How to Become an Art Department Dynamo

In this creative class, you will learn how to work as a solo art department person or as an art department person within a small team. The class is aimed at team members/individuals who work on micro-budget productions.

You will gain knowledge on how to prep for a film, a photoshoot, a visual merchandising project or any other creative endeavour that calls for a visual presentation.

These lessons can be viewed individually depending on your needs. You can pick and choose – it is totally understandable that we are all at different levels in our learning and careers.

What will be covered?

• Information of the tasks a solo art department person or an art department team member has to take on (it’s a lot!)

• Insider tips from someone who has been working on film sets for 15 years

• A brief rundown of colour psychology to get you thinking about applying colour to visual mediums

• How to build image mood boards to convey emotion, showing examples from three films.

• The class project-creating your mood board.

• How to get your ideas down in one place, a step further than the mood board

• Where to shop for props on a budget and how to shop smart

• How to build a props/costumes list

• How to keep the themes of the project in mind throughout all aspects of the role

• How to work on set, what to expect plus the importance of working quickly and efficiently on set.

What you will achieve after this class is the basic knowledge of the art department and all the tasks you will or may be expected to do as a solo art department person on a visual project.

After this class, you are capable of creating the base of your own visual project and understand how you can use these skills to work on commercial projects with other crew members such as a cinematographer and a director in the future.

Why is the class useful?

The insight shared in this class will be beneficial as you will learn the basics of the art department. After this class, you can apply the teachings when moving into working on larger commercial projects, such as a solo visual artist or even as part of a team within a hierarchy. This includes working on a film or on a commercial video shoot that has a cinematographer and a director involved in the pre-production stages. On such projects, you will need to know how to confidently present your creative ideas to them that relates to their initial visual aim for the project.

Materials/Resources/Websites:

• A laptop or PC with a WIFI connection

• Canva Account (basic/free)

• Pinterest account (basic/free)

• Unsplash website (or similar) to access inspirational images royalty free or a camera/phone to take your own inspirational images to use in the class project

• Your imagination

Who this course is for:

• Hands-on people who are at a beginner level, with some experience in arts and crafts and visual mediums
• Creatives who are moving into working on a visual project for the first time, be it a film, merchandising assignment, a commercial gig
• Filmmakers/film crew members who have worked in other roles within the film industry and want to move into the Art Department.
• Filmmakers/film crew members who want to gain an understanding of the department in order to work harmoniously with fellow crew members or assist them
• Anyone who wants to gain some skills to help expand their repertoire and gain a better understanding of the role of the Art Department