Netflix Artisans Share Their Must-Have Tools
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- Eryn Kruger Mekash relies on brushes—airbrush or handheld—as her indispensable tool for makeup work on 'Stranger Things,' stating she could not do her job without them.
- Jen Malone requires a specific five-by-seven hardcover spiral notebook and automatic pencil for music supervision on 'Wednesday,' emphasizing that no other format will suffice.
- Laura Zempel and Lauren Connelly used Avid’s ScriptSync as the most critical tool while editing 'Beef,' enabling precise tracking of dialogue, improv, and showrunner preferences during post-production.
- Kellie Jo Tinney carries a mini tape measure attached to her car keys at all times, using it constantly to manage scale and spatial details as set decorator on 'Beef'.
- Matthew Flood Ferguson depends on a curated collection of film, photography, and architecture books—including 'Magnum Cinema'—to guide and reassure him while designing sets for 'Monster: The Ed Gein Story'.
- Barrie Gower and Tom Turnbull both emphasize their crews as their most essential asset, with Gower calling his team 'a tremendous amount of talent' and Turnbull stating he wouldn’t have a day without them.
Why it matters: These personal toolkits reveal how deeply individualized and detail-oriented behind-the-scenes roles are in high-end television production. For studios like Netflix, retaining artisans with such specific, trusted workflows ensures consistency and quality across ambitious, visually driven series—where even a lost tape measure or off-brand notepad could disrupt creative rhythm.
