Abstract
Production design not only sets the scene for the action of a film or television series, it holds great potential to convey story and character information. However, most literature on production design describe how the work of production designers only begin in pre-production when they are ‘given a script’ in order to execute a text. This article argues that the production designer can play a crucial part in the screenwriting process by contributing to the narrative and character design from an early stage. Focusing on the use of production design in the development, writing and production of the Danish drama series Arvingerne/The Legacy (2014–), the article analyses the implications of creator Maya Ilsøe’s close collaboration with the series’ production designer Mia Stensgaard. This collaboration not only centred on creating a special visual universe for the series, but also involved having the production design perform crucial back story and character information related to the inheritance drama and to the portrayal of the artist matriarch Veronika who was intended to haunt the lives of her children throughout the series even though she dies in the very first episode.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Journal of Screenwriting |
| Volume | 7 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Pages (from-to) | 299-317 |
| Number of pages | 19 |
| ISSN | 1759-7137 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Sept 2016 |
Keywords
- Faculty of Humanities
- Arvingerne
- The Legacy
- Danish television series
- creative collaborations
- production design/art direction
- screenwriting
- text and performance