Brandon Tonner-Connolly is an Art Director’s Guild Award winning Production Designer based in NYC. His credits include Taika Waititi/Sterlin Harjo’s Peabody Award winning, Emmy nominated Reservation Dogs, as well as A24’s I Saw The TV Glow (Sundance, Berlin), The Big Sick (Sundance), Brigsby Bear (Cannes), The Bad Batch (Venice), and David Gordon Green’s The Exorcist: Believer. He most recently designed Sterlin Harjo/Ethan Hawke’s The Lowdown for FX and Jane Schoenbrun’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma for Plan B/Mubi.
He also enjoys writing about the movies he’s obsessed with and how they relate to his own work, most recently in an article for Filmmaker Magazine about Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession and the intimate experience of watching a movie after helping to create it. His Filmmaker article “The Seven Arts of Working In Film” is part of the syllabus of Martin Scorsese’s Masterclass program.
He is completely overwhelmed with gratitude that he and his team on Reservation Dogs received the 2024 ADG Award for Half Hour Single Camera Series.
Vulture
The Lowdown is powered by the shaggy-dog pleasures of watching Lee stumble through a Tulsa rendered with such vivid texture you can practically smell the Plains dust. It’s the kind of show that rewards kicking back and basking in its world.
Lee’s shop sits in an unassuming row next to a tax lawyer with whom he lunches and stores his valuables; a record shop his daughter frequents; and a diner called Sweet Emily’s, where he does his thinking…The world-building is lush… Read Full Article ︎︎︎
The AV Club
The best television is the kind that feels so textured and lived-in that you can basically smell it. And The Lowdown stinks to high heaven. The show is steeped in specificity, from the Production Design (you may want to pause scenes in the bookstore to read the spines of vintage paperbacks) to the world-building. Read Full Article ︎︎︎
Vulture
Every aspect of Reservation Dogs’ look was crafted with intention and it showed onscreen. “You’re giving people the opportunity to experience life in a different place,” Tonner-Connolly explains. “The character details we put into a set create intimacy, and intimacy builds empathy, and conveying that experience helps someone understand and feel another person’s world.” Read Full Article ︎︎︎
Variety
Authenticity was imperative to Sterlin Harjo, co-creator along with Taika Waititi of the half-hour comedy, which revolves around four teenagers who live on a reservation and dream of moving to California. Harjo, who grew up in Oklahoma, called on production designer Brandon Tonner-Connolly to find the right organic look in towns like Okmulgee, center of the Muscogee reservation. Read Full Article ︎︎︎
Condé Nast Traveler
“These elements combined to present a large task for the production team: To identify and accurately represent spaces and experiences that have, for too long, been left off the silver screen. Brandon Tonner-Connolly, production designer for the show, tells us what it took to create the world of the Reservation Dogs—and why he hopes it will make viewers curious about this stretch of Oklahoma. “ Read Full Article ︎︎︎
Austin Chronicle
“Visually, the film is a kaleidoscopic pastiche of society’s debris, thanks to production designer Brandon Tonner-Connolly. The frame is filled with all manner of eccentric ephemera (my favorite being a “Hang in there!” kitten painting, where the cat is clinging for life above a sea of flames).” Read Full Article ︎︎︎
Variety
“From a crafts perspective, “Brigsby” is all aces, but special recognition should go to the art department and designers involved in creating both the world of the “Brigsby” show and the underground bunker where James grew up.” Read Full Article ︎︎︎
Variety
“Production designer Brandon Tonner-Connolly, meanwhile, cannily fashions a second-hand America using all the cultural debris that the nation apparently discarded along with these people…” Read Full Article ︎︎︎
The Hollywood Reporter
“... the movie’s grindhouse world remains vividly rendered and immersive, full of inventive touches from production designer Brandon Tonner-Connolly…The Bad Batch looks sensational.” Read Full Article ︎︎︎