Production Design on a Budget
by Sunday Ordoñez
When Jose asked me to be the Production Designer for his first feature film Three Bedrooms, I rose to the task, despite the fact that I do not have a background in film or production design. The process was a huge learning experience for me, but I had a great time doing it. Would I do it again? Absolutely. However, there are definitely some things I learned through the process of designing Three Bedrooms that would change the way I undertake my next film. Here are the 5 things I learned from being a Production Designer for a low-budget film.
1. Keep close track of your budget
This step is number one when you are sticking to a tight budget. Your greatest asset when it comes to production design is being able to allocate your budget wisely. For Three Bedrooms, it was important for me to divide my budget carefully between props, costumes, and set design items. I think that the key to knowing how to budget was deciding what items were worth sacrificing and what items would be important to bringing my vision to life. For example, when Jose and I decided on a color palette for the film, we knew that we wanted the living and dining room to have warm, inviting tones. The dining room that we were working with had baby blue painted walls. We knew that we were going to need to prioritize budgeting for the paint and wallpaper to create the warm feeling that we had in mind.
2. Allocate a part of your budget for unexpected expenses
When it comes to budgeting, it is also important to set aside a part of your budget for unexpected expenses. If there’s one thing I learned from Three Bedrooms, it was that there were so many unforeseen situations that I had not accounted for. Not every costume you buy will fit perfectly and sometimes you’ll have to improvise on the spot to create that movie magic. We see this in many of Three Bedrooms’ scenes. One of the challenges that we faced was giving the movie a rainy, hurricane look even though it was perfectly sunny outside. We ended up creating a rain machine out of PVC pipe and connecting it to the outside garden hose. In addition to the “fake rain”, we also had to shake some of the outside bushes by hand to give them a windy look. You can see this in the scene where Beth is looking out her bedroom window as the storm is brewing.
3. Borrow or thrift as many items as possible
For me, an extremely helpful hack that allowed my budget to stretch further was being able to borrow or thrift items for the set design as well as props and costumes. People in your community are generally very willing to help and you’ll never know who might have an important asset to your set design unless you ask. I also find that this is a great way to involve your community in local filmmaking. For Three Bedrooms, I was able to borrow many items from friends such as the record player seen during the game night, as well as the coffee table that the Fink family uses while playing Rummy. Nearly all of the bedroom decor seen throughout the film was thrifted.
4. Create a scene-by-scene guide to keep track of props and costumes
I have to credit Jose when it comes to this one, because he was the one who suggested to me to create a spreadsheet to keep track of important props and costumes by scene number. I have to say that this was one of my most important tools on set. This allowed me to easily access an outlined list of key items that I would need in each scene. Even when we were shooting, I could already begin preparing for the items that we would need in the next upcoming scenes. I would highly recommend creating a guide like this to make your production experience more organized.
5. Delegate small tasks so that you can focus on the creative
This tip goes hand-in-hand with number #4 since these are both about alleviating unnecessary stress during production. Learning how to delegate properly is key to keeping your sanity on set. With a small crew and many items to keep track of, things can easily become overwhelming. Being able to delegate small tasks like ironing costumes, keeping the set tidy, and even just having someone to keep you on top of time and scheduling is important so that you can focus on making sure everything on camera looks flawless. I would also recommend asking a friend to assist you in easy tasks. I was lucky to have one of our PA’s Hannah help me with many of these tasks, such as keeping the playing cards organized during a card game scene.
It is a big misconception that you need thousands of dollars to make a set look beautiful. All it really takes is knowing how to be creative and improvise with the items that you do have. If you’re thinking of trying out production design for the first time, I definitely recommend it. It is a great way to channel your creativity into something that you will be able to look back on and watch time and time again. Good luck with all your endeavors, future designers!
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