Basic Set Design

  AS Level Media Studies Final Project

January 14th, 2026, Post 7

Basic Set Design:

   The main mood that I'm trying to go for in terms of mise-en-scéne is an atrocious living standard. Imagine a homeless shelter, or at least the 'decorations' within it. I'm going to try to make it as dirty and substandard as possible. The living room will consist of an extremely dirty and broken sofa as well as multiple wooden chairs, all pointing towards the – while dingy, still the cleanest item in the room – television set. The television set will, of course, be blaring one of the many propaganda channels issued for free by the nation. The clutter around the entire house will consist mainly of scraps of inedible food and useless empty containers. This – or at least I'm hoping it will – will signify the poor quality of services provided by the government of the nation of which they live in, and just how little they care for them.

(This is a still frame from an episode of the reality television show of 'Hoarders.' This room is what I will be trying to be making the set look like. Basically, just as crowded and cluttered as possible. This is also a reminder that an ENTIRE FAMILY will be living here, as well.)

     The kitchen area of the set will, ironically enough, will barely resemble a kitchen. It will be extremely cluttered as well, with no cutlery, food containers, storage, or cooking items in sight. There will, however, be a lot of food scraps be laying around in the kitchen, much more than in the living room. This will imply that all the food eaten by the family is not in fact cooked or made by them, but rather given to them by the government. The dining room will simply not exist, due to the already cramped and small nature of the house the family lives in. The outside backyard of the house will be much less cluttered that the inside of the house. It will be rather small, with most of the free space of the yard being taken up by a dingy washing machine, clothesline, and run-down dog house. There is no dog. There, in fact, has never been a dog.