The Transformer

The two deformed cars on a muddy abandoned industrial site in Toronto’s west end look like they got hit by a tornado, and they actually were. In the middle of destroyed vehicles, camera equipment and crew trailers, set designer Andy Berry, dressed in heavy working boots and ripped jeans, stands with his walky-talky constantly blaring on set of the TV-show Stormy City, a show that replicates the forces of nature. The 39-year-old is one of Canada’s most resourceful designers, with a unique approach to the concept of reuse.

Andy began working in film in the late 1990s, at first gravitating towards the arts department, and then moving into other design work, like designing restaurants and homes (often through his company, Artquake Design). “As a working artist, it’s often hard to make ends meet,” says Andy.

What makes his designs so unique is his gift for sourcing materials from junkyards and thrift stores and transforming them into striking results. We met with Andy to talk about freecycling, waste in the movie business, and the hidden beauties at junkyards.

Bamboo-Magazine: What made you become greener in the way you design?
Andy Berry: As part of who I am, I hate waste. One thing this [television and movie] industry is really bad at is waste; we build something temporarily, we tear it down, and it goes into the dump. I always made an effort not to do that. We build two houses on this set, and then we knock them down, one with an earthquake and one with a tornado. I then collect all the lumber and use it to build something else. Even if I put out a Kijiji ad, I don’t want it to go to the dump. Often, in Canadian film and television, we have grandiose ideas but very little money, so part of my job is to make something look incredibly good for very little money. ‘Champagne vision on a beer budget’ became a bit of a catch phrase. Everybody wants a case of Dom Perignon when they can only afford a bottle of beer. We became very clever and adept in repurposing things, like waste from packaging, spray painted up to look like a space ship, and we became very clever in repurposing things or looking at something that has one use, but its shape and its structure suggest something else. Making something out of something else.

BM: What about the show you are working on right now (working title Storm City)?
AB: All the doors and windows that we used were recycled from places like Habitat for Humanity, and all of the furniture came from Goodwill. As the furniture doesn’t get destroyed, it will go back to Goodwill, and I try to keep it in a cycle. I try to divert things from the waste stream and keep them out of this waste stream where possible.

BM: Do you find that the television and movie industry appreciates your efforts?
AB: They are getting better, but it used to be that people didn’t care; whatever is cheaper. But the interesting thing is that a lot of industries, and not only the TV and movie industry, find that it is cheaper to go green. I have to pay to take things to the dump. There is also a lot of laziness and apathy, as it is a lot easier to just throw things away. But when you show that it is actually cheaper to greener and smarter, more people get behind it.

BM: As a cast member of (Discovery Channel’s) Junk Raiders Season II, what as the greatest challenge in building a two-storey steel building, The Evergreen Brickworks Playhouse, on a $5,000 budget?
AB: What they [the producers of Junk Raiders II] wanted was a designer, who had a look at something and would see its potential of being something else, rather than look at it in a more orthodox manner. It was a really interesting project, the mandate being that we don’t buy anything to build a two-storey structure of steel. We managed to do that quite well, as, aside from the structural steel, we didn’t buy anything. All our paint came out of the waste stream. We were lucky as we got offered a garage stockpiled with screws and nails and all that sort of stuff from a parent that had to go into a retirement home. So, all that stuff ended up coming to us rather than ending up in the garbage. And we took hardwood skit from packaging, and we nailed it down to good old oak trim, and every single thing that we built with was taken out of the waste stream. We used old bicycle frames to build chairs, scrap wood to make tables. It was a challenge to buy nothing and still create this, and in the end we came in under our $5,000 budget. We took a lot of the used aluminum and steel to the scrap yard and made some money out of it.

BM: Can you explain what freecycling is for you and how important it is for your work?
AB: A culture has evolved around this word, and it has become a loaded word now. What it basically means is that people form a community, similar to Craigslist or Kijiji, where they post things they don’t want any more so that someone else can come and take it. And that could be anything from clothes to furniture to building material. I don’t like to use the term [freecycling], as it has become hackneyed and a bit cliché.

BM: Do you have a philosophy on design considering your green commitment?
AB: I am not sure if I have a philosophy, really. My business is very client driven, whether it’s in film or commercially. I have a client who has a wish, and then it is my job to plot a path to their desired goal. My philosophy on how to lay that path is to get there economically and with a minimum amount of waste—true waste —and with a maximum amount of beauty, or within the desired aesthetics. I find there should be no surplus on any job, neither money nor time or waste.