Production Set
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PRODUCTION SET ACCT-BVP1-7. Students will demonstrate knowledge of set design and layout. •Prepare a set for production. •Select and arrange stage props. Props, Set Dressing and Scenery An interior decorator working in a house selects the furniture, wall treatments, curtains and drapes, accent accessories, and many other design and visual elements to make the rooms appealing and to meet the needs of the homeowner. In the television industry all of the design and visual elements chosen for a set are considered set dressing. The set dresser, or set decorator is responsible for selecting the furniture, wall and window coverings, accent accessories, and all the other design elements that complete a program’s set. In making these decisions, the set dresser must consider the contrast ratio of the items chosen, as well as accurately create the director's vision of the set. This section discusses the various design and visual elements of set design and presents related techniques and professional tips. Creating the Set Design The set design is a sketch of the set, as viewed from above, drawn to scale. The set designer lays out the location of walls, doors, and windows on the set. Then, the set dresser adds the location of furniture and larger decorator items. The director uses the design when rehearsing the program with the actors and talent while the set is under construction. The set dressing notes the location of major pieces on the set, but does not necessarily indicate the placement of accent and decorative items. To help the performers get accustomed to the amount of space available once the set is completed, the set design is used to mark the floor of the rehearsal space. Regular masking tape is commonly used to indicate where the walls and doors will be located on the finished set. Masking tape is quite inexpensive and readily available, but it leaves a sticky residue on the floor if left in place for a very long. Set marking tape, or spiking tape is brightly colored, leaves n sticky residue and is available from any theatrical supply company. Props, Set Dressing and Scenery A set design resembles the floor plan of a model home. Furniture When selecting furniture for a set, consider that the talent should be able to get into and out of furniture gracefully. The furniture needs to be able to get into and out of furniture gracefully. The furniture needs to be solid and firm and the seat cannot be lower than the talent’s knees. If the chair is too low, the talent must either bounce out of the seat or roll out on one side or the other. The problem is that the center of gravity is not correct and does not allow a fluid movement into and out of the chair or sofa. Talent is forced to slouch when sitting naturally in a low chair. Slouching is not only unattractive, but the talent's diaphragm is compressed. This makes it very difficult, if not impossible, to clearly project his or her voice. Also, the talent’s eyes are positioned lower than the camera lens when seated in a low chair. This forces a high angle camera shot, looking down on the talent. Never use chairs that swivel or rock on a set. The talent has a tendency to swivel back and forth or to rock. Talent moving in this manner creates a shot that is unpleasant to the audience. Chairs that swivel or rock also tend to squeak, which is a distracting, unintentional sound in a scene. Furniture Be aware of any shiny surfaces, such as chrome or brass fittings, on furniture and other items on the set. Shiny surfaces may cause unattractive or distracting light hits. These reflections are very distracting to the audience and interrupt the viewers attention from the message of the program. Some solutions to keep reflections off shiny surfaces include: • lightly apply crème makeup on the surface to dull the shine. •Spray the area with hair spray. •Apply dulling spray, which is available at any good camera shop. Visualize this, while light hits are usually considered to be negative program attributes, they can also be used artistically within a program. Hundreds of light hits are produced it, for example, you shoot the surfaces of a lake under bright sunlight. These light hits create the appearance of a sparkling clear, inviting body of water. When multiple light hits are a desired effect, a star filter may be attached to the front of a camera lens to cause each light hit to become a star, rather than simply bright, white spots. A star filter was employed for this picture. Furniture Placement In most homes, it is very common to see the furniture that people sit on (sofas, loveseats, and chairs) placed against the walls of a room. Placing this type of furniture in the middle of a room looks odd, unless the room is rather large. Think of the sets in various situation comedy shows that portray the living room in a home. On these sets, furniture may be placed against a wall, but none of the characters sit on those pieces of furniture. The furniture used by talent is placed in the middle of the room. This arrangement of furniture appears so natural on the television screen that it probably never stood out to you while watching. With furniture arranged against the wall of a set, it is not possible to backlight the talent seated on the furniture. The purpose of backlighting is to separate the talent from the background. Without the appropriate backlight, the talent, as well as the entire image, appears flat and unrealistic. Additionally, backlighting the talent so close to a wall causes a shadow of the person to be cast on the wall. Several background lights are commonly used, which would create several shadows. It is not likely that you see multiple shadows on a wall behind someone in your home. If these shadows are present on a set that the audience see, the illusion of reality of the living room will be broken. A standard rule in set design is to place the funiture used by the tealent at least six feet away from any wall of the set. Funiture not used by the talent is considered set dressing and may be placed wherever the designer likes. Props Props are any of the items handled by the performers during a production, other than furniture. Just as there are exceptions to spelling rules in English class, television production principles are equally loaded with exceptions. A simple piece of furniture may become a prop if it is used in a way, the audience assumes, that it was not manufactured to be used. Examples of this may be a couch that is single-handedly hoisted into the air by a character with super strength, a bed that collapses when the talent gets into it, or a bookcase whose shelves give way with the weight of a single book. To help clarify how furniture may be used as a prop, visualize the following scene. A desk in an office setting is piled with towers of papers and files. Sitting at the desk, barely visible behind the piles, is an overwhelmed looking man. His boss approaches carrying a single sheet of paper, perhaps an interoffice memo, and places this single sheet of paper on one of the towers already on the desk. Without warning, the desk collapses from the additional weight of the single page. Office desks are not constructed to collapse. This office desk was constructed of a particular material or assembled in such a way that it collapsed when a preposterously small amount f weight was added. This action made the desk a prop in the scene, not a piece of furniture. When selecting or creating props, it is not always necessary to attend to every last detail. The television camera is more forgiving to smaller sized props. For example, the phasers used in the Star Trek television series were a couple of pieces of wood glued together and painted a dark gray with a few pieces of colored plastic attached. Before spending a great deal of time and money on props, consider the cardinal rule of television: It does not have to be, it must only appear to be. Flats, Curtains, and Backdrops Scenery is whatever stops the distant view of the camera. In a studio setting, this includes flats, curtains, and backdrops. If a set is not supposed to reproduce a real-life environment, such as someone’s living room, flats can be placed at odd angels, with gaps between them, or be painted in unusual colors and textures. The effect can be attractive and eye catching without upstaging the talent or subject matter of the program. Set designers must always consider contrast ratio and limitations they place on other items in the picture when choosing a background color. Background curtains may be loose, having the attractive folds found in living room curtains. The curtains may also be stretched tight and pulled to cover the walls and curves of the studio, forming a solid background color. This is called a cyclorama, or cyc (pronounced “sike,” rhymes with “hike”), A cyc differs from a backdrop because a cyc is usually just one color and has no definition. On the other hand, a backdrop may have scenery painted on it. For a studio production set in London, as an example, someone may be contracted to paint a skyline of London on a backdrop that hangs behind the set.