The Importance of Production Design and How it Impacts Background Actors

When you work as a background actor, you interact with the set as much as you do other actors in the scene. Whether that involves walking through a hallway, grabbing a prop or sitting in a restaurant, a lot of thought went in to how to scene looks and how the actors interact with it. Production design is how all of those visual elements of a scene come together to bring the setting to life.

Just like how background actors are essential to making a movie or TV series feel authentic, production design ensures the setting doesn’t just feel like a movie set—instead transporting the audience to a place that feels real.

What is production design?

Production design is the creation of the physical appearance of a movie or TV show, like building sets, creating props and dressing locations. Think of a scene that takes place in a classroom. The color of the paint on the walls, what’s written on the whiteboard, the types of desks and how they are laid out, the books on the shelves and the pencil someone dropped on their way out of class are all part of the production design.

Production design is everything that appears on screen, including these key elements:

• Set design. The set is more than just where a scene takes place, it helps tie the overall aesthetic of the film or series together, contributes to the tone of the scene and can aid in character building, all while being a functional area for the actors and crew to actually film.
• Costumes. Production designers collaborate with costume designers on how the costumes contribute to the overall visual identity of the production, including making sure the color palettes match the film or TV show’s aesthetic and don’t blend in with or contrast too much with the set design.
• Props. A prop is a moveable object used by an actor in a scene. Props not only need to be functional, but they need to match the overall production design and may even inform the audience about the character. Think of a scene where a character is drinking a cup of coffee. Is the coffee cup a standard white mug? Red with a heart on it? A reusable to-go tumbler? The audience can learn something about the character depending on the type of cup used.

What does a production designer do?

As the head of the art department, production designers oversee all visual aspects of a movie or TV show. Typically, production designers oversee the high level ideas, while the different departments execute on their vision.

It’s the production designer’s responsibility to not only create the overall aesthetic for the project, but ensure that each element supports the overall story by:

1. Reading the script. The first step for the production designer is to read the script to get an idea of the tone of the project and understand the setting to identify sets or locations needed.
2. Meeting with the director. The production designer will then meet with the director and the director of photography to learn more about their visions and to align all departments on mood, atmosphere, lighting and color.
3. Researching settings and locations. Once all departments are on the same page, the production designer begins researching where the story takes place, when the story takes place and colors or styles associated with that area or time period. Production designers will also think about which scenes should be shot on location or on a soundstage.
4. Gathering reference material. This is the stage where ideas start to come to life. The production designer will create sketches, color palettes, mood boards and other reference material to help the other departments understand the overall vision.
5. Creating the sets and props. The final step is to actually create the sets and props. The production designer collaborates with other departments on the construction of the sets and oversees the set decorators as they furnish the sets. During production, the production designer’s main job is to monitor and adjust the sets to ensure each scene meets their standards.

In film, the production design process is mostly linear from pre-production to production. As TV shows are often in multiple phases of production at once, the production designer can be prepping future sets while supervising the episode currently being filmed.

How production design influences stand-in and background work

Designing and building a world isn’t just about sets, but the talent who perform on those sets. Production designers need to create authentic spaces where the actors can use the set and props within it to enhance their work.

After the sets and props are created, the crew will come in to light and block the scene. Stand-ins, who take the place of principal actors during this process, will often walk through the scene to help the crew determine where the prop needs to be, when the actor picks up the prop and other movements the actor needs to make throughout the scene. During rehearsals and camera blocking, if something is not working with the set, the production designer will be brought in to work with the crew on any fixes that need to be made.

Background actors also depend on production design to inform their performance. Whether they’re navigating a busy law firm or manning a space station, interacting with the set can be a big part of a background actor’s job.

Imagine a scene that takes place in a police precinct. You’re playing an officer who delivers a file to a detective. Do you grab the file from an organized desk or is the desk littered with other files and coffee cups? Is your path to the detective a straight line or do you weave in and out of desks and chairs? All of these details matter when working as a background actor and are influenced by the production design.

If working on set interests you, sign up to become a background actor or stand-in with Central Casting. Whether you want to be a performer or work behind the scenes, background acting is a great way to gain experience working on a professional film set.