For the second consecutive year, production designer Steve Arnold has earned an Emmy nomination on the strength of his work on House of Cards (Netflix), this time for Chapters 29 and 36.
Arnold credited his team on House of Cards including fellow nominees, art director Halina Gebarowicz and set decorator Tiffany Zappulla, for doing “a bang-up job in large part because season 3 was Francis Underwood’s first year as President of the United States, meaning we had to have the White House, Air Force One and other big sets. We had a brilliant construction crew all from the area [Baltimore, MD, nearby Virginia]. There were complex sets that were tricky–the Security Council at the UN constructed in a big warehouse, the inside of the Supreme Court chambers. For the White House we had the grand entry hall with staircase and the private living quarters. We tore down the old townhouse set and replaced it with Francis and Claire’s White House quarters. It was fun doing the research for that. We got a private backstage tour of the White House, got to see a lot of it. It’s a very ornate, historic building. It was fun to try to reproduce that look and feel on stage.”
Arnold said of set decorator Zappulla, “She did not decorate the pilot [for House of Cards] but was on as an assistant then and got moved up to being decorator of the show. She is fantastic. She has done movies like Game Change, the first season of Veep as a decorator. She has a great team of local set dressing people who have brought a lot to the show.”
Regarding his collaborator Gebarowicz, Arnold said, “She has been in the business for quite a while as an art director. She helps out a lot with the location work we do, supervising people who are doing things on location for us, as well as on stage. She’s very talented and brings a bunch of talented people with her.”
Arnold, Gebarowicz and Zappulla comprise the same team that garnered last year’s alluded to Emmy nomination for House of Cards, that one for episodes Chapter 18 and 24.
Arnold himself came up the ranks from set decorator to art director and now production designer. He started out as a designer in college, taking on projects as a grad student for the theater department at Carnegie Mellon. “One of the professors asked me to help out on a small film,” recalled Arnold. “I haven’t turned back since then, beginning as a set designer and was an art director for many years for movies like Forrest Gump, Spider-Man and Unbreakable.
Besides his two Emmy nominations, Arnold sports three Art Directors Guild Excellence in Production Design Award nominations, winning in 2012 in the Commercials and Music Videos category as an art director on the team for Activision: Call of Duty’s “Modern Warfare 3.” His first Excellence in Production Design Award nom came the year prior in the Contemporary Film category as a set designer as part of the production design ensemble on Bridesmaids. And earlier this year, Arnold landed his third nomination for his work as production designer in the Single-Camera Television Series category for the “Chapter 18” episode of House of Cards.
Hat trick
For the third straight year Citizen Pictures landed an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Structured Reality Program on the basis of Food Network’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives (a.k.a. Triple D). Hosted by chef and restaurant entrepreneur Guy Fieri, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives is the only show in Food Network history to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy.
Citizen has been the production company on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives for the past four-and-a-half years, representing half of the show’s run on Food Network, The series has spanned 800 restaurants thus far in nearly 300 episodes filmed across the continental U.S. as well as Hawaii, Alaska, Canada, Mexico, Italy and London. The series introduces viewers to assorted eateries and the people behind them, sharing how their most popular menu dishes are prepared and providing a taste of the vibe and personality of each establishment.
Like the menu entrees themselves, a key to the show’s success is preparation as Citizen seeks out interesting eateries, communities and characters (restaurant chefs, entrepreneurs and customers). Citizen’s Frank Matson, an Emmy-nominated EP on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, shared, “We have researchers working four to five years on the show and they look to find places that fit certain requirements like the restaurant has never been on another show, that predominantly they make everything from scratch, that the chefs and owners are unique characters, have good personalities, are people who are fun to interact with, that they are serving great food at a price point within the Triple D brand, giving customers a little value.”
When Citizen became the production company on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, the series was already well established. “The challenge was still to keep it fresh, find new characters and have it live up to the bar that had been set,” said Matson. “We didn’t want to mess with the success of the show. At the same time, we looked for ways to improve on what had been working. We started, for instance, shooting with different cameras so the food looks that much better.”
Citizen’s Tim McOsker, also an Emmy-nominated EP on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, noted that a conscious decision was made to “allow the show to have more Guy [Fieri] in it, to bring more of his personality to the show, how he relates to people and puts a smile on people’s faces. There are more naturally comedic moments.” A means toward that end was introducing a second camera to what had been a single camera show. “That enabled us to be more spontaneous, capturing everything as it happens.”
Matson added, “We opened up the show so it wasn’t quite as structured within the format of what it had been. If Guy had an idea for shrimping on a boat to tie into a restaurant, we pursued that. If he wanted an NFL [National Football League] buddy to join in, we were open to that. We would break out from time to time from format and formula.”
Citizen first established itself years back in commercials and corporate projects, later diversifying into longer form content which initially included a Food Network special and work for the Discovery network. Currently in addition to Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, Citizen-produced fare includes Destination America’s BBQ Pitmasters, BBQ Pit Wars and the Kingsford Invitational, and The Real Girl’s Kitchen for the Cooking Channel and Ora TV.
Besides Matson and McOsker, the rest of the contingent taking part in the latest Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives Emmy nomination are: EPs Fieri and Kat Higgins, and supervising producer Jen Darrow.
This is the 14th installment of a 14-part series that explores the field of Emmy contenders, and then nominees spanning such disciplines as directing, cinematography, producing, editing, animation and visual effects. The series will then be followed up by coverage of the Creative Arts Emmys ceremony on September 12 and the primetime Emmy Awards live telecast on September 20.
