subject: How To Build A Movie Set [print this page] Whether you are helping out on an actual filmed movie, making one yourself, or just volunteering for your local theater group, you will want to pay close attention to detailed things like your budget and what the director really wants. You might interpret their vision differently, so always make sure you sit down together and work out a plan before you begin. It will save you a lot of disappointment later.
Now that you know what direction you are going, sit down and draw a storyboard. This is just a visual of your ideas put down on paper for you to reference. Make it pop, make it colorful and make it relevant. Have another meeting with the director and have them sign off on it that it is what they asked for.
Now you need to figure the best way to build it. Some are very easy, some need little help at all and some are just a whole other beast. You need to have your shopping done and feel confident that you can start the project without having to stop all the time to find new pieces to work. Get it all upfront and in your budget. If it cannot be done, another meeting might be warranted. If at all possible, build the most detailed and difficult pieces first. This will ensure that you will meet your deadlines and have these big projects done. If you have really hard pieces to create or things that are needing to be historically correct, research what you are doing and even outsource it to another helper to make your world easier.
Paint the set. Getting the decor right is extremely important. Remember that shotty work wont get you anywhere. Make sure you dot your Is and cross your Ts. How great of a job you do will be like your business card out there for everyone to see.
Now be sure to take an obscene amount of pictures to document the different phases of development. No, it isn the moon, but it is an important accomplishment. Other people will want to see how you did it, so be sure to take as many as you can. When you need to use the set again, referring to the pictures will also remind you of how it goes back together.
Until you get really great at it, stick to what you know. No trying to build something you would find on the set of Avatar when you are on a skill level that is similar to something produced in the 60s or even the world of early Star Trek. While the later sets are more refined and developed, the early skills were very primitive. And yet people loved it. Having the finesse to create some of the greatness that we see on screen takes time and effort. You will not produce the quality product that you see in films like the Harry Potter shows. That will take time and experience to build up to that point. But building sets is a very needed and rewarding part of the filming industry.
