DESIGN GUIDELINES FOR OUTDOOR SETS IN FILM CITIES

Abstract

Bol!ywood churns out over 900 films every year, all these films packed with those mandatory elements of song, dance, melodrama, violence and erotica that require outdoor & indoor set design. Film City sets in India are heavily booked around the year. Bollywood films are now increasingly paying attention to set design. This wasn't always the case. Back in the seventies and eighties, directors often shot scenes in real houses or villages in order to save money. However in the nineties this all changed with producers realizing that the more lavish the sets, the greater the potential box office returns. The present Film City in India offers nothing besides landscape. A filmmaker has to hire everything else. The film city has few shooting floors and they are scattered over the vast area. Ran mil Film City. Hyderabad can be considered the best as on date because of its infrastructure and the facilities which they provide for the shootings, etc. no other film city in India is to that standard. Outdoor sets in Indian Film Cities are not up to the International Standard like Walt. Disney, etc.No set guidelines /standards are available for the Set Designers and the sets designed are some times over dressed or under dressed. The feel of the natural streets is missing in present sets and only typical sets of towns are done without any emphasis on the Architectural character of the streets, as a result sets started appearing like fake ones. This thesis aims at finding architectural solutions for the outdoor Sets in Film Cities so as to develop our existing and upcoming film cities to international standard. Since outdoor sets are the replicas of the existing streetscapes, townscapes, landscapes, etc, the study of practical implication of urban design concepts will help in deriving design guidelines for the outdoor sets in film cities. The scope of this thesis includes inferences / conclusions and formulation of design guidelines for outdoor sets in Film Cities. This thesis does not include post production facilities and indoor set design. This thesis is limited only for the formulation of architectural solutions for various outdoor sets. (Streetscapes only).Design guidelines will be taking into account the technical aspects of set design and will be based on practical implication of urban design and set design concepts.