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Olly Williams: A Few Of My Favourite Things
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The director/production designer takes us through his trove of set decorations and familial artwork in this insight into creative inspiration.
If there's one thing you can be certain of in regards to the work of Olly Williams, it's that there's never going to be a shortage of interesting elements to draw the eye.
Taking the same approach to his office life, the director (repped by Merman) and production designer (repped by Vision Artists) surrounds himself with on-set trinkets, mementoes and artwork that keep his creativity afloat.
Delightfully embellishing the first of his selections, Williams's joyful sense of humour and creative authenticity shine through. in all.
The (Augmented) Desk
This is my current desk, where I can usually be found for the quieter, calmer part of my working life that isn’t on set. If I’m here I’m mostly drawing, writing or making endless decks. I’m in the middle of buying a house and a lot of stuff is still in storage, so this is me being fairly minimalist.
Einstein said: “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?” He was crap with keeping track of his petty cash receipts too.
Full disclosure; I have actually scribbled in a few bits and bobs to bring it in line with how I imagine my desk space should be. An inate need to constantly fiddle and rearrange things is the true coal dust in the production designers lungs. It’s a terrible affliction.
I love my OG Eames soft pad office chair, which may or may not have come from a shoot but I won’t say which one, even if it did. I’ve tricked it out with a jet pack to get me to set in time for breakfast. It runs on purified luck and happenstance.
Above it hangs a prototype Thought Helmet® for efficiently turning original ideas directly into keynote decks, casting briefs and construction plans. Then of course there’s my robot barista, Dave, who is also – usefully – a barrister.
In an effort to digitally detox, there are two acoustic messaging pipes. One is a direct line to Merman, where I’m represented as a Director, and one to Vision Artists, who rep me as a Production Designer. If I concentrate hard enough I can listen to both streams at the same time.
Also to be found on my desk as permanent fixtures are a well thumbed Dulux colour deck, a good tape measure (“measure seven times, cut once” as they say in Ukraine), a pot of stationary (including a mechanical Pentel 0.9 - my ride or die pencil) and a bunch of sketchbooks which sadly – much like my hoover – are now just gathering dust. As much as I would love to be one of these cool cats you see scribbling away in a moleskin, the truth is that I do most of my freehand drawing now on the iPad.
The giant chip-fork leaning against the wall is a prop I made for a job with Nick Ball a few years ago.
I’ve turned it into a light, which I was quite pleased with, but I stupidly promised my kids I would turn it into a Go-Kart so they could drive up and down Brighton seafront (where we live) stealing chips.
The Record
This is a framed “record” of the band I play in with Dougal Wilson and my old directing partner Phil Sansom.
We have a lot of tightly honed comedy between songs, multiple costume changes and a fair amount of pyrotechnics.
Sadly, we only really play about once a decade.
The Award And Pin
Here is the shattered remnants of an award from DoP Roger Deakins for a film called The Fly I made about ten years ago.
Upon taking to the stage at the film festival to collect it, I thanked Sam Goldie – the talented cinematographer who shot the film – and passed him the award.
Unfortunately, he’d had a few jars and promptly dropped it.
It’s now held together with superglue and sellotape, much like many of my jobs.
Next to it is an original pin badge from Tim Burton’s 1992 film Batman Returns.
As much as I would like to think that I have something approaching a sophisticated, highbrow taste, the reality is that Burton’s two Batman films blew my socks off like nothing else when I saw them.
As a kid I remember being so conscious of the production design, without even really understanding what that was, or imagining that it was even a viable career choice.
Also, Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman was pretty revelatory to 13-year-old me…
The Family Art
This is a portrait of me as an egg by my oldest son, a collage of me by my middle son, and some technical drafting by my youngest son.
They all seem to have captured my essence quite well.
Alongside them you can see a photograph of the three of them as the Beastie Boys from the Intergalactic video – a firm family favourite.
They are very silly boys and make me incredibly proud.
The 'Extra' Photos
These are a few prints from an entirely accidental but ongoing photography project tentatively called The Extras.
It never ceases to amaze me the amount of hard work and skill that goes into casting, costumes and makeup, and then the patience of these people to have to wait around on set all day to create these 'background characters' who all too often just end up on the cutting room floor.
It’s not exactly serious reportage but I guess I like the idea of preserving the characters who all too often don’t make it onto film. I never get round to doing this on jobs where I’m directing.
These are from production design projects with some of my favourite directors to work with: Nick Ball, Tim McNaughton of the Bobbsey Twins, Ian Pons Jewell and Taika Waititi.
