HELCIO PUGLIESE  -  PRODUCTION DESIGNER
 
I am a production designer originally from Rio, Brazil. I have been working in the film industry, TV, as well as advertising for over 25 years. My work spans across various formats, feature length projects and TV shows, being showcased internationally at both festivals and on streaming platforms. In 2019 I moved to Toronto to continue expanding my career in Canada, since then, I have had the opportunity to work on film projects as a production designer and bring my knowledge to these stories and I am curious about new possible experiences that will help shaping a different perspective on my work.

Some of my recent Production Designer credits include the Canadians THE BOY IN THE WOODS, a period drama set in 1943 in World War II, STRANGERS IN A ROOM, a psychological drama among others. Brazilian productions such as KARDEC, biographical film set in Paris of the nineteenth century, the Brazilian/German co-production BACH IN BRAZIL and a variety of different television projects as Brazil has seen a boom of television production. My TV credits include VAI QUE COLA, a sitcom comedy series for which I designed a revolving set and which was the highest-rated cable TV show in Brazil in the last 10 years; DPA, an extremely popular detective series for children which is in its 15th season; QUE MARRAVILHA, cooking show with a purpose-built kitchen and HISTÓRIAS DO BRASIL, a period factual series with each episode set in a different decade of Brazilian history.


I have routinely worked for award-winning Brazilian production houses on national advertising campaigns, as well as for foreign clients/crews who film in Brazil and commercial work for worldwide campaigns.
 
Through my years of work I have built a set of skills and abilities which I bring to my creative work and which have given me a profound understanding of artistic processes and materials, including my formal studies in Set Design, my formative years working as a collaborator to many prominent Brazilian visual artists and over 20 years experience in various capacities creating massive artistic interventions for Rio's Carnival big parades.

I believe production design, set design and art direction have the ability to take us to places that we likely would not go as tourists. This is what makes me fascinated by the ability that art gives us to create new worlds, to communicate, to bind the senses. It is this challenge of re-creating a world that allows a particular story to be told that excites me most.