{"id":7028,"date":"2026-02-27T11:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T11:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.zhdk.ch\/zfictionenglish\/?p=7028"},"modified":"2026-02-27T11:13:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T11:13:32","slug":"designing-a-frame-for-feelings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.zhdk.ch\/zfictionenglish\/2026\/02\/27\/designing-a-frame-for-feelings\/","title":{"rendered":"DESIGNING A FRAME FOR FEELINGS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>ABSTRACT BY\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.zhdk.ch\/zfictionenglish\/2026\/02\/25\/lucy-fife-donaldson\/\">LUCY FIFE DONALDSON<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\"><br \/>\nIn this talk I will situate production designers as a key member of the filmmaking team who\u00a0is responsible for\u00a0shaping the material qualities of a film through decisions that compose the specifics of surface,\u00a0shape\u00a0and space. The details of such decisions \u2013 from the texture of a carpet to the composition of a character\u2019s\u00a0work space\u00a0&#8211; guide the sensorial relationship\u00a0between viewer and film; we comprehend the fiction with help from our knowledge of the real world and the nature of the relationship the film asks us to take to it. In tune with the conference\u2019s \u2018focal inversion\u2019 to privilege quotidian over spectacular, familiar over extraordinary, the talk will focus on the office as an example of a space that while rich in textures and design details, can easily be overlooked as unremarkable, its bland or institutional surfaces resisting interest and meaning beyond authenticity or continuity with the everyday.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Moreover, because production designers create a film\u2019s environment both onscreen\u00a0<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">and\u00a0<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">offscreen, the talk investigates the significance of their work in shaping others\u2019 contributions in invisible ways. In this sense, I understand the designer\u2019s frame as expanding beyond the film\u2019s frame, one that shapes the work of the actor (on set through their engagement with a built environment which exists in a space that the audience only sees a tiny part of), as well as other crew members, whether designers acknowledge these connections or not (sound designer Cecelia Hall once called production design \u2018the map with all the clues\u2019, LoBrutto,\u00a0<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Sound-on-Film<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">, 2004).<\/p>\n<p>My case studies,\u00a0<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">All the President\u2019s Men<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0(Production Designer: George Jenkins, 1976) and\u00a0<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The Assistant\u00a0<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">(Production Designer: Fletcher Chancey, 2019) work in differing scales, constructing office environments which balance authenticity with atmosphere.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559731&quot;:720}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ABSTRACT BY\u00a0LUCY FIFE DONALDSON In this talk I will situate production designers as a key member of the filmmaking team who\u00a0is responsible for\u00a0shaping the material qualities of a film through decisions that compose the specifics of surface,\u00a0shape\u00a0and space. The details of such decisions \u2013 from the texture of a carpet to the composition of a &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6954,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.zhdk.ch\/zfictionenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.zhdk.ch\/zfictionenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.zhdk.ch\/zfictionenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.zhdk.ch\/zfictionenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6954"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.zhdk.ch\/zfictionenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7028"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.zhdk.ch\/zfictionenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7036,"href":"https:\/\/blog.zhdk.ch\/zfictionenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7028\/revisions\/7036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.zhdk.ch\/zfictionenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.zhdk.ch\/zfictionenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.zhdk.ch\/zfictionenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}