Set design
- Set creates the location and period. Styles include naturalistic (realistic), minimalist (a few key items) and composite (several locations on stage at once).
- Elements: flats, backdrops and cycloramas, rostra (platforms for levels), trucks (scenery on wheels), revolves, trapdoors, projections and furniture.
- Colour, scale and materials create mood, such as grey, stark walls for an oppressive prison.
Costume
- Costume shows character, status, personality, period and location.
- Consider colour, fabric, fit, condition (smart or worn), accessories, hair, make-up and masks.
- Costumes must allow movement and quick changes where needed.
Lighting
- Lighting shows time, place and mood, and focuses attention.
- Colour comes from gels or LEDs: warm colours for comfort, cold blue for night or sadness, red for danger.
- Lanterns include spotlights, floodlights, fresnels (soft edges), profiles (sharp edges) and follow spots. A gobo projects a pattern, such as leaves or window bars.
- Changes include fades, snaps, cross-fades and blackouts. Angle and intensity affect the effect: backlighting creates silhouettes.
Sound
- Sound creates location, time, atmosphere and tension.
- Diegetic sound is heard by the characters (a phone ringing); non-diegetic sound is not (an underscore of music).
- Sound can be live or recorded; designers control volume, direction (speaker position), reverb and timing, and may build a soundscape.
Key terms
- Naturalistic set
- A set that looks like a real place.
- Minimalist set
- A set with only a few key items.
- Composite set
- A set showing several locations at once.
- Rostra
- Platforms used to create levels.
- Gel
- A coloured filter placed in front of a lantern.
- Gobo
- A stencil placed in a lantern to project a pattern.
- Soundscape
- Layers of sound creating an atmosphere.
- Blackout
- All stage lights switched off at once.