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Set Design and Locations

Page history last edited by Air Dupaix 14 years, 5 months ago

 

 Set Design

Coming from its theatrical predecessor, set design is an integral aspect of the mise-en-scene. Without sets, films would be limited in their ability to communicate a sense of location and place. Sets are often designed and built in studios, like Edison's Black Maria or Universal's back lot, but they can also be outside locations like Los Angeles or even Vancouver. Sets begin with the set designer making a scale model of the set. He/ She moves on to scale drawings, paint elevating and researches the props, textures etc. Many set designers use computer programs to create the models but some still hold to the old ways of doing all the work by hand. After the set designer finishes the models, the production manager evaluates the designs and organizes the build. The actual building of the sets is done by a team of scenic carpenters, headed by the master carpenter. So by the time the directer starts shooting, the process of scene creation has passed through many different hands (Wikipedia: Set construction).

 

 

Types of Design

There are many different types of sets. A few specific examples are presentational and representational. Presentational sets are used to aid in the presentation of information like a newsroom or talkshow set. Representational sets are meant to mimic real life as in a 'real' hotel room, kitchen or building (Joy of Sets).

 

 

Below is a clip about the making of a 2002 movie called Resident Evil.  It displays several examples of how the set design was carefully constructed and explains a few tools in which they used to make this movie come to life on screen.

 

 

 

 

The Choice of Studio or On Location

Many directors choose to shoot on a set because they can control the environment and avoid the transportation costs of shipping equipment, crew and cast around remote areas (Wikipedia: Filming Location). Studio locations also give the director and set designer the ability to meet the set requirements of the script. Much like Steven Spielberg does in Jaws, he controls the action and the shots he can make by building part of his set and an animatronic shark, in a backlot in Los Angeles. On the other hand, filming on locations gives a director completely different choices than a studio back lot ever could. On location filming is often cheaper than building expansive sets on backlots and gives even more force to the illusion of reality than even the best studio set. Filming on location gives poorer countries, like the Czech Republic or Romania, much needed economic development by providing the accommodations such as room, food and builders for the filming. (Wikipedia: Filming Location). Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings is a good example of on location filming. Jackson built all his extremely detailed sets in New Zealand and used New Zealand's varying landscapes to fit to his script. The best example of choosing both location and studio would be The Battleship Potemkin. Eisenstein used the location of Odessa for his harbor and infamous step-scene. But it seemed like he exclusively used a studio to get the interior shots of the battleship, especially the shots of the officers quarters and the inlistedmen's bunks.

 

In addition to the factors of financing and practicality, the choice of shooting on a set or on location often reflects the aesthetic philosophies of the film.  In the case of the German Expressionist movement in cinema, a product of the artistic explosion of Germany's  Weimar Republic, elaborate film sets were often employed in place of actual locations. These sets were often wildly non-realistic and surreal, and sought to convey emotion and sensation, rather than reality. This was due, in part,  to the expressionist movement's collective interest in exploring the inner spaces of the psyche, and manifesting that space by way of striking, affecting visuals.  Siegfried Kracauer observes that "what [expressionist] films reflect are not so much explicit credos as psychological dispositions- those deep layers of collective mentality that extend more of less below the dimmension of consciousness" (6).   

 

 

The image above is from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, a famous German Expressionist film that featured strikingly painted and designed sets.  Realism is eschewed in favor of evocative design employed to give the viewer a sense of the darker spaces of the mind made visible. In this sense, the conscious choice of shooting on a set allowed for the creation of a new visual space, rather than an attempt to portray an already existing one.  

 

Note for another major edit: French New Wave realist aesthetic compared with the surreal fantasy of German expressionism. 

 

IDEA!!! the sets/locations of the beauty and the beast would have some GREAT examples of made sets vs on location filming.

 

Siegfried, Kracauer,. From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1974. 

Utz, Peter "Set Design" videoexpert.home.att.net The Joy of Sets. n.d. September 22, 2009.

"Filming Location" Wikipedia.org. n.d. September 20, 2009.

"Set Construction" Wikipedia.org. n.d. September 20, 2009.

 

Comments (2)

Sean Desilets said

at 10:24 am on Oct 13, 2009

* we will soon have a German Expressionism page to link to
* I agree with that IDEA!!!
* Something about the aesthetic value of location shooting would seem appropriate (film noir, New Wave [Monty has a proto-page on the New Wave set up), contemporary examples)

Sean Desilets said

at 10:48 am on Sep 24, 2009

• Not connected enough to films yet—I think examples from films are way more important than images of sets being constructed
• Presentational/representational distinction also used in relation to acting, and could be worked out a bit more—are some film sets more presentational than others?
• Aesthetic implications of location shooting vs. studio (New wave vs. German Expressionism?)

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