SCENE

DESIGN TYPOLOGY II

LECTURER: THU ALEXANDER QUYNH

STUDENT: HUYNH GIA NHU - 10821019
LE NGOC BAO KHANH - 18656
THIEU QUE CHI - 10821002
DANG LE HOANG PHUC - 10821044
 “Nothing could happen without happening somewhere”

WHAT IS SCENE DESIGN

scenography

stage
set design
design

scenic
design

Regardless of what it's called, scenic design in theater, film, and

television all revolves around the same core concept: creating a
set or scene that aligns with the overall visual style of the
production and enhances the actors' performance on “stage”.
 “Nothing could happen without happening somewhere”

FUNCTION OF
SCENE DESIGN
Scenic design is only one part of a Total Design, which includes costumes, lighting, acting, and all the
other elements of a production

Scenic design creates mood and

atmosphere

Robert Edmond Jones’s setting for

Macbeth creates a powerful mood
of foreboding as the masks of the
witches brood over the stage and
the Gothic arch’s lean ever more
precariously.
Macbeth - Robert Edmond Jones

On the other hand, Ezio Frigerio’s

settings for The Servant of Two
Masters create a sense of carefree
improvisation through details
painted on cloths (with slits flit
entrances) suspended like shower
curtains on visible rods.

The Servant of Two Masters - Ezio Frigerio

Scenic design characterizes the

space

Scenic design creates a floor layout

with multiple opportunities for
movement, composition, character
interaction, and stage business. The
location of exits and entrances, the
placement (or absence) of furniture,
the presence or absence of steps,
levels, and platforms—all features of
the setting and their arrangement—
have a significant impact on
Whisper House - Michael Schweikardt Design
blocking, visualization, and mobility.
 “Nothing could happen without happening somewhere”

SCENIC DESIGN CREATES

BELIEVABLE ENVIRONMENT

The scenic elements help

situate the audience in the
story's specific period,
geographical location, and
cultural context. Characters
The fanciful landscape of The Lord of the Rings
require a physical environment
that allows them to deliver their
roles. Set design is responsible
for creating these believable,
immersive worlds - from
intimate domestic settings to
vast, expansive landscapes -
where these character
interactions and emotional
The grim streets of The Dark Knight
journeys can unfold.

SCENIC DESIGN ENHANCE

STORYTELLING EXPERIENCE

Envision a detective's office,

dimly lit and with rain tapping
against the window, evoking a
sense of mystery and intrigue.
Or picture a grand, ornate
ballroom, the perfect setting
for secrets to be discovered.
Set design enhances the
storytelling, emphasizing key
plot points, emotional beats,
and thematic elements. It
functions as the canvas upon
which the director can artfully
compose the visual narrative,
bringing the story to life
In The Shining the Overlook Hotel's eerie design builds
through the carefully crafted tension and foreshadows the main character's descent
physical environment. into madness. Effective set design is essential here
because it provides subtle visual cues that can
intensify the unfolding drama
 “Nothing could happen without happening somewhere”

WHERE SET DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE CROSS OVER

What do Kanye West and Frank Gehry have in common?

As a first impression, not much. However, they have both engaged on
stages with striking design details: the use of exaggerated scale and
dimensions to manipulate visual perception, bulky concrete walls and slabs
to emphasize heavyweight and grandiosity, visible scaffolding to create an
industrial, unfinished feel... Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
 “Nothing could happen without happening somewhere”

THE SCENE DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE

IS LIKE THE FLIP SLIDES OF THE SAME COIN

In theatre, space is crucial, as emphasized by theatre architect and director Meta Hočevar,
who asserts that "nothing could happen without happening somewhere" (Hočevar, 2003).
This highlights how space lends authenticity and credibility to the narrative, enabling the
story to unfold. For architecture students, grasping this existential dimension of space was
a significant revelation, challenging the perception of space as merely abstract. They
began to view space as a dynamic participant – a "dramatic character" (Milićević, 1980) –
integral to the unfolding life processes within it. This shift prompted scene design students
to consider not only the proportions, forms, and materials of architectural space, but also
its profound interactions: the relationship between body and space, the narrative potential
of space, the interplay of time and space, and its dramatic and scenic possibilities.
 “Nothing could happen without happening somewhere”

FLATNESS, PICTORIAL It is precisely this effect of

DEPTH, AND REAL pictorial representation that
SPATIALITY helps us to see an architectural
interior as a composition. As it
Making a frame with one's frames and literally flattens the
hands and then looking through
scene, a photograph turns a
it helps one to see a real scene
as if it were a picture. This is a perspective on an architectural
time-honored technique for interior into a composition,
drawing and painting from which, paradoxically, brings out
nature, for it enables one to the spatial qualities of the
focus on objects' profiles. This design.
is the case because "framing"
seems to flatten the scene. Just like architecture, scene
As the frame narrows the design is very prominent,
scene, and more of the context evoking a strong sense of the
is cut out, visual depth and place, all while working within a
relief decrease. As a result, the
limited capacity. The two fields
profiles of objects at different
distances appear as juxtaposed also work within the same
patches of color, and their constraints - budget, program
shapes and mutual proportions requirements, and site
can more easily be transposed specificity, and just as acting is
to a flat canvas. Instead of a brief depiction of real life,
framing a real scene with one's
theater sets are the
hands, a far easier method is to
draw from a photograph of the presentation of a snippet of
scene. architecture and built
environments.
 REFERENCE

Clare, N. (2020). Scenic design helps tell the story. dramatics.org.

https://dramatics.org/scenic-design-helps-tell-the-story/

DeGuzman, K. (2023, October 15). Set Design in Film — Process

and Purpose Explained. StudioBinder. Retrieved July 24, 2024, from
https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-set-design-in-film-
definition/

Milićević, S. (2018). Scene Design: First as a Methodology then as

a New Professional Field. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València.
1057-1064. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAD18.2018.8144

Stouhi, D. (2019, February 1). Lights, Camera, Architecture!: Where

Set Design and Architecture Cross Over. ArchDaily. Retrieved July 24,
2024, from https://www.archdaily.com/910113/lights-camera-
architecture-where-set-design-and-architecture-cross-over

The Functions of Scenic Design | Learning Scenography. (2009,

June 30). Learning Scenography. Retrieved July 24, 2024, from