PRESS

‘Mindhunter’: Expanding the Visual Aesthetic for Season 2 with Erik Messerschmidt

“There’s a lot more world building in Season 2, with production designer Steve Arnold’s Atlanta Task Force headquarters serving as the set piece. ‘The real task force was a converted car dealership very similar to the set Steve built on stage,’ Messerschmidt added. ‘He wanted to paint the windows to obscure the view from outside just as the [Atlanta Police Department] had done during the real investigation. At first, I was worried about this, but when he first showed me the paint samples he had picked, I immediately fell in love with the way the light looked through the painted windows.” - Bill Desowitz 2020

Mindhunter Season 2: Interview with DP Erik Messerschmidt

“For Berkowitz we wanted the room to feel cool and uninviting. Steve Arnold built a beautiful set where the table is surrounded by a giant cage. It gave us great composition opportunities…David and Steve Arnold thought it would be interesting if Holden and Tench interviewed Manson in the prison infirmary…Steve Arnold built a beautiful set on stage that was modeled after the real task force headquarters (the Atlanta Police Department) set up inside an old car dealership. The set had two-story glass windows, which Steve painted with an eggnog-colored white latex paint.” - Matt Mulcahey 2019

“Time Hunters” - EMMY Interview with Mindhunter Season 1 Creative Team

“Production designer Steve Arnold was familiar with the Pittsburgh area from attending Carnegie Mellon University. ‘Because the surrounding areas were hit very hard when the steel industry disappeared, a lot of these towns are caught in the past,’ Arnold explains. ‘Things haven't changed in 40 or 50 years there, so there's a sensibility and a look that hasn't really changed. We had to bring period cars in and remove a lot of things that were contemporary, but if you wanted the '70s, you just opened a door, and there it was.” - Liane Bonin Starr

Interior’s Journal Interview for Mindhunter Season 1

“The television show, Mindhunter, created by Joe Penhall and executive produced and directed by David Fincher, is one of the most visually distinctive shows and for good reason. David Fincher's filmography has become something that we aren't used to seeing. From the Cinematography to the Production Design, Fincher has achieved a level of mastery that other films and television shows do not seem to have.” - Interior’s Journal 2017

Indie Wire Review - ‘Mindhunter’: The David Fincher Look is All About Power and Control

“And Fincher’s collaboration with production designer Steve Arnold (“House of Cards”) and gaffer-turned cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt (“Mad Men”) was crucial to the authentic ’70s look and dynamic blocking of the interrogation scenes, particularly those involving Ed Kemper (Cameron Britton), who captivates and mentors Holden.” - Bill Desowitz 2018

SET DECOR interview for Mindhunter Season 1

“Add in Production Designer Steve Arnold and Set Decorator Tracey Doyle SDSA, and you know it will have a carefully curated stylized realism mixed with fully realized layered reality. Sets that could be paintings, except they seem so real.” - SET DECOR 2017

Stitcher Podcast Interview for Castle Rock Season 1

“At the center of the town is Shawshank Prison; it’s Castle Rock’s main job source. With its ominous sensibility, its abandoned wing, its clanging cells, it is super forbidding” - Dave Holmes 2018

Mandy Interview for Castle Rock Season 1 “Steve Arnold Shares His Success Story”

“Steve Arnold is a three-time Emmy-nominated production designer known for hit TV shows Castle Rock, House of Cards (for which he won an Art Directors Guild award) and Mindhunter. Here he tells Mandy News how he started out, share details of his process and reveals what aspiring production designers can do to better themselves.” - James Collins 2018

Motion Picture Association Interview for House of Cards Season 4

“Arnold has created incredibly life-like representations of some of the most iconic interiors in America, including the Oval Office and the House of Representatives chamber floor, and he's done so with great ingenuity and, as the rigors of television production demands, at top speed.” - Bryan Abrams 2016

Pushing Pixels “Production Design of ‘House of Cards’ - interview with Steve Arnold”

“He talks about what sets “House of Cards” apart from the run-of-the-mill episodic TV shows … how lifting restrictions on episode length and removing commercial breaks affected the structure and delivery of the story … and his general thoughts on the collaboration between physical and digital over the last few decades.”