Production Design

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Production Design Performance

• SPH 106 Introduction to
• Broadcasting Film

2

• Production Designa films visual environments,
  also known as mise-en-scene (from the French for
  placement on stage)
• Sets
• Costumes
• Props
• Mattes (Paintings that are printed into the shot)
• Miniatures (Models substituting for parts of
  sets)

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• Design Conceptthe underlying creative concept
  around which sets, props and costumes are
  organized.
• For instance, Batman has sets that reflect a
  dark, menacing world of villains.
• Period films evoke the surroundings of an era.

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• Costumes are designed to reflect a period or
  nature of the character.
• Sometimes costumes are designed to break a
  stereotype, such as the angels in City of Angels,
  who wear black instead of white.
• Other times, costumes are meant to be authentic
  to era, such as the Civil War uniforms in
  Gettysburg.

5

• Sets imply the physical world in which characters
  live and interact.
• In Dr. Strangelove, note how the War Room is
  designed to be metaphorical, like a poker game in
  which the stakes are millions of lives.
• D.W. Griffiths Intolerance was the first film
  with a huge set, so much so that it was also the
  first movie to cost 1 million to make.

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• Mattes and miniaturespaintings added to the shot
  and models that seem to be ships, cities or
  buildings created the illusion of expanding the
  set when these structures cannot be built.

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Perspective

• Forced perspectivean artistic distortion to
  create the illusion of size and distance.
• Linear perspectivevisual design that creates the
  perspective the viewer expects, such as lines
  receding and moving closer together in the
  distance or the narrowing of a buildings base
  from an aerial view.

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Acting

• Acting in film is different from acting in
  theater in these ways
• Film schedules allow for little rehearsal.
• Shooting is done out of context (outside the
  story).
• Expressions and gestures cannot be exaggerated as
  they are in theater.
• The actor must play to the conditions of
  lighting, lenses, angles and special effects.
• Film actors cannot respond to a live audience.

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• Shooting out of continuity.
• Master shotthe entire action of a shot filmed
  with a medium lens.
• Coveragerecreated pieces of the shots action
  done separately by the actors and intercut later
  by the film editor.

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Categories of performer

• Starsactors who play out the primary roles.
• Star persona the personality a star evokes for
  moviegoers, such as Bruce Willis as a
  rough-around-the-edges hero and tough guy.
• Personality starsEx. Clint Eastwood
• Character starsEx. Robert Duvall, Marlon Brando