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Setting the Look: Transforming Environments in Film & TV with Lydia Marks
October 25, 2023 @ 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Go behind the scenes of set decoration for film, TV and photography with accomplished set decorator Lydia Marks. Drawing on case studies from her work on films and shows such as The Devil Wears Prada, Sex and the City, Tick Tick Boom!, Maniac, Invasion, The Time Traveler’s Wife, and Synecdoche NY, Lydia will shed light on the unexpected ways set decoration can can amplify story, character and tone. Whether it’s transforming a Harlem block into Times Square or a suburban landscape to reflect an extraterrestrial invasion, she’ll also explore the surprising aspects of her work that she never thought would be in her job description. Hosted by Film Chair Wayne Beach.
Lydia Marks is an award-winning New York-based set decorator for film, television, and print campaigns. Her film and TV credits include The Devil Wears Prada (20th Century Fox), Ma (Netflix), Sex and the City 1 and 2 (HBO), Fosse/Verdon (FX), Money Monster (Tri-Star/Sony), The Time Traveler’s Wife (HBO Max), Tick Tick Boom! (Netflix), The Today Show studio redesign (NBC), Synecdoche, NY (Sony Classics), The Namesake (Searchlight), You Can Count On Me(Paramount), and two films for director Jim Jarmusch: Broken Flowers (Focus) and Paterson (Bleecker Street/Amazon). Her most recent work A Murder at the End of the World, a streaming series for FX, premieres in November 2023.
Lydia is the winner of a Daytime Emmy Award and has received one Emmy nomination and two Art Directors Guild Award nominations. Her work was featured in the book Designs on Film: A Century of Hollywood Art Direction. Her work has been featured in many publications, including Elle Decor, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, and Architectural Digest. She has been designing interiors for private clients at her firm, Lydia Marks Design, since 2008.
Lydia’s 20 years of experience with decoration and design began with a passion for documentary photography. Critiques in art school made her aware of the power of interiors to tell a story. After working in the photography departments of several museums, including The Museum of Modern Art in New York, Lydia began to envision making her own stories and interiors. She became a set decorator for films, thoroughly enjoying taking the words from a script, the vision from a director and production designer, and the character development of an actor, and distilling all that information into visuals to tell a story.
Our 2023 Alumni Lecture series is brought to you by First National Wealth Management.
