- Project
- 'THE RUNNER' - FEATURE FILM
- Role
- Production Designer
- Scope
- Feature Film
- Director
- Kevin Macdonald
- Production
- Amazon Prime
A predominantly location-based thriller built around a continuous run across London.
I shaped the visual journey from Hampstead Heath to the South Bank, coordinating locations and design so London became an active part of the story. The principal build — a luxury hotel corridor and suite — was designed to transform into a second floor of the same hotel, while a fictional skyscraper connected the VFX skyline to the stage build.
For The Runner, a thriller directed by Kevin Macdonald for Amazon Prime, I worked as Production Designer on a story whose central character is made to run across London to save her child, following a route that needed to feel geographically convincing while taking the audience from Hampstead Heath to the South Bank.
On a predominantly location-based production, the design process was about shaping the visual journey of the film and guiding scripted beats towards locations that could strengthen the storytelling. The route continually shifts in character — opening out into moments of scale and distance, then compressing into tunnels, narrow streets and dense urban spaces to heighten pressure and vulnerability. Working closely with the director and locations team, the aim was to use London as an active part of the thriller rather than simply a backdrop.
The climax was originally scripted to take place at The Shard, but when permission to use the building could not be secured I designed a fictional skyscraper that could sit convincingly alongside it in the London skyline. The architecture also had to connect three separate elements of the production: the exterior VFX design, the already established window proportions of the stage build, and the ground-floor hotel reception location in Canary Wharf. The building was therefore developed as a coherent piece of architecture rather than simply a visual-effects exterior.
The principal set build was a luxury hotel corridor and suite, designed from the outset to be transformed into another floor of the same skyscraper hotel. The second incarnation needed to feel enough like a private apartment that the audience would initially read it as a separate location, while retaining enough architectural continuity for the later reveal that both spaces are within the same hotel to remain plausible. Changes in finishes, dressing, lighting and architectural emphasis allowed us to turn around the set to shift character without losing that underlying connection.
