Download - History of Theatre and Film Sets
f r o m T H E AT R E t o F I L M
A H i s t o r y o f S e t D e s i g n
S a m W a t s o n
In the beginning, there was theatre,
and more recently, there was film. The primary
difference between these two dramatic mediums
is that theatre is live and that film is recorded;
however, each is incredibly influential on the
other when it comes to set design. Though the
parameters may differ, theatrical and film sets are
still considered a background that aids in helping
the director and actors bring a playwright’s, or
screenwriter’s, story to life.
The Ancient Greeks, around the 5th
century BCE, were the first to have
painted scenery (Hornby 120). The scenery was
painted on wooden screens, and, “was more
representational than illusionistic” (Hornby
120). Since many Greek plays were staged
outside in amphitheatres, the surrounding land-
scape was often utilized as scenery referenced by
the characters (Hornby 121). Typically, the stage
consisted of a platform with a hut behind it; this
hut was used for actors’ entrances/exits, and
costume changes. This was eventually
decorated to become part of the scenery, and this is
perceived as the primary reason why, “two-thirds
of surviving Greek tragedies are set in front of a
palace, temple, or tomb” (Hornby 121). Watson 1
from THEATRE to FILMA History of Set Design
Sam Watson
History of Graphic Design
7 December 2010
The Romans, who more or less absorbed
Greek culture and made it their own, were the
first to use painted structures, such as windows,
balconies, realistic columns, and rocks (Burris-
Meyer 3). It is important to emphasize that these
structures were also functional, as in windows
could be opened, an actor could lean against a
column, etc (Burris-Meyer 3). The Romans were
also the first to use curtains (Burris-Meyer 4). In
modern theatre, curtains are very important for
they signal the end of a scene or act, conceal set
changes, and in instances where a set change
needs to occur but the play is still going action
wise, the actor(s) can act in front of the curtain
while the set is being changed behind the curtain.
The Renaissance is really considered
the genesis of modern theatrical design for
several reasons. The most important is Filippo
Brunellschi’s discovery in 1415 of how to
create, “the illusion of space and distance
on a flat surface” (Wild). Though some, like
Sebastiano Serlio in 1545, experimented with a
slope staged floor to create the illusion of depth,
Brunellschi’s method prevailed and is still used
today (Wild). The painted drop also began to be used
during this period, and in 1608, Ingo Jones began
raming scenes with the use of a proscenium arch
(Wild).
Ruins of an amphitheatre in Segesta, Italy (“Segesta, Theatre”).
The Teatro Farnese in Parna, Italy, built 1618-1628, is the first surviving theatre with a permanent proscenium arch (“Teatro Franese”).
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Up until this point, the philosophy
concerning scene design was basically that, “the
scene location was obvious, unimportant, or
stated in a character’s lines” (Wild). During the
19th century, designers really tried to create as
realistic environments as budget and time
allowed. Set pieces began to be three-dimen-
sional instead of two-dimensional, mostly due to
innovations in theatrical lighting (Burris-Meyer
3-4). Starting in 1810 in Germany, there was a
movement to put on historically accurate plays
with emphasis on historically correct scenery
(Wild). Towards the end of the 19th century, the
flat stage floor was broken up platforms, ramps,
and stairs, and theatrical lighting was altered
throughout the play in order to help establish
mood and drama (Wild).
The end of the 19th century brought a
shift to the philosophy of scene design due to the
birth of cinema which, “made illusion onstage if
not useless at best unimpressive” (Hornby 119).
Where cinema can capture dramatic action in the
field, theatre is often confined to an indoor space
with a live audience. So, in reaction to the new
industry, “stage designers began moving away
from realistic illusion to symbolism, the bold
abstraction that depicts nothing, but instead
evokes a mood, an atmosphere” (Hornby 119).
When films are not being shot on
location, they are often being shot on a studio
back lot or sound stages. Like theatrical stages,
they are built in a way that allows them to be
disassembled for either traveling or storage
purposes (Nishi). In the beginning, film sets
were designed in a very similar fashion to
theatrical sets; painted backdrops and false
perspective paintings were still in use, and the
architecture of the sets themselves was still very
theatrical (Sargeant 70). By the 1930’s, however,
serious consideration was given to the relationship
between the set and the framing of camera shots.
In theatre, the audience is free to look at
any bit of the set (though lighting is used to try
to focus their attention); in film, the camera only
shoots what the director wants seen. The materials
and fabrics utilized in film set construction began
to reflect and emphasize certain characteristics
of the characters featured in the film (Sargeant
71). Also, set designers, starting in Germany,
starting building features such as offset
towers that were not built to be filmed, but built in
order to capture certain camera shots (Sargeant
71). By the 1970’s, the architecture of the sets was
constructed with both shot framing, and mood of
the scene and characters, in mind (Vidler).
Unlike in theatre where in the 1940’s sets
described as “skeletal” began to be designed in
the mainstream (Wild), film sets have always Watson 3
been expected to be hyper-realistic (Hornby
130). That is, the audience doesn’t need to use
their imagination to interpret the set for it is
already set out, in full, in front of them. It is
regarded that there are seven spaces of action that
occur on film: spaces of power, private spaces,
labyrinth spaces, transit spaces, stage spaces,
virtual spaces, and location spaces (Caldwell).
With the exception of spaces of power and
virtual spaces, these spaces of action have been
present in the history of film since the beginning
(Caldwell).
Spaces of power make characters,
“appear small, vulnerable, and exposed in a
space designed to intimidate” (Caldwell 43).
These types of sets first fulfilled their potential
during the German Expressionist movement, and
in the 1927 film Metropolis, sets designed by
Otto Hunte, Enrich Kettelhut, and Karl Volbrecht
(IMDB) were used to “reflect the differences
between the elite ruling class and the oppressed
working classes” (Caldwell 44).
Virtual spaces are fairly recent, and
typically consist of actors acting in front of
blue/green screens, and in post production, these
blue/green screens are replaced by computer
generated imagery, or CGI (Caldwell 46). CGI
was first utilized in the 1973 film Westworld, and
was fully embraced by Hollywood in the early
1990’s in films such as Jurassic Park (“Com-
puter-generated imagery”). Many feel that as the
CGI becomes more efficient and cheaper, more
films will replace portions of sets and location
shoots with CGI (Dooley). This has already been
done in films such as Sin City and Sky Captain
and the World of Tomorrow, where very few
physically constructed sets are used (Sin City)
(Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow).
Example of a space of power from the 1927 film Metropolis (“Metropolis Interior”).
Example of a virtual space from Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (“Sky Captain Promo”).
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The budget allotment for film sets
is generally perceived to be higher than the
money put aside for theatrical set construc-
tion, and with this, film sets are expected to be
historically accurate. If the film is set in the
modern day, it should be as modern as possible,
and if it is set in the past, it should look like
the past, though it will inherently have modern
influences. For instance, the Bible films from the
1950’s, such as The Ten Commandments with
sets designed by Albert Nokazi, Hal Pereira,
and Walter Tyler (IMDB), feature incredibly
colorful and stylized sets to show off the
wonders of color cinematography and
Cinemascope, which were both relatively new
cinematic innovations (Tashiro 42). They also
were heavily lighted to show off the mass scale
of the sets, for the size of the sets often reflected
the size of studio pockets (Tashiro 42) (Carnes).
Though modern theatrical and film set
design may seem worlds apart in construction
and aesthetic, they are both still just background
to the action of the story. With this is mind, it
is not uncommon for set designers to work for
both mediums, and this has been the norm since
the 1960’s (Larson xvi). Both mediums are still
highly influential on the other. Theatrical sets
can now utilize projections to create moving
backgrounds behind the actors on stage, and with
careful staging, projections can even have the
illusion of being three-dimensional
(Blumenthal). The biggest difference, however,
between theatrical sets and films is this: Where
theatre involves the audience to suspend disbelief
when it comes to the set becoming a real place,
to a film audience’s eye, the set is not a set, but a
real place.
One of the sets from Cecil B. Demille’s The Ten Commandments (“The Ten Commandments”).
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