A.P.D.G.
2:22
PRODUCTION DESIGNER
Paul Currie's psychological thriller 2.22 is primarily a tale of love and loss. Set in New York City, 2.22 is a story where events past and present converge to expose familiar hauntings and unrelenting obsession.
Air traffic controller Dylan lives each day with precision and repetition. By chance he meets art gallery curator Sarah. They form a relationship of great depth and gentleness, feelings that have always eluded Dylan.
Drawn to repetitive events that occur at the same time each day ……Dylan senses past tragedy and endeavours to unlock the mystery surrounding these events.
Alongside the initial script read and discussions with the Director, mood and tone boards were created.
The boards express the initial and pure visual thoughts of each set, location or story beat of the film.
They express palette texture, lighting, movement, form, costume design and environment style etc.
The boards, and evolving concept artworks, create the layered visual and visceral language for the film.
They were a great point of reference for us all once pre-production commenced, and the reality of a smaller budget project kicked in!!


The geography of the city for 2.22 was mapped out early in pre-production. This component was integral to understanding the style of each location.
To balance the beautiful architectural detail of Grand Central Station, industrial style and underground environments were scouted along with textural exteriors to sell NYC. Lending weight to a city that has gravitas, grit and grime.
Dylan’s character felt like an Alphabet City kind of guy. The earthy, warmth architectural textures of his surrounds in a precinct undergoing gentrification, had a progressive feel.
Sarah may have gravitated to the Greenwich Village area as her gallery workplace was possibly in the Meatpacking zone. her personal style was vintage minimalism with a hint of softness.


The industrial, gritty Meatpacking zone was where Jonas gravitated to create his art.
With a hint of cold steel, the Jonas interior provided us with a scale which, in a sense, paralleled that of the Grand Central Station location.
Oversized images of Sarah were created on translucent fabric or voile. The scale of these added to the characters overwhelming and ongoing obsession with Sarah.
These pieces assisted in containing the physical space and allowed the Cinematographer to create mood lighting through and onto the images…

Our location for The Keiffer Gallery was an unused subterrainian tunnel near a busy Sydney train station.
The location was a cold and haunting environment that sung to the dark underbelly of the 2.22 city, past and present.
The exhibition of works we created for 'Visions of Crime' was longitudinal art pieces mounted on steel sheets that captured moments of violence, death and carnage.
The final piece in the exhibition is titled Death at Grand Central.
When the six images are lined up, the viewer becomes an eyewitness to an event that has already or is about to occur.
When the six images are lined up, the viewer becomes an eyewitness to an event that has already or is about to occur.
This artistic format represented the layers of evidence produced through our story's investigation and suggests the fragmented thought process of the murderer, who is consumed by love and obsession.
Thankfully we had a crack VFX team on hand to ensure this art piece worked in the film.
One of the many challenges in Designing the film was to create a detailed section of Grand Central Station in New York.
(Images shown here)
(Images shown here)
A location scout was engaged in NY to photograph the station's entire concourse and all its details to facilitate the set design and construction.
The images and information were invaluable when creating the construction documents. As were the entire Scenic, Construction, Prop Manufacture, Set Decorating and Art Directing team that nursed this substantial build to completion.
The ceiling height of the Fox Studio stage allowed the Cinematographer to create a striking key light that enhanced the mood of our set build and played into the hands of the narrative.
My thanks to all the Art crew who assisted in bringing the 2.22 vision to life.
