MIRKO VON BERNER’S PRODUCTION DESIGN WORKSHOP

This unique, professional production design workshop is designed for individuals with a passion for Production Design and Art Direction, though also recommended for filmmakers and designers in general. It provides you with a very unique opportunity to gain first hand Production Design experience under Mirko’s expert guidance.

“Production design is associated with big-budget projects and low-budget filmmakers think they will not have access or that they won’t need it, alas they are who need it the most.”Mirko Von Berner
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What’s on offer

The workshop is fast, intensive and absorbing. Our key goal is to give students the tools, the mindset and the support they need to work in the real world. By the end of the workshop, students will have evolved professionally, worked with an industry leader, and have professional production design experience.

MIRKO VON BERNER (Production Designer), a sculptor as well as a painter, leads this 3 day Production Design workshop. The production designer plays a vital role in creating real or imagined worlds on the screen. Introduction to Production Design / Art Direction Workshop, designed for Directors, Cinematographers, Artists and all the Film Industry crew and personnel wanting to learn, to consolidate experiences or to improve.

afilm Production Designers
About the instructor?

After having studied Visual Arts at the ENAP (Nation School of Plastic Arts), Mirko has acquired more than 25 years of creative experience in the audio visual industry, having worked in films and advertising in Mexico, USA and Spain. He has worked with directors, in the following productions, including Julian Schnabel (Before Night Falls), James L. Brooks (Spanglish), Martin Campbell (The Mask of Zorro), Arturo Ripstein (Principio y Fin), amongst many others.

“Joseph Joubert said teaching was learning twice over. And here I am, an eternal apprentice with the opportunity to participate next to the new generations of creators with the creative curiosity that springs from creating a new project and being able to collaborate with my 30 years experience in the industry, and at the same time, share my enthusiasm which comes from seeing what is and was not before, which is profoundly gratifying. That’s why I am at afilm.”Mirko Von Berner
What will you get out of it?

This workshop is for those seeking to develop their individual creativity and develop practical and technical skills for entry into an art department within the Film, Television and Advertising industries. Students will learn how to take visual ideas from ‘concept to construct’, as well as time management and scheduling of resources, budgeting and accounting for an Art Department, research, documentation, investigation and finally, brainstorming and mindmapping.

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What will you be doing?
  • Introduction to Production Design
  • Roles within the Art Department
  • Short History of Production Design
  • Color Theory
  • Sketchup- 3D Draw/ Database/ Mind Map/ Gantt Charts / Resources
  • CGI (VFX) + SFX + Art
  • Art Department Script Breakdown
  • Budgeting
  • Timescale
  • Inspiration/research
  • Storyboarding
  • Mood board/Style Bible
  • Set dressing and props
  • Designing for studio/sound stage
  • Designing for location
  • Hazards- Risk assessment and the designer
  • Working with other departments – SPX, Lighting, Costume and Make-Up
  • Technical drawing workshop, Floor plans and elevations
«Having Mirko Von Berner come in to talk to us, was a huge door opener. It was thrilling to learn first hand from an established production designer within the industry. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the workshop and walked away not only with a much broader knowledge of an extremely important sector of the industry that I had not appreciated as much as I do now, but a better understanding of various production design softwares as well as the intricate model structure process, which we all attempted to build in class.»Harriet Piercy (Zimbabwe)