Clearer shot of this corner of Janis Garage in the shot above.
Working on Janis’ Garage set was my favorite set on Mean Girls.
Garages sets are challenging because you always need so much stuff but fun sets because they are so layered where you get to imagine many different aspects of a character.
In the case of the Janis Garage set, we wanted to show how it was her family’s storage space, a place where she has created a cozy hang out zone for friends, as well as her art studio.
What the area when we just started loading in furniture. Essentially it was an empty garage and we started with a blank slate.
In the original Mean Girls movie in 2004, we see some glimpses of Janis’ paintings as well as evidence of the garage being a storage space for an earlier childhood she has grown out of.
In the Mean Girls Musical Movie (2024) what has changed is now, Janis is a fiber artist “the lines are the thoughts and the string are the feelings.”
Additionally we wanted to create a purple and green color palette for the garage (which if you pay attention is her color palette for her costumes, hair and makeup too!).
So in the garage we created two art workstations for her: one painting, and one sewing.
JANIS’ Painting and Drawing Workstation
The painting workstation pictured in the background of the shot below where Damien explains what REALLY went down between Janis and Regina.
clearer shot of the angle behind Damien:
JANIS FIBER AND SEWING STATION
but first, a little popcorn moment then and now side by side.
Close-up on the area behind Damien and Janis’ heads for that popcorn moment.
One of my favorite elements which are hard to tell in the photos are the adorned black plastic bags with sewing and patches (I’ll get to who made all that art soon) hanging on the door.
HAWAIIAN EASTER EGGS IN JANIS’ GARAGE SET
For the 2024 Mean Girls movie, they updated full name of the character Janis to Janis ʻImi'ike (which like “Auli’i” is a name in native Hawiian language).
Since Auli’i Cravalho (Janis), is an outspoken native Hawaiian actress, we wanted Janis Garage space to reflect that too in subtle and meaningful way.
So I also ordered some artwork and little stickers from Hawaii to sprinkle the set with nods to both the character and actress’ history and lineage.
In the above photo you can see an orange kou flower and a taro plant sticker. Kou is a plant native to the Hawaiian islands and the taro plant is an important plant in Hawaiian mythology and diet.
There was also a bunch of artwork from artists in Hawaii of the taro plant and the ʻōhia lehua flower which is one of Hawaii’s most iconic tree and a native species of plant to the Hawaiian islands.
…as well as a Sonic Youth poster which we imagined was one of Janis’ parents posters.
MAKING ALL THAT ARTWORK
While Tina Fey’s daughter and one of the producer’s daughter did supply us with some great original artwork they made themselves, we also had very specific ideas of how we wanted Janis’ artwork to look throughout her garage based on Kelly’s (production designer) research and ideas for Janis.
This turned out to be way more labor intensive than I had ever imagined essentially running a custom artwork atelier for Janis Garage with multiple different artists and groups.
And because of copyright and legal clearances, it wasn’t enough for me to just give the artists some sample images of what we were hoping for, but also supply all the base images and materials from known cleared sources.
But I think the end results were so worth it!
I reached out to local fiber and textile artist groups to see if anyone was open to some artwork commissions that we could work closely with to craft what we were looking for and incorporate feedback as it was being made on our production timelines…a tall order I know.
So I was thrilled when I was able to connect with local fiber artist Kate Eggelston.
Not only did Kate make the incredible piece of ham quilt hanging on the back wall of the set she was able to create some truly fabulous stitched canvases based on a very specific idea, sensibility, and mood Kelly had in mind based on cleared historical images I could find that I felt had potential for acheiving our aims.
on the upper left hanging on the wall is a quilt of a piece of ham!
there are more! these are just the ones I could easily find photos of.
And then I reached out to a local art school to see if they had actual teenagers around the age of the character of the Janis character to make some collages and the plastic bags enhanced with fiber art.
So incredibly grateful we were able to work with two local branches of One River Art School who held special workshops to help us inspire their teen students to make the type of artwork we were looking for. I brought along sample images, supplied all the materials, and what the students made were INCREDIBLE!
I really felt having teens make the artwork would bring something intangibly important and more authentic for the artwork that is meant to be Janis’ throughout the set.
All the pieces that were chosen also received rental fees (which I hope is encouragement to some of these artists) just like any other artwork we rent for our sets and you can even see some of their artwork on screen.
one teacher went above and beyond and even created a little presentation on the movie Mean Girls for the students!
Just a sampling of some of the best pieces made with stock artwork images I brought along as well as patches and and string supplies for the plastic bags.
JANIS’ Garage goes on the road
Lastly, after we finished filming Janis’ Garage set at the actual garage, a modified version of it went on the road to facilitate the opening shot where the garage door opens on the plains of Kenya (New Jersey) during the musical number “A Cautionary Tale”.
So here is what it looks like to redress a portion of Janis’ Garage in the middle of New Jersey, I mean Kenya which is one of the moments where I thought, set decorating is sometimes hilariously absurd.
I look like a maniac because there were TONS of ticks in this area and I did not want Lyme disease!