{"id":62875,"date":"2018-09-07T15:53:35","date_gmt":"2018-09-07T19:53:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/?p=62875"},"modified":"2022-09-09T08:48:49","modified_gmt":"2022-09-09T12:48:49","slug":"bu-today-feature-jeffrey-mossa-cfa93-earns-emmy-nod-for-american-horror-story-cult","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/news\/articles\/2018\/bu-today-feature-jeffrey-mossa-cfa93-earns-emmy-nod-for-american-horror-story-cult\/","title":{"rendered":"BU Today feature: Jeffrey Mossa (CFA\u201993) Earns Emmy Nod for American Horror Story: Cult"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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September 7, 2018<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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When Hollywood turns out for the 2018 Emmy Awards<\/a>\u2014the television industry\u2019s highest honor\u2014BU will be well represented among the nominees. This year seven BU alums have been nominated, recognized for their work on some of TV\u2019s best-known programs, from CNN\u2019s Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown<\/em> to NBC\u2019s The Voice<\/em>. All of them, with one exception, are producers on reality and news shows (see list at bottom).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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That exception is Jeffrey Mossa<\/a> (CFA\u201993), who is up for a Creative Arts Emmy<\/a>, which recognizes outstanding artistic and technical achievement in a variety of genres, like production design, costumes, sound editing and mixing, and special visual effects. Mossa has been nominated for his work as a production designer on FX\u2019s American Horror Story: Cult<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The show, the seventh season in the American Horror Story<\/em> anthology, deals with the aftermath of the Trump-Clinton 2016 presidential election as it affects residents living in the fictional city of Brookfield, Mich. (In true American Horror Story <\/em>fashion, it\u2019s a bit bizarre.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mossa has worked in the business for more than two decades, on shows like Ray Donovan<\/em> and Parks and Recreation<\/em> and on movies like Miss Peregrine\u2019s Home for Peculiar Children<\/em>. American Horror Story <\/em>isn\u2019t the first time Mossa has worked with show creator Ryan Murphy. He was production designer on Murphy\u2019s Scream Queens<\/em> and the Emmy-winning American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson<\/em>. Over the course of his career, he\u2019s been nominated four times for the Art Directors Guild Excellence in Production Design Award<\/a>, including for his work on American Horror Story: Cult. <\/em>This is his first Emmy nod.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Creative Arts Emmys ceremony for Outstanding Production Design is tomorrow, September 8 (it\u2019s being broadcast on September 15), with the winners announced during the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards on September 17.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bostonia<\/em> spoke with Mossa about his career, his work as an American Horror Story: Cult <\/em>designer, his reaction to the Emmy nomination, and his advice for BU students looking to get into the field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bostonia<\/em><\/strong>: You majored in theater design at the College of Fine Arts. How did you get interested in that?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mossa:<\/strong> I was interested in designing for film and television from the time I was in junior high. In high school I worked on the stage crew, and a counselor suggested I look into BU\u2019s theatrical design program. You go one of two routes to enter this field: either theater design or architecture, and what I find interesting is most people in my industry working in the Northeast come through a theater background, and on the West Coast, most come through an architecture background.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was your reaction when you learned you were nominated for the Emmy?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Very much surprised, very happy. I was driving my daughter to her art class that morning, and I knew the nominations were coming out, but they weren\u2019t really on my radar, and I didn\u2019t think I would garner a nomination, so I wasn\u2019t paying too much attention. My agent texted me the minute they came out. My daughter told her classmates, \u201cMy dad\u2019s not famous, but he is nominated for an Emmy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does a production designer do?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the question I get the most, and there is no easy answer. Every project and every show is different. Depending on the material you are working on, the personalities involved, the writers, directors, it can vary dramatically. As a production designer, hopefully you\u2019re creating a world that supports not only the characters, but the stories, building a world that creates a story, even if there is no action going on inside it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Stills and sketches of scenes Mossa designed for American Horror Story: Cult.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I always think it\u2019s an added feather in my cap if I get a good reaction from the actors. I usually do. If they feel like when they walk onto the set, the set helps them in their performance, then I know I\u2019ve done my job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do they ever oooh and ahhh when they get on set?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some do, some don\u2019t. I\u2019m an introverted guy and kind of stand to the side, and once in a while, they\u2019ll make a big deal about one of my sets, and it\u2019s not always comfortable for me. There is a reason I\u2019m behind the camera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What were some of the specific challenges in designing for American Horror Story: Cult<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Getting access to Ryan Murphy, because he works on so many shows, is tough, and he doesn\u2019t give up the final decision-making process to anyone else. Every show I\u2019ve done for Ryan, with the exception of American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson<\/em>, there are no scripts to start. He tells you what he\u2019s thinking, you go create a conceptual presentation, and you bring it back to him and he tells you what does and doesn\u2019t work. You go build it, and then you get a script, and you make adjustments as you need to. That\u2019s very challenging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was my first year on American Horror Story<\/em>, and it\u2019s a show with strong visuals, and folks who came before me also have Emmys for their work. You follow in the footsteps of some talented individuals, so people are expecting that. I was asked to design on a tighter budget this time around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did you achieve that?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not easy. You assemble the team that\u2019s best for you. You figure out where you can compromise. It\u2019s a lot about knowing where you can fake it and where you can\u2019t. The standards are really high right now. It used to be you had a higher standard of quality being produced in feature films than in TV, and the cameras they were using for TV weren\u2019t as good. But we\u2019re now in a major TV renaissance, where the work coming out of television is better writing than what\u2019s going into features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For American Horror Story<\/em>, I knew I was building a set that only had to last for one season. If I\u2019m building a set that I know has to be there for six to seven years potentially, and there are tiles on the wall, then I\u2019ll probably do that out of real tile. There are other materials to use if it doesn\u2019t need to be there as long. It\u2019s a lot of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For an episode with Lena Dunham (HBO\u2019s Girls), <\/em>you had to re-create the famous Andy Warhol studio The Factory<\/a>. What did that entail?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was tricky and something that evolved along the way. To be correct and accurate, Andy Warhol had three spaces that he called The Factory, and the one that everyone has seen the iconic images of was the one that looked like a warehouse. He covered everything in aluminum foil. That was actually not the space he was in in the story\u2019s timeline. I asked Ryan if he wanted to go with the accurate one or the one that everyone knows, and initially he wanted to be accurate. But the space looked like an empty New York brownstone. We started to go down that path and then realized we wanted to take creative license and use the space that was a little more visual and a little more dynamic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you have any advice for BU students hoping to become production designers?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Call or email me.<\/a>\u00a0I reached out to some of the CFA faculty about a year ago, and said that anyone who wants to do this should reach out to me. I have a steady stream of CalArts grad students who work as assistants in my art department, and I was wondering why I have so many CalArts students and no BU students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a tough game and you have to have a cast-iron stomach to get started in this business. You have to be ready for rejection, call people you don\u2019t know, not just email them, be persistent without being annoying. When I get a blanket email that has clearly been sent to 40 other designers, I generally don\u2019t respond, but when I get an email or a message that is obviously very specific, I do try to get back to those people and meet with them and give them advice, because I was in the same position 25 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are you superstitious about preparing a speech before the Emmy ceremony?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No. I was nominated for some Art Directors Guild Awards and prepared speeches, and I lost. I didn\u2019t need the speeches. This time I\u2019m not going to prepare anything, and maybe it will be different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s next for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t know. I\u2019m in between shows right now. I just finished up doing some more stuff for the next season of Horror Story<\/em>. I have some very exciting possibilities, but I don\u2019t talk about them until they are real\u2014I\u2019m superstitious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

read original article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Hollywood turns out for the 2018 Emmy Awards\u2014the television industry\u2019s highest honor\u2014BU will be well represented among the nominees. This year seven BU alums have been nominated, recognized for their work on some of TV\u2019s best-known programs, from CNN\u2019s Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown to NBC\u2019s The Voice. All of them, with one exception, are producers on reality and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13703,"featured_media":91170,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[],"bu-publication":[192],"magazine-article-category":[],"magazine-topic":[],"news-article-category":[309,329],"news-topic":[],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/62875"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13703"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62875"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/62875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92747,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/62875\/revisions\/92747"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62875"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=62875"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine-article-category?post=62875"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine-topic?post=62875"},{"taxonomy":"news-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-article-category?post=62875"},{"taxonomy":"news-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-topic?post=62875"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=62875"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=62875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}