Need advice for set design

B

brianluce

I have an awesome beach house location for a scene in my short. Problem: I'm only about 70% sure it will be available and won't know until the last minute.
Need contingency set.

Setup: A musician (minor character) is rehearsing a piece and gets killed. So the set should look like a place a musician lives. What should the cues be? As you can see, there are sheets, coffee cup, award, guitar. What else is needed? Plants? It's a tight space, and again this is back up location.

How about the bench? I'm going to lower it by 3". too high.

And that China Ball isn't there for the shot, but I can remove it. For lighting, if I shoot it day, I'll need to knock down the sunlight, it's just one window so I can gel it.

Ideas?

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brianluce said:
Setup: A musician (minor character) is rehearsing a piece and gets killed. So the set should look like a place a musician lives. What should the cues be? As you can see, there are sheets, coffee cup, award, guitar. What else is needed? Plants? It's a tight space, and again this is back up location.
Click to expand...

It all depends on the musician's character. Is he a sports fan, animal lover, reads a lot or he just plays music all day? Write his biography and you'll know what his house looks like.
 
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If he is really intense mucisian, and cares only about his music, the place would be pretty empty.. If he has lots of guy friends, he might have man-cave (big tv, dvd collection, table for beers). If he is womaniser - go for a comfortable love seat, half burned candles..

As kiglis mentioned its really depends on the character, rather his profession/hobby.
 
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I'm a musician, and I know that there are many other musicians on this forum. Like a filmmaker, there's no two musicians alike. And that means that the decisions are entirely up to you.

That being said, I don't think it's unfair to make a few generalizations, based on experiences I've had, and musicians I've known. I'll contrast two stereotypical musical characters.

On one end, there's the classically-trained musician. Got (or is getting) a BFA in music performance. Those nerds are neat-freaks. Ikea, house-plants, and at least one cat. On the other end, there's the wannabe rockstar (aka restaurant worker), and they're slobs. Dirty old couch, bong on shitty old cluttered coffee table, exactly one cat.

(Sorry, I feel stupid typing such overly-simplistic cliches, but some prejudices are based on reality, no?)
 
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Just to echo Cracker Funk, what you want to say about the character will dictate the environment in which s/he works. There can be lots of cheap gear, weed and beer bottles, or it can be a well equipped studio. You could even rent a real rehearsal studio for a day or two.

RehearsalStudio.jpg


IMG_2153.jpg



Just for CF, here's a cat sitting on a Yamaha NS-10M speaker:

DSC00246.jpg
 
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Cracker Funk said:
I'm a musician, and I know that there are many other musicians on this forum. Like a filmmaker, there's no two musicians alike. And that means that the decisions are entirely up to you.

That being said, I don't think it's unfair to make a few generalizations, based on experiences I've had, and musicians I've known. I'll contrast two stereotypical musical characters.

On one end, there's the classically-trained musician. Got (or is getting) a BFA in music performance. Those nerds are neat-freaks. Ikea, house-plants, and at least one cat. On the other end, there's the wannabe rockstar (aka restaurant worker), and they're slobs. Dirty old couch, bong on shitty old cluttered coffee table, exactly one cat.

(Sorry, I feel stupid typing such overly-simplistic cliches, but some prejudices are based on reality, no?)
Click to expand...

Okay, gonna go with the Curtis MFA Type!
What's with the cats anyway?
 
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Cracker Funk said:
I'm a musician, and I know that there are many other musicians on this forum. Like a filmmaker, there's no two musicians alike. And that means that the decisions are entirely up to you.

That being said, I don't think it's unfair to make a few generalizations, based on experiences I've had, and musicians I've known. I'll contrast two stereotypical musical characters.

On one end, there's the classically-trained musician. Got (or is getting) a BFA in music performance. Those nerds are neat-freaks. Ikea, house-plants, and at least one cat. On the other end, there's the wannabe rockstar (aka restaurant worker), and they're slobs. Dirty old couch, bong on shitty old cluttered coffee table, exactly one cat.

(Sorry, I feel stupid typing such overly-simplistic cliches, but some prejudices are based on reality, no?)
Click to expand...

Absolutely! And then the filmmaker's job is to mix it all through their own perspective...
 
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think of your set as a showcase for your character. mucho opportunity to visually tell the audience about your musician. by the looks of the photos above, you should get an art director pronto. those rooms look like hell. you want to give your dp every opportunity to shoot stuff that surprises, intrigues and dazzles your viewers.
 
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