ERAY BINTAS

I was Art Director on Midnight at the Pera Palace, shot in the middle of Covid, when nothing was simple and everything felt upside down. It was a wild challenge — we recreated the Pera Palace Hotel exactly as it would have existed in 1920s Istanbul, building the world entirely from scratch.

From the iconic street façade to the grand lobby, bar, halls, and full hotel rooms, every space was designed and constructed to feel period-accurate and fully alive. We built shops, underground sewers, and the legendary 1920s Garden Bar, paying close attention to materials, textures, and architectural details of the era.

The goal wasn’t just to replicate a famous building, but to capture the spirit of Pera in the 1920s — elegant, mysterious, and layered with history. Every set had to hold up under close camera work and feel authentic enough to disappear into the story.

This Netflix series was produced by Karga Seven Pictures, directed by Emre Şahin, with Zeki Sarayoğlu as Production Designer.