Theatre, Photography, Cinema and TV: Stage Design, Film Language and Animation

Stage design

A stage design (scenography) is everything the audience sees on the stage apart from the actors:

• Set and backdrop: painted or built scenery that shows the place and time (a forest, a palace, a street).
• Props: objects the actors use, like a lamp or a book.
• Costume and make-up: show who the character is.
• Light: shows where to look, and its colour and angle change the mood. Warm yellow light often feels cosy or happy; cold blue light from the side feels strange or scary.
• Sound and music support the mood.

A good design is simple: every object has a reason. The audience should understand the place in one look.

Art photography

A snapshot records a moment. Art photography also says something: the photographer chooses what to put inside the frame and how.

• Subject: what the picture is about.
• Light: soft light early or late in the day is gentle; hard noon light makes strong shadows.
• Composition: how things are placed. In the rule of thirds we split the frame by two vertical and two horizontal lines. Putting the subject on a line or where lines cross usually looks more balanced than putting it in the dead centre.
• Other tools: leading lines (a road pointing to the subject), a simple background, a low or high viewpoint, and cropping extra things away.

A photograph is a single frame, so every detail inside it matters.

The language of film

Film tells stories through a few simple tools. Learn to read them like words.

• Shot size: a wide shot shows the place, a medium shot shows the person and their action, a close-up shows a face and its feeling.
• Camera angle: from below, a person looks strong; from above, small.
• Camera movement: pan (turn sideways), tilt (up or down), zoom or track (move closer).
• Editing: shots are joined one after another. A cut from a face to a closed door tells us what the person fears.
• Sound and music add feeling.

Cinema and TV share this language. A TV news show often uses medium shots; a cartoon film may use all of them.

Animation: making pictures move

An eye keeps an image for a very short time. If new, slightly changed pictures come fast enough, the brain joins them into motion. Each picture is a frame.

• Films show 24 frames per second. Many cartoons draw on every second frame (12 per second) and it still looks fine.
• Drawn animation: artists draw each pose. Stop-motion: models are moved a little and photographed. Computer animation: a program builds the in-between frames.
• Key tips: a bouncing ball squashes where it hits the ground, and the poses are closer together where it moves slowly.

For one second at 12 frames per second you need 12 drawings. A one-minute cartoon needs 720 drawings.

Try it: make a flip book and a frame

1. Draw a ball on 10 sticky notes, a little lower on each, then squash it on the last. Flip the pages with your thumb.

2. Make a frame by cutting a rectangle out of paper. Look at your classroom through it. Move your subject on a third line.

3. In the 3D, pick the Scary mood and Close-up in the last step. Say which feeling it makes.

Key formulas and definitions

• Stage = set + props + costume + light + sound
• Rule of thirds: subject on a third line or crossing point
• Shot size: wide → place; medium → person; close-up → feeling
• Frames needed = frames per second × seconds

Worked examples

Common mistakes

• Thinking stage design is only the painted backdrop. Light, props and costumes are part of it.
• Believing the rule of thirds is a law. It is a helpful guide, and you can break it on purpose.
• Mixing shot sizes: a close-up shows a face, not a whole place.
• Forgetting that animation needs many frames. One drawing cannot move.