Alexandra Schaller is a production designer known for After Yang, Train Dreams and the Netflix series The Get Down.
In the sixth episode of Apotheosis, Alexandra Schaller and Alexander Whittenberg chat about the quiet power of world-building rooted in observation, memory and the natural world, as Schaller reflects on her path from immersive theater and fine art to film production design.
Anchored by an in-depth discussion of Train Dreams, she unpacks how designing with real logs, natural light and the rhythms of the landscape helped shape a film that feels less constructed than discovered—part documentary realism, part waking dream.
Along the way, she draws connective threads to earlier work on After Yang, Y: The Last Man and The Get Down, exploring how intimacy, restraint and texture can carry emotional weight across vastly different genres.
The conversation drifts thoughtfully through Shakespeare, land art, impermanence and immersive experiences like Sleep No More, ultimately circling back to a shared belief that production design is not about imposing meaning on a space but listening closely enough for the space to reveal it.
Train Dreams follows the life cycle of a tree.
"The movie is constantly in conversation with the land."
Interior of Robert Grainier's cabin in Train Dreams.
Nature takes over Grainier's cabin inTrain Dreams.
"Everything needed to feel like it had sprung from the earth."
An iconic still from Train Dreams.
