Set design

Member lesson

Surfaces, and why they matter more than props

Lesson 4 of 11 in Set design.

Lesson

The surface is usually the largest area in the frame and almost always the least considered. Change a bottle's ground from white acrylic to unpolished limestone and you have changed the brand, with no other decision altered.

An ink drawing of the same glass bottle on glossy black acrylic with a mirror reflection and on rough limestone with a soft shadow, with a rack of surface boards behind.
The same bottle on gloss and on rough stone feels like two brands.
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Members answer these 3 questions and keep the ticket for this lesson. Every lesson has one.

  1. Question 1, locked

    Which of these words means this? “The material the subject sits on or stands against.”

    • Cyclorama
    • Control
    • Recce
    • Surface
  2. Question 2, locked

    Which of these words means this? “A portable surface: painted plywood, tile, stone, plaster. The studio's most reused asset.”

    • Board
    • Build
    • Location
    • Strike
  3. Question 3, locked

    Which of these words means this? “How matt or glossy something is. Decides how the light behaves more than colour does.”

    • Clean-up
    • Sheen
    • Splash rig
    • Atmospherics

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