Set designing by Architect’s mind
A film, on average any film that tries to engage the audience for like two to three hours, portrays everything at its best. Be it the out-of-box narration, the captivating script, constructive direction, or the thorough heartfelt performance of actors. Every single film is an endeavor to heuristically persuade spectators within its given time. But even a film with the finest narration, direction, and actors’ performance fails to convince the authenticity of the film to audiences, when it falls short of seizing the bond between the acknowledged audience and the genuineness of artificially designed theatrical sets. The honest depiction of scenarios through intelligently sculpted sets may sound like a simple technical strand in a complexly woven film, but it plays a potent role in securing the success of a film. Set design mattered the most in every treasured movie. Then be it Christopher Nolan’s Hollywood Marvels or Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Bollywood epics, their set designing has effectively made their audiences mesmerized.
Architecture and set designing
Set designing of film “Bajirao Mastani”
Just because architecture in general deals with conventional building environments, it is sometimes conceived as a rigid field that solely rotates around permanent structures. Hence, perceived as too complex for set designing. Whereas set designing that primitively focuses on conveying the fidelity of the setting, conveying the period, communicating themes or symbols, and setting the overall aesthetic of the film, also needs the comprehensive knowledge of building a structure inherently strong and aesthetically appealing. Consequently, a physical translator of the narrative’s vision, the production designer plays the role of an architect, to prove their efficiency and creative ability through set designing. The conferred article “Each Character Has Its Own Shade, Which We Have Tried To Bring Out In Bajirao Mastani”, written by Aarti Sukhija under Filmcity one have beautifully addressed the initial process of set designing where the interviewed trio of art directors Sujeet Sawant, Sriram Iyengar, and Saloni Dhatrak of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s one of the adored film Bajirao Mastani share the architectural research they need to do while proposing complex and creative ideas of set designing.
Incepted set designing
The importance of architecture in constructing a creative and convincing vision is impressively portrayed in the film Inception directed by Christopher Nolan. The director has even chosen the character of the architect to fabricate a reality of dreams, which is the most conceptual thought of that film. The sole reason for that, is that he acknowledges the importance of the role of an architect in the process of visualizing a scenario or building reality. Likewise, the field of set designing is a venture of a designer who could foresee a reality for narration and convince its truth to the world. And when there is a need for a role of designer, an architectural intellect adheres to be a perfect match for the foreseen scenic adventure.
Architectural models in the film “Inception”
The movie even showcases what a mere defect in the depiction of reality could cause and how it could eventually end up distancing the audience from the fabricated reality. Only at the beginning of the film, does the architect who is responsible for constructing the realities in dreams and proving the truth of that dreamt reality to the targeted hostages of the narrative, fail to convince the hostage of its authenticity by only excusing the texture of the material of a carpet, on which the hostage accidentally lies. Similarly, when the set design sculpted by art directors goes astray, the whole plot of the narration gets misled and ultimately ends up dissuading the audience. The prowess of the visualizer in set designing seals the victory of its representation on screen and hence the designer needs to be the one who has basic knowledge about every allied aspect of the set designing from its defectless two-dimensional drawings to its transformation into detailed three-dimensional sites.
Set from the film “Inception”
The production designer of Inception Guy Hendrix Dyas even recalls the complexity of set designing structured for the respective film and admits the importance of architectural knowledge and perspectives in the domain of set designing. Imperatively, architecture is a tool used to convey the ambiance of the film effortlessly, and hence an art designer with an academic degree in architecture could undertake the challenge of set designing strategically well compared to others.
Conclusion
Set designing is consistently considered as an allied field to Architecture and it serves a varied interpretation of architectural language. As art directors or production designers follow extensive research before their every film, which includes architectural history and its technical engineering foundations with futuristic creative visionaries, their work naturally transcends parallel to every other architect’s mind working in this field. Hence, Architectural assistance in set designing is anticipated quite evidently in one of the greatest films of all time.
References:
Sukhija, A., Sukhija, A. and Sukhija, A. (2016) Each character has its own shade, which we have tried to bring out in Bajirao Mastani. https://filmcity.one/each-character-has-its-own-shade-which-we-have-tried-to-bring-out-in-bajirao-mastani/.
KERA Arts (2016) Artist Spotlight – Clare Floyd DeVries – Set Designer/Architect. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZGMRZwnea4.
Verve Magazine (2017b) What Went Into The Making Of These Iconic Movie Sets? | Verve Magazine. https://www.vervemagazine.in/arts-and-culture/what-went-into-the-making-of-these-iconic-movie-sets-bollywood-production.
Inception (2010) — Interiors : An Online Publication about Architecture and Film (no date). https://www.intjournal.com/0717/inception.
Girvin, T. (2011) The Architecture, the Mind and the Memory: Notes on the Production and Place Design of “Inception.” https://www.girvin.com/the-architecture-the-mind-and-the-memory-notes-on-the-production-and-place-design-of-inception/.
Kumar, M. (2022) ‘How Set Design Brings Your Film To Life,’ Purpose Studio, 2 March. https://www.purposestudios.in/post/how-set-design-brings-your-film-to-life.
Weiss, J. (2020b) ‘An Oral History Of Christopher Nolan’s ‘Inception’ Part 3: The Production Design,’ Forbes, 15 July. https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshweiss/2020/07/15/inception-christopher-nolan-oral-history-guy-hendrix-dyas-production-design/?sh=71fb47353df3.
