Art Direction

The goal of art directing is to enhance the story by adding to the available visual palette. In Trains potting, every wall is painted a striking color often covered in a thick layer of grime: turquoise, red, green, mustard yellow. This dark, rich palette conveys an atmosphere of opiate sensuality appropriate to the film.

In the film Red, the color palette is biased toward occasional touches of bright reds against a background of charcoal grays and rich dark browns. In American Beauty, the sets are dressed in typical suburban furniture just verging on “kitsch.” The comfortable excess of the main family’s house lies in sharp contrast to the austere, traditional Americana furniture in house of the family next door. In Do the Right Thing, bright reds in the sets
and clothing are used to increase both the feeling of hot summer, and the
emotional intensity of the drama.

Just as the director of photography is head of the camera department, the
production designer is head of the art department. The production designer
usually starts working early in the process, helping to generate storyboards and
an overall “look” for the project. The title of this position may vary—you may
use an art director or a set designer instead of a production designer, but their
duties will be relatively the same. On a big movie, the production designer is
responsible for the overall vision, while the art director implements that vision
and manages the art department crew, which includes set designers, set
dressers, prop masters, modelers, scenic painters, set construction workers,
and production assistants.

ART DIRECTING BASICS

Good art direction is a combination of the symbolic and the practical. If your
story is about a young girl growing up in Kansas in 1850, you’ll be limited to
certain types of buildings, furniture, and clothes. But you still have the choice
of giving her a sunlit, whitewashed bedroom with furnishings upholstered in
bright calico fabrics, or an age-darkened room with no direct sunlight and dull,
dark fabrics. These simple details tell two very different stories.

One of the easiest ways to add visual symbolism to a scene is via lighting,
as discussed earlier in this chapter. Colors also have strong connotations for
people. Black symbolizes death; red symbolizes blood and violence, but also
love and passion; blue is peaceful and calming, but also indicates sadness, and
so on. Similarly, styles of furniture and clothing can say a lot about a character.

An elderly woman living alone in a house decorated in sparse Eames furniture
from the 1960s might indicate someone who won’t let go of the past.
Change the character to a young man, and the same furniture indicates a
retro-hip sense of style. Clutter can be comfortable or claustrophobic, sparsity
can be clean or indicative of emotional emptiness. In addition to externalizing
the themes of the story, production design should also aid in focusing the
viewer’s eye, a challenge that goes hand in hand with lighting and framing the
shot.

Irfan Sayani
Creative Head
www.TheAdderMedia.com