Zhongbo Ren holds a BFA in Production Design from The Beijing Film Academy and finished his MFA in Production Design at UCLA, School of Theater, Film and Television. Since moving to Los Angeles, he has worked on a variety of short films and music videos, acting as either production designer or art director. His projects have netted multiple awards, including a DGA Student Film Award, 44th Asan American International Film Festival and others. After graduation, he worked on a showtime TV show and entered the PDI program in Art Director Guild to pursue a professional working position in the film industry.
Can you give us some more info about the production designer's role in a film?
The production designer is in charge of the entire visual style or elements of a film, which means what kind of visual direction the filmmakers wants to go in their films. And what they want to convey from their concept design when the audience watches the film. Because everything has its own meaning in front of the camera, Piers D. Britton said, “ a more widespread tendency in scholarly studies of design is to consider sets as elements of the film or television text that communicate meaning directly.” It is not simply designing a physical set to shoot the film. The more important thing is why we choose this way to create the set and the emotion behind the physical set that we want to convey or tell to the audience.
For instance, I did a music video called “Petrichor” as a production designer. The director wanted a relaxing and delightful atmosphere for the entire video. How to convey these feelings in the frame will be my first concern, and how to fulfill them in my design. For example, what kind of color or texture I want to put in the video. In the end, we decided to find a house surrounded by lots of natural elements, like trees, leaves, and grass, to build the delightful tone. Even for the house interior, we used lots of wood color and texture to contrast modern life, in order to make viewers feel that they are surrounded by the forest and that they are far away from the hustle and bustle of the city.
What are the most significant challenges you face when working on an indie film or a union show?
Budget and time are always a challenge for most Indie projects. They do not really have enough budget to hire different people in the production, like set decorator, constructor, set designer, or graphic designer in the art department. Most of the time, the production designer or art director will undertake different positions in the production. Therefore, the schedule is tough and tight for most of the art department. The filmmaker needs to think about the concept. Meanwhile, they also need to figure out the practical or mechanical problems.
Like what I did in “Apart Together,” we had a scene that took place around a bus stop. Though it is not an essential scene, they wanted to cover the bus stop advertisement, and it was a really huge poster covered with glass. The poster occupied a lot in the frame, so I had to consider how to use this poster's content to reflect what we wanted to convey to the audience. I also had to think about how to cover it above the original advertisement box. At the same time, the main sets were also waiting for me to design and decorate. Therefore, making a reasonable schedule is vital for designers.
For the union show, we have enough crew to cover different parts of the fields; everyone can focus on their own tasks to make sure there is no mistake or reduce the potential faults as much as possible. But the biggest challenge might be the conversation or information update. There are tons of crews in different departments. The art department consists of four different portions, set decoration team, prop master, construction team, and designer portions. Obviously, the design part is essential for the entire art department; we have set designer, graphic designer and concept designer, etc., someone we might know, someone just on board we might never met before. How to keep everyone on the same page is very important.
Do you have any suggestion for working in a union show or what is the crucial factors to work in art department?
Being a positive and proactive person is crucial in the film industry. Sometimes there might be a misunderstanding, a situation that happens unintentionally. How to figure out a way to solve the problem might be more important than finding out who is right or wrong. It is not one of those jobs that only a few people can manage an entire company. Working in a film is 100 percent teamwork.
Contact Information
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.zhongbo-ren.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zhongbo_ren/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100026212854275
