A real DMV will suck the life out of you and toss your bones as obstacles during the next driving test. So when you’re called upon to design a set for a new sitcom set in one, how do you create an environment that won’t trigger or, worse, bore audiences?
That was the task for production designer David Gaucher and key set decorator Paul Hotte when designing CBS’ new series, DMV (created by Dana Klein), for which they transformed a Montreal government office into a slightly upgraded East Hollywood DMV.
Gaucher’s first challenge was geographic. “I got the call and immediately thought: How do I make this Montreal space look like Los Angeles?” he tells Crafty. That’s a more complicated question than it might otherwise have been, since any series set at a DMV will require outdoor driving tests—and the light in Montreal isn’t exactly what L.A. enjoys on a regular basis.
For Gaucher, the office itself posed a different puzzle. The pilot was filmed in a raw, empty Quebec government office—no desks, counters, or partitions—meaning every element had to be constructed from scratch while ensuring the space accommodated actors, camera angles, and narrative flow.
Hotte, meanwhile, dove into the details. “We purchased all of the furniture [that was left behind], and the furniture suited us perfectly,” he says. “And then we got into all of the computers, pens, phones, posters.” Pulling from both California reference images and existing Montreal resources, he and his team built a DMV that feels authentic without ever tipping into mind-numbing despair. Remarkably, they accomplished it all in just four weeks for the pilot, before making adjustments when the show got picked up to series.
Most vitally for the actors and the camera crew, the set is a complete space. “You could turn around 360 and do whatever you want,” Hotte says. “Everything is functional. When you see a phone, a computer, everything is functional.”
Color was another subtle battleground for the team. Gaucher, self-admittedly usually more interested in shadows and sculptural spaces, embraced muted tones to counteract bland government beige while also helping out the director of photography in balancing skin tones and keeping things visually pleasing.
The result is an office that comes across as real but still engaging. The existing carpet can’t be seen, but you can feel the patches worn down by a desk chair being pushed back hundreds of times in the same spot. And the details of each cubicle become a steady drip drip of character insights, each a microcosm for the world of the DMV employee who inhabits it.
The duo’s shorthand, developed over prior collaborations, allows them to make quick, confident choices on set. “We don’t have to debate a long time about an idea to make it happen,” Gaucher says, which is always a benefit when working on a weekly series—especially one that has to walk such a fine line between accuracy and TV gloss. Now if only they could work the same magic at the actual East Hollywood DMV.
New episodes of DMV premiere every Monday on CBS.
David Gaucher is an ADG Award nominee whose production designer credits include Future Man, and he was art director on Beau Is Afraid and The Spiderwick Chronicles. His craft services go-to? “I like an English muffin with bacon and eggs in the morning.”
Paul Hotte is an Academy Award- and ADG Award-nominated set decorator whose credits include Arrival, Beau Is Afraid, 300, and new Apple TV series The Last Frontier. He opts for a classic coffee at crafty.
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