Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1538452
PROPERTYMASTERSGUILD.ORG 11 B eing a part of the Apple TV+ show Severance, has been a game changer in how I approach prop mastering a show. I have grown to understand how props, defined as the objects the characters touch, are crucial to driving a story and can also become a driving force in the entire look of a show. The world of Severance is built around a specific and unique aesthetic in which everything is considered and nothing exists randomly. I couldn't take anything for granted. Nothing could come off a shelf ready for camera. As a mystery box thriller, the show holds high regard for the intelligence of the audience and cannot underestimate how thoroughly every detail is dissected for clues. As such, the props went far beyond fulfilling any basic need of a scene to contribute strongly to the world, influence the story itself, and even became integral beyond the physical production to the show's marketing. My introduction to Severance was in December of 2019 when I was sent the pilot script, and it read like a typical office drama. However, director and executive producer Ben Stiller, along with production designer Jeremy Hindle were already at work teasing out the look of that "office," forming it into anything but regular. That office was the home of the Lumon Corporation, the main antagonist of the story. In the story, the Lumon Corporation developed a surgical procedure to separate an employee's work memories from their outside life memories. The severed employees work-self, known as "innies," only have memories made in the severed floor they occupy. The corporation seeks to curate everything on this severed work floor for total control of the innies existence. To reflect that, the set design was inspired by Lumon's desire to maximize the employee experience for maximum productivity. Harkening back to a time when office spaces were considered a point of pride, care was taken to design them with a certain style the sets emerged with retro futuristic flare heavily influenced by brutalism and the movie Playtime. It was a nod to function meeting form with cohesion. On the severed floor, our main characters' innies work at desks for the entirety of their existence "refining" numbers on a computer terminal. We started to think about the tech on the severed floor concepting with analog influences to parallel the set design. We wanted to explore seemingly older computer styles, curved screen CRT tubes, and 8-bit animation. This technology on the severed floor has become a hallmark of all the prop design of the series, and it began with the computers.