Today we’d like to introduce you to Paula Loos.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
From the beginning…
I was born in the Netherlands and moved from a small village to the big city of Amsterdam by the age of 17. This is where I studied Graphic Design. I loved working with images and shapes and balancing out the spacing between every letter. During this study, I had an internship at the advertising agency DDB Worldwide where I got introduced to the Design of moving images (commercials).
When working in the advertising industry for about 1 year after graduation from the Graphic Design school. I choose to go back to school and study production design in Amsterdam.
During a student trip in New York, I found a mobile phone in a taxi from a producer who lived in Los Angeles. I FedExed the phone to his office and started visualizing how it must be to work in the “Walhalla” of filmmaking Los Angeles.
Years went by while I worked as Art director and Production Designer in the Dutch movie industry. I was sharing with my film colleagues about my dream to work in the United States. One day a friend pointed out that Paul Verhoeven (director) and Jan de Bont (DP) invited Dutch filmmakers to build a career in Los Angeles. He sent me the forms to apply, the deadline was that same day at 8 pm. Luckily, I was one of 10 people who got selected and this was the best opportunity for me to move to Los Angeles and I loved it!
When moving to Los Angeles, it took me a while to manage my paperwork, so I started working for gift cards. To get the money I waited in line at the Ralphs for people to pay cash so I could trade the gift card for actual dollars to pay my rent.
When I got my paperwork managed It took me 2 years to get myself into the Union for film design. This happened because I was applying for an apprenticeship, it was because they saw I was overqualified for an apprenticeship so I could enter.
The first Union movie I worked on was “Passengers” which was Oscar-nominated in 2017 and won the ADG awards. This was an amazing inspiration and for me the drive to continue my journey.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
During my journey, I bumped into obstacles. Every 3 years, I must renew my Artist Visa, this is always a question if it gets approved plus it costs me about 4000 dollars each 3 years. Luckily, it all worked out up till now!
Another challenge was to find a place to live, like every else you would like to stay in a great place and not pay the jackpot.
Finding the right people to work with, not everyone is a perfect fit. Each job you create a new team of people depending on the job.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
In January 2022 I was nominated for the Production design award for the movie “Pleasure” in Sweden. I’m very proud that the director trusted me with her film.
The director Ninja Thyberg is a great inspiration, she was one of the reasons why I said yes to designing the movie. The other reason to design was curiosity. The subject matter was a world that I was not familiar with. The movie is about a Swedish girl that wants to break through in the porn industry in Los Angeles. Her journey is like many others… she finds out that what though it would be is not what the reality is. The main difference is that the porn industry is rough with physical and mental challenges that transforms a person’s character. (https://www.rogerebert.com/
What sets me apart from others is my European background and the amount of traveling I did over the years for movie projects (South Africa, Surinam, Curaçao, Spain, Belgium, France, the Netherlands) and personal development (India, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Colombia, Mexico, Canada) In the world to have all those experiences reflect in my work. You can put me anywhere and I work with the local people to have the designs come alive.
I’m proud of the fact that when people think it is not possible… We as an art department make it happen anyways.
The beauty of this job is that you can create and design with people and that each film project or commercial is asking for a distinct design. I love my job.
We’d love to hear about what you think about risk-taking.
Taking risks? Sure, otherwise, I wouldn’t be working in the United States. As well when designing a set, you do want to put yourself out there. And you will do things you never did before. Every set is newly created (unless it’s a rebuild for a re-shoot).
I Like to take on new techniques and ideas, and yes sometimes it doesn’t work out, then you adjust and make it work again.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.murthaskouras.com/members/paula-loos/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paula_loos/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paula.loos
Image Credits
@CelineLoos
@pinkrabbit
@suikerdepot
@lukkien
