By Design
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“What Does a Thing Provide You With?”: Amanda Kramer on the Props and Interiors in By Design
“I have never seen the problem with fetishizing objects and fetishizing people as though they were objects,” director Amanda Kramer tells me in a conversation ahead of the release of her latest film, By Design. “It doesn’t mean we don’t also see the person for their soul…They elicit romance. They elicit seduction. There’s something drawing you in, compelling, alluring, and the object itself is not necessarily lesser-than because it’s looked at in this way.” Kramer’s provocative theory is instructive. Her latest film, By Design, about a lonely woman named Camille (Juliette Lewis) who swaps bodies with a beautiful chair and […]
by Chris Cassingham on Feb 18, 2026 -
“Amanda’s Approach is About Eclecticism”: Editor Benjamin Shearn on By Design
By Design is the latest feature film by Amanda Kramer, best known for Please Baby Please and Ladyworld. The film will premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival as part of the NEXT section. Benjamin Shearn, who has edited all of Kramer’s feature films, joined her once again in the cutting room for By Design. Below, he explains how his close friendship with Kramer helps him retain the magic in the edit. See all responses to our annual Sundance editor interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 23, 2025 -
“Merging Aesthetic Elements and Practical Considerations”: DP Patrick Jones on By Design
By Design, the latest film by Amanda Kramer (Please Baby Please, Ladyworld) has an instantly memorable logline: “A woman swaps bodies with a chair, and everyone likes her better as a chair.” The film will premiere as part of the NEXT section at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Collaborating for the seventh time with Kramer is cinematographer Patrick Jones. Below, Jones talks about how he attains the distinct aesthetics that mark Kramer’s films. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 23, 2025 -
“Set is a Pretty Box That Holds Me” | Amanda Kramer, By Design
Films are made over many days, but some days are more memorable, and important, than others. Imagine yourself in ten years looking back on this production. What day from your film’s development, production or post do you think you’ll view as the most significant and why? There’s a moment in the Cameron Crowe film We Bought A Zoo where the little girl who plays Matt Damon’s daughter says, “We bought a zoo!” and then Matt Damon confirms by saying, “Yes, we did. We did buy a zoo.” These are lines I’ve never forgotten. The plainness alone is too wild to […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 23, 2025
