Mean Girls Musical: Revenge Party Fantasy Hallway

Mean Girls was filmed in a recently closed school in New Jersey. Not only was the school the filming location but it was also where all our offices, shops, workshops, and warehouses were too.

I liked to joke that it was like being on a boat. On the lower ground floor you would hear saws cutting up sets, smell people painting scenery items, see racks and racks of clothes moving around. You climbed up the stairs and you would see dancers rehearsing in the hallways flanked by offices for each department of the movie.

The hallway outside of our office was the setting for the fantasy sequence in the musical number “Revenge Party” so it was entertaining to see the progress as the hallway transform everytime I left the office. Less entertaining, hearing them rehearse the song over and over and over and over and over and over.

BEFORE

AFTER

Production Designer Kelly McGehee contemplating all the options of the large paper flowers we had custom made for this hallway.

said paper flowers on the screen

When the set dressers took over the cafeteria to become a floral arrangement assembly line:

A team of scenic painters working on transforming the lockers.

CONFETTI TIME!

how the hallway looked after filming.

The same hallway, before it was transformed for Revenge Party, used for another musical number, Apex Predator but now from the point of view from inside our office.

Because of the way this scene was blocked, the actress Auli’i Cravalho who plays Janis had to run through our set decoration office to get back on camera in time for the shot.

Here’s a video of what that looked like from my desk:

FEATURING Asian American artists WORK IN AWKWAFINA IS NORA FROM QUEENS SETS

Did you know most of the artwork featured in the sets of Season 3 of Awkwafina is Nora from Queens is artwork by contemporary Asian American artists?

two pieces by Crys Yin in this multiverse what-if from episode 306.

I have some reservations about “identity politics”in its current 2023 iteration and my thinking on that complex term has definitely evolved a lot in the last few years. 

Shout out to the book Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (And Everything Else) by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò.

I’m also impatient for American culture to move beyond simply the gestures of surface level “representation” without more depth and redistribution of actual power and material benefits…

BUT

• as someone who did grow up in an American media landscape (I started watching TV and movies in the 1980’s) pretty much devoid of any representation of Asian Americans (much less interesting, complex, and honest ones)

• and working in a profession that does not actually have that much diversity within it (96%* of set decorators are white women).

It IS actually meaningful to me in a significant way to work on a show like “Awkwafina is Nora from Queens” that depicts a working-class Chinese American family and a diversity of Asian Americans in a funny and layered way. 

*that was not a scientifically derived percentage but I’m sure the actual number is very close!

on the fridge in the background you can almost make out the postcard below

closeup of the postcard image designed by Lauren YS, sold by Angry Asian Womxn, which Margie, our set decoration buyer, bought at the very special bookstore Yu & Me Books in Manhattan Chinatown and reached out to Lauren to get permission to show the artwork in the set.

Awkwafina is Nora from Queens is one of the few TV shows airing (and of all time) featuring an all Asian American starring cast and telling the story of a specific Asian American family (in this case mostly Chinese-American).

The other shows that fit this definition that come to mind are: All American Girl (Margaret Cho’s show in the 90’s) and Fresh Off the Boat (which concluded a few years ago). 

the spoon painting (a perfect call back to Brenda’s gift to Wally of a spoon in Season 1), which we added to Wally’s study set in Season 3) is by Crys Yin.

And it isn’t just the cast, it was truly special in how not just the cast but the behind-the-camera crew was also full of Asian American creative talent too.

This was my first time working in a creative atmosphere where so many of my coworkers including the leadership at the top had so much cultural affinity to my own background.

Here is a cast and crew photo taken at the conclusion of the last shot during filming. A lot of creative behind-the-scenes talent is not captured here but it is something to give you a sense.

We were all working together to tell jokes that made fun of ideas and and situations borne from cultural similarities in many of our upbringings. 

Since it was such a special opportunity for me as a 4th generation Chinese American to work on a project like Awkwafina is Nora from Queens, my instinct was to fling open the barn doors and invite as many more people, for whom the opportunity to be involved might be meaningful, to also join. 

The flower image above the Therapist Gina Gershon is a piece by Felicia Liang.

I thought what if we extended this feeling of community and unique opportunity to the Asian American artist community by focusing on showcasing the artwork of Asian Americans in our sets?

…which is how the season 3 set decoration team ended up essentially running a mini Asian-American art gallery and small-batch producer Asian American specialty grocer in our offices in service of the sets.

Edmund and Nora in Edmund’s trailer with artwork from Jessica Wee and Felicia Liang behind Edmund’s head.

To be clear, I don’t think the characters of Nora in the show (stoner, slacker, often making bad decisions) or Edmund (self-centered, full of himself, delusional) necessarily care a ton about only buying and hanging Asian American art in their spaces.

It was a choice I made for them. Additionally it wasn’t enough for an artist to simply be Asian American, their artwork had to match the style, feeling, and tones of each character’s set. 

So we got to work creating a little database of Asian American artists and examples of their work. At a certain point it almost felt like Ashley and I (with a big assist from Kevin Cabello our Art Dept coordinator who is all about Asian American community building) were curating a mini Asian American artist gallery with all the research and cataloging we were doing. 

Once we gathered all our research we started reaching out to artists asking them if they would be interested in working with us and printing examples of their work so we could look over all the artwork, discuss with Laura our production designer, and decide which pieces of art might work with which sets in our season. 

NORA’S BEDROOM

we did a bit of a refresh for Nora’s bedroom this season adding new set dressing as well as new artwork that we could imagine Nora vibing with.

artwork from Gabriella Widjaja, Dan-ah Kim, and Kenzo Repola in this board

artwork by Shahrzad Ghadjar from Spookesvilla and Kenzo Repola on the walls behind Nora

You can see Gabriella Widjaja, Shahrzad Ghadjar from Spookesvilla, and Kenzo Repola’s artwork in the set here.

Artwork by Dan-ah Kim and Gabriella Widjaja on the wall to the left of the window

EDMUND’S TRAILER

In episode 303, we see Edmund’s trailer on the set of “Love and Order” and in addition to the crazy self-centered collages we adorned all over his trailer that had photos of himself, hot guys he is lusting over, and tails; we added artwork.

Artwork from Kenzo Repola, Felicia Liang, and Jessica Wee in this board for Edmund’s Trailer.

You can see artwork from Kenzo Repola and Jessica Wee in these shots.

a little selfie with the “Hi-I’m-Edmund-and-I’m—obsessed-with-myself-and-hooking-up-with-hot-men-on-set-collage” (which is sort of his character’s theme in episode 303)

artwork from Jessica Wee and Kenzo Repola in this shot

NORA FROM QUEENS BODEGA

As extensively detailed in this blog post about transforming the bodega twice for episode 307, we wanted to add in artwork the plays with the idea of food and culture in the space once Nora takes over.

Felicia Liang and Crys Yin’s artwork up by the register

Kenzo Repola’s artwork up by the cash register near the plant Wally and Brenda give Nora

We didn’t have a ton of money to offer for a rental fee but we did pay everyone something (this is a very small low budget comedy show!) but we were hoping it would be something fun for artists to participate in. 

Seeing the reaction of artists we worked with seeing their work on screen, and their own community in congratulating and being excited for them has been really gratifying. 

Featuring almost exclusively artwork by Asian American artists in Season 3 of Awkwafina is Nora from Queens is one of my proudest accomplishments from the season. 

Felicia Liang’s artwork on the fridge wall

You can read more behind-the-scenes putting together the sets and everything related to Awkwafina is Nora from Queens Season 3 here.

Awkwafina is Nora from Queens: A Bodega SET with TWO LOOKS

Nora working in a bodega, the iconic New York City corner convenience store and deli, is one of the main new sets in Season 3 of Awkwafina is Nora from Queens. 

Working on movies and TV in NYC means I have worked on numerous bodega sets. The ones of note that come to mind are:

• The bodega set in “In the Heights” which was a bodega build from scratch on a sound stage as well as the real exterior in the actual Washington Heights neighborhood

• The bodega in Russian Doll where surreal things happen as Nadia and Alan travel back and forth through time

• Bodegas in Broad City and High Maintenance. 

Bodegas are fun sets because they are such an everyday slice of in contemporary NYC and we each have our own relationship to our neighborhood bodega.

Additionally, bodegas usually contain lots of fun little details that are showcasing the layers of years, life, and personal touches of the people who work there, and it is all about volume and diversity of product. 

I did read a really good article a few years ago, however, about how as New York City rapidly gentrifies everywhere even in the most outer borough areas, young people (I’m going to include everyone under the age of 45 here) have created something of a cult of of a bodega fetish:

excerpt from this NYTimes Magazine article written by Willy Staley from Feb 2, 2020.

I think the writer is right. And oddly he cites the bodegas in High Maintenance and Russian Doll as evidence in his argument. 😨 does this mean through my work I have played a tiny tiny miniscule part in the bodega fetish trend???!!!

…anyways back to Nora from Queens. 

Not only is the bodega in Season 3 of Awkwafina is Nora from Queens featured in almost every episode, it has two looks in the show: 

1. Papa Moon Deli before when Nora was working for Mr. Moon

2. Nora from Queens after she buys the bodega and makes it her own. 

The real Awkwafina (real life Nora Lum) did actually previously work in a vegan deli in Brooklyn, an experience she talks about often in media interviews, when she was trying to make it as a rapper.

Since we knew exactly which deli that was, the Brooklyn Standard in Greenpoint, we went there to take photos as our first reference photo. 

this is a weird angle, but on the right hand side you can see the wall where we printed large photos of the Brooklyn Standard and different delis around NYC we were inspired by to study as well as the wallpapers we picked.

Once production had settled on the real bodega we were going to film in as the site of our two bodegas, Laura, the production designer, and I got to work discussing how we would modify the existing bodega to tell the story of the two bodegas in our show. 

PAPA MOON DELI

Nora with Mr. Moon

Even though the script had no mention of the first bodega Nora working in being a vegan bodega like the one real life Nora worked in, we thought it might be fun to make a nod to that in our set by stocking vegan products and other products that are actually stocked at the Brooklyn Standard. 

After staring a photos of the Brooklyn Standard and other bodegas we thought were good references we chose what elements of each we wanted to integrate into our set:

• we added wallpaper to some surfaces to create a graphic, dimensional color element

• took out whole sections of the product display

• created new stations

• added a lot more product. 

For instance here we added a coffee enhancement station, completely filled that refrigerator with drinks (it was empty because it is broken), added dozens of more products to that shelf to the right of the drink refrigerator, and you can see snippets of the wallpaper we added in the background:

on the right hand wall, we basically emptied all the existing product the deli had there, and added products we brought in that had a low profile at the request of the cinematographer to allow more natural light in to more effectively light the scenes in the bodega.

Knowing we wanted a greater product selection, more variety in types of food, we got working on the product placement front, which for a set of this scale is quite an endeavor. 

For this set, Kiran was the real hero of product placement hustling hustling (with the help of Will and Kevin) with over 150 vendors. 150!!!! Our spreadsheet was insane. 

The office also started to look a little crazy once all the product placement started to trickle in. The photo above does not even begin to capture the situation.

Even though we made a lot of changes to the bodega, the feeling is almost imperceptible since in general when you walk into a bodega your eyes and mind just go: “lots of products, lots of things” and the fine variations of “lots of products, lots of things” are maybe not clocked.

here is one very specific shot where you can see how adding wallpaper, bringing in larger variety of more colorful products, and addition of a few more elements is in a way subtle but also changes the feeling.

Ashley during one of our first times in the bodega

Though it does feel a little different: a little more vibrant, a little more alive, and a little younger.

NORA FROM QUEENS DELI

featuring the jacked muscle arm money cat from Chop Suey Club, fun lighters from Spookesvilla

In the series finale, Nora has decided to take over the bodega from Mr. Moon and make it her own. Which is oddly also basically the storyline and character arc for Usnavi in “In the Heights” (hahaha) 

In the process of making the bodega Nora’s own bodega we made a bunch of upgrades/ changes to reflect her new ownership:

• Since Nora is a big stoner, there’s a whole bong section and weed accessory section of the bodega now (which is also how a lot of bodegas in NYC feel nowadays actually too)

• We wanted to make the whole place more colorful and vibrant to match Nora’s personality so we added:

• New and more wallpaper to liven up more surfaces

• New carpets including a custom rainbow runner and a really funny bodega menu carpet we found online. 

• Some custom neon lights (which sadly you never see on screen!)

• A lot more new and hip products. 

• A whole new menu signage system

• Some fun little pieces of decoration like the muscle cat. 

• A community zine section which we stocked with actual small zines and small indie Asian American publications like Banana Magazine. 

• a lot of easter eggs recalling sets from the last three seasons that are very niche IYKYK

artwork by Felicia Liang and Crys Yin, the very cool product line from Black Bean Grocery to the right of the Sandwich Special sign.

• Added more artwork including one specially commissioned to match the precise vibe the real Nora told us she was envisioning for this new bodega. 

original artwork from the artist Geobany Geo “BOWZ” who is based in Queens, NYC.

• Taking a cue from our favorite NYC sandwich spot, Court Street Grocers, we created new sandwiches (our Art Dept had a lot of fun getting creative with sandwich names and compositions with Kevin really cranking out the creative juices), had branded sandwich wrapping paper made, and designed a whole line of merch! 

we had so much fun coming up with different sandwiches, naming them, and our wonderful graphics artist Dan-ah Kim made great signs for each.

you can see the custom designed merch we made for Nora’s new bodega in this shot.

The Lin family eating sandwiches from Nora’s Bodega wrapped in the custom branded sandwich paper!

Much like how we took the show to be a chance to gather some Asian American artists and give their artwork a chance to be featured on the show, we took the new Nora Bodega as a chance for small Asian American food companies to showcase their food product on the shelf and on screen.

you can sort of see the drinks by two Asian American companies: Moshi and Sanzo in the fridge behind Wally.

fridge stocked with drinks from Asian American companies: Halmi, Sanzo, Moshi, Lunar, and Nectar. As well as fabulous drinks from other indie drink companies

in this photo you can see products from Asian American companies from L to R: Moon Jam, Momofuku, Red Boat Hot Sauce, Fly by Jing, and artwork from Felicia Liang on the wall of the fridge.

in this photo from L to R: some local zines, artwork from Kenzo Repola and Crys Yin, and products from Asian American companies: Fly by Jing, Omsom,

In the process, sort of created a dream Asian American neighborhood bodega. I’m not sure that is exactly aligned with Nora the fictional character, but to me it felt aligned with the overall values of the show “Awkwafina is Nora from Queens.”

You can read more behind-the-scenes putting together the sets and everything related to Awkwafina is Nora from Queens Season 3 here.

Awkwafina is Nora from Queens Wedding and a 20-hour work day saga

We shot the wedding scene on our last day of filming of the season which was a super fun way to end out the shooting schedule, but it also was a 20-hour day for the set decoration and set dressing crew.  

Yes, 20 hours. 

20 hours?! (haha that is not why the grandmas and Edmund are shocked in this shot)

How and why?

Basically because of the weather, and the nature of the location where we were filming (Queens Museum and Flushing Meadow Park) plus the limitations of our own small crew (we were already stretched so thin with the 10 new sets in episode 306) we had to prep, shoot, and wrap the two wedding sets on the same day. 

Normally you would have a few days or at least a day prior to set up and dress a set before the shooting crew comes to film in a set. 

MICHAEL FREAKING BOLTON!

you might recognize the macrame valance from Brenda’s apartment which we thought was fun to tie into the wedding.

Prepping a set on the same day the crew is coming to film means we have to start VERY early in the morning to be finished before the crew arrives, and wrapping the same day as filming means after everyone goes home and finishes shooting we start cleaning and packing everything away. 

our day doesn’t finish until till the whole party is over to start cleaning and packing up…

Fortunately we are unionized labor so we do get overtime (and a 20-hour day is serious overtime) and some set dressers from that day still talk to me about the sweet paycheck they got from that day (so there’s that).

…but trust me working a 20 hour day is brutal even if you are having fun and love your coworkers (which were both true for me too).  

Let’s relive that timeline 🙃

3:47 AM: First my sad alarm clock set for 3:47am that morning.

5:02 AM: When I first got to set it was, as you might imagine, still dark.

The first scene that was filming for the day was the outdoor wedding ceremony. So the set dressers and I:

5:27 AM met the truck with our all our set dressing in the dark in front of the iconic “Unisphere” designed for the 1964 New York World’s Fair now located in Queens Flushing Meadow Park.

Someone needs to carry all those chairs, columns to display flowers and all the wedding ceremony elements into place and it always a team of set dressers.

5:38AM Setting up the chairs and columns

LASER IS OUT!!!!! huge for precision in all settings but especially helpful when set dressing in the dark

6:21 am flower delivery dressed in and Miko, the fabulous floral designer, somehow looked so fresh and polished for a 6:00am delivery. 

6:41 am: things are coming together

6:45 am: Sun is coming up, and we are all feeling a little silly so Sean, one of the set dressers, proposes a photoshoot with one of the balloons. 

exactly the same, non?

7:05 am back to work:

7:58 am ok we did it

I’m so happy you can see the “double happiness” on the back bar in this shot—an essential element to any Chinese wedding is the “double happiness” symbol.

8:00 am The crew arrives, its the last day of filming and everyone is in a jubilant mood and wants to start taking fun photos.

Our Production Coordinator and UPM hamming it up.

Ok we are happy with that now we have to start on the second set: the big wedding reception. 

Normally setting up a wedding reception set is in itself a full day’s work.

9:27 am: …and we are starting that process now after already doing a good 4 hours of work outside. 

We realize we don’t have some of the right tablecloths and we need the truck to go to New Jersey to pick up the right ones from our vendor.

These last minute runs are always inevitable but always a little more stressful when you are doing a prep and shoot on the same day cause your window of opportunity is so small. 

10:58 am, it is almost lunch time (6 hours from when we started working)

To match the boho vibe of Brenda’s wardrobe and home, Laura designed a fun colorful wedding with boho touches for Brenda. 

All the planning documents and plan plus an A+ vendor list (color coded in the weddings color palette no less) for day of reference from Casey who helped us shop for this set. Plus a glimpse of our wedding mood board inside the doorway behind Kiran’s desk.

2:32 pm Ashley, assistant set decorator, realizes she might have a second career as a cake decorator as she adorns our fake wedding cake. 

you see another “double happiness” on the wedding cake, but I don’t think you ever actually see the wedding cake on screen in the episode.

This day is also very cold and windy and the crew is eager to finish up outside and bring everyone inside. So they are wondering if they can come in earlier than originally planned. 

Agh ok we are trying to work a little bit faster. (I have no photos of this time period as we are tired and trying to go faster).

5:30 PM ish crew starts flowing into the reception space.

Here is Nora holding Laura’s, the production designer, baby. As you can see by her jacket, it was a cold day. Adam, the 1st AD, sitting on the steps—its quite an epic day for him as well and Zenfeek the gaffer on the right.

8:19 PM The shooting crew is filming the wedding reception and now we are all going to rest because then we aren’t really needed until filming wraps. We go out to get dinner and then basically most of us go to our cars and sleep. 

9:43 pm setting up and filming the last shot which is Edmund (Bowen Yang) singing Mambo No. 5 😂

9:52 pm Filming wraps, but since this is the season finale there are some speeches, tears, and just the feeling of a huge collective sigh of relief slash stunned whoa this is it feeling. 

Awkwafina is Nora from Queens season 3 cast and crew group photo at picture wrap

We present Nora with a special piece of commissioned art we asked the artist Geobany Rodrigeuz to make for Nora Bodega (you see it barely in the frame here).

The crew is saying their goodbyes and while people linger longer than on a normal filming day they are also tired and start leaving, lots of the crew wants to take home flower arrangements (and yeah its cool take them, those power flowers have been through a lot and have also almost worked a 15 hour day in cold windy weather) 

10:53 pm and now we need to start cleaning. 

Laura, Craig the official leadman and I decided to use this opportunity of being in a party set to also host a little bit of a thank you party for the set dressers at this moment and thanks to the help of Kiran ordered pizza and chinese dumplings for the occasion. 

We snack together, but actually everyone just wants to go home so everyone is pretty focused on cleaning up the set as efficiently as we can, separating rentals from purchases, and loading up the truck. 

I’m making a “2” and “0” with my hands to commemorate our 20 hours together.

12:35 AM (next day) Ok we did it! One final group photo to remember this epic day together and honestly nobody else I would rather depend on and work together with for such a long workday. 

I remember feeling so tired but also my heart feeling so full.

You can read more behind-the-scenes putting together the sets and everything related to Awkwafina is Nora from Queens Season 3 here.

Memeing on a Strategy Crime Board for Awkwafina is Nora from Queens

this is from the dailies, sadly this scene was not in the final cut of the series finale!

From the beginning we knew from the scripts we would get a chance to make a fun crime board in the finale of the Season 3 of Awkwafina is Nora from Queens. 

…but then last night watching the finale together with the cast and crew, I realized “THE CRIME BOARD WAS CUT!!!!!!!” 😭

Since this is the one blog post I had already prepared for the finale episode (I have a few more brewing, stay tuned!) I’m just going to publish it anyways.

This was the first version of the script (“pre-production draft”)

last version of the script (green revisions). hmmm maybe we had a clue with Nora’s lines denigrating the whole idea of a board that this scene might get cut…

Honestly the finale was great even with this scene cut and eitherway I’m going to walk you through all the FUN WE HAD making it.

When we started the show I asked Kiran what type of small personal project as a venue for his own jokes (Kiran’s a standup comedian and comedy writer!) he would like this season. I gave him a couple of options and he chose this crime board, so it was something we chatted about all season long. 

Of course when one thinks of crime boards there are a few key enduring images such as the detectives trying to figure out each ring in The Wire, the DEA in Breaking Bad, or Carrie Matheson (Claire Danes) on Homeland.

One persistent pop culture image of a crime board stands out, however, because it is so heavily memed, the one from Always Sunny in Philadelphia. 

an obvious reference image for us

Hilariously I found an academic paper intellectualizing the depiction of crime boards on screen:

The crime board is, in this sense, what Ronald Thomas has called a ‘device of truth’, a representational technology that lends authority to a mode of detection long established in crime fiction. This is a mode in which ‘unique interpretive powers’ render crimes visible ‘only to the eyes of the detective’, powers that remain inseparable from the development of forensic technology.[4] The typical crime board not only gathers together and arranges facts yielded by such technologies, it is also a technology of truth in itself, serving a meta-investigative function by visually rendering a theory of causality, association, and guilt.

Ok…

Anyways, when we chatted with episode 307 director Jordan Kim about his vision for this board he also referred to the Always Sunny in Philadelphia meme, so we knew we were on the right track with our references. 

We took the premise of the board: an engagement plan for Wally to propose to Brenda at the Queens Museum to Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston music and really fleshed out each element as far as we could go with visual artifacts:

• Maps of NYC

• Maps of Queens, particularly the area around the Queens Museum

• Floor plans of the Queens Museum

• Photos of the Queens Museum particularly the map room

• Photos of each character including photos that looked like long lens surveillance photos of Brenda (which we found on Getty stock images!!!!), well we asked graphics to add cross hatch graphics to look like detective show photo graphics. 

• Images of each singer

• receipts, purchases, and rental quotes of items Wally would need

• The much needed red string that each of these crime boards seem to have. 

• To-Do lists for each character (loved Kiran’s jokes here)

Kiran made a playlist on Spotify of the songs mentioned in the script plus other songs that made sense in the context of the story and script, we turned it on and worked on putting together the crime board. 

You can listen to it too here, it has, of course Taylor’s Version of “Love Story:”

Once the crime board was done we had to bring it to set and here is the journey the board took with the set dressers from our office to set through Kaufman Astoria studios with a stop-off at the crew breakfast truck hahhaha.

10 new sets for 1 episode of AWKWAFINA IS NORA FROM QUEENS

Episode 6 of Awkwafina is Nora from Queens season 3 directed by Laura Murphy and written by Teresa Hsiao was quite the foray into possible alternate realities sort of like Nora is George Bailey in “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

While Episode 6 provided lots of fun sequences seeing each character in different “what if’s” it also meant A LOT of new sets for one episode. Like a lot, a lot for any TV show and especially a tiny low budget comedy like Nora from Queens.

Thanks to a SUPER set dec team: assistant set decorator Ashley Bradshaw, set dec buyer for the episode Casey Adams, and our trusty PA Kiran, we somehow put together 10 new sets in 1 week.

1. Lawyer Nora

2. Hot Tub Magnate Wally

3. Edmund’s Hi-Rise Kitchen that Grandma now lives in

4. Instagram Lin Family Home Kitchen

5. Instagram Lin Family Home Dining Room and Living Room

6. Instagram Lin Family Home Nora’s Bedroom

7. Nursing Home Grandma

8. Sad Bachelor Wally

9. Brenda’s Home

10. Fancy Living Room

LAWYER NORA

In the fantasy sequence where Nora does go to Kumon (lol) she becomes a high-powered lawyer with a Chinese middle aged lady’s boss girl haircut.

artwork by wonderful artist Crys Yin

we had a totally empty white room in which to fill with our best take on a high-powered millennial girl boss office.

what you can’t tell about the vertical blinds we put up for this wall of windows is that they have a really cool texture on them. We felt that vertical blinds quickly communicated the idea “office.”

lonely lawyer Nora drinking champagne alone with the back of faux high-powered photos and photos of cars like Mandy which she was desperately hoping for in the normal timeline of episode 306.

HOW THOSE PHOTOSHOPPED PHOTOS SAUSAGE IS MADE

If you are ever wondering how those faux photos are done, it is a whole process.

In our case, we came up with a list of high-powered problematic people for Nora to have photos with and then found their photos on a stock image site we had access to through production.

Then we float this idea with the director and writer (Laura and Teresa) and they tell us what they think in terms of the kind of people girlboss Nora would be proud to showcase photos of. They told us our first pull was too many political figures (I think we pulled Henry Kissinger as one of them) and to do more tech and rock stars.

We also had to look for photos that would be easy to photoshop Nora into to make it easier for our graphics people to do quickly. For instance that photo with Mark Zuckerberg is fairly easy to put another body into with a lot of space between the two people and black background.

Finally we settled on Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Drake, and a red carpet photo of the real Nora and Michelle Yeoh.

Then we printed out the stock photos we were going to use so that when they did a special photoshoot of Nora in the hair, makeup, and costume of Lawyer Nora (two days before we filmed the Lawyer Nora scenes) she would know how to pose to match the photos it would be photoshopped into.

Once those photos of Nora in hair, makeup, and costume are taken, our graphics team let by Dan-ah Kim have to frantically photoshop and print these photos so that we can put them into frames and have them on set to film these scenes.

Way more work than you were expecting right?

In this shot you can see the Elon Musk one.

MONOPOLY WALLY

Nora discovers that Wally has become a high-powered douchebag earning a fortune as a hot tub water bed magnate in this alternate reality.

For this set we also had an empty room with just a brick wall to work with.

In one iteration of the script Nora asks why Wally looks like the Monopoly man (I think they had to change the dialogue for copyright clearance reasons) but when we were prepping for the set we pulled reference images of the actual monopoly man (hahahha) and I think we matched the codes.

you can see where the business cards and holders are placed on the desk even though in the shot they are covered by one of the many young women fawning over this Hot Tub Water Bed Big Boss Wally.

my favorite detail: the business cards graphic artist Dan-ah Kim made for Wally!

EDMUND’S HI-RISE KITCHEN

In this sequence Grandma is living with Edmund in his fancy hi-rise kitchen where he lives as a successful actor.

Since the only other time we saw Edmund’s space this season is his trailer in ep 303 “Love and Order” we thought we would match the colors of his kitchen to the colors we used for that set, and even had some of the same art from that set in this set.

Since Edmund’s kitchen is sort of Grandma’s space too now that she lives with him, I thought she might also have a Chinese grocery store calendar here thanks to Dan-ah for making us another one.

we discussed with director Laura Murphy what would be on Edmund’s fridge and we decided he’s so full of himself it would be his headshot and a magnet that is another photo of himself and that’s it. 😂 (yes I’m old, this is my go-to laughing emoji)

This was a totally empty blank kitchen usually used for commercials so we had to totally fill it also.

Sad fact: one afternoon I went out and bought everything you see here and that night my production car was broken into and someone stole almost everything we bought. So I had to buy everything again a few days later. 😭

INSTAGRAM INFLUENCER LIN FAMILY HOME DINING ROOM AND LIVING ROOM

After Nora goes through that sequence of events above, she is presented with a whole other set of realities to contrast with that starting with her being married with a son and working as an instagram influencer.

Transforming the Lin Family Home was a real challenge. We had, and I’m not joking, 2-days to find, buy and rent all the furniture and decoration (Ashley the wonder woman Assistant Set Decorator MADE IT HAPPEN!) and 1.5 days to put it together in the set to change the rooms legibly enough that you would recognize the space but understand Nora had changed and had a different life

We were trying to make her new life bland, suburban, and “nice” in that boring IG way that people like sanitizing and remodeling their homes nowadays.

You can’t really see in this photo but the living room has different seating, drapes, and a whole kids toys section. Also Nora’s costume in this scene cracks me up so much—costume designer Michelle Li did such a great job.

How this same shot looked just last episode.

INSTAGRAM INFLUENCER LIN FAMILY HOME KITCHEN

How we changed the kitchen (if we had the resources to change the wallpaper we would have but sadly this isn’t that show).

How the kitchen normally looks.

before the light was installed, but still you get the idea of how sterile and different the kitchen has become.

the scenics even put a contact paper to change the kitchen counters to look like a marble countertop.

Those two cookbooks are my personal ones I brought from home the morning of filming and someone stole them. rude!

INSTAGRAM INFLUENCER NORA BEDROOM

her sanitized bedroom now a master bedroom for her miserable marriage.

how her bedroom normally looks

how this part of the room usually looks.

how it usually looks

During this quick storming out of Arthur you get a glimpse of this corner of the room

what this part of this room usually looks like

WORKING REALLY FAST

Like I said earlier, we only had 1.5 days to take down and properly store all the original decoration and dress-in the new look (only to have to re-dress it for future filming!) Which is possible but still a feat.

Since we had a great set dressing crew we were lucky everyone knew how to work quickly together.

when you are set dressing so fast you have no time to get a ladder

we stored all of the old Nora bedroom stuff in Grandma’s room and this is what that looked like 😱

Laura the Production Designer and me during our manic extreme set selection session where we had to decide everything for transforming the Lin Family Home in 1 hour so Ashley would have time to act on those decisions and put the rentals through and make the purchases.

WALLY’S BACHELOR PAD

the alternate reality where poor Wally never meets Brenda and lives on his own in a sad bachelor pad .

GRANDMA’S NURSING HOME

This was an empty room, and Casey did a great job bringing this idea to life.

Not only is this old TV with an episode of “Love and Order” playing a funny detail, this shot give you a glimpse at the many great small details Casey put into the set in this part of the room.

HOTEL/FANCY LIVING ROOM

You will see more of this room in the finale as this is where the episode ends “to be continued…” but we had to have this set ready by this episode.

I’ll talk more about this set in the next post but just know this was a build on a stage which is usually the type of set that is the most work for the art department.

when Nora meets Awkwafina….what?! stay tuned!

BRENDA’S HOME

exterior of Brenda’s Home which we tried to match the porch to with plants and a boho vibe with her eclectic colorful wardrobe.

When we first started Season 3 of Awkwafina is Nora from Queens, Production Designer Laura Miller and I discussed how Brenda’s home was the set she was most excited about for the season.

Brenda has been a character since Season 1 and she always has a clear artsy boho quirky style in her wardrobe and this would be our chance to flesh out her character with her home interior and exterior.

One of the first sets we started working on was Brenda’s gathering reference images and style inspiration based on our understanding of the character and matching the vibe of her wardrobe for the last three seasons.

snapshot from a pinterest board we started for her set from early early prep for the show.

reference images I had taped to my office wall including ideas for the design of the coffee table we had custom made as a stunt breakaway so that Wally could safely fall onto it and break it.

said breakaway coffee table, plus the hint (like the slightest hint) of the vases filled with roses.

Sadly we really didn’t see much on screen for this set, so here are some before and after shots of the sets we created for Brenda’s Home:

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER (imagine the vases underneath the sign filled with roses)

a hilarious shot of B.D. Wong as Wally

You can read more behind-the-scenes putting together the sets and everything related to Awkwafina is Nora from Queens Season 3 here.

And for fun with the real star of episode 306:

Creating a Weed Empire for Awkwafina is Nora from Queens

you can see the special swivel throne chair we got for Kingpin grandma here, those much labored about hanging buds drying in the “dehum” section, AND the right old food container tupperware on top of the fridge in the corner! I go in depth about the tupperware that had their star moment in 302 here.

Episode 5 in Season 3 of Awkwafina is Nora from Queens is maybe the funniest episode of the season. Grandma and Nora build a weed empire together with the help of Grandma’s senior center friends and Grandma breaks bad.

We learned a lot about the details of creating an at-home weed operation (work research!), activated all the wings of the art department to come together to create a large quantity of realistic looking fake weed buds still on the plant, and had a lot of fun leaning into pimping out kingpin grandma’s room.

Grandma is the Wolf of Wall Street (Queens Blvd?)

When I read the script (written by Kyle Lau) for ep 305, the scene above noted “Major ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ and Theranos vibes” (see script excerpt below).

So we immediately with the help of Kiran, got to work pulling images from iconic scenes in the movie “Wolf of Wallstreet.”

When I saw the hint of different clocks denoting time zones and suggesting a world empire in the “Wolf of Wall Street” still above, it reminded me of a very funny “different time zones” clock set up I saw once in an office in Manhattan years ago.

spotted this in a Manhattan office space in 2019

In our set: of course Queens is in the middle!

When I saw this still from “Wolf of Wall Street” (below) I thought maybe we could ask our fantastic graphic designer Dan-ah Kim to make a really silly graphic of glass bricks to mimic the background of the speaker in the image to frame grandma.

Fortunately the Awkwafina is Nora from Queens is a very open and collaborative set where truly everyone feels like they are delighted to be there and play around for the best joke possible.

So when I proposed doing a version of this idea in our set to the production designer Laura Miller, she liked it and encouraged me to pitch it to the director Bill Benz.

Bill chuckled and said sure!

Making all that fake HANGING weed

For those of us who didn’t have any experience in a homegrown weed growing and distribution empire (uh, me), production provided us with a detailed breakdown of step-by-step what this would entail from an interview someone in the writer’s room did.

here’s an excerpt of the detailed process breakdown provided by production (hahaha, seriously!) and my notes calculating how much material we would need to buy to make buds…

Margie our set dec buyer called around different prop houses to find who might already have fake weed we could rent.

these are buds we rented from a prop house put in different containers we and props bought. Margie even bought old jam jars to accentuate the DIY feeling of the operation.

She found a person in Atlanta who had fake plants, fake bricks, and fake buds (all which we rented) but nobody who had buds drying on still on a plant what is noted above as “Cutting/Trimming Process/dehum.”

Laura found some great reference images of home “dehum” stages and we were aiming to create a visual like the image below for the set.

Though to add an even more DIY and Immgirant-chic aesthetic we wanted to use the hangers that look like the ones in this hilarious drawing I found amongst my set notes.

Well since nobody had any branches of buds of weed we could rent, (and I even talked to real growers who might sell us real branches in this stage!), we had only one choice:

MAKE IT OURSELVES.

yes, make it ourselves.

First, Ashley the assistant set decorator went to a fake plant warehouse to find branches and leaves that looked closest to hemp plants that we could attach some homemade buds to.

Then, Ashley went and bought all the supplies to make a bunch of buds.

To test out ideas, make some prototypes, come up with best practices and see what would work and what wouldn’t the UPM Amanda Distler let us set up a little faux bud making workshop outside her office and our office elves got to work.

ok so now we understand what it takes.

Once we had some prototypes made, it was time to bring in the big guns: we set up a real bud making assembly line workshop in the set dressing shop and the set dressers GOT TO WORK.

Then after assembling our fake buds on the vine, we brought them all over to the scenics in their shop to help us paint in even more realistic finishes.

do you see this handcraft?!

Then when the filming crew was at lunch, we had 1 hour to install our weed operation.

There’s also a mailing operation which we also dressed in:

pimping out Grandma’s Room

Nora and Grandma start their little grow operation in Grandma’s closet with the help of Doug.

I know the point of these scenes is really about the weed plants growing and the funny DIY home growing operation of it with tin foil, but for me it was about getting a Chinese grandma’s closet right.

I thought a lot about the memory of my two grandma’s closets (one in in Queens and one in Boston) and tried to evoke the feeling of each and the particulars of a lot of folded up bedding, mismatched hangers, old vintage cases and lots of random colored plastic bags with mysterious items in them.

Closets are always such an opportunity to do character and backstory storytelling through items thrown together and packed in. It’s about accurate true-to-character details but it is also about visually balancing materials, textures, shapes, and colors to create a feeling of visual harmony.

Even though to look right it should look like a lived-in natural haphazard chaos of years of life, it is actually a detailed process of putting together (hopefully) an artfully stage managed still life.

we really adorned each lampshade with gold chains. as many gold chains as our little show could afford 🤑

we also got Grandma a fur coat, a cane! (Ashley found some great canes as well as all the burner phones on the bed at a prop house and bought the fur coat at a thrift store).

IG story Awkwafina shared from set on the day they filmed this scene featuring the set dressing cane and burner phones Ashley our assistant set decorator found!

The Chinese Calendars

Lastly, the pile of Chinese calendars you see in the deep background of the upperhand left corner deserves its own shoutout thanks to our WONDERFUL graphic designer Dan-ah Kim.

the only calendar that was still with the set dressing from Season 2 was a Year of the Dog (2018) calendar so I knew we needed to make a few more since COVID was a reality in the show’s timeline.

One day in Manhattan Chinatown I took photos of these calendars on the wall as great reference images to pass along to Dan-ah.

Dan-ah is an accomplished graphic designer for movies and TV (and a published children’s book author and illustrator!) working on some of the biggest productions in NYC, yet she noted to me this was her first time to get an opportunity to make one of the ubiquitous grocery store or bank calendars seen in many Asian American spaces.

and of course Dan-ah made three spectacular calendars with so many perfect details all aligned with the Chinese zodiac.

As you can see, this episode was quite a collaboration amongst our whole art department and beyond. Fun in the silliest way, it was also gratifying to see it all come together to deliver maximum laughs.

You can read more behind-the-scenes putting together the sets and everything related to Awkwafina is Nora from Queens Season 3 here.

my fav graphic that Casi Moss made for this episode. It works on so many levels with the jokes in the episode!

Awkwafina is Nora from Queens Season 3 Episode 2: BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE SETS

Episode 302 of Awkawfina is Nora from Queens is mostly a hilarious spoof of reality shows that is somehow a mix of Love Island meets Squid Game meets Survivor.

We all had a great time working at the location that was the setting for the “Too Hot to Survive” reality show house.

It was towards the end of the job so most of the crazy stress was over and the day we were dressing was a BEAUTIFUL day to be in a mansion overlooking the ocean.

…sadly the day of filming was raining and overcast so you don’t get to see as much of the house on screen as we enjoyed the day before working to put together the set.

Me and Ashley our assistant set decorator enjoying the beautiful day by the water on the terrace

Leadman Nate chilling on the same terrace where they filmed the shot below

Ashley, Soph our locations rep, and me having a fabulous lunch in the sun

Kiran working at set after doing a location run in around the same spot Nora shot this tag

That Giant Pink Bear

to heighten that over-the-top-nothing-is-too-loud aesthetic of reality TV show homes, we rented some oversize bright colored animal statues like the pink bear you see here:

But that pink bear statue HEAVY.

It took 6x set dressers to safely carry it across the room when we were putting the house together

THE CRAZY BIG BED

The script mentioned there was a “GIANT BED”

When I was shown the size of the room we were putting the bed in (usually the family’s living room) and measured how big everyone wanted the bed (15’ feet wide x 12’ feet deep) I knew it was going to be a little bit of a challenge since it was far more enormous than any commercially available bed.

Luckily Assistant Set Decorator Ashley Bradshaw got to work figuring it out and calculated we could use 6x queen sized mattresses and bed frames to create a bed this large, so what you see below are SIX QUEEN MATTRESSES!

the set dressers putting together this epic bed comprised of 6x queen sized beds

From L to R: Ashley Bradshaw, assistant set decorator and the queen who figured out this bed; Laura Miller our wonderful production designer, and me looking very tired.

FUN TRIVIA

The actress, Greta Titelman, who plays poosh in “Too Hot to Survive” is also the same actress who…

Greta Titelman on “Too Hot to Survive” in Awkwafina is Nora from Queens

who played the “Countess Leonora” in Season 5 of Search Party which I also decorated! You can learn all about the Lyte HQ set she appeared in on the blog here.

TURNINg a C TOWN into a G mart (AKA H Mart)

One of the other storylines in this episode is Wally and Grandma’s power struggle over her old stool and eating healthier.

The script had them shopping in “G Mart” (obvious spoof/dupe of the legendary Asian grocery store chain H Mart).

Seeing as our production was based in Queens, seems crazy we didn’t just film inside one of the HUNDREDS of Asian grocery stores in Queens right?

Nope, we actually filmed in a C-Town in Queens a regular degular supermarket that didn’t even have an “Asian Foods” aisle…

this establishing exterior shot? A LIE. We were filming in a C-Town grocery store that didn’t even have an Asian grocery aisle!

So we had to BUY a few three aisle segments worth of Asian groceries to replace on the C-Town shelves for filming.

I went one day to Food Bazaar (one of my favorite NYC supermarkets and actually owned by Korean-Americans) with Kiran and we bought three shopping carts worth of Asian groceries. It looked something like this:

C-Town to G Mart pretending to be H Mart a hilarious NYC supermarket alphabet soup.

The Tragedy of the Tupperware

The episode starts with Grandma using her treacherous stool “Jessimae” to reach some high piles of tupperware.

Once I saw that in the script, I had our whole Art Department keeping old takeout containers and rounding up old food containers to use as tupperware.

Cause as anyone related to Chinese immigrants knows: Grandma isn’t going out and buying any new tupperware! The only tupperware Chinese grandmas know are recycled food containers they refuse to throw out but prefer to reincarnate into tupperware!

Set Dec buyer Margie even bought a few lots of old food containers off of eBay so we could create a beautifully chaotic menagerie of immigrant “tupperware.”

So you can imagine my heartbreak when watching the show and seeing in consternation what ended up on screen was a bunch of VERY new looking tupperware 😭😭😭😭😭

Sometimes things like this happens: we have all the right stuff, we dress it in, and then what actually happens when they are filming is something else entirely. Most of the time I’m not on set so I wasn’t around when these choices were made.

How I felt seeing the wrong tupperware when I know we went through a lot of care and intention to gather the “right” kind of tupperware:

how I felt seeing what tupperware was actually used for the scene and shot

Here’s my actual grandma holding one of her favorite “tupperware” receptacles: reused soft tofu containers to do some gardening in her home in Boston.

You can read everything related to Awkwafina is Nora from Queens Season 3 here.