Lisette Graffe Telemundo
Moving a street from Houston or New York to Miami is possible for Lisette Graffe, Set Decoration manager for Telemundo fiction, who did it for the series 100 Días para Enamorarnos (100 Days to Fall in Love) and Betty en New York.
“I really liked doing Betty en New York and it was a very interesting exercise to recreate New York in the studios and streets of Miami. In the studio, we did all the interiors, offices, houses, but we also recreated New York streets in downtown Miami, including all the details that make New York City unique,” she explained, after adding that they did the same with Houston because all cities have their specific characteristics, such as the signs on the buses, license plates, labels on the windows, police officers.
Before preparing these settings, they traveled to the cities of New York and Houston to capture the spirit of the city. “The city provides important information, about color temperatures, materials and it is like going from the macro to the micro. In addition, you have to study the characters, know where they come from, what they like, what they eat. We are talking about working sessions that do not stop.”
Her job is to create the atmosphere that supports the actor to tell his story, “it is the decoration, but including life, that is, thinking about the character and on the basis of a script and story, including the action that will take place there,” she explained. So the department she directs is in charge of dressing the set, from the furniture to the pencil that the actor uses. It is, therefore, a work that goes hand in hand with the entire art team, the production designer, the art designer, the costume designer, the director of photography, the director.
“It is a very complex world, which requires a lot of teamwork and going through different layers of depth of the character, in order to be unique,” she details, after commenting that more and more realistic sets are being demanded. In addition, with the covid situation, the aim is to avoid going out on the street using forums but trying that the viewer does not notice it.
She claims the sets are 360, including the ceiling. “It’s like building a complete house, including the electrical installations. And as we have a ceiling, our light sources are aligned with the direction of photography, so it also goes with a design.”
