Interviews Gregory Melton - Production Designer by DJ Forrest

As a production Designer how much control or say do you have in what goes into each of the scenes, and for a lot of the unfurnished properties such as Jack’s old apartment, how much stressing did you need to do to make that as authentic as possible?

  

Gregory: I've got a lot of control over what is seen; ultimately I'm there to support the Producer and Directors vision. In TV I've got to keep the continuity going, as we are out there scouting for new locations.

My UK producers wanted me to get right all the UK scenes that we were shooting in the US. For instance the NHS hospital in Torchwood is an old abandoned hospital in East LA. We completely dressed this location and created all the signage. Lots of research was done to make it convincing and not have our UK audience bump on it.  In this same location we also created the lethal injection room that we meet Oswald in. This was a fully built out room, tied into a long concrete hallway. The lethal injection machine was from the last Terminator movie.

For a lot of the interior shots were these filmed on an actual film set or did you work on location anywhere? 

Gregory: We did both, it was a very busy show and we were scouting and filming at many locations. We also had three sound stages at Warner Bros that were in constant use.

Did you work on both sides of the pond for the set designs, such as Gwen and Rhys home in Wales?

Gregory: Yes, I was in Wales for scouting Gwen’s Cottage, Gwen and Rhys home , all were built at Warner Bros.

American buildings always appear to be on a far grander scale than those in the UK, what was the budget for such a mammoth task of dressing each set?

Gregory: We spent a lot of money dressing these sets. We built the entire CIA complex at Warner Bros, and had over 40 working monitors plus a 24' Rear projection screen.

Another large set was the CIA archives which was a location in downtown LA. This old Bank of America was totally empty and had to be dressed.

You’ve been a production designer in another major show ‘Walking Dead’ I’ve not seen it, merely read the review in http://blogs.amctv.com/the-walking-dead/2010/07/greg-melton-interview-2/   obviously those scenes would be rather different to Torchwood in the sense you’re likely blowing things up and there’s lots of blood and gore involved.  But in each production you’d have to work to a time scale, were you given a set amount of time on each set?

Gregory: In TV we have what is called a permanent set, and usually they are your largest sets and we would have around 4-6 weeks to prepare them.

How did you get into the business and what was your first ever set you worked on?

Gregory: Growing up in LA , I was surrounded by the industry and wanted to be involved with it. When I was five I visited the set of BEACH BLANKET BINGO at Paradise Cove in Malibu. My start was as a PA on a horror movie called HELL NIGHT.

What was the biggest ever set you worked on?

Gregory:  Designing the theatre for THE MAJESTIC, it was built through 2 sound stages at the old Warner Hollywood lot on Santa Monica Bld.

When you’re not working what do you do to relax?

Gregory: Visiting tropical locales in Hawaii and the Caribbean in search for the perfect Mai Tai or Mojito.

If someone wanted to take up a career in production designing what advice could you give them?

Gregory: You need to be a jack of all trades, I actually majored in History, not Art, and it has served me well. There is no road map is what I usually tell people when I'm asked that question.

How did the gig for the Torchwood production design come about?

Gregory: My agents contacted me that Russell wanted to meet me. Having just designed the very successful WALKING DEAD pilot, didn't hurt.  At the time I was working in Hawaii and did a Skype interview with Russell.

What was the most expensive purchase you had to buy for Miracle Day?

Gregory: That’s a good one, I don't really buy anything, my dept heads do all that. But, those big human ovens weren't cheap.

Claudia Lindner: What was the most exciting and/or challenging set he designed for Miracle Day and why?

Gregory: The one that was very challenging was when Russell told me there is Alien field generator under Angelo's bed. It’s up to me to design that and I found my inspiration in QR codes. 

Using that and then imposing a steampunk vibe of Brass and copper we came up with a design that everyone liked.

Source photos taken from:

Walking Dead site

BBC Torchwood: Miracle Day