Zakira Begum - Set Designer / Production Designer
To be a set designer in my eyes is to be able to visualise the theme of your film in terms of mood and atmosphere. In doing this I feel you can then create the set that corresponds to the theme of the stage or screen production through various means, such as concept art, story boarding, model making and technical drawing. I feel that by studying set design for stage and screen at Wimbledon I have developed on of these skills and also have acquired many more which have helped me hone my personal visual style. I first became interested in set design in my foundation year where I was introduced to this particular area of film, from then on I new I wanted to be part of the creative process that goes on when designing a set. The basis or my influences in designing for the stage and screen come from a fine art background. The design process for me starts with a piece of art work that I feel communicates the mood and atmosphere that I am looking for, from this I go on to the spatial design that is best suited to the feel of the production.

In my three years at Wimbledon I have also worked on shorts films theses include ‘Miss management’ written by William H.W Read and ‘Insecurity Guard’ written by Corrie Ann Burton. Working on theses films enabled me to gain first hand experience of how a film production works and how my role as set designer/art director fits in to the process. Working on these films was very enjoyable and challenging at the same time in terms of having a budget, and little time and space. For my third year I have adapted the novel ‘Regeneration by Pat Barker’ for a film. I have mainly been looking at the mood and atmosphere of this novel showing this through concept painting, story boarding and model making, colour plays an important role in communicating the feel of this film thus I have also used Photoshop to get the colour balances right in the concepts.

Specific Skills: Model making, concept art. Story boarding, Photoshop, sketch up, technical drawing and art direction.