How to Nail the Production Design of an Action Horror Film

What do you get when you mix John Wick and Runaway Bride? You get Timothy Woodward Jr’s new action, horror, comedy Til Death Do Us Part. Jeffrey Reddick, the creator of Final Destination, is one of the film’s producers, so audiences should not be surprised to see a few gruesome death sequences and fights in Til Death Do Us Part.

For all these sequences to be pulled off, the tone has to be set and every element has to be in place. One of these elements is the production design, which basically gives the film a visual voice.

We won’t reveal too many spoilers, but there is a gruesome scene with a chainsaw. A chainsaw would only be appropriate to have handy in a storage area such as a basement, shed, or garage.

What other elements do you need in that basement to make it feel real and foreshadow the story’s unfolding events and stunts? These are the types of questions for production designer Markos Keyto.

Keyto, who has collaborated with Woodward on films such as The Call and The Final Wish, takes many different approaches when it comes to the production design of his projects.

In the below Q&A, Keyto breaks down the spaces, textures, and characters of Til Death Do Us Part.

Til Death Do Us Part | Official Trailer - Exclusively In Theaters Aug 4www.youtube.com

No Film School: What led to your decision of becoming a production designer?

Markos Keyto: I actually started making sets, costumes, and creating characters for as long as I have had a conscience, that is, if I have ever had one. At the age of fifteen, I signed my first Stage Design for a professional theater company.

Apparently when leaving the cinema to watch a strange movie that my father took me to, I already told him what I wanted to dedicate myself to, without really knowing what I was talking about, since I was only 8 years old. That movie was 2001: A Space Odyssey. A week later my father showed me Kubrick's Clockwork Orange and since then I haven't stopped inventing worlds. So, my irresponsible father is the one who got me into this mess.

NFS: How did your involvement with Til Death Do Us Part start?

Keyto: I have worked with Timothy and Jeffrey Reddick on several occasions, and they know my disturbed mind very well when it comes to creating looks and worlds for their stories. Also, for me it's a pleasure to work with them because having fun making movies is one of their premises, and I'm not going anywhere without laughter. So, they sent me the script, and we got to it.

Markos Keyto Courtesy of Markos Keyto

NFS: How would you describe the look of Til Death Do Us Part?

Keyto: We wanted to make something visually our own, and to understand the flashbacks vs the disturbing world of that group of assassins with a clear contrast was one of the first intentions. Additionally, I am a bit intense in trying to convert all the spaces into a kind of visual metaphor of the psyche of the characters, so I elaborated my interior plan and tried to give it so that the public chewed it consciously or unconsciously.

NFS: Did you have a favorite set from the shoot?

Keyto: I really don't like having favorite sets, since for me, the conjunction of all of them is what makes me understand the whole of the story. If I neglect something I have already messed it up. That's not to say that it won't fail, just that I intend not to. But if I had to choose a place for you, I would say the basement with its red fridge, especially since it was where we used the most blood and where we all laughed the most.

NFS: What were the biggest challenges of bringing Til Death Do Us Part from script to screen?

Keyto: Well, we worked with very little budget and very little time. The truth is this is not new to me, since I am used to trench warfare, therefore it wasn't the most complicated thing for me.

I don't usually like nights, I have a bad habit of wanting to sleep, perhaps this is the worst part I've had on a shoot. As for the visual concept, the truth is that it flowed at the very moment I was reading the script, so I didn't suffer much and with Timothy it's easy, because for some strange reason since we met, we created a mental symbiosis between us, I don't think he even knows it exists. So, I am inventing and he is seeing exactly what he wanted to see.

Something important to say is that we were never pretentious and we knew the limits to which we were subject, so there are no luxuries, no excesses, and no fear for having given something somewhat "comic" or "naïf" to the audience.

NFS: Did you lean to a certain color palette more than others for Til Death Do Us Part?

Keyto: The color palettes in the film are very evident. It was important to give the film a look more of the 90’s as well as clarity in the flashbacks and exteriors; and on the other hand, a color marked above all by the artificial light that was the one we played with in the world of the assassins. I usually work with an infinite number of practical lights and that allows me to color the space to my liking. Together with Pablo Diez, my dear friend and DP of the film, we were giving it the mood and modeling textures and space to dramatically help the evolution of the scenes. On the other hand, the red color helped us a lot to empower the bloody world in which we sometimes wanted to find ourselves.

We also like to help actors find their safe places in space, so that they themselves understand where their shadows and highlights are most evident so they can apply it to their performance by understanding the flow between set and camera. So, we model spaces, textures and characters.

Til Death Do Us Part posterCredit: Buffalo 8 Productions

NFS: You have worked with director Timothy Woodward Jr. on a few films now. How did this come about?

Keyto: We have been working together for years, the main reason is because we understand each other, we laugh together and we love each other as brothers.

NFS: When you join a new production, when you get to those meetings and get on the set, is there anything that still manages to surprise you?

Keyto: Everything, I am surprised with a squirrel looking into space.

When something doesn't surprise me, it's because it's not going to surprise anyone, so if a project comes into my hands and it gives me that feeling, I discard it directly.

In any case, I get some intention out of any story with which I try to play to give the viewer something. And if anything surprises me in a bad way, it is that one continues to find people in this industry who are not in it to have fun and to entertain others.

NFS: What advice would you give people just starting off in the production design world?

Keyto: Read, especially poetry, take a walk and observe, learn to look; There is something interesting in everything, go to art exhibitions or anything else, visit museums, talk and mostly listen to others, and above all, smile, because exercising that ability is the best way to develop the brain of a creator.

_{You can learn more about Markos here.}

_{Til Death Do Us Part is in theaters now.}