Stories Through Sets
Rick Romer received an M.F.A. degree from the University of Hawaii specializing in Lighting and Set Design for the Theatre. During his 8 years as the resident designer at Diamond Head Theatre, he began an association with the art departments on the original “Hawaii Five-0” and “Magnum, P.I.,” often creating specific set pieces or props for the show such as 3 versions of Higgins’ Bridge on the Rive Kwai model or a crashed jet tail section for a rice paddy in Viet Nam. Rick was hired as the assistant to the Set Decorator on the 4th season of “Magnum, P.I.” and soon became the Set Decorator and becoming the first local department head on a national, top 10 TV show paving the way for others to head other departments as well. Rick’s work continued on every major television show shot in Hawaii for the next 20 years including “Jake and the Fatman” (which led to working in Hollywood for 2 years), “Baywatch Hawaii,” “LOST” and the Pilot and first 12 episodes of “Hawaii Five-0.” Eventually Hawaii-filmed portions of films, local and international commercials, and other event and display design design work resulted like the opening of the Hawaii Convention Center. Eventually Rick began moving out of Set Decorating and into Art Direction and Production Design which encompasses the entire creative look of the project. Last year he became the first Hawaii resident to be voted into the Art Director’s Guild in Hollywood. His work now encompasses any design aspect from set decorating to production design within the art department such as Tim Burton’s “Big Eyes” and Oliver Stone’s “Ed Snowden.” His most recent work was the Art Direction for “Supercuts” national ad campaign.
ThinkTech Hawaii streams live on the Internet from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm every weekday afternoon, Hawaii Time, then streaming earlier shows through the night. Check us out any time for great content and great community.
Our vision is to be a leader in shaping a more vital and thriving Hawaii as the foundation for future generations. Our mission is to be the leading digital media platform raising pubic awareness and promoting civic engagement in Hawaii.
The host for this episode was Prof. Marc Gilbert.
