Michael Novotny - Production Designer

Shot at the Warner Bros. Lot (Click image for full size.) © William Anthony

Another installment for the ARTSTARS.us blog. Tom and I drove on to the Warner Bros. lot of sound stages for this one. Michael Novotny is the Production Designer for CBS's The Mentalist. He has a long and storied career. He's also the father of CSI's Dan Novotny. (The pencil doesn't fall far from the drafting board.)

In addition to the close-up hero shot for the blog, I knew I had to get a shot of Mike in his golf cart. The Art Dept. was having trouble with other departments mistakenly lifting their cart, the preferred vehicle at WB. Mike's assistant, Julie, told me he wanted to make his cart unmistakable. No wait, I'm paraprashing. What she actually said was, "Did you see the ducks on the roof?"

Two mallards in a boxy version of a pond are what now differentiate Mike's golf cart from everyone else's. He drove this thing around like a madman. I nearly fell out—twice. And the thought of seeing this cart whizz by with two ducks leisurely enjoying the ride, bills to the wind, made me smile.

No one mistakenly takes his cart anymore.

Look for the interview with Mike soon on ARTSTARS.us.

UPDATE: Read the interview here.