All good things must come to an end and, sometimes, saying goodbye is the hardest part of the journey. It’s been a long time coming and the final season of Stranger Things was truly the end of an era. It was a monster hit, a high watermark for entertainment, and something that captured the heart of the world. It launched multiple stars into the limelight and made names for nearly everyone involved.
We might just be done with 80s properties as the “cool” throwback time period where you could only remember cassette tapes, first crushes and battling trans-dimensional demons by looking in a photo album. Well, the world certainly embraced Hawkins’ residents as their own as they saw bits of themselves and their loved ones in the varied cast. And they surely saw more than a handful of the things they grew up with in the background and scenery of the show.
One of the most captivating elements of the show was the production and that crosses over and is the culmination of multiple departments (location scouts, art department, props, art direction, et al) and we got the ultra rad chance to talk to someone controlling the look of the show from an artistic standpoint. Jess Royal is a skillful, resourceful and pretty fun-loving Set Decorator.
If there was a storefront, a box of cereal, a phone, a Trapper Keeper, a poster of the innumerable 80s films adorning the walls of the sets or an entire carnival, Jess had the honor and daunting task of printing, buying/renting, moving or building it all. All of it. For close to an hour, we talked to her Royal Highness about the wins, the challenges and the fun she had with her team, the The Duffer Brothers and Production Designer Chris Trujillo across five seasons and ten years. Enjoy this episode of The GoSeeTalk Podcast Experience!
