Check Out Abigail Childs’ Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Abigail Childs.

Hi Abigail, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I’m a production designer based in Los Angeles. I graduated from Columbia College Chicago and moved out to L.A. eight years ago to work in the film industry.  I work primarily with full-size sets but have a great affinity for miniature ones – the tinier the better!

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Production designers in the film industry have such fun jobs. In its most basic terms, I get to create the look and feel of a project in collaboration with the director and cinematographer. I love visual storytelling and I’m very detail-oriented. The concept that one could tell a beautiful story without dialogue has always been fascinating to me.

One of my first jobs in L.A. was designing the videos in the Tiny Hamster Eating Tiny Burritos series, which kicked off the Youtube trend to build small sets for pet hamsters. I created fun sets in a “found object” style, inspired by the “Look-Alikes” books by Joan Steiner, which I adored as a kid. These tiny hamster videos are still available to watch on Youtube – I think there’s a behind the scenes video that I’m in too! Since then, I’ve always looked for opportunities to design on a small scale. I get really giddy when anyone tells me about a project they need miniatures for.

During the pandemic, not knowing when we would return to work, I decided to make a miniature. My husband is a director and we talked through the idea that if I was going to make one, we should use it for a music video for some friends who are in a band called Slow Coda. The basic idea was to film the band on a green screen, then shrink them down to fit inside the mall in post-production. Slow Coda has a nostalgic 80’s shoegaze vibe that we wanted to capture visually. Their song “Mall Walker” describes the American pastime of chilling at the mall… So naturally, a shopping mall inspired by the 80s and 90s felt like the perfect fit. We staged the whole thing in the heart of the mall: the food court!

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There’s an order of operations that I had to plan out for the miniature since I would be the only one working on it.

After the initial design conception, the first step was choosing how large to build it and what scale it would be in. We only had a one-bedroom apartment at the time so space was tight! I went pretty small and chose to use “half scale” which means 1/2″ equals one foot, but the set still ended up being 4′ long x 4′ wide.

I wanted the design for the mall to feel a bit more traditional, leaning into realism to capture the mundane. I looked to the Midwest for inspiration and found some great research images from the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s. Brown bricks, skylights, lots of white architectural elements, and geometric patterns with tiles: these were the types of malls I grew up going to. I liked establishing the idea that the mall was dated but some of the food vendors had been renovated or recently added which created layers of history to it.

We also wanted to capture themes of Americana nostalgia through the mall food: burgers, tacos, pretzels, etc. presented in a satirical form. As I got into the details of each storefront, I had fun creating unique elements that set each one apart. I painted a tiny mural for Sunset Tacos, crafted a tiny pizza oven in Dugout Pizza, and created red tv menus for Tomorrow’s Cafe inspired by the diner in Back to the Future.

Featuring the band was another fun piece to the puzzle. I wanted to have them standing in a fountain at the center of the food court. My backstory for it was that the mall drains the fountain and sets up lighting truss for performances – this was really just an excuse to incorporate a big fountain based on some of my favorite research images.

What started as a hobby project turned into what seemed like a white whale endeavor. As our industry got back underway, I could only work on the weekends and in my free time. It turned into a year and a half long project. I completed it in the spring of 2022 and couldn’t be happier with the final results.

What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
I’m really good at starting projects – the beginnings of ideas, letting my imagination go wild, picturing the final result. But the process of getting to that result is something that always takes a lot of effort, focus and patience. I had to rediscover how to allow myself to really be present in the moment and focus on each task.

I came to realize that I really love this type of long-form project; something I could really spend time with and obsess over the details on. I will be saving a souvenir or two from the mall, but I’m looking forward to whatever the future holds for my next miniature project.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.abigailchilds.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abigailchildsdesign/

Image Credits
Matt Hoodhood, Rothwell Polk