Italian production designer Francesca Porcelluzzi takes on the ambitious Los Angeles-set feature film RONA
LOS ANGELES, CA, UNITED STATES, August 26, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — As Francesca Porcelluzzi's portfolio expands, so does the scope of the universes she is being tasked with crafting. The Italian production designer has spent the last several years building an increasingly varied body of work in Los Angeles, shifting among period pieces, modern films, culturally specific narratives, and psychological thrillers. Now, she is getting ready to channel that adaptability into "RONA", an upcoming psychological crime thriller that will allow her to design a range of settings across a full-length feature.
Hailing from Italy, Porcelluzzi holds a master's degree in film and media production from the New York Film Academy as well as a master's degree in television, cinema, and new media from IULM University in Milan. Her global education has helped shape a filmmaking approach that blends a passion for character-driven narratives with the practical realities of working on a production set.
Her recent credits include the feature "She Reminds Me of You" and the short films "Magnolia Daughters", "The Stolen Mind", "Half Life", "10:52", and "The Last Coin". Through these projects, Porcelluzzi has shown a talent for adjusting her design approach to vastly different stories.
For the 1970s-era "Magnolia Daughters", she examined period interiors and found creative ways to turn modern spaces into believable settings from another decade. On "10:52", she conducted thorough cultural research to convert an American home into a Kurdish household. "She Reminds Me of You" demanded that she design contrasting spaces reflecting the emotional states of characters coping with loss and recovery, while the psychological thriller "The Stolen Mind" posed nearly the opposite challenge: employing production design to maintain tension inside the very limited space of a car.
That versatility is especially relevant as Porcelluzzi gets ready for "RONA". The psychological crime thriller follows Officer Diaz, a police officer who starts looking into a string of missing-person cases after noticing a troubling pattern of abandoned cars throughout Los Angeles. Her probe eventually leads her to criminal psychology professor Dr. Ajax and his daughter, Rona, whose troubled past and strained relationship with her father hide something far more sinister.
For Porcelluzzi, the feature offers a chance to construct a more expansive visual universe while preserving the focus on character and detail that has characterized her earlier work.
“One of the things I'm most excited about from a production design perspective is the variety of locations and environments throughout the film,” she says. “Because it's a feature, I'll have the opportunity to create several different spaces, from more grounded, everyday locations to much darker and more unsettling environments as the story develops.”
This progression gives Porcelluzzi an opportunity to use the settings themselves to help chart the increasingly unsettling direction of the plot.
“I'm especially excited about finding ways to make all of these locations feel like they belong to the same world while still giving each one its own identity and atmosphere,” she explains.
It is a deceptively tricky challenge. A feature such as "RONA" requires each environment to be distinct enough to convey character, purpose, and mood while still sharing a visual language that keeps the film coherent. As the investigation pulls Officer Diaz further into the story, Porcelluzzi will be able to explore how changes in location, texture, color, props, and set dressing can subtly heighten the growing psychological suspense.
For a designer who describes production design as “visual storytelling,” that chance is significant.
“Every color, object, texture, and location can help tell part of the story without using words,” Porcelluzzi has said of her approach. “When visual storytelling is done well, the audience can understand something about a character or a situation simply by looking at the environment around them.”
Porcelluzzi's involvement with "RONA" also reveals another aspect of her evolving career, one that has less to do with what is shown on screen and more to do with what happens behind the camera. She initially met director Apoorva Choudhary while collaborating on another feature film. Choudhary was serving as First Assistant Director, while Porcelluzzi led production design.
That production came with its own difficulties, including a sudden location change that forced the team to adapt quickly. For a production designer, an abrupt location shift can carry major implications. A design crafted around one space may need to be rapidly rethought, with set dressing, props, continuity, logistics, and the visual needs of the story all potentially impacted. It was precisely how Porcelluzzi handled that pressure that helped secure her next opportunity.
“We worked really well together, especially when it came to handling the challenges that came up during production, including a last-minute location change,” Porcelluzzi recalls. “She appreciated my dedication and the way I handled those situations, and after that experience, she reached out because she wanted to work together again on RONA.”
That invitation highlights an important aspect of filmmaking that audiences rarely see. A production designer's value goes beyond artistic skill. Film production requires creative professionals who can communicate across departments, adapt when circumstances shift, preserve the visual integrity of the project, and find practical solutions without losing sight of the director's vision. Porcelluzzi considers that balance between creativity and practicality one of her strengths.
“I enjoy finding visual solutions that support the story while also working within the realities of a production, whether that means limited budgets, tight schedules, or challenging locations,” she says.
These qualities are especially important on independent productions, where unexpected events can require departments to make major adjustments quickly. Being asked onto another feature by a filmmaker who has already seen her work firsthand represents a significant show of professional trust. It also reflects Porcelluzzi's broader belief that filmmaking is fundamentally a collaborative effort.
Having studied and worked across Italy and the United States, she has developed an international perspective on that process. Fluent in English, Italian, and Spanish, with conversational French, she has gravitated toward filmmakers and stories that explore different cultures, identities, relationships, and experiences. Regardless of the genre, however, she starts with character. Before picking out furniture or finding props, Porcelluzzi considers who lives in a space, how they live, what objects they would surround themselves with, and what their environment can convey to an audience.
That character-first approach should provide rich creative ground in "RONA", especially within the world surrounding Dr. Ajax and his daughter. With a narrative built around criminal psychology, broken relationships, hidden pasts, and an investigation into increasingly dark events, the physical spaces have the potential to reveal information even when the characters do not. Unlike the single-setting challenge of "The Stolen Mind", "RONA" will let Porcelluzzi work on a much larger canvas. From everyday Los Angeles locations to the darker spaces Officer Diaz encounters as her investigation deepens, each environment presents another opportunity to shape how the audience experiences the mystery.
The project thus marks a natural next step in Porcelluzzi's growth as a production designer. Her earlier work has involved historical research, cultural sensitivity, emotional storytelling, creative problem-solving, and an ability to achieve visual impact within tight physical constraints. "RONA" brings many of those skills together within the larger framework of a psychological crime feature.
Perhaps just as importantly, it represents the kind of professional advancement that happens when strong work leads to another opportunity. In an industry built on collaboration, trust, and the ability to deliver under pressure, repeat creative partnerships can be as meaningful as the credits themselves. Porcelluzzi's move onto RONA demonstrates that her contribution is being recognized not only through the worlds she creates on screen, but through the relationships she builds behind it.
As she prepares to design the film's increasingly dark visual landscape, Francesca Porcelluzzi enters "RONA" as more than the person responsible for how its locations look. She is part of the creative team responsible for defining how its world feels, and, in a psychological thriller where appearances may conceal something far more sinister, that distinction could make all the difference.
"RONA" is currently in pre-production and is set to film in Los Angeles in 2026. Further production and release information will be announced as the project moves forward. For more information on Francesca Porcelluzzi visit: Instagram or her IMDb.
Liz Rodriguez
EMR Media
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