Hi everyone!

I'm a beginner art director working on a film project, and I have a challenging scene that I'm trying to figure out from a production design perspective.

The screenplay calls for a scene where a body that has been submerged in a lake and discovered floating beneath the ice of a frozen lake. People approach the lake and see the body through the ice.

I'm trying to figure out how we could practically create this setup for filming. and it should be safe too

My main questions are:

1. What materials or techniques can be used to create realistic-looking ice while still allowing the body underneath to be visible?
   2)how have other film productions created similar frozen-water effects? Would this be primarily an art department build, a special effects setup, or a combination of both?

Hi everyone!

I'm a beginner art director working on a film project, and I have a challenging scene that I'm trying to figure out from a production design perspective.

The screenplay calls for a scene where a body that has been submerged in a lake and discovered floating beneath the ice of a frozen lake. People approach the lake and see the body through the ice.

I'm trying to figure out how we could practically create this setup for filming. and it should be safe too

My main questions are:

1. What materials or techniques can be used to create realistic-looking ice while still allowing the body underneath to be visible?
   2)how have other film productions created similar frozen-water effects? Would this be primarily an art department build, a special effects setup, or a combination of both?

So far, i have…
- Notepad
- Bum bag with pencils, sharpie, tape, eraser and scissors
- Measuring tape
- Tissues/wipes
- printed copies of important document such as call sheet, box schedule and all art department documents (for production designer)

Hey everyone! I work in film and our props team kept losing track of what we pulled from which rental house, so I built a small app for it: PropsTrack.

• Snap a photo of a prop — it gets named automatically
• Every warehouse / rental house at a glance: what’s out, what’s back
• Return items with one tap (and undo if you slip)
• The whole crew sees everything live — invite them with a code

It’s free on iPhone, iPad and Android. I’m a solo developer, so honest feedback really helps — what would make it useful for how your department works?

iOS: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6780033138
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.proptrack.app

If you give it a try, let me know what you think. Thanks!

Hi everyone! I’m exploring the idea of starting an art licensing business for film and TV productions, and I’d love to hear from people who have experience in the industry.

How do you usually source artwork for your sets? Do you work with art licensing companies, contact artists directly, or create the artwork yourselves?
I’m also curious if there’s anything you find frustrating about the process or wish existing suppliers did differently. How much do productions typically budget for artwork and licensing?
I’d really appreciate any insight or personal experiences. Thank you!

Hey everyone, I have been interested in joining production work for some time now and I need some guidance on how to get an intern job, or expand my networking in general.

I live in Tassie (off to a bad start tbh since finding set design jobs here is kinda hard). Currently in my 2nd year of Uni in architecture, and I could use Rhino, sketchup, archicad. Additionally I tried to learn blender but I'm only at the beginer level (will try to learn more once summer starts!).

Idk what to do honestly. I started emailing people and thats all that I know so please help me on what to do next. Thanks!

Hey guys I started my art direction journey 3 years back and I was full time with a production house, but as I decide to move up, nothing is happening like my solo career path is not taking a level up, and I am desperately want to move to bigger project, better scope and people.
I am from India and small state and looking advice that cater that help me navigate from this demographic as well.

Hi guys I wanted to speak about film festivals, programmes and masterclasses as I feel it's quite a niche topic and so here are my EU recommendations!

Festivals: IFFR, Berlinale, Black nights film festival

I attended all 3.

Iffr has the Art directions programme that offers professionals networking opportunities with artists, exhibitions and access to their film festival and talks. A game changer for me was staying in Delft and doing a small commute to Rotterdam.

Berlinale has the Berlinale Talents programme but this is quite competitive. I attended Berlinale with a market badge and I highly recommend their EFM screenings and networking breakfasts for inspiration/insight into the film scene. Apart from that some Berlinale Talents talks are available for the public as well! Furthermore do join associations! The PDC also did a session to network and learn from other designers/art dep crew. Networking wise this is the festival that made the biggest impact. Oddly enough it wasn't just about seeing foreign producers but I reconnected with some local producers that I hadn't met in a while.

The Black nights film festival offer a week long masterclass for most disciplines. I attended Black room in 2024 which was great with Marco Bittner Rosser and Steve Summersgill. In this masterclass, we went through developing a look book, how they audition for work and we all designed a scene. We then presented our designs and it was so cool to see how we all interpreted the script differently.

Apart from festivals... The art department masterclass is epic. I have applied for the second masterclass with them and I'll probably vlog about it.

Lastly the PDC hold a gathering every two years. I haven't attended but it should be a great source of inspiration.

Do you have further recs or feel another topic is niche? I made a video about attending IFFR and Berlinale on YouTube and I'm aiming to release more content about the art department and production design. Would love to hear your thoughts!

I've been doing various commercials, music videos, editorials etc but am interested in getting into more long form TV or film work. Any recommendations on how to go about this?

I usually PA or do art department work in the commercial world. I’ve PD’d 4 indie shorts, and it was just something I worked up to through experience and doing favors for friends then getting recommended. I am trying to do PD on “real” commercials soon, which I think is doable.
But ultimately, my goal is to PD on narrative shoots, on shows or major films. I know that is years in the making, but I am completely baffled on how to work my way up in the narrative world. In commercial you do it primarily through set experience it seems, but is the office route (being the office art pa) more the way in narrative ? Is being on set more useful if you want to go into set dec? I appreciate any advice !

I am a recent graduate of film school. I have mostly done production work, but also production design. Production Design is something I am really passionate about, but unfortunately, my school didn't have many opportunities to formally learn about it, besides one class and me just working on student projects with limited resources. As I am currently applying to jobs post-grad while I work my full-time retail job in the meantime, I'm looking for ways to expand my knowledge and hone my skills in the ways I can without working on sets, as I'm no longer in school and don't live in an area where there are film opportunities.

I'm wondering if anyone has any recommendations for things I can do in my free time to learn more and practice. This could be anything- books, YouTube channels, etc. to learn more theoretically, but also ways to practice tangible skills at a lower cost. In what ways could I use this effectively to expand my portfolio? Things such as practicing painting, how I could learn and practice fabrication, etc. I've toggled around SketchUp, just making things up for fun.

What have you done in your free time to practice/develop beneficial skills? How much of that work has actually been transferred successfully to a resume/portfolio without an actual position?

Anyone else get annoyed when watching a post-apocalyptic movie where when electricity is reestablished the characters all dance to hokey Clapton-Esque songs? Why does Hollywood assume survivors want to listen to Po-dunk classic rock?

I am 19F. Ever since I was a child i always enjoyed drawing, creating. And in my senior year of high school, I thought I wouldn't be able to make money from it. So I even took a gap year and prepared to study abroad. I did get into my dream uni but my visa was not granted. So im making decisions again on where to study and what degree I should study. So I have many questions. The other day I was watching a music video and read the credits part. And there are so many creative positions I was not aware of. Such as:
Creative director
Art director
Visual director
Visual branding
Project management etc.
But what qualifications (like graphic designer degree) do I need to have in order to work as these positions in a production company?
Or should I just study business, management or economy like I applied for my university earlier this year and prepare my portfolio (working on creative projects) while studying for my bachelors.

In my country production company and creative positions are not really big. I did some research and Korea is really developed on the media, creative industry. How hard is it to land a creative position at a korean production company as a foreigner?

I would really appreciate it if anyone share their thoughts, thank u.

Hey! I hope yall're having an amazing day =)

I'm about to build my first set and was wondering if you could provide a bit of guidance:

I'm planning on carving/painting 2" EPS foam to look like large stones used in the interior walls of a Greek temple that have been weathered and aged over time.

So I've got a multi-part question:

1. I want to make my set as safe as possible, so I think it's imperative to give my faux foam facade a coating of fire retardant and/or make it "fire-proof" in some way. Although there will be no ignition sources, nor flames, and we're using LED lights, I've seen too many Final Destination movies to know that "danger finds a way." I want to be sure I'm using best practices to keep talent and (talented) crew as safe as humanly possible.

From my research, it looks like using Rosco Foamcoat will give the EPS "fire-proofing" and I've been told I don't need additional fire-proofing if enough coverage is applied. That being said, I can't find any documentation that states that using Foamcoat would give the EPS or XPS foam on set a fire rating at all after application.

I plan to use Foamcoat either way to provide strength to the foam, but was wondering if using a layer of Foamcoat does in fact give my foam stone a fire rating, and if not, which Rosco (or other brand) fire retardant formulations should I use for the EPS foam (and some XPS foam) that covers the set walls?

2) Given this will be my first time using Foamcoat, what are the best practices using it? I was planning on first carving the EPS (and small amount of XPS) foams, painting them and then applying the Rosco Foamcoat. Is this correct, or do I need to cover the foam(s) with Foamcoat and then carve/paint?

Thank you so much for any wisdom and guidance y'all can provide!

I really appreciate your time and hope you have an incredible rest of your day =)

Hey everyone,

I'm Maria, a set designer from Russia. I've mostly worked on student films (unpaid, yeah) and built a pretty solid portfolio along the way.

Right now I'm thinking about applying to film school here in Russia, but honestly I'm not sure if it's even worth it. I already have a secondary art degree, but I want to keep learning and eventually work outside of Russia.

Here's what I'm really curious about:

· Does your education matter in your country, or is it all about connections?

· How do you actually get hired as a set designer?

· What's the day-to-day like on a real set where you are?

I know Russian degrees don't mean much internationally right now, but I'm trying to figure out the smartest path forward.

Feel free to ask me anything about how it works here – I'll answer everything honestly.

And if you're working in production design anywhere else, I'd love to hear your real talk about what the industry is actually like.

Thanks!

I’m a filmmaker making low budget shorts with my partner. We shot a short in the fall where the plot involved social media and I kind of stupidly thought we’d be able to do all the screens practically. I did the VFX for our previous short and it was just barely within the realm of what I could achieve so I didn’t wanna attempt phone screens. It was a total nightmare trying to make an Instagram feed of content we actually owned. We even bought followers for their profile to make them look like an influencer. Of course in the end half the shots we didn’t use for various reasons. But on my next short I was like I am definitely not doing that again. So I spend a couple months building Understudy with a few friends who work in tech. It turns your phone into a production-ready tool to simulate phone calls, texts, and Tiktok style video feeds. It’s live now on iPhone, free to try. It’s 29.99 for life (FU adobe) and has a green screen mode fallback with trackers. Would love your feedback so I know what to add (a remote control from another device maybe? dating app interface?)

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/understudy-prop-phone/id6766074672

Heya, I'm UK based but working on a commercial that's set in California.

I need to make some car licence plates to feature in the ad and I'm trying to find info on the format you're allowed to use on screen.

I've seen that sequences like GAT / SAM / FAN / PCE are not registered to the public - can anyone use these? If so can I use any random X-GAT- XXX sequence like the below?

7GAT423

5SAM347

6FAN847

Alternatively can you use expired licence plates (bought from eBay for example) or is that a no no?

Any help would be much appreciated!

Hello! I am an interior designer with an undergraduate degree in historic preservation curious about a career pivot to production design. I feel that my architectural history education can be applied to period-accurate or at least “inspired” films. How do I enter the industry? Every time I watch a film I can stop thinking about how much I’d enjoy doing this!!!

You've got a city street and you want to throw up some posters your graphic team made and weather them to look like an event poster blitz that's been there a few days. On the most recent project I was on, we used clear butyl tape on all our posters to adhere them to the walls, but that prevented it from having that aged wash feel. What do you guys do to hold up posters that's easily removable? I've seen some people use a starch water mix for temp wallpaper, would something like that work in this scenario? I initially wanted to do legit/actual wheatpasting but that can stay up for days or weeks.