Women In Film: Designing the Moving Image with Production Designer Dazzy Shah
Dazzy (“Daisy”) Shah, is a Canadian Production Designer, born in India and currently based in Los Angeles. She holds a M.F.A. in Production Design from the Dodge College of Film and Media Arts at Chapman University in California, and a B.A. in Architecture and Visual Studies from the University of Toronto. Dazzy has also been selected as one of the few participants in the Los Angeles Art Directors Guild’s prestigious Production Design Initiative Program . She has worked as the Art Department Assistant on various network shows such as Hulu/FX’s Snowfall Season 5, Mindy Kaling’s Netflix show Never Have I Ever, and currently on an upcoming Netflix Feature Film Atlas. She is also the recipient to several nominations and awards in Production Design in festivals such as Indie Shorts Festival, Tokyo Shorts Film Festival, New Creator’s Film Festival and Paris Play Film Festival to name a few.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?
Thank you for having me! I always say that I really don’t know if I would have gotten into doing something as creative as this had it not been for my move from India to Canada during my early teens. It wasn’t until my family and I immigrated that I started kind of finding my own path, my likes, dislikes, skills, hobbies, etc. I was kind of forced to move away from literally everything that I had known and handed to on a platter my entire life!
My high school in Winnipeg, Canada, had a great Graphic Arts Diploma program that I got to take during my junior and senior year. That’s kind of the first creative thing that I did and loved, and for a moment I thought I actually wanted to pursue it as a career. I then decided to get more into 3D spatial planning, thus leading me to my undergraduate majors in the fields of Architecture and Visual Studies at the University of Toronto. I discovered that I loved the design, and even the technical aspect of my field, but I was still an artist at heart, and I really did not want to be stuck making the same bathroom or kitchen component for the better part of my youth. I came across one particular installation art piece, called Communal Courtyards by artist Song Dong at the Art Gallery of Ontario during my third year of university. I call this my “it” moment of self-discovery, and this is what led me to researching set design, and then Production Design. It led me to working at one of our colleges’ theatres as the Set Decoration Assistant during my final year at University of Toronto, and a year later I had started my Masters in Production Design at Chapman University, California. Haven’t looked back since!
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started doing production design?
Oof, is it sad that the most “interesting” thing that comes to mind is not the best of my experiences? A lot of my close friends and family know about this, so I will leave out the details, but I had a. . . difficult experience at one of my workplaces with regards to taking a scheduled day off. It really put a damper on my experience there after that, and made me question if it was my fault that the whole thing happened, if I was cut out for the industry, yada yada. I took it as a learning experience though. I know that with the thrill of going from one job to another comes the pro or con of working with new people all the time, and everyone I work with is going to have different personalities and life views that I may or may not agree with. I guess it was “interesting” to see, firsthand, such a military mentality but I have had amazing experiences with peers on the same show, and every other show ever since!
Tell us about one of the most favorite projects that you have worked on till date. What made you choose that project and what were some of the challenges you faced?
That would be my thesis film, A Dire Strait. The short, written by my friend and Director Liang Chun-Lin, is a story about a new Taiwanese-American Mother who has just given birth to a baby boy, and she is trying to regain control over her own body and her baby from the hands of her very traditionally Chinese Mother-in-Law. On a personal level, I related to the protagonist’s struggle with finding a sense of self between two different cultures. And on a cultural level, this story is a mature and realistic take on women in many Asian countries, including my own. I was absolutely honored to have been handpicked by Liang.
Design-wise, creating an authentic and wealthy looking Chinese-American household, on a student budget in Southern California was a challenge in itself. We were limited to the Airbnb’s that fit out budget, and in the end, we were faced with the additional challenge of using two Airbnbs for different parts of the house, and making them seem like the same house. We got creative. Some furniture, such as a four-post bed with beaded curtains in the protagonist’s bedroom, were custom-designed, and we were able to find some gems such some beautiful Chinese Screens from the Warner Brother’s prop house. We used contact paper to wallpaper one side of a room, and butcher paper to deal with another. The result was very polished! I had the most amazing team who actually put all hands on deck to make this possible, starting with my director herself, to my art director, my editor, sound designer, you name it! We have started circulating the film in the festival circuit, and it has been nominated and won honorable mentions for Production Design at festivals such as the New Creator’s Film Festivals amongst others. We are also expecting a world premiere sometime this summer!
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
I very recently wrapped my work on a short film called Soil. The movie–and I am so excited to see it, it was hands down the best set I have ever worked on–is about a young man dealing with the passing of his father. It was one of the most beautiful, simple, and heartfelt scripts I have read and I know it is going to leave an impact once it starts being circulated out there! I joined the industry to tell stories that say something, and this was definitely one of those projects that fill you with a sense of pride and joy.
I also recently wrapped my work on Mindy Kaling and Netflix’s Never Have I Ever Season 3, which comes out this summer! That was a fun project to be on, firstly because my Indian heritage and Canadian experiences meant I really related to the Indian-American characters, and I had a great time I was working with! It also fills me with joy to know that I have now worked on something that is big with my friends in India and the Indian audience as well. I currently work as an Art Department Assistant on a sci-fi Netflix feature film that I can’t say much about yet!
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
A set of people come to mind, my parents. My family as a whole, but definitely my parents. They have both been there with me, financially, spiritually and mentally supporting me throughout this unstable journey. The film world can be a very difficult place to break into, especially as someone with absolutely no connections to anyone in the industry whatsoever, and my parents were obviously very afraid of me not being able to make it in such an unsteady environment. So convincing them that it was difficult but not impossible was the first step. But ever since then, they have always been there supporting me during even the more frustrating and disheartening times of my career. They were there for me during the pandemic, reminding me that the lockdowns would not last forever and that the film industry would open soon, and they were there after the graduation during my job-hunting process, reminding me to “calm down, it has literally only been a week since you finished school”! Haha. I also have an older sister whom I can always trust to be the voice of reason and moral support. So yes, I have had a tremendous amount of support from my family! And the excitement that my friends always have when they ask me about ongoing projects project will never not make me happy!
Has it been difficult starting out in the industry? What were some of the hurdles and how did you overcome them? What resources did you discover along the way?
I graduated at a time, “post COVID”, where there was just so much going on, that I knew that the question wasn’t “if” I was going to get a job, but “when” I was going to get it. And the waiting game was killing me. While there is no “pilot season” in TV anymore, there are definitely months that are busier than the others. I am so lucky to have graduated from a school with such a strong alumni network, and the people I reached out to during the job hunting process were honest and open about their first experiences, and had valuable advice to give. Talking to them helped me more than any Job Hunting 101 class could have taught me in an academic setting. I even got my second job as an Art Department Assistant on Never Have I Ever through one of my seniors, and that was one of the best shows that I have worked on!
I also discovered that Facebook Groups are a great resource, especially for the Art Department in Film and TV. People on that social media platform have formed such a strong community, and they provide a very welcoming environment for professionals with all levels of experiences. Whether you are a beginner, just starting out and are looking for advice, an intermediate with questions about the inner workings of a specific prop, or a veteran who is looking to expand their Rolodex, it’s a great place to be a part of! I have found short gigs through some of these groups, met great people here, and have even gotten very useful advice on “how-to”s for some of my projects!
Can you please give us your favorite ”Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I don’t know if this is my most favorite one, or if this is the one I live buy, but this is what comes to mind right now. “This too shall pass.” I think every artist–or just anyone starting out in any field–in my position has experienced that feeling of extreme hopelessness, be it because of career reasons, life reasons, legal reasons, etc, and sometimes it serves well to remind myself that the “suffering” is only temporary. I am fortunate enough to have friends and family who are always supportive of me, so whatever seems like the end of the world at the moment. . . is probably not.
How can our readers follow you online?
Oh! You can follow me or reach out to me on instagram at @dazzle.on, or even friend me on Facebook. There are not many “Dazzy”s out there, haha. You can also see some of my work at www.dazzyshah.com!
