‘225’: Gatlin goes from architecture to set design

Doodling in a notebook is a way of passing time for most kids. For set designer Matt Gatlin, it was the impetus for redirecting his career. Gatlin, 30, was constantly drawing, making animated flipbooks and showing an interest in scale models. He decided to study architecture at LSU because of his affinity for math and his creativity, and he interned at several Baton Rouge architecture firms while in school. He has spent the past four years as a set designer, assistant prop master and prop master on several films. Recently, he was a set designer and model maker on Beautiful Creatures, and he is now doing pre-production as a set designer on Twelve Years a Slave, starring Brad Pitt and Michael Fassbender. Jeremy Woolsey, a local production designer and art director, says Gatlin’s talents in architecture and graphic design make him indispensable on set. “He brings so much to a project and makes my life easier. Not many people in the Louisiana crew base carry all of those skills so readily in their back pocket,” says Woolsey, who has worked on more than 10 feature films, commercials and other projects with Gatlin. Read the full feature by Lauren Brown in the current issue of 225 magazine online here.