Thursday 3 July we welcome British Production Designer and Art Director May Davies for a Deep Dive on Production Design. A day earlier, on Wednesday 2 July, May will also give an Artist Talk on this topic. Let op: de voertaal van dit programma is Engels.
In this Deep Dive in small workshop setting, participants will engage actively with Production Design and Art Direction by submitting and discussing their own work together with May Davies. You will be asked to bring a synopsis of your project stating the stage in which your project is in, your discipline or role, and what questions you had during your process.
Themes we will be focusing on are:
- Pitching for work in the industry
- Creating concepts
- Making moodboards for the communication of your work
- Illustrations and 3D models
- Team sizes and disciplines in Art Departments
- Budgetting
- Working on location versus working on set
For this Deep Dive it is important to read the Practical Guide for Low Budget Art Departments, written by May Davies. This will be sent to the participants a week before the Deep Dive, and it will be available in print during the Deep Dive.
In the morning, the focus will be on May Davies’ portfolio, and case studies she brought alone. Then, there will be group discussions in thematically divided themes. In the afternoon the Practical Guide for Low Budget Art Departments will be presented and discussed, plus the practical side of your own case study.
Who is this Deep Dive for?
Production Designers, Art Directors, screenwriters, directors, and producers.
Practical information
Date: Thursday 3 July 2025
Time: 10.00 to 16.00
Location: Ms. van Riemsdijkweg 61, Amsterdam
Costs: €125,- excl. VAT, including vegetarian lunch.
For this workshop the cancellation policy is as follows:
- If you cancel more than 14 days before the workshop day, you will receive a full refund of the ticket price.
- If you cancel between 7 and 14 days before the workshop, you will receive a 50% refund of the ticket price.
- If you cancel within 7 days of the workshop day, you will not receive a refund.
About May Davies
May Davies is a London-based Production Designer and Art Director working on feature films and tv drama. Recent production design credits include Learning to Breathe Under Water and Elizabeth Sankey’s latest feature doc, Witches (BIFA Best Documentary 2024 and British Film Designer Guild 2025 Winner, premiered at Tribeca Festival 2024 and released on MUBI). Recent supervising art director credits include Plaything an episode of Season 7 Black Mirror Netflix series and Kevin MacDonald’s latest action thriller, The Runner which wraps principle shooting in June 2025.
With a background in fine art and theatre design, May found her way to filmmaking after working for 8 years in her home county in the rural north of England at Signal Film and Media, a charity that offers opportunities in digital art and filmmaking in an inclusive setting. After moving to London in 2015 to pursue a career in the art department she remains committed to sharing the craft and encouraging new faces into the industry through mentoring with BFI Film Academy, UAL and BAFTA, and by co-organising and participating in events with the British Film Designers Guild and The Production Designer’s Collective.