Production Design with a purpose: a talk with China’s Xiwen Zhang

Sara Fowler
Nov 1 · 3 min read
Production Designer Xiwen Zhang on set of “With You”

Despite always having an interest in the arts, production designer Xiwen Zhang did not always know what her path would be. For the majority of her young life, she studied installation art, learning to express her ideas and thoughts through 3D installation pieces. It wasn’t for several years into her career when she realized she could fuse this idea with filmmaking and be a production designer, an idea that intrigued her. She could use her artwork to tell a story to the masses, and she knew that was what she wanted to do.

“Installation artwork is creating a piece to express yourself. Production Design is the same thing. You have to create the space in a story to express a character’s personality and design different sets to tell that story. You are always creating and never lose inspiration. It’s a great way as an artist to share ideas” she said.

Throughout her career, Zhang has shown the world on countless occasions just why she is such a celebrated production designer. Her films like I See You, Where is Happiness, Stay, and Affectionate Heart showcase her artistry and versatility.

Her film With You is no different, as Zhang manages to capture the story of two best friends struggling in their friendship after finding out about each other’s darkest secrets through her work as a production designer.

This film is about two girls who are very close friends, but sometimes friends don’t have the right boundaries. It shows that you will hurt your friends and they will hurt you but true friends will find a way of figuring it out,” said Zhang.

Zhang felt a connection to the story, and wanted to showcase each of the girls’ personalities through her work. She focused on creating a color palette for each character. For the character of Luca, she chose green. Green implies freedom, life, and youth. Luca is a freedom girl; she is brave but young and therefore often makes some immature decisions. She likes to stay with her friend, and she relies on this friendship. Luca is an impulsive girl, she hurts Seven sometimes. Because of this, Seven’s color is yellow. She is a soft girl, tender, sensitive, but she also knows Luca and she are compatible, and green and yellow are very compatible colors.

“When these two colors mix together they create a bright and vibrant green that implies new life and maturity. This is like Luca and Seven’s relationship. It is the very important visual essential in this film. It is not just for color, it represents the soul of the characters,” said Zhang.

In one scene in the film, Seven helps Luca was her hair in the bathroom sink. They are so close and quiet and seem quite happy, but this is just before they have an explosive argument, showing what is wrong in the relationship. For this scene, Zhang designed a light blue bathroom, making them feel calm, just before the storm.

Zhang’s artistic background played a key role in the success of With You. The film was a Semi-Finalist last year at the Los Angeles CineFest and the Sydney Indie Film Festival. It was an Official Selection at the Hollywood Verge Film Awards and the Phoenix Film Festival Melbourne, and a Finalist at the Oniros Film Awards. It also took home the Asian Award at the Accolade Global Film Competition. Zhang is thrilled by the success of the film, and is happy to show that in life, friendship is a key part of happiness.

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