Production Design

Production design it important in all major film. It is the look of the environment, the costumes, props, and makeup that gives visual appeal to a movie. It can set the tone of the movie to be light hearted or dark and brooding. It can set the time period of the film and even set the stage for the actors to perform on it. Today we will talk about a film that uses all parts of production design and uses it to its full potential. We are about to take a look at the caped crusader himself, and his 1989 were he faces off against his rival The Joker. Let’s take a look at Batman.

First let’s look at the sets. This is the environment that the movie takes place in, Gotham City. The tone is dark with a lot of blacks, grays, and browns to show this is a dark city littered with trash. The architecture that was used for the buildings were made to look like it was a comic book. They did a very good job with it because all of it looked believable like it was a real city.

Next let’s look at makeup, specifically at The Jokers makeup. Most of the movie the actor has a prosthetic smile on his face to make him look like he’s always laughing. This is good because the character he is playing is known to laugh at everything and in most iterations always has ether a real smile or a scared one. It’s done in a way that it looks unnatural and it is but it’s done in a way that is still believable. His face is also painted white just like in the comics along with his hair being green.

Next is the props and costumes of the movie. Every prop in the movie that each of our main characters is specifically design for him. Batman always has bat shaped gadgets that are brilliantly made to not look stupid and the bat mobile is stunning. The joker always has something crazy that fits the character of a joker, such as revolver pistol with an overly long barrel. There costumes also fit. Batman’s blends in with the darkness to induce as much fear into villains as possible. The jokers always pops out because its purple and other colors that stand out in this black and grey environment.

Overall the whole movie is done in a way that is realistic but still feels like a comic and it fulfills this job wonderfully. The sets match the bleakness of Gotham, the makeup makes them menacing, the props give them character and the costumes make them stand out. They did a great job that they ruin about the later movies, yes I’m talking about the bat nipples. Overall I would suggest this to anyone who enjoys a good set and design and can appreciate the work that was put into it.