How Film Set Construction Works Essay

Submitted By bagude
Words: 3130
Pages: 13

How does a film set work?
Sergio Silva
ENGR-1201-P70
Wednesday, April 24, 2014

Who never stayed up late at night watching theirs favorite TV shows or movies, does not really understands the truly magic of filmmaking. Predominantly a visual medium that main goal is to make the audience believe that fiction is actually tangible, something that cannot be just viewed, but something that makes sense and it is real, having infinite possibilities in its own fantasy land. This mixture of fact and fiction creates elements that play an important role in telling a story. Basically, the human brain interprets visual inputs more rapidly than other modalities, which means that the brain can actually process more information and in quicker way then using its other sensorial mechanisms. Consequently, that is one of the reasons that filmmakers can literally bring magic to your eyes, or just burn them out with a bad presentation. However, how much a good movie is dependable on its own film set. First of all, try to imagine the situation where in the movie you need show the life of an American teenager that recently got his heartbroken by the only girl the he loved in his life. One situation that the filmmaker can create to show to his audience what he wants them to see is creating a specific scene. Before doing the scene, the film set is first responsible to place careful research about how teenagers act up in those kind of situations, secondly they need to create a scenario where all the emotions of the teenager can be visualized and felt by the audience as well. That is just one of the possibilities where a good film set can really set apart a good movie from a bad movie. As it was demonstrated above, the film set does make a really difference in the final product. But, how exactly does a filmmaker plan for everything that is going to be used in movie? What are the different expertise’s of the different professionals that work in a movie set? Is CG effects something affordable compared to construction of sets? Where does engineers come up with new solutions that might help a filmmaker to achieve something that never happened in a movie before? First of all, the planning stage of the film set can goes years before the real production stage of the movie. All begins with the act of writing the script. This manual includes critical information not just about the movie but also all the sets and locations that could be used to represent each scene present in the movie. When the right script is chosen, it is time for the production designer to give an accurate estimate on how much the movie will cost. The production designer has in considerations all the aspects of the movie set. He will search for more affordable and less time consuming ways to implement the ideas that the script suggests, the movie producers will also begin to look not just for an estimate of costs but for funding as well. The second step in constructing a movie set is to pick a director for the movie. The director and the production designer need to work together to visualize the best way to represent the scenarios. If they decide to use the studio as a set, all the material for the movie will need to be built from scratch on a soundstage or backlot. Another important stage of creation is to research about the movie lore. For example, if the film takes place in the present the researchers need to dig up the face of society at the present time to guarantee the full immersion of the audience. The same thing is made when a movie happens in the past or in the future. They need to come up with a way to represent those days. The best way to represent this is to recreate the ambient from old pictures, architecture, social and cultural behaviors, language spoken at that time. If this information is not available for the researchers like in a futuristic movie, they will need to contact concept artists that with the help of engineers and scientists can sketch