Production Design

Production design is the creation of the entire physical world of a film — locations, sets, props, colors and textures — led by the production designer together with the director and cinematographer.

Set DesignGuide
Set design is the planning and construction of the physical spaces a scene is shot in — from a single room built on a stage to an entire street — so that architecture, scale and texture express the story.
Costume DesignTerm
Costume design is the creation of everything a character wears, from silhouette and fabric to color and wear-and-tear; the costume designer uses clothing to tell us who a character is, what era they live in and how they change.
Movie PropTerm
A prop is any movable object an actor handles or uses on screen — a gun, a letter, a cup, a sled — as opposed to set dressing, which only furnishes the space.
BackdropTerm
A backdrop is a large painted or printed surface hung behind a set to stand in for the world beyond it — a sky, a skyline, a mountain range — so the scene can be shot on a stage.
Set DressingTerm
Set dressing is everything that furnishes a set but is not handled by the actors — furniture, books, posters, clutter — the details that make a space feel lived-in and tell us about who lives there.
Art DirectorTerm
In film, the art director runs the art department under the production designer — turning the designer's concept into drawings, budgets and builds, and managing set designers, construction and set decoration.
VoidTerm
A void is a deliberately placeless setting — black, white or colored infinity with no horizon or detail — that isolates a figure or object and turns the scene into abstraction (Under the Skin, The Matrix's white construct).

Glossary

5 terms

Diorama: A diorama in film is a miniature or cut-away model of a space, shot so the viewer sees a whole little world at once — often with a frontal, dollhouse-like framing.
Leadman: The leadman is the foreman of the set dressing crew: he runs the swing gang that loads in, places and strikes furniture and décor according to the set decorator's plan.
Prop Maker: A prop maker builds props that cannot be bought: replicas, breakaways, stunt versions and hero pieces, working from the production designer's drawings.
Prop Master: The prop master heads the props department: sources or commissions every prop, tracks continuity and hands props to actors on set.
Scenic Artist: A scenic artist paints and textures sets and backdrops — faux marble, aged plaster, painted skies — so that built surfaces read as real on camera.