Art Installation and Set / Stage Design

Susannah suggested that we look at art installations as a source of inspiration of interesting ways to dress a set and create arresting effects.

One of the ideas that I've seen used a few times is the idea of lots of light bulbs hanging from the ceiling as in this installation by Spencer Finch:

This can create an interesting effect and use of light, especially when they are pre programmed to switch on and off in waves as I remember seeing them in Danny Boyle's stage production of Frankenstein:

and the Gina G 'Ooh Aah Just a Little Bit' music video:

While looking up what I remember to be good set and stage designs from productions that I've seen, and researching art installations I found these images that I thought were interesting:

Havel's Tunnel

Ice Men by Nele Azevedo (hundreds of little figures made out of ice placed in public settings)

 

I think that set designs for theatre productions could be a useful area to study when it comes to set building for film as the sets for theatre productions have to be designed and built with restrictions of size, efficient use of backdrops, flats and props to represent many locations, and viewing angles to consider, as opposed to (big budget) film sets that can be created in huge spaces.  Therefore, for low budget productions with space and resources as a major concern I think it might be useful to look into how experienced stage designers come up with their designs and overcome the problems that they might face.

When I saw the recent touring production of The Ladykillers I was impressed with the set that was used.  The house where most of the action takes place was a higgledy-piggledy structure with rooms on different levels.  It was very effective and quirky.  As a set design it wouldn't look out of place in a Tim Burton Beetlejuice type film.

An amazing set design that I found online is this one for the  Bregenz Festival of Austria.  This is truly impressive:

...and I don't know why I was surprised to discover this, but TV set design is a HUGE business.  I guess once you think about it most shows on TV use a set of some sort and they need to look highly professional and just right.  It was just something I hadn't given too much consideration to before now.

(That's why I like this course, I get to discover and learn about all the different aspects of the industry.)

Here are some of the set design companies:

3Dinnovative.net

Fastcodesign

fxgroup.tv

tvsetdesign.com

virtualsets.com