The Power of Production Design - Halal Gurls

Production Design (which includes Art Direction) is about Color Palettes, Textures, Interior Decor, Set Architecture, Shot Selection, Props, Wardrobes, Makeup and Hair. Together these elements tell a story all their own. In many films you can discern mood, temperament, character personalities, and story beats just by the Production Design, the colors, and the costumes. And that's how it should be.

Production Design is one of numerous story telling tools filmmakers use to emotionally connect with audiences. Music and dialogue are two others, not to mention casting the right look of a character. The "art of the frame" serves the same purpose as a framed painting. And the colors the painter chooses, the textures, and the shot selection tell us a story. Except in film, you have 24 such framed paintings EVERY SECOND.

As I work to organize the Pomegranate shoot next year, one of my duties is to be aware of what other films are doing. One such streaming series that came to my attention this week is HALAL GURLS, the Australian comedy about three Muslim girls who all wear hijabs. The Production Design was by Isabella Andronos, an award winning designer in Australia.  In part that is what Pomegranate is about so I took a peak. The first thing that caught my attention was the color palette of walls, props, costumes, hair and  make-up and even the Posters (right). I have not yet seen the series, but I will. Yet, just looking at the stills from the trailer (which I've captured off YouTube) tell us something about the story of these three characters. Here is a selection.

Noice how colors are coordinated and how there is usually only one accent color per frame. Notice also the frame composition and the position of faces and how they are facing. The character of lighting also plays a big role...reflective, overhead, point source, direct, and backlight.

     

And finally the Facebook Selfie (below)...which is in Pomegranate, as well.  What do you suppose the harsh color "ORANGE" here infers?  Or for that  matter the color RED in shots above? And what do you make of the shot when ORANGE and RED both appear in the shot, as below? Notice the red sparring gloves. They're not red just by chance. Or, the RED side light trim in the office shot.