production designer, art director
Everyone notices the production design in a lavish Hollywood sci-fi, however, each prop, colour and location has been carefully considered in a subtle low-budget domestic drama too.
Try to notice as much as possible and do not be afraid of 'borrowing' other people's ideas.
collect ideas
pinboard of images from an inspiration box
collect ideas
- Watch the play of light on your kitchen table
- Look how bright and subtle colours contrast
- Look at the shapes of stylish furniture and the textures of trendy fashion and tatty clothes.
- Visit museums and galleries. Go to whacky places
- Keep a sketch book to scribble in
- Take a camera with you when you go out. You never know where you might find ideas.
- Watch a lot of TV and films
Don't worry about reality, you can do anything on film, so dream a little! This is not real life, this is cinema.
inspiration box
You have to know what you like, you also have to know what you find nasty. Not all things in films are nice. You need to have ugly things up your sleeve too! Get a box and put bits into it, cut out snippets, snapshots, bits of packaging, leaflets, etc. Collect whatever takes your fancy. When you are starting a project, dive into the box for inspiration and pin up things you think might be useful. And make an "inspiration box" on your computer too.
Poor Poet - Carly Spitzweg 1839
Try to notice as much as possible and do not be afraid of borrowing from other people's ideas.
I steal from every movie ever made - Quentin Tarantino
If it can be written, or thought, it can be filmed - Stanley Kubrick
thinking about composition
Look at how images are put together, and how the screen rectangle can be split up.
verticals and horizontals
Vertical lines can split the screen up into two or more parts. They make the image more interesting. For example a lamppost, a tree trunk, or the edge of a door frame in the foreground. Horizontals can be useful too.
The Crimson Snowdrop
diagonals
Diagonals are usually more dynamic than horizontals and verticals. Buildings, rooms and roads often give exciting diagonals.
The Floor Scrapers - Gustave Caillebotte 1875
PIPs
Pictures within a picture (such as views through windows, doorways and into mirrors) often imply hidden depths.
try this
Experiment with a stills camera in a living room. Include two pieces of furniture. e.g. a TV and a sofa. Move them into opposite corners of the room. Then close together so you can get behind the TV and sofa. Use different angles. There is no such thing as a factual photo of this room. You have to decide what story you want to tell