{"id":23020,"date":"2017-10-19T13:18:02","date_gmt":"2017-10-19T13:18:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artzealous.com\/?p=23020"},"modified":"2017-10-19T13:33:37","modified_gmt":"2017-10-19T13:33:37","slug":"five-minutes-with-production-designer-gary-kordan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/five-minutes-with-production-designer-gary-kordan\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Minutes with Production Designer Gary Kordan"},"content":{"rendered":"
Gary Kordan<\/a>, the two-time Emmy-nominated production designer behind Key & Peele<\/em>, Workaholics<\/em> and Nobodies<\/em> is a total badass who merges art with his spectacular set designs. Kordan creates sets for incredible TV shows; his most recent creative venture is designing the highly-anticipated supernatural comedy series Ghosted<\/em>, starring Craig Robinson and Adam Scott\u00a0<\/b>(which just premiered October 1st). Functioning as a quirky mirror of the X-Files, the show follows a paranormal investigator and a skeptic who are tasked by a shadowy organization to investigate a series of strange mysteries.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n From the start of his career, Gary has been deeply involved in the comedy industry; his first job in entertainment was holding cue-cards for Joan Rivers, who would later become a close friend and mentor to him. Gary lived\u00a0as a struggling artist in New York for years,\u00a0so finally he made a move to sunny Los Angeles to take his career to the next level, and over the past ten years, he’s evolved into one of the most established talents in the design world. His work can be seen on several shows, including the cult-favorite miniseries Time Traveling Bong<\/em> (created by and starring Broad City\u2019s Ilana Glazer), The Meltdown<\/em> with Jonah and Kumail, @midnight<\/span><\/span><\/em> (hosted by Chris Hardwick), and Amazon’s Just Add Magic<\/em>. In these projects, Gary works with dozens of artists\u00a0to create\u00a0each set and make it unique to the creative vision of the project.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Art Zealous sat down with Gary to discuss\u00a0his impressive design work on\u00a0some of the most acclaimed comedies of the past decade.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Art Zealous: Art background?<\/strong><\/p>\n Gary Kordan: <\/strong>My art background goes back as early as age 5. I would draw elaborate comics featuring my family and friends all with a comedic viewpoint. Throughout junior high and high school, my caricatures and portraits depicted guidance counselors, the principal, teachers, security guards and fellow students in elaborate detail.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I learned at an early age that details matter – people notice and laugh. My obsession with portraiture, pop art, and comedy led me to School Of Visual Arts<\/a> in New York City where I majored in illustration\/fine arts. I immersed myself in pop artists like Andy Warhol and illustrators Philip Burke (Rolling Stone<\/em>) and James McMullen (Lincoln Center). At night I worked at the famous comedy club, Catch A Rising Star. Composition, detail, and showbiz became my foundation.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n AZ: Hometown?<\/strong><\/p>\n GK: <\/strong>I grew up in central New Jersey. I can remember a moment in 7th grade when I said: \u201cI have to get out, I don\u2019t belong here.\u201d I spent weekends taking the train into the city and cutting class on Fridays when a Woody Allen movie would open. I listened to The Velvet Underground, Lenny Bruce, Joan Rivers and Howard Stern to get the city in my blood. I subscribed to New York Magazine and The Village Voice in 8th grade and was way too young to understand any of it; however, the draw of downtown NYC took over. I moved as soon as I graduated.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n AZ: Drink order?<\/strong><\/p>\n GK: <\/strong>Dirty Grey Goose martini with an embarrassing amount of extra olives. Preferably in a dark booth with friends.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n AZ: Favorite art spot in LA?<\/strong><\/p>\n GK: <\/strong>My favorite art spot in Los Angeles is any wall, power box, billboard or construction site that features wheat paste street art. The best work is on the street. I love Morley’s<\/a> street art and collect as many of his pieces as I can. I spend way too much time pulling over and taking pics of graffiti and murals.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n AZ: How are artists involved in creating a set – from vision to execution?<\/strong><\/p>\n GK: <\/strong>Dozens of artists are involved with creating each set. The production designer, art director and set designer are defining the look, doing sketches, full-color renders and construction drawings, the art coordinator and graphic designers are pulling research and designing the posters and logos while the prop department is building and creating custom pieces for the scene. The construction department is building and the paint department is painting, aging and wallpapering walls.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n There are vendors creating custom elements and buyers picking out amazing dressing and lighting with the set decorator. Set dressers are creating the lived in world on shelves and throughout the set and on set dressers keep it all together when the crew comes and tears it all apart to fit their gear and cameras where they need. All of this work for one set that may be two minutes of screen time.<\/p>\n