All images from Inspired 3D Short Film Production by Jeremy Cantor and Pepe Valencia, series edited by Kyle Clark and Michael Ford. Reprinted with permission.

This is the third of four installments on art direction. Read Art Direction — Part 1 and Part 2.

Props and Vehicles
You can use appropriate and identifiable props as shortcuts to identify era and locale as well as the profession, nationality, religion, heritage, back-story or favorite hobby of your protagonist (see Figure 25). If you fill his bookshelves with trophies and litter his floor with sweatpants, muscle magazines and dumbbells, he is probably a personal trainer or an athlete of some kind. If his furniture, carpets, books, wall hangings and bed sheets are all emblazoned with spiritual icons, he probably has a significant amount of faith. A room filled with voodoo masks, witchcraft books, black candles, tarot cards, pentagram carpets and Ozzy Osbourne posters, on the other hand, will certainly send a significantly different message.

Vehicles are also great indicators of era, geography, wealth and character profession. Horse-drawn carriages, rickshaws and personal nuclear-powered jetpacks will tell very different stories about their operators. A large white van with a picture of an oven on the side probably belongs to an electrician or a caterer. A black pickup truck with oversized tires, machine-gun turrets and a human skull hood ornament will certainly suggest a few things about its owner and the world he occupies.

[Figure 25] Style and attention to detail in props and vehicles will help indicate era and locale as well as biographical information about your characters.

[Figure 26] The condition of your background elements will add a feeling of history to your settings. Rust, broken tiles and cracked windows suggest that these places are either desolate or neglected.

Condition
In addition to style and design, the condition of background elements will help imply the personality of your characters, their locale and the tone of your story (see Figure 26). Broken furniture, dirty carpets and torn curtains might reveal that your protagonist held a raging party last night (or maybe his house always looks like that). An immaculate bathroom might suggest a hospital or the inside of a movie set. Rusty cars with missing fenders, abandoned and condemned buildings, graffiti, bent street signs and trash filling the streets might indicate poverty or post-war damage. Any of these scenarios might inspire laughter, discomfort, anticipation or disgust from your audience, depending on the story beats and character behaviors associated with these locales.

Living Backgrounds
Also consider whether your background elements will move or perhaps even have personalities. Rocks and buildings tend to remain static, but not always (Das Rad). Most trees will simply sway with the wind, but some will actually talk and throw apples (The Wizard of Oz). Suns and moons often have suggested or even definitive facial features. Living background elements can not only contribute to the look, feel, locale and reality level of your story, but they can also contribute significantly to the flow of your plot and character development.