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Where film directors point the camera and what actors they put in the frame are an important aspect of filmmaking. Just as important to a movie director is what kind of room the actors standing in and what clothing they are wearing. A film is visual art, anything you see is an integral part of the whole.

Film directors needn't be an experts in production design or art direction, but the more a director knows about it the more expressive a film can become. Though production design is a big discipline to master, there are easy ways to get acquainted with many of its principles.

Redecorate Your House/Room

A great way to start learning about production design is to treat your home or room as a movie set. This mirrors many of the things you would do on a real film set. You would choose wall colors, what type of carpet, the furniture that would go with it, and how to arrange all of these things in the space. In this task you'll learn about colors, fabrics, patterns, decorating styles of the past and present, furniture, and interior architectural details.

Build A Model

Building miniatures of things is a great way to get to know them inside and out. It's less daunting than working with a full scale thing and much cheaper. In your career as a director there will be times when you'll need a certain type of prop or object and with a little model building experience you will have a better idea of how to construct such a thing.

Play With Building Blocks

Architecture is just putting one thing on top of another in an attempt to build a structure. It's likely you will need to have buildings within your film and a little experience with constructing things will help if you need to build custom structures for your film.

Sculpting, Ceramics

Although film is two-dimensional, it is filled with three-dimensional objects. Some experience with creating three-dimensional artwork could be helpful in this task. It will help you understand form, shadows, lines, texture in a way that reading about it in a book could never.

Drawing, Painting Classes

A film is painting with light. The composition of which is judged the same as an illustration or painting. It's helpful to know the principles of two-dimensional visual art composition if you are going to be involved in a similar art form. It may help in drawing storyboards or may just open your mind to possibilities you didn't think available to you before. Instead of just shooting whatever is available you might become more creative and particular, and consequently push the production design in more unique areas than you might have otherwise.

Production design is a varied discipline and just like any other aspect of filmmaking has its rightful place within the moviemaking process. It should neither take over nor be ignored. It's just another tool that a film maker can employ in the making of his or her movie. Treat it with respect and it will work for you and your movie.