I sat down with Inbal Weinberg, who is the Production Designer on Roofman, the latest film from Derek Cianfrance starring Kirsten Dunst and Channing Tatum.
She production designed one of my favorite films of modern times, Blue Valentine (2010), and worked with Cianfrance on almost every project, including The Place Beyond the Pines (2012) and HBO’s I Know This Much Is True (2020).
She’s also PD’d:
Pariah (2011)
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)
Beasts of No Nation (2015)
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
The Lost Daughter (2021)
The Room Next Door (2024)
Her inspiration for the ultra-realistic work she does with Derek Cianfrance draws from the French Palme d’Or-winning filmmaking duo, the masters of realism, the Dardenne Brothers.
She shared:
“I feel like the locations and design that they create are really thoughtful. However, very minimalist, or how should I say it, it looks like the real world, but their decisions are extremely conscious.”
In our interview, she details how Derek wishes we could all be doc filmmakers, how he loves functional sets, and asks crew members to do their jobs poorly.
What this way of working created on Roofman was a fluid, ultra-realistic environment that involved recreating at 23,000 ft Toys ‘R Us from a warehouse.
Plus, there’s a great story during the interview about the practicality of figuring the set as you go, and how the improvisational method created one of the most interesting environments in the film.
Here is the Roofman trailer:
Coming to VOD next week.
