Whenever we see a film, we wonder how we are drawn into its world. This question is quite common but the answer isn’t. Different people give different answers like relatable writing, brilliant cinematography, perfect lighting, etc. And the not so common answer for the question and that which usually does most of the work in making a film look alive is the Production design. The film people call it the dust that allows the audience to transport into the world of the film.
The production designer along with the director of the film creates the look and style of the film. This is done through props, costumes, locations, and sets, and thus presenting us the world in which the story is happening and creating a sense of escapism to the audience while letting them immerse them into the film.
“When you see everything, you see nothing” - James Cameron
For example, when we talk about the film Goodfellas, the production designer Kristi Zea must be given the credit to have flexed her creative muscles and recreating the world of a mobster a nd his emerging years, spanning from the late 50’s to late 80’s. She perfectly reflected the character arch of the protagonist during his growing years through the clothes he wore, the house he lived in, and the cars he drove. When asked about her methods in an interview, she said that production design should keep the audience visually bound to the film and add extra detail for the scene to communicate with them. This could be achieved by adapting to a variety of ways, such as props and surroundings complementing or contrasting with a character.
Rich Carter, the production designer of Avatar said that he spent three odd hours reading the script of the film to completely understand how the director wanted the film to look in terms of its scale. He said that he wanted to understand the vision of the director to bring it to life and had to use all of his experience he gained from designing The Polar Express and Jurassic Park. Later, he said that he was overwhelmed with the possibilities and ideas that he had after reading the script. The script led him to let the world unravel itself rather than visualizing everything that had to be created.
Cinema is all about the attention to detail while filming that makes a film so accurate and alive
Telugu film director, Tharun Bhascker; known for films like Pelli Choopulu and Ee nagaraniki emaindi had a similar take on the topic. In an interview on the occasion of the 4th anniversary of his first feature film (Pelli Choopulu), he said that the production design has played a key role in making the film so pleasing. The location choices and the costume design conveyed more than half of the film’s story. The production designer, Latha Naidu, along with her husband Tharun Bhascker designed beautiful color palettes and used the props needed for the locations and spoke volumes about the characters’ transition. Latha and Tharun devised a method of conveying more information about the characters by the color of the clothes they wore. The male protagonist is seen wearing colors like blue and white to show his careless and free-spirited nature. The female protagonist is seen wearing shades of yellow and orange to depict her fierce nature. The truck used in the film, the color of the walls in the locations, and other props used in various parts of the film were handpicked by the production designer in the pre-production phase according to the transitions that the story had.
On a final note, to bring out the aesthetic of the cinema and the world of it, production design does the most of the job. Right from setting up the mood to amplifying the conflict to sketching pragmatic and relatable characters for the audience. This is a true example of art inspiring art.