Prop/Set Design

Behind the Scenes of planning 

    In class, Manuela and I went through a couple of different plot ideas we thought would fit our chosen genre, thriller. Once we weighed out the options and began to think about the ideas from a realistic and student perspective we realized which was the best option for our circumstances.

Some of our initial thoughts/questions when choosing a plot included:

• How difficult would this be to film?
• How entertaining would this be?
• Do we have a location/set to film it?
• Do we both really like this idea?
  

    After assessing the situation, we came down to a collective decision for our plot that we both were excited to start brainstorming for. Some other things we discussed were potential prop ideas, set design, and the incorporation of our credits at the beginning of the opening. I wanted to just share a couple of our ideas before officially announcing our script!

Here is a picture Manuela took of me working on our plot idea in class!

Set Design:

    Set designs are crucial for establishing the film's aesthetic, conveying story themes, and building a space for characters to interact in naturally. Coming up with the set design comes with the planning of creating precise drawings for what we want (storyboards). Once we have our set design in place we can "dress the set" which involves including props and furniture. These should all be purposeful and placed with intention. This is important information to know because everything can be interpreted differently by audiences. For instance, choosing specific colors within a film is a great way to reflect an emotional state within the characters and can be done through set design and even props. 

    Similar to this picture we want our film opening to mainly take place at a dinner table in a household setting. The reason for this is because we are going to be filming a family eating a meal together. We wanted the filming location to be easy that way we can spend more time developing the meaning/symbolism behind the actual opening. This is an easy location to obtain since we can use either our houses or ask a friend to film at their house.

Prop ideas:

    Props are objects that can be bought or created for the development of a character or storyline. A popular example is the lightsaber in Star Wars. In our case the props will be made by us. For instance, we want to have photographs around the house of this "family" that will be used to develop the characters and plot of our film. This is something we may need to purchase supplies for to make it look more professional, such as buying picture frames or buying standard photo prints from somewhere like Walgreens for better quality. 

    We want our film opening to look professional and not just like a student production so we will try out best to make our filming location and props look as realistic to a movie as possible and consider the different types of props that we can use like hand, set, trim, personal, and breakaway props. 

Sources:

StudioBinder. (n.d.). What is set design in film? StudioBinder. 
DeGuzman, K. (2021, November 14). What is a movie prop — Types of film props & why they matter. StudioBinder.