Meet Mehdi Bennani | Production Designer & Art Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Mehdi Bennani and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Mehdi, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
Growing up in Morocco, I was always interested in different forms of art. I partook in extracurricular activities such as drawing, painting, acting, learning instruments, and playing different sports from around 4 years old until I graduated high school. When I was under 10, my favorite activity whenever I was home was to play make-believe. I would create different worlds, make scenarios up in my head, and play different characters. I would even invite my cousins and friends to embark on these imaginary adventures with me. That is what brought me closer to acting at first and to filmmaking later. At the end of high school, besides the acting classes, I got really into filmmaking. I took a class that introduced me to the basics and I found it fascinating. After high school, I decided to study architecture at the University of Southern California, since it was also a subject in which I was interested. After two years in college though, I knew I didn’t want to become an architect anymore. I decided to switch to a four-year program and started looking into what I could do in the future. I stumbled into this art direction class and was immediately hooked. Once I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Architecture, all I wanted to do was design for film, so I applied to several film schools to become a production designer. Two years later, I graduated with a master’s in production design from the American Film Institute.
I still remember playing make-believe when I was little, and I miss the innocence of it sometimes. I am happy that I was able to find a creative path that brought me closer to my younger self by designing sets. As a production designer, my job is to create different worlds to serve the different stories of film and TV. I am excited for the future and glad I am doing what I love.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?

I work mostly as a freelance production designer. My work consists of creating the world surrounding the characters for each scene. It starts by thinking about where we are, when is the story taking place, and how the space affects the characters. Each job is very different. Just because you have designed an office space before doesn’t mean that all the office spaces you have designed will look the same. That is what I love about the job. Finding ways to make each space its own within the movie, but also its own when you compare it to other movies.
I worked on a project called Rain, which was both a family drama and a psychological horror movie, and we had to make the location look like a family home in a secluded place during Christmas. Slowly throughout the movie, the house deteriorates, and the objects around the house melt little by little. It was a challenge to make the house look drastically different as if there had been a fire inside, but the result of our work looked amazing and we were all very proud of ourselves.
Each project is different, and each has its own set of challenges. It’s exciting to get through these challenges which require you to be very creative sometimes. The beauty of this job is that you collaborate with very talented people who are always here to help you figure things out. In the end, we all want the project we are working on to succeed. There are always a few lessons to learn from each other and that is what makes me excited about the job. The learning is never over, there is always something new to learn.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
If my best friend was visiting LA… I would probably take them to the beach, either near Malibu, like Zuma Beach or Point Dume, or on the other side, to Manhattan Beach. Los Angeles is so big that it is hard to pinpoint my favorite places, restaurants, etc… Depending on the budget, probably Universal, Disneyland, maybe a tour at the Warner Brothers studios, and the Huntington Gardens.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I think that without the support of my family, my friends, and the people I met on set, my life would be very different. Not only did they help me grow as a person, but they presented opportunities to me that I would have never imagined having. My first project as a designer was thanks to Tayo Amos, whom I was introduced to back in 2019 for her USC thesis project as a director. She has also directed an episode of Chicago Fire recently. Thanks to Tayo, I knew that this was what I wanted to do. I was also lucky enough to meet with a family friend when I first came to the US, Naima Genitempo, and her husband Serge Genitempo who has worked on many TV shows like The Mandalorian and True Blood, as a scenic artist. Serge has been a mentor for me all these years and I always turn to him for advice.

Website: https://mbennanidesign.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mb.onsets/

Image Credits
First 2 of the additional photos: Yukun Chan