How Cheryl Wenjing Xia Turns Imagination into Tangible Reality – Film Daily

Cheryl Wenjing Xia is a LA based Production Designer and graduate of ArtCenter College of Design. Immersed in an art-school ecosystem that spans product, spatial design, and visual communication, she brings a rare fusion of aesthetics, concept thinking, and hands-on craftsmanship to every project. Her ability to move from sketch to full-scale build—pairing inventive materials with precise fabrication—has set her apart across film, commercials, editorials and music videos. Rather than defaulting to traditional, literal set concepts, Cheryl gravitates toward bold, imaginative world-building that embraces risk and surprise—turning the “impossible” into the tangible and making something from nothing.

Now, join Cheryl Wenjing Xia as we step into her world of production design.

Xia’s philosophy doesn’t live on a deck, or in a pretty PDF, or in that mood board everyone nods at and then forgets. It shows up the second you walk onto one of her sets. You feel it immediately. She is not chasing decoration; she is engineering emotional condition. And she is very strict about that distinction.

One of the most technically demanding builds in Cheryl Wenjing Xia’s recent work was the underwater environment for the commercial Omega – Depths. In early conversations with director Britton Sear, Xia focused on scale — specifically, how to make the world feel massive and otherworldly on camera. The assignment was not “put rocks on a stage.” The brief was to create a convincing underwater landscape. The rock formations needed to feel ancient, heavy, and territorial, not like freshly built set pieces.

Under Xia’s direction, the art team constructed two hero rock structures, each measuring roughly 12 feet by 12 feet, which served as the main terrain of the environment. In addition to those anchors, the team fabricated four smaller rock units, each about eight feet tall, designed as modular foreground elements. Those movable pieces were essential. They allowed the crew to quickly reshape compositions, build depth, and restage angles between camera setups without tearing down and rebuilding the entire set.

Unseen depths unfold

The build presented real technical challenges. Traditional flats aren’t meant to pass as geological mass, especially not as rock that’s supposedly been sitting underwater for centuries. The surface had to hold up in close-up: texture variation, soft edges, layered mineral tone, natural erosion. That became its own design problem. After extensive testing, Xia’s team settled on a hybrid approach. They carved and layered foam to create volume and erosion lines, then applied joint compound to develop believable rocky texture and visual weight. Finally, they skinned select areas with craft paper to introduce irregular fiber and striation. This last layer also changed how paint absorbed, so that once color and aging were applied, the finish read as aged, water-worn stone rather than freshly painted scenery.

The final result was a practical, camera-ready seafloor build — one that held up both in wide shots and in tight coverage. It gave the director scale, depth, and atmosphere in-camera, without having to rely entirely on VFX.

And this is, in a way, her signature. Cheryl Wenjing Xia does not treat physical space as background. She refuses to. She treats it as an active storytelling device. Her builds are not simply places for actors to stand. They are extensions of character, mood, and pacing. They control tension. They carry memory. And because she is physically in the work — carving foam, stress-testing scenic finishes, retexturing surfaces by hand at the workbench — that storytelling isn’t theoretical. It’s literally built into the material.

Unveil hidden dimensions

What ultimately defines Cheryl Wenjing Xia is that she doesn’t build “sets.” She builds emotional architecture. For her, production design is not background or decoration — it’s part of the script. Space carries pressure, memory, and tone, and it quietly tells the audience how to feel before anyone speaks.

That approach has earned her recognition across film, commercials, and music videos — including honors tied to LA Shorts, Cannes World Film Festival, Berlin Commercial, the National ADDY Awards, the Telly Awards, Clio Awards, the Shiny Awards, the AICP Awards — and her selection to the Women in Film 2025 Production Design Fellowship.

Directors trust her with worlds that technically shouldn’t exist in real life and, on production timelines that shouldn’t be possible, she makes them real. She’s not chasing pretty frames. She’s building places where story can live.

Contact info: xia2rt@gmail.com

Website: xia2rt.com