Diane Lederman Takes Us Behind the Scenes Of the Production Design On Netflix’s ’13 Reasons Why’

13 Reasons Why Production Designer Diane Lederman talks to Awards Daily about visualizing the world created by Jay Asher’s beloved novel.

Diane Lederman, like the rest of the cast and crew, spent an extensive amount of time doing research to make Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why feel as real and authentic as possible. Not just in storytelling and the topics the show deals with but in visuals as well. In order to translate Jay Asher’s novel to the small screen, Lederman and team wanted to make the setting as authentic as possible. That authenticity lends credibility to the tragic story of teen suicide.

From creating Monet’s coffee shop and using the impressionist’s influence to creating Liberty High School, Lederman takes us inside creating 13 Reasons Why.

13 Reasons Why is still being talked about.

It’s had an amazing reaction. It’s very strong. There are people who love it. Which ever way you feel, people are having a strong reaction to it which is part of the idea and the reaction we wanted people to have.

It’s so very relevant.

I think about what it was like when I was in high school, and to have that added level of pressure, I can’t imagine it myself.

How did you go about bringing Liberty High School to life?

I’ve been asked a few times about how we felt about the plethora of drama and comedies out there. We didn’t refer to them too much. If anything, of the few we thought about, there was an effort to be different and unique. For me, I approached this project by starting with the story. I started by getting to the heart of what the storytellers were trying to tell and get to the heart of that and let that be your guide for the visuals so you’re supporting that effort whatever it is.

There were a few things that were important. First, I wanted to make it as real as possible. We didn’t want to glorify any of the events or issues that we were discussing in any way. The top priority was to make it realistic, and if it’s painful it should be painful. It shouldn’t always be comfortable. I saw a friend of mine who had watched the whole series and had a stomach ache after, and how they wanted to hug their kid. I thought good! It’s entertainment to an extent but it should upset people. Making the environment as realistic as possible, we had aesthetic concerns.

“I approached this project by starting with the story. I started by getting to the heart of what the storytellers were trying to tell and get to the heart of that and let that be your guide for the visuals so you’re supporting that effort whatever it is.”

The subjective nature of the story meant we wanted to reinforce very realistic environments so people can identify with what’s happening. There was a feel of wanting it to feel familiar so when they see it they recognize.

I had some people ask where I shot it because they all recognized something and thought it was their hometown. A few people from New Jersey and even Long Island thought it was shot there, but we shot it in Northern California. It couldn’t be further away from those places. The fact they found something familiar in the visuals was comforting and reassuring to me that we got it right because that’s what I wanted it to do, to remind people of something that they could understand and feel comfortable with and know that this could happen anywhere, even in some charming quaint American town.

It started with Jay Asher’s description in the book and he definitely felt we got it right. I read and heard him say we brought those pieces to life and couldn’t have been any more right that then were his vision.

How true did you stay to the book because there’s only so much you can work with?

I look at that as an outline. When you use the book as a visual art, you’re going to have to change things because the mediums are so different. To get 13 episodes we couldn’t keep it as a 24-hour event, it would have told a much smaller story. The idea was to tell a bigger story than in the book, but the story is still the same about a girl who was in pain and unfortunately took her own life when there might have been other options.

I think that the idea is to encourage anybody to seek help and know there are people out there who do care about them.

That’s the thing, we still don’t listen.

We did an extensive amount of research into different psychological approaches and what victims in those situations are feeling. Kate Walsh did an extensive amount of research into parents who have lost children to suicide. Everyone wanted it to come from a place of understanding the reality and portraying the reality as close as it could be.

Let’s talk about the set. How did you create the coffee shop?

We looked for places that were pre-existing coffee shops that we could use and co-op as our own but there were too many factors against it. We ended up deciding to rent an empty store and create our own coffee shop which is what we did for that, the movie theater, the pharmacy and the school. Many people don’t realize that the hallways of the schools and classrooms are built stage sets. Clay’s bedroom was built, so was Hannah’s and Jessica’s. They were modeled after the real places that existed attached to the houses. The school set was copied from the existing school. We shot the first two episodes in a real hallway and the rest was on a stage set. The hallway stage set wasn’t ready for the first two episodes because of time constraints.

When we decided to create it from scratch, it was music to my ears. It was a big decision and I really let the book be part of my influence, I found some of my favorite Monet’s and we incorporated that in some of the set design. All the colors of the coffee shop were pulled from the paintings and the palette came from that impressionist palette of Monet’s work. The colors, especially the big pink wall that the girls sit in front of, is so beautiful. It’s wonderful to photograph them in front of it.

It was really my own inspirations and design. We needed a space that was big enough that every director in every episode could find something fresh and new because every episode has Monet’s in it, but we didn’t want it too big.

We made the space smaller because it gave a lot of off-screen space to the crew. Tom McCarthy and I discussed the floor plan of that space to make it advantageous for the shooting. The before and after photos are very telling and show how much work went into the space.

What was unique about working on this show?

There are things that get shot in Northern California, and so learning the area and figuring out the crew. Creating these sets from scratch was a great opportunity for me as it’s not something you always get.

It was a bold decision to make, but it was cost effective. We had free reign, and our schedules weren’t limited in any way. It made our production schedule easy to shoot as opposed to using existing places. It would have been hard to use operating businesses and having to undress and dress them. We got to stamp a unique ID onto these places.

This had substance to it, a strong moral compass of responsibility and speaking about topics and bringing them to the public forum that are not as spoken about as they should be. We reached an audience that needs this information given to them. Young kids need to know there are other choices for them. If we help anybody then we’ve done something important and special.