Transcripts
1. Class Introduction: Hello, everyone. My name is Barbara Martinez, and I'm a filmmaker from Mexico City. I mainly work as a Director, but I also have experience in the fields of production design in our direction. In this class, I will teach you step-by-step how to create and present an app proposal for cinema. However, this could also be applied for any type of audiovisual project, like television, series, commercials, or even music videos. This class is for students with a beginner to an intermediate level. It is recommended that you have basic knowledge in film production, but it is not necessary or mandatory at all. This class is aimed at aspiring production designer's, film directors and filmmakers in general. But it could also be really great for people who work in art and design, who are interested in getting involved in the world of film and audio-visual media. At the end of this class, you will be able to create a clear and complete visual proposal for any type of audio visual project, as well as understanding all the basic elements of the production design process. See you in class.
2. Introduction to Production Design: To begin with, we have to make clear what the production designer is, and what their function is in the film production process. The production designer is responsible for the creation of an art concept and aesthetic concept for the film. These concept includes the designing of all the sets and also the aesthetic supervision of the departments of props, costumes, makeup, and also hairstyle. Their job is to interpret the script as well as the director's vision, and translate it into visual metaphors that will elevate the aesthetic and production value of the film. The production designer has to achieve a design concept that will connect the concept with the visual style that will represent the film. In other words, the design will transmit, visually, the themes and the essence of the film. There are directors who give more or less importance to the production design of their film. It's a matter of style. For example, Stanley Kubrick was a director with very clear views on the concept of his films. They all had a very particular design that makes his films even more memorable, and that make him stand out as a very complete director. Most of his films took a lot of previous design work, which was carried out by large teams of artists, drawers, sculptures, and designers. The clearest and most brilliant example in this regard is 2001: A Space Odyssey. On the other hand, the art director is responsible for taking the design into reality and also coordinating the entire art department. However, we must emphasize that in lower budget and independent films, the production designer and the art director are almost always the same person unlike big productions from Hollywood. In my experience as a director, I really enjoyed to be really near into these decisions. I like to be really close with my art director and taking to account their ideas and proposals for my film, but most of the time, I really like to generate my own design concepts and to make my mood boards in art presentations. On the other hand, when I had been the production designer, art director in other projects, I have been very lucky to have a lot of creative freedom and good relationship with the directors. I have been really able to project my visual style, and really showcase my work in other directors' views, in other styles of film. That's really cool.
3. The script: The first step you have to take before you start creating your art concept is reading the script. This is obviously a step that you can't skip. Read your script the first time, get familiar with the story, with the characters, with the spaces. Don't take any notes, just focus on the script and how it makes you feel. After reading it the first time, I really recommend you do have a chat with the director, if possible. Ask them about their vision, ask for the director's statement, if they have one, and ask for a deeper insight on the film and its themes. Have a deep talk about your first impressions of the script and ask them if they have any specific visual style or visual look that they want to achieve with their film. You need to work with a director, that's really important. Also, if they have some character biographies written out, that could be really useful, but if not, you should ask them to tell you about the characters, how are they like, what's their story. Just ask questions and take notes. Now, you have to take notes. After this talk, you need to read the script at least a second time, and now, you should take notes on any special props, specific characteristics of the spaces or characters, or how it makes you feel, anything at all. You should write anything that comes to mind like if you have any ideas on how you want a specific set to look, you should note it down. You need to collect all of this information and keep it into account during the whole creation of the art concept process. In case you're making a proposal for a script-less project, just having a chat with the director and having some production breakdown should be good for you to start working.
4. Creating a Moodboard: Now, we're going to talk about the creation of a moodboard and its importance in the proposal creation process. In case you don't know what a moodboard is, a moodboard is recompilation and/or an arrangement of images, photographs, textures, or even text intended to evoke and show a specific concept, aesthetic, style, or even feel. Generally, the moodboards are made physically with Magazine cutouts, printed photos, samples of fabric and objects like the ones made for interior design, however, you could also make digital moodboards, as I always do, like just recompiling all of the images in a folder in your computer or if you want, you could also make collages of the images in a PDF like in PowerPoint or Keynote. The creation of a moodboard, it's a really important part of the process. For making one or more, you can explore and start understanding in crafting the art concept that you want to portray. So even if you don't have it very clear at the beginning, the moodboards are a great way to give you new ideas, to get new ideas, and also to organize the ideas that you already have. Personally, I prefer making digital moodboards, I think it's way more practical and useful in the long run, you'll see what I mean later in the class. My process is really simple. With a few ideas that I already have in my head, or the few ideas that the director gave me, whatever is the case, I start searching for images. I use resources like Google Photos, Tumblr, Pinterest, really, whatever you could get images from. You can save any type of images that may be useful to you. Me personally, I use a lot of photographic series, paintings as reference. I also use a lot of interior design, photos and movies stills, of course, like I use other films for reference but you can really use whatever. You could use, textures, landscapes, portraits, really anything. Also, you can ask the director if they already have some collected images, that could be really useful. I know some of them do, like me, for example. So ask them if you can have those images. You really need to collect a lot of images. So really, anything you think it goes with the film or it catches your eye or whatever, you save it and put it in a folder. As soon as you have a good amount of images, you have to start looking at them again and start organizing them. What I like to do is to organize my images in folders, so I have like a general moodboard folder where I put the images that I think represent or show like the general image or style that I want the film to have. But I also have a folder for each protagonist and for each really important space. These helps me a lot to comprehend the general art aesthetic I want the film to have, and also how it is composed by each of the pieces, which are the characters, the spaces, the objects. If you want and if it's helpful to you. instead of making a folder, you could make a digital collage of each the characters of each of the spaces, a general one, we'll do that later in the class but if you want to do it now, it could be really helpful as well.
5. Investigation: A big part of creating an art concept is the investigation and the research just as you would do for writing a novel or a script. You should do this along with your mood board, because they go hand by hand. You need to research the context of the film, where's the film located,? What year it is? How was the place at the time? What is the socioeconomic status of the characters? Anything that you can think of, anything that is relevant. You need to make a deeper research depending on how complex is the time period and place of the film. Was it too long ago? Is it in a foreign country that you do not know much about? Just like that, you should also make an investigation for the characters. How are they physically? What do they like and dislike? What do they do for a living? What is their story? Remember that knowing how the characters are, and really understanding their story and their personality, it's crucial for the design of the spaces they live in, and the spaces they develop in, and also for choosing how to portray them visually through the choices concerning the art department like makeup, hair, costume, etc. This step is one of the most important ones, because of this investigation, you use defy all of the decisions that you make.
6. Color palettes: In case you don't know, a color palette is described as the range of colors in a visual medium. It usually showcases the colors in a photograph or in a painting. But in this case our medium is film or video. In film, there are usually two color palettes, the photography palette and the production design palette. They're not the same, but they complement each other to create the final look of the film. The photography color palette usually represents the light temperatures in the color correction tones that will be used. For example, in the film, The Double Life of Véronique, the light temperature is very warm and the tons of the film are predominantly green. On the other hand, production design palette represents the main colors used in spaces, the props and the clothes. For example, in the same film, the production design color palette uses mainly bright red and brownish, more natural earth tones, which get tinted with the color of the lighting and create a really interesting contrast, creating like so the final film palette. When choosing the colors you want to use, it's really helpful to think of how the colors make you feel and psychologically what they communicate. For example, how typically red is used as depicting love and lost, and on the contrary, blue is used to depict sadness and melancholy. You can search for the psychology of colors on the internet if you're a bit lost, but also rely on your intuition. The most interesting color palettes, use color as symbolism. However, I recommend not being too cliché about it. Think a little deeper, a little outside of the box. You can be as harmonious or as contrasting with your color choices, but keep in mind that every art design choice in film adds to the story, and most importantly, the feel of the movie. Creating color palettes is really easy. There are a lot of colors scheme generators online. Personally, I've been using COLOURlovers for a while because I like how simple it is, but you can also use colors.com. I really like their platform as well. You can even create your palette physically with paint if you want, and then you can scan it to have it on your proposal. That could be another option. Now for the proposal, I recommend making a general color palette, but also making one for each character and each space, or at least each important character and each important space. This is a really good exercise and you will need it later on.
7. Visualization: Now we're going to talk about the visualizations of the sets and the characters. Remember that the spaces where the characters develop are as important as the story because they help to tell their story. Through their spaces we get to know the characters more in a non-narrative way. You need to ask yourself, how is this place? Is it hostile? Is it comfortable? Is it bright, is it dark? Is it organized? Is it disorganized? You need to picture the set in your head. Imagining what type of things there are in the space, how are they arranged. Imagine everything and anything of the place. When you visualize the space that you want, you have to decide if you want to work in sets or in location. Normally, this decision does not rely on you directly. Unless the budget is really, really big or the director lets you have that decision. Of course, this is directly related to the budget and the director's vision. You probably have to talk with the director and the producer about it. But if the decision is in your hands, you need to take this decision like, what is a field that you want? Is your ideas are crazy that you can't go to a location and just have it, like if you have to build it. It really depends on the type of set that you need and want. It really depends on the type of movie as well. But you need to know this beforehand creating the proposal. Now for visualizing this, you need to recollect a lot of images to showcase and exemplify your design proposals. This is where your Mood board comes in handy. Because it's really possible that you already have a bunch of useful ones to illustrate your ideas with. Use film stills of sets that inspire you, pictures of spaces from Pinterest, textures, photos or drawings of specific objects and props that are mentioned in the script. You need to collect various images to reference each space. Also if you want to represent something specific that has to be built or made, you can make drawings and sketches. Apart from the sets, you also have to visualize a characters. Doing the same thing as with the sets. Use portraits of people that you think resemble how you picture the characters. Use photos of clothing to visualize how they dress and perhaps also make-up preferences. The production designer or art director does not design the costumes and make-up per se. But they have to align all the art department elements together into one aesthetic line. For them to visualize them is mandatory. Even though later on the costume designer and make-up artist have other design ideas. Remember that you as a designer have to take space as an opportunity to reveal something about the characters and about the story. Also you want to think about what do you want the audience to feel, what do you want to provoke in the audience.
8. Preliminary Budget: Generally for presenting in a proposal, you have to include a preliminary budget for the production to have it into consideration. Depending on their production, you will either get a set budget that you have to respect and work accordingly, or you may have the opportunity to ask for as much money as you need or to negotiate the amount of money that you need. The preliminary budget represents the approximate amount of money that the department will need. To have an idea of what the things you need will cost, you will have to make a breakdown or a list of essential objects, props, and material according to the script in your proposal. From this list, you may have to make quotes with the providers, check prices in stores, make several scouts in props houses, check prices online, etc. Collect this information in an Excel sheet as you would with any budget. It doesn't have to be complicated but try to break it down as much as possible. You also have to consider money for transportation, proprietary expenses, and extra expenses. I recommend adding from 5-10 percent more of your budget to have a security range. The preliminary budget will become the real one as you work on making the proposal a reality.
9. Creating the Proposal Presentation: Now for the final step, let's talk about translating and arranging your ideas into slides. Personally, because I have a MacBook, I've always used Keynote. I find it super practical and easy to use. You don't really need any complicated software, really. You can just use Keynote or PowerPoint or any online software that you like. Even Adobe InDesign will be cool if you're familiar with it. Creating the proposal presentation is very intuitive, I feel like. You just need the basic knowledge and how to use an image processor and a text processor and go with your gut in sense of design. In case you have problems with your software, I recommend you to look for classes in Skillshare to help you out. How you design your presentation depends on you and your taste and can also vary from the type of project or film that it is. For example, if it's a comedy, if it's a horror film, or if it's commercial. Now, I will give you my best tips and tell you all of the steps you can't miss for creating a great art proposal presentation. The first tip is to go from the general to the particular. What this means is that a presentation has to be organized. You have to begin to show the general aspects of the proposal, like the general color palette and references. After that, you can begin to present each space in deepening detail as you go. The second tip goes along with the first one, is to divide the presentation into categories. Break it down. I will give you a list of categories and aspects you have to cover in almost every project. General color palette, general references, color palette for each important set, visualization of each important set, a space map of each set in case they are going to be built, visualization of details and important objects, visualization of each protagonists, color palette of each protagonist, and details or objects important to the protagonist. Depending on your project, these may vary. You may have to add other categories to illustrate an aspect of your presentation or take off any category that does not apply to your project. All or almost all of the images that you need for your presentation are already in the mood board you made. See how dividing them into categories turned out to be useful? Use as many or as little images as you need, as long as you represent what you want, it does not matter. Along with the images, you may use text that explains and justifies your thought process behind your choices. It doesn't have to be much, but it is very important that you do, especially if you send the presentation to someone and you're not there to explain it, that way, they can understand it fully. Make your presentation as visually appealing as you can. But also easy to understand. Don't over-saturate it. Anyhow, remember it can be as simple or complex as you want or need. When you're finished, let it rest and don't work on the presentation for a day or two, and then check on it again and correct any last details, and also depure and delete what is not so important anymore. The presentation making process gets easier and smoother with practice. I'm sure you're going to do a great job.
10. Final Thoughts: Thank you so much for getting to the end of this class. I really hope you enjoyed it and learned something new. In this class we went over the steps you have to take to create an art proposal for film and how you can present it the best way you can. Remember this is not setting stone. This is meant to be an introduction and a guideline. However, you can modify anything to meet your specific needs. Experiment and see what works best for you. I really encourage you to share your presentations in the project panel section for me and the other students to see. Feel free to share as much of your process as you want. Remember that if you don't have any real project to apply this new skill you can take your favorite film and make an art proposal to it. Or you can even take a script of a film you haven't seen yet and make an art proposal from the script and then compare how the production design came through in the real film and compare the two. It can be a really fun exercise and it can really help you to get familiar with this new skill. Once again, thank you so much for watching this class. If you liked it please share it with someone you think will like it as well. My name is Barbara Martinez. I invite you to follow my teacher page here in Skillshare for more production design and film related classes. See you in the next class.
Bárbara Martínez, FIilmmaker & Artist
