Dan Weil (‘Franklin’ production designer): ‘I’m happy when people don’t know which one is a set and which one is a location’ [Exclusive Video Interview]

“I’m happy when people don’t know which one is a set and which one is a location,” declares production designer Dan Weil, whose work is on display in the Apple TV+ limited series “Franklin.” The series takes place in late 18th century Paris as Benjamin Franklin (Michael Douglas) travels to France to negotiate an alliance during the American Revolution. The time period and location gave the Weil, whose credits include such films as “Syriana” and “The Bourne Identity,” to go back into bring to life locations that are a part of French history. Watch more of our exclusive video interview above.

The historical locations featured in “Franklin” were familiar to Weil, who had heard about both the locations and Franklin’s negotiations as a part of learning history in his native France. “The way we’ve been taught about history is something very present, especially on my job,” he explains. “So you have a, I won’t say easier, but usually more accurate sense of history because it’s part of our daily life.” Weil also argues that the challenges of creating period locations is different than creating something original. “It’s not as complicated as a sci-fi movie,” he argues. “I would say when you do a historical piece, you have a limited vocabulary artistically speaking and architecturally speaking.”

He says that his goal in his designs was to reflect a sense of new money that was common during the time period. “Historically speaking, these people wanted to be considered aristocracy, but they were not part of it,” he says. “They were rich entrepreneurs. So they bought one castle that was their main place, and they a pavilion. So this pavilion had to be a little bit like a nouveau riche type.”

Weil argues that the goal of the production design is not to be flashy, but to be accurate. If flash is part of the accuracy, then so be it, but accuracy is his number one priority. “It has to be real, to feel real,” he says. “You don’t want to draw attention on something that’s not important, so it’s not about being flashy. If you create a bar from the seventies, you have to be disco. Disco is flashy, but it’s not flashy in the fact that you don’t notice it, but you don’t notice it because it’s normal.”

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