Mercedes Guzmán de Studio MG
Known as “the set wizard”, Mercedes Guzmán, Art Director, Producer Designer, and CEO of Studio MG, has designed sets for Telemundo, Univision, Netflix, Roku, and Amazon for all kinds of shows, series, and movies as well as commercials for brands such as P&G, State Farm, Sprint, Toyota, PepsiCola and Goya, considers that what makes he work different is the “the production designer understanding about the production to offer tools to the producer in order to build an efficient, creative, dynamic and modern set, and of course in within the costs and time, which is also something that obsesses me,” she commented in #PRODUprimetime with Ríchard Izarra.
EACH PROJECT IS A CHALLENGE
Guzmán points out that each project has a challenge, the structure and the language of the set and the production design must be in tune with what will be played, with the message that is going to be conveyed.
“There are projects like Hoy día, Un nuevo día, which need a stage made for a four-hour show that can last three and four years, waking up the public in the morning. Or En Casa con Telemundo, a show that was born in the pandemic and the set had to be taken down every day in 35 minutes or less, that is another challenge. This set, believe it or not, everything is on wheels and it goes in and out of the studio every day. All projects have a challenge and that is why one has to go so hand in hand with the producer, the executive producer, the showrunner, and from there downwards in all the relationships with the entire team”, she expresses.
One of the greatest projects that Guzmán has undertaken was the reality show La Firma, by director Sam Wrench for Netflix, since it involved nightclubs that were open and she had very little time to assemble the sets. “We had to bring everything assembled, taking into account it could fit through the doors of the clubs, there was a lot of art pre-production because we also had a large art team to assemble the set in the morning, then was the rehearsal, at night the recording and we had to dismount at dawn. We had a relief team at night to take it down because the next day the disco opened and it had to be left as it was,” she explained.
She added that it was challenging in several ways: it was a genre of urban music, which was not something she has done before; It is a reality show that was recorded as it is, there is no editing; of creativity and efficiency. “Everything in The Firm was full of challenges that we took on with a signature. We were able to make a unique production design, adapted to the language that the producers and Netflix were dealing with.”
KNOWING ABOUT LIGHTING TO THE TYPE OF CAMERA
Guzmán explains that the production designer has to know about lighting, audio, music, production, and cameras. “You have to know how many cameras you are going to work with, if they are studio cameras or cameras on tripods or handheld, or if they are cranes, what size the cranes are, if the cameras are on a platform, and the riggers, which are for us a very important tool because on it there will be hanging all the elements that fly around the studio. We have to know the weights and make a breakdown of what weights each piece so that the rigger knows and certifies that it’s safe. That is another key word in any construction and in any assembly: safety above all else”, she pointed out.
PROJECT DEVELOPMENT
For Guzmán, the first thing in the development of the project is research a lot about what’s in the market. “Now you have the chance to search the entire world, from Saudi Arabia, which is one of the greats in scenery, Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Japan, and take from there the references that you like the most from each one, in the genre in which you are working. Then you research art history or a modern artist that you like, you maybe have references sent to you by the producer, and you put all of that in a kind of processor in your brain and from there you begin to draw up the first ideas.”
She added that later she diagrams on the studio floor plan where each thing is going to go and then begins to give color and texture to everything: define what materials she is going to use, how she is going to combine them; colorimetry; what type of lighting to use. “Hence one creates the first rendering that now on modern computers are perfect real models.”
TOOLS
Among the software that Guzmán uses are Vectorworks for the design of technical and construction blueprints; AutoCAD, “which is more architectural”; she also uses Corona or Cinema 3D, to give the final rendering of the show.
She loves 3D models. “I think that the models help a lot, unfortunately they not usually done anymore due to the time it takes, but it helps so much to understand how the whole set moves when sitting at a meeting table, where to put the cameras, etc., which is wonderful; I think that was one of the things that made me fall in love with my profession and my career.”
MULTIDISCIPLINARY
Guzmán said that in order to carry out her job, one must understand the global nature of all the disciplines involved and respect them. “The most important thing is to respect the time of each one of those who are part of the production: from those who rehearse, the camera people, lights, audio, to those who do the cleaning or replenish the set in each time rehearsal; the time to clean up the set so it’s ready again; All those things have to go on a schedule.”
RISK MANAGEMENT
In her work as a production design and art director, Guzmán faces many imponderables: “what happens if I don’t get a material, with what am I going to replace it, will it be available in the city; If a supplier does not comply for any reason, with who can I replace him? That’s why you end ‘marrying’ in some way with larger suppliers that can give you guarantees to replace a machine in case it gets damaged, and supply a material that was not on time, because they have stock.”
In this regard, she stresses that Miami is very “friendly” for production, but you have know the city, where everything is, where to get from decoration props to materials “and that also allows me to seek for different construction materials and propose different finishing that, once on the air, a lot of people can see and use as a reference, which feels good. It is very nice to set a style and others follow it.”
SUSTAINABILITY
Guzmán is obsessed about protecting the environment and she even drives an electric car. “Unfortunately our industry does not allow us to build with sustainable materials. I am trying to propose recycled materials, but for safety reasons you cannot build a platform without iron, without aluminum, able to support what is needed. I would like to use environmentally-friendly materials in the near future, I do try to recycle. When a set is going to be removed for good, I try to recycle, see if I can turn it into something else, in fact, that’s how it has been done,” she pointed out and added that in Así se Baila of Telemundo everything on the backstage set was recycled.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Asked about the use of artificial intelligence, she commented that they are already testing some simple programs and applications, “like when you take a photo of my house and at once it gives you ideas on how to redecorate it in the design style that you want: Scandinavian, modern, minimalist, whatever you want it gives you several options. There is also one in which you can upload measurements of the place where you are working and at once it creates the space for you.”
She believes that AI will save a lot of time when building a plan from scratch. “But I don’t think it will replace human beings. AI can give us help to get ahead of basic jobs. Where does artificial intelligence get this from: I think that from everything on the Internet —which is a wonderful universe— and it puts it together and makes you a proposal; It helps you, it gives you inspiration, but you need a professional behind you to say ‘yes’, ‘that is feasible, if the measurements are correct’ —the dimensions in the world of television are also important— and perhaps at the moment artificial intelligence is advancing more in terms of home and offices decoration, but still in the world of entertainment as sets as such, it is not.”
PROJECT FOR VENEZUELA
She is very excited about a project that will be released very soon in her home country of Venezuela. “It makes me very proud because all of us who left 20 years ago, as is my case, although I worked in my country and did many things on open TV and in advertising that set standards, you always want to have on the screen something with quality for our country, that deserves it because we were the pioneers. Today doing this gives me pride and joy. I chose the TV world because of that eagerness to want to do things and see them done. Perhaps an architect or designer needs 2 or 3 years to see their building or home completed. In our case, in less than three months we do a project, design it and build it, and you can see it on the screen, it’s a magical thing. And when the audiences enter those sets they take with them that emotion, because in the end the set is destroyed and what remains is what people lived inside it.”
View the interview with Mercedes Guzmán, de Studio MG, on #PRODUprimetime con Ríchard Izarra
