Production: Set Design with Props
We came to the location with all of the props we had obtained to dress the set how we want to portray Annie & Dean's home. As the producer I thought it would be practical to do a test shoot at the same time and invited all of the extra crew members that will be helping us on our shoot to come to the location and learn more about the project and what will be happening. In particular this gave them a chance to understand what their role on set would be and allowed them to get to know us as a team.
Hallway
We started on the hallway as this is where most of the scenes take place in the house. Becca, George and I put all of the props and set dress we had out and we selected different options to use for the hallway's set. This is our final result:
We decided that we wanted to change the stool to a taller and more sturdy one so that it looked like it belonged more in Annie and Dean's house. We only dressed one half of the hallway as it is all we will see on camera. We see the front door however there isn't anything we can change about the front door. Outside in the porch we have placed flower pots on the walls of the porch so that they can be seen on camera. In particular this will come into use for scene 17 with Jordan Hamsey as he throws up into the flowerpot. For the photo in the frame we are going to take a photo of Annie & Dean together, print it out and put it in the frame to make the house look lived in. This is also the reason for having socks on the radiator as if they've just been washed. If we refer back to their character profiles from our Pre-Production Book, Dean is often seen wearing colourful socks, and therefore it makes sense for there to be colourful socks on the radiator. We also decided that there wasn't enough colour in this room to stand out in the shots. To tackle this we bought some fake green plants to put on the sideboard which really lifted the shot's surroundings, making it much more homely. Although we don't want Annie & Dean's house to be too full of colour as they are meant to be 'ordinary' this pop of colour was really beneficial to making the shot look better.
Living Room
Moving on to the living room we wanted it to have a homely feel and to look very natural and lived in. As we are only seeing the living room for one scene where Annie is doing her Yoga practice it was necessary to show how she has adapted the space to be able to practice her exercises. We moved the coffee table over to the windows and laced a table cloth with magazines, coffee cups, tissues and other things you might find there to give it a lived in and 'ordinary' feel. Along the fireplace we placed lots of pictures of young children, and Marie as she is now; as well as knick knacks and tokens Annie & Dean would have collected along the way. We decided that the living room is very much Annie's space, whereas Dean's is definitely the kitchen, so we added a few feminine touches to the living room to portray this across to the audience subtly. Here is what the living room looks like in Annie & Dean's House:
As we looked around the room it looked like it belonged to grandparents. One thing we decided to change was to replace the "knitting bag" which can be seen by the television on the floor with a box to make it look neater and more purposeful. We purchased a wicker basket to place the knitting and blankets in which made it look tidier and more relevant to being in the room.
Kitchen
The kitchen didn't require a lot of set dressing as it is meant to be a natural working kitchen. However, to make it look like it was Dean's domain we added in little knick knacks to show that it belonged to him and Annie. We placed the props out for each scene that we will be filming in the kitchen for to see how it would look. For example, the baking scene required a lot of props so we tested where would be best to place them when baking to allow for filming and natural lighting. Please see below:
Above the window there is a hanging "man cave" sign that you can't see in these pictures however you can see on the wide shot of the film. We thought this added a nice touch to subtly show that the Kitchen is very clearly Dean's place. We chose to situate the sign above where Dean will be baking as it was good to get it in the shot and also adds a bit of humour to the scene.
Dining Room
We only see the dining room for a few seconds on screen during scene 16. As the walls were all cream and the shot was a mid shot; all that you could really see was the tops of the chairs. To make the shot more interesting to look at we moved the side board diagonally in the corner and dressed it with old photos and plants and candles to make it a bit more colourful and less flat. Although you only see the shot for a few seconds it was important that it still looked interesting.
Overall the changes we made to the set design of the location has benefited our project massively because it has become our characters' home as opposed to just a location. In total we managed to keep under our props and set budget, including buying the extra items we decided we needed. This has all helped with the success of our sitcom.
Hallway
We started on the hallway as this is where most of the scenes take place in the house. Becca, George and I put all of the props and set dress we had out and we selected different options to use for the hallway's set. This is our final result:
We decided that we wanted to change the stool to a taller and more sturdy one so that it looked like it belonged more in Annie and Dean's house. We only dressed one half of the hallway as it is all we will see on camera. We see the front door however there isn't anything we can change about the front door. Outside in the porch we have placed flower pots on the walls of the porch so that they can be seen on camera. In particular this will come into use for scene 17 with Jordan Hamsey as he throws up into the flowerpot. For the photo in the frame we are going to take a photo of Annie & Dean together, print it out and put it in the frame to make the house look lived in. This is also the reason for having socks on the radiator as if they've just been washed. If we refer back to their character profiles from our Pre-Production Book, Dean is often seen wearing colourful socks, and therefore it makes sense for there to be colourful socks on the radiator. We also decided that there wasn't enough colour in this room to stand out in the shots. To tackle this we bought some fake green plants to put on the sideboard which really lifted the shot's surroundings, making it much more homely. Although we don't want Annie & Dean's house to be too full of colour as they are meant to be 'ordinary' this pop of colour was really beneficial to making the shot look better.
Living Room
Moving on to the living room we wanted it to have a homely feel and to look very natural and lived in. As we are only seeing the living room for one scene where Annie is doing her Yoga practice it was necessary to show how she has adapted the space to be able to practice her exercises. We moved the coffee table over to the windows and laced a table cloth with magazines, coffee cups, tissues and other things you might find there to give it a lived in and 'ordinary' feel. Along the fireplace we placed lots of pictures of young children, and Marie as she is now; as well as knick knacks and tokens Annie & Dean would have collected along the way. We decided that the living room is very much Annie's space, whereas Dean's is definitely the kitchen, so we added a few feminine touches to the living room to portray this across to the audience subtly. Here is what the living room looks like in Annie & Dean's House:
As we looked around the room it looked like it belonged to grandparents. One thing we decided to change was to replace the "knitting bag" which can be seen by the television on the floor with a box to make it look neater and more purposeful. We purchased a wicker basket to place the knitting and blankets in which made it look tidier and more relevant to being in the room.
Kitchen
The kitchen didn't require a lot of set dressing as it is meant to be a natural working kitchen. However, to make it look like it was Dean's domain we added in little knick knacks to show that it belonged to him and Annie. We placed the props out for each scene that we will be filming in the kitchen for to see how it would look. For example, the baking scene required a lot of props so we tested where would be best to place them when baking to allow for filming and natural lighting. Please see below:
Above the window there is a hanging "man cave" sign that you can't see in these pictures however you can see on the wide shot of the film. We thought this added a nice touch to subtly show that the Kitchen is very clearly Dean's place. We chose to situate the sign above where Dean will be baking as it was good to get it in the shot and also adds a bit of humour to the scene.
Dining Room
We only see the dining room for a few seconds on screen during scene 16. As the walls were all cream and the shot was a mid shot; all that you could really see was the tops of the chairs. To make the shot more interesting to look at we moved the side board diagonally in the corner and dressed it with old photos and plants and candles to make it a bit more colourful and less flat. Although you only see the shot for a few seconds it was important that it still looked interesting.
Overall the changes we made to the set design of the location has benefited our project massively because it has become our characters' home as opposed to just a location. In total we managed to keep under our props and set budget, including buying the extra items we decided we needed. This has all helped with the success of our sitcom.
Comments
Post a Comment