3 films to watch for the production design
A horror from '55, a drama from '86, and the obvious choice from 2023.
While Ziggy is working on the latest draft of the screenplay, I’ve started gathering ideas for the film’s visual language. Our story takes place in one Brooklyn apartment, and so I’ve been looking for references, saving lighting or set design references that feel like what we’re going for.
I like to use a combination of film references and random images—props, interior design, the background of peoples’ instagram photos. My favorite tool for finding film references is Shotdeck because of its incredible filtering function. For example, when I searching their library for “New York City apartment,” it curates thousands of stills from hundreds of films, and from there it’s easy to filter by decade, color palette, indoor/outdoor, shot type, a variety of options for actors, lens type, and a bunch of other options. The specificity is extremely useful. The only downside is that I’ve spoiled at least a few films while scrolling through the images.
Along with that, I’ve been looking for films where the production design reinforces the theme of the story through its visual language. Of the dozen or so films I’ve watched in the past couple weeks, here are the three that stood out.
Working Girls (1986)*
*Not to be confused with Working Girl, the 1988 workplace romance with Melanie Griffith and Harrison Ford.*
What’s Inspiring: Apartment setting reinforces theme by looking/feeling like an office building
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Working Girls is about Molly, a lesbian who works as a call girl to support herself and her girlfriend while she gets her photography business off the ground.
Set in a two-story NYC apartment/brothel, the film takes place over the course of one workday. The aesthetic of the apartment feels like an office—neutral gray walls, a communal kitchen, bedrooms with themes and names that mimic the way corporations name their conference rooms. The phone rings constantly, and Lucy, their brothel madame AKA manager, answers and asks each potential client the same question, “what’s new and different?” Clients arrive and wait in an area that feels like an office lobby. When their call girl of choice is ready for the appointment, she greets him in the lobby, and leads him upstairs to a bedroom. Though each man orders a different service on the menu, the appointments are fairly routine. The stairs themselves become a set piece—watching the women walk down and up and down and up with each client reinforces that this job is repetitive and mundane, just like any other.
This is a workplace drama about sex work, so there’s obviously a fair amount of sex, but it’s not erotic or sexy. There’s nothing particularly glamorous or gruesome about the day—Molly makes the men feel at ease, she empathizes with them, satisfies them, and sends them on her way. The antagonist in the film is Lucy, thanks to her pick-me-girl management style. She takes a large chunk of their earnings, brags about her lavish ski vacations, and asks them to stay hours later than their shifts. Aside from Lucy, there’s a solidarity between the women. They make a point to talk about the safety precautions they take to protect themselves from law enforcement, pregnancy, health issues, and messy relationships with clients. It’s refreshing that Working Girls portrays sex work as a highly skilled profession, a service industry that’s not all that different from any client-based industry.
Also, Working Girls and Working Girl would actually make an incredible double feature. There are a lot of similarities between the two—workplace dramas where a woman navigates a man’s world and finds a way to make capitalism work for her.
Asteroid City (2023)
What’s Inspiring: Extremely consistent color palette, set design
Can we even talk about production design without mentioning Wes Anderson?!?!
But seriously, the dude does know how to put together a consistent color palette, impressive sets, and a consistent visual language that creates a uniquely Wes Anderson world.
Astroid City is a nice film. Very wholesome. Very aesthetic.
If we’re being honest (and we are), it was a bit hard for me to connect to, possibly because of its formal tone. Maybe there were too many A-list celebs with short screen times. Perhaps the stakes of this story were far too low. Whatever it was, there was very little tension in the writing, the cinematography, the acting, and so in that way, the perfect set design reinforced the theme.
Astroid City solidified a suspicion I’ve had for the past couple years—that a large portion of the American film industry is deeply out of touch with reality (there are exceptions, like Everything Everywhere All At Once). Maybe it’s not common knowledge, but most of us are living in real-life psychological horror. The Earth is on fire, the Supreme Court is bringing back legal discrimination, and most people in both urban and rural communities are struggling to afford the basic costs of living. Watching suburban families wonder whether to process their emotions while on extended vacation is difficult to connect to—even though it’s a well-crafted film.
That said, the production design is very impressive and beautiful, so I did enjoy watching these videos that show how the Astroid City set was built.
Night of the Hunter (1955)
What’s Inspiring: Lighting and color, cinematography
OMFG Night of the Hunter is WILD.
Even the synopsis doesn’t hold back: “a serial-killing preacher hunts two young children—the only people who know where a large sum of money is hidden.”
From the minute it begins with an old woman reading a Bible verse about false prophets, I was enthralled. Night of the Hunter is about how easily adults can be manipulated by people who are able to talk the talk of a religious community, though kids are often able to see the truth. The story is very Southern gothic and reminds me a lot of Flannery O'Connor’s short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find.”
Every shot of Night of the Hunter could be a painting. The sets are very chapel-like, with harsh lighting that creates a chiaroscuro effect. Because of the stark contrast in the bright whites and dark shadows, there’s a creepy feeling that the preacher is lurking, watching from the corners, ready to attack. There’s one scene where the moonlight shines through a window into the kids’ room, and suddenly the shadow of the preacher appears on the wall. It’s one of the scariest things I’ve seen in a while.
There’s an adorable campiness to two kids’ performances that brings levity to some pretty heavy themes—alcoholism, prison, the death penalty, misogynistic views on sex, religious speak used to manipulate a community. But it’s the production design that makes this film particularly unsettling, transforming a fable-like children’s tale into a legitimate horror film.
Next week, I might have a juicy update for you regarding the screenplay. In the meantime, I’d love to know what you’ve been watching. Have you seen anything lately with great production design?
Until next week!
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