A24’s Sing Sing tells a profound story of resilience, humanity, and the transformative power of art through the eyes of Divine G (Colman Domingo), a man wrongfully imprisoned who finds solace and purpose in a prison theater group. As the film begins its theatrical run, the spotlight also shines on the meticulous work of production designer Ruta Kiskyte. Kiskyte’s dedication to authenticity and emotional depth is evident in every frame, from the carefully recreated prison cells to the small, poignant details like the typewriter used by Divine G and the butterflies crafted from candy foil. In this interview, Kiskyte shares her journey of working closely with previously incarcerated cast members and the original creators of the plays at Sing Sing, bringing their real-life experiences to the screen with remarkable sensitivity and precision.
PH: Your commitment to authenticity in "Sing Sing" is evident in the detailed recreation of spaces like the characters' cells and the clemency hearing room. How did you balance the need for accuracy with the creative demands of storytelling, and what were some of the most challenging aspects of this process?
Ruta Kiskyte: Wow, what a deep question; thank you so much for noticing that. I think there was no tension between the need for accuracy and creative demands in storytelling, as these things went hand in hand. The goal was to depict reality as close to the lived experience of our formerly incarcerated cast so that they and anybody who lived that experience would be able to recognize the authenticity in the film. Even for people who have never had that experience, I think that the intent and connective tissue of honesty is felt in their nerve endings.
This film steers away from so many movie-induced tropes on incarceration. In “Sing Sing,” people care for each other and are gentle to each other - just like they did inside the prison, where calling each other “beloved” was part of their prison language.
It was very much about holding back projections on what prison life is thought to be like and leaning into the real, which is more unexpected, nuanced, and visceral than fiction. Really paying attention and listening to people who lived it was the backbone of the storytelling.
PH: You worked closely with previously incarcerated cast members to ensure the sets were true to their experiences. How did their input shape your approach to production design, and were there any specific insights or stories that particularly influenced your work?
Ruta Kiskyte: I worked closely with formerly incarcerated John Divine G Witfield (played by Colman Domingo) and Clarence Divine Eye Macling (played himself), and I was thoroughly guided by them.
There is so little that is allowed in prison; the system is really trying to strip your identity and reduce it to an inmate number. Even some colors, like blue, black, orange and gray, are not allowed. It was fascinating to see that with so many limits, one’s personality is still able to shine through. I was not interested in “set decor” for the cells of our characters, it was full on method. We recreated their cells the way they were and I was surprised how visually distinct they were and how much story they were able to tell despite all the limitations.
Divine G is a writer and a lawyer. Throughout his prison sentence, he wrote and published numerous novels and theater plays, he studied law to help others with their cases, as well as himself. His cell was his mind map - it was buzzing with daily, weekly, and monthly checklists to keep him focused on his goals, as well as pages from his writings, law research, and his family pictures. He had stacks of law books around him while his clothes were tucked under his bunk bed.
Divine Eye, on the other hand, was on top of the food chain inside the prison. He was making so much money in drug sales and shark loans that his problem was how to securely store that cash across the prison. The way his cell looked was the exact opposite of Divine G’s - it was all about exterior and showing off. He flexed by having stacks of canned food, an in-prison status symbol, he color-coordinated it in burgundy with towels and bedsheets. He would seemingly “hide” but actually display a pair of Jordans under his bed. This flashiness, which was easy to read to anyone inside the prison, also served as a distraction from all the illegal stuff he expertly kept hidden in plain sight inside his tiny cell.
Divine Eye has always been an artist though and there is a glimpse of that in his cell. Before RTA made space for his acting talent to shine, he always loved Shakespeare, he loved drawing. We recreated some of his wildlife drawings, hung on the walls of his cell, carefully following his instructions with my amazing team - brothers Jacob Harbeck and Michael Harbeck.
PH: The real people the story is based on had emotional reactions when entering the spaces you designed. Can you share a moment that stood out to you during these interactions, and how it felt to see your work resonate so deeply with those who lived the reality of "Sing Sing"?
Ruta Kiskyte: Nobody wants to go to prison voluntarily. Our cast had apprehension about immersing themselves back into prison surroundings and clothes and reliving the trauma, but their mission to tell this story was stronger than the apprehension. Our amazing team of director Greg Kwedar, writer and producer Clint Bentley, and producer Monique Walton made sure there was an emotional safety net and had a counselor on call. Yet it was incredible to witness the unconditional support these men and Brent Buell had for each other in the first place.
Our primary location was Downstate Correctional Facility in Upstate New York, and although it wasn’t the real Sing Sing prison, most of our cast members were processed and served time there before they were sent to Sing Sing. Divine Eye’s cell was right above his movie cell. Divine G shared that his dressed cell looked so real that he started hyperventilating while visiting the set. But they had power over it - all the doors and gates of the prison were unlocked, allowing them to roam around freely. Actually, the whole compound was already taken over by ducks.
PH: From sourcing the exact typewriter used by Divine G to creating butterflies for the play out of candy foil, your attention to detail is remarkable. How did you decide which elements were crucial to include, and were there any particular objects or designs that held special meaning in the context of the story?
Ruta Kiskyte: Thank you! There is an important prop in the movie, we nailed its look with Divine Eye and Divine G. It is a letter with the parole board decision, stating either you are free to walk out of the prison or you are staying.
If it is good news - the letter is thin, but if not - there is a mile of legal language and reasons backing the parole board’s decision to not grant you freedom, making it as thick as a brick. The “address” on it is only your name and inmate number.
Those are just pieces of paper, but with nothing spoken in the film, it sends audible gasps down the theater every time it is shown.
PH: The clemency hearing room is a pivotal space in the film. Can you walk us through the design process for this room, and how you aimed to capture the emotional weight of such a significant moment in the characters' lives?
Ruta Kiskyte: Yes, thank you for that question. All of my research led to looking for a typical wood-clad courtroom with an elevated podium for the judge. After fruitless scouts through the facility, our guide shared that, actually, those parole hearings would take place in any room in the prison that was available on the day. It could almost take place in a broom closet had it only been spacious enough.
It speaks volumes about how the system treats people. We had a nondescript room with stacks of chairs lining the walls, the parole board seated at a desk that was too small for all three of them, one of them using a chair-desk, seemingly arranged with no plan and in a rush, with no regard to a person that may have been waiting for this moment for a decade and is literally fighting for his life.
Divine G has documented so much of his journey. His gut-punching transcript of the parole hearing text was used in the script. The incredibly thick spiral-bound parole packet seen in front of the judges was the actual Divine G’s parole packet.
PH: The setting of Sing Sing prison plays a crucial role in the narrative. How did the physical environment of the prison influence the overall tone and mood of the film, and what strategies did you use to ensure that the setting was an integral part of the storytelling?
Ruta Kiskyte: Downstate Correctional Facility has lots of sunlight, its walls are yellow and pink, and its common spaces do not look claustrophobic - they look almost like classrooms but with barbed wire outside every window. With its light touch, “Sing Sing” steers away from the visual conventions of a prison film by being set in a real prison.
Movies have a way of bleeding back into reality and shaping our perception of the world. I think there is value in showing that oppressive architecture is less visually obvious than one might think. It is deceptive, and it is soul-crushing in multitudes of more nuanced ways, its darkness does not lie in its wall color.
It is designed to make it easy for you to be observed and controlled, feel lonely in your cell, but never alone, always forced to hear hundreds of voices around you and assess reality, identify threats from those echoes.
The compound we shot in was a maze, I wasn’t able to find my way after weeks of walking miles inside every day. If I showed you a picture of it, you’d only see a benign pink hallway.
None of the windows open or let the fresh air in. Despite all 4 seasons, there’s no air-con in the summer, no heating in the winter. None of this is obvious from visual cues, but all of it is a gut punch.
I’ve learned from Divine G, who has been moved through toughest prisons during his incarceration, that in New York state alone every prison is unique; there’s no cookie-cutter type of prison, but every single one is a human cage.
PH: You collaborated with the director, who also worked on the original plays at Sing Sing. How did this collaboration influence your approach to the film’s production design, and in what ways did the theatrical origins of the story inform your work on the set?
(Little note - Kwedar and Bentley began volunteering through RTA within the prison system, teaching filmmaking inside Greenhaven Maximum-Security Prison in Stormville, NY. )
Ruta Kiskyte: Our director was fascinated by the original production of Sing Sing, the time-traveling comedy “Breaking the Mummy’s Code,” its ingenious playfulness and stark contrast to the prison reality it had. In a “Be Kind Rewind” manner, the sets were inspired by a child-like ability to create something out of nothing and the honesty of outsider art. Leaning into the scarcity of materials available inside the prison and working with what they would have had, we created an ocean for pirates by yanking a giant plastic sheet up and down, made a skull for Hamlet out of paper towels, created a larger-than-life Freddy Krueger by projecting a shadow of his silhouette onto an oversized bed sheet and created Shakespearean forest out of green trash bags. What is wonderful about Greg is that he is so open and trusting of his crew and that playfulness to take the film to unexpected places and really holds space for the team to be free to create and, ultimately, be their best selves.
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