Writer, Director: Lori Evans-Taylor

Producers: Rhonda Baker, Melissa Barrera, Ron Lynch, Paul Neinsten, William Sherak, James Vanderbilt

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BED REST is an independent, American feature, which was prepped and shot over 3 months as a $12M CAD project, in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It stars Melissa Barrera (Carmen, Scream, In the Heights) and Guy Burnet (Oppenheimer, Dead for a Dollar, Ray Donovan). 

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The story focusses on joyfully pregnant Julie, who moves from the big city with her English professor husband, Daniel, to the upstate college community where he is starting a new, tenure-track position. Despite the winter chill in the air, life is good, and in her final trimester, Julie, who has a business as an independent antiques consultant, looks forward to overseeing the restoration on their beautiful, recently acquired, rambling Victorian country home. A small mishap instead forces Julie to mandatory bed rest during these final 3 months. As she spends hours, days, weeks alone in her bedroom, things start to happen....or is it all in her head?

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Conceived in the thriller genre reminiscent of Rosemary's Baby, approximately half of the movie is situated in the Master Bedroom and ensuite Bathroom, built in studio, and the 2nd floor hallway of the home, which was a hybrid of studio set and a retrofitted location. It is crucial that Julie's home look beautiful, elegant and welcoming, despite being under incomplete renovation. It's a place we all want to live....until unsettling elements start to manifest, and unexplained mayhem increasingly sets in; walls shake, light bulbs burst, objects fly across rooms, people are hurtled through windows, and a clawfoot bathtub crashes through the floor into the living room below.  I designed an environment that relied upon spacious rooms, iconic arches, eclectic details, distressed plaster surfaces, and mirrored reflections to help set the mood and to  assist in charting the narrative.

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The primary design goal was committed to the narrative, the aesthetics, the mood, the special effects functionality, and the cost, yet we also had a secondary design goal on BED REST; Sustainability. Before I started to design, the Art Dept team sat down together and agreed to embrace sustainable and circular design-build strategies, including our wrap strategy. We achieved this by using rented, reclaimed and/or sustainable materials, building modular units, and planning for optimum re-use and recovery of all assets. 

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Our wrap-up outcome was impressive: 

60% Recovery of Materials & Assets for Re-use.

30% Reduction of Typical Tipping Fees & Landfill.

$5,000 in Cash sales + Additional Barter of Recovered Materials.

An Overall Savings in Both Manpower & Materials.