian Milsted

Production: Gina Marsh and Hsinyi Liu @ Sid Gentle Films

Adaptations of four fantastical Neil Gaiman short stories for Sky Arts. 

Dir: Jereon Leinders
DOP: Dolph Van Staple
Prod Co: Fisheye Feature Films

Tula the Revolt is the true story about the great slave uprising on Curacao in 1795. 

I had the unique experience of shooting this film almost entirely in the real historical locations where the events occurred. This was both brilliant and hugely challenging. Curacao, a beautiful island in the dutch west indies, does not have a huge film industry and certainly not one that includes period prop hire and extensive art department services. So, we created one ourselves. 

I worked very closely with people on the island whose skills we could utilise in bringing the locations back to life. I had domestic carpenters working on complex set builds, landscaping companies turning into greensmen and local artists helping with prop makes. Museums on the island became our hire companies. Myself and my department became well known on the island very quickly.  

Working with creative agency SPOV we were challenged to create the live action sequences for the biggest entertainment franchise in the world, CALL OF DUTY. We shot in Elstree Film Studios for a few weeks and created a series of high spec sequences set in Angola, Nicaragua and Panama as well as a huge number of additional game-specific assets and elements. The requirements of delivering live action for the video game industry are complex since our final output had to match the animated world of the game. Fortunately, our close relationship with SPOV, and in turn ACTIVISION allowed us to mesh our work precisely to theirs, melding our live-action with 3D to create the FLASHBACK FILMS. The cinematics were widely praised by both fans and industry alike and were an inherent part of what the press called a revolutionary approach to the single player campaign. CALL OF DUTY, BLACK OPS 2 went on to become the biggest selling game ever with over 25 million copies flying off the shelves and making Activision billions of dollars in revenue to date.

Dir: Simon Neil
DOP Adam Etherington
PROD: Kiaran Murrey-Smith @ Big Talk Production for Channel 4 

Youngers follows a group of south-east London teenagers aiming to become the next big thing on the urban music scene. 

For the 2nd series, we wanted to give Youngers a more developed style, playing with the development of the band and the beginning of the recording studio that Ashley starts. 

The design in a show like this has to start and end with the arch of the characters. Each person is growing up and learning more about themselves, so i always want to show that in the design. we were also hugely influenced by the vibrancy of South London, and everything that Peckham has to offer!

Dir: Paul Hyett
DOP: Adam Etherington
Producer: Mike Riley at Sterling Pictures 

The Seasoning House tells the story of Angel, a young girl that is forced to work in a house that forces kidnapped women into the sex trade. Set during the Balkan war, this story is based in an awful reality that many of us would prefer not to know about. 

The research for this film was extremely hard and upsetting. I constantly saw images of women with empty eyes, women who had lived thoiugh terrible atrocities and only survived through numbness. "Bleak" and "empty" became words that repeated for me. So, I reflected that in the design for the film. The dressing throughout the house was practically non existent. I limited items per room to 2 or 3, including furniture. We used the walls and floors of the rooms to help tell the story - the scars and pain of these women became etched into the paint work. The only places where there was "stuff" was in the captor's environments, showing their desire to own and control. 

Dir: Bill Reaid
DOP: Jack Green asc
Producer: Big Screen Partners ltd 

The letters is a drama that explores the life of Mother Teresa through letters she wrote to her longtime friend and spiritual advisor, Father Celeste van Exem over a nearly 50-year period.

Designing the London leg of this film was a total joy. I worked closely with DOP Jack Green and Director Bill Reaid to create the modern world with which to contrast the period world of Mother Teresa. 

I used neutral tones and natural textures to create a subdued palette for the priest's accomodation and contrasted this against the rich and heavy textures that filled the Vatican scenes. 

All shot within one location, we created several very different worlds within one building, resulting in some odd moments like our chapel with plane included....

Dir: Lucy Akhurst
DOP: Roger Chapman
Producer: Lucy Akhurst, Charles Thomas Oldham 

Morris: A Life With Bells On is a heartwarming feature length comedy shot in documentary format that follows the fortunes of one of the leading Morris teams in the country, Millsham Morris, and its avant garde leader, Derecq Twist. 

I wanted the design to be true to Morris Dancing and England, while giving a heightened reality to the world of Morris. We worked alot on the details to create the world, all the way from creating special morris dancing trophies to Morris tools - tuning sticks, training hankies and super staves.

Dir: Mo Ali

DOP: JP Seresin 

Prod Co: Moli Films 

In the mean streets of London's East End, a former Serbian Commando and a fourteen-year old boy plot revenge against a powerful crime lord and his ruthless lieutenants. 

Reading like a combination of Karate Kid and Leon, this coming of age story was meticulously planned by director Mo Ali. When we started working on it together, he had very clear ideas on the style and colour palette and I developed them further to give the film it's own clear London style. 

We played with symbolism to give additional layers to Montana's growth into a man and used the sets to help tell the story of this unlikely friendship through the characters' physical adaptations of their environments. 

Dir: Gary Love
DOP: Dan Bronx
Producers: Rachael Conners, Arvind David, Mike Riley. Slingshot Productions 

Tom (Steven Mackintosh) is a middle-class city boy whose life has reached breaking point. D (Ashley Walters) is a young crack-head: smart, witty, desperate. Tom is completely out of his depth when he finds himself in D's abandoned warehouse attempting to do a "deal" with the energetic, volatile drug addict. The two enter into an irrational, deadly game of cat and mouse. The tense drama escalates when psychotic local crime-lord Hoodwink (Andy Serkis) wakes up to find his snub nose gun missing.

I wanted to show just how far out of his depth Tom is in this world. We created a dusty graffitied filmscape for his character to get lost in, and for him to find his humanity in once again.

The whole film was shot in one warehouse location in East London, so we really had to work with everything available to create layers and worlds within this singular space. 

Dir: Bart Ruspoli Frederick Hutton-Mills 

DOP Sara Deane

Prod co: Next Level films

Black comedy Cryptic is a genre bending film. Part gangster flick, part vampiric horror, Cryptic is a twisty turny horror fest. 

The crypt set we built became a character in it's own right in this single location film. I needed to have enough elements within the set to keep the story flowing, but with a very limited budget, we also needed to clever about our angles and details. So we kept it simple and utilised a cross shape to give multiple angles to film from, without boxing ourselves in. When combined with gorgeous plaster work and wonderfully spooky dressing elements, the set came alive. 

In Development

Dir: Luke Losey