Production design as a media practice: QCE Film, Television and New Media

What this dot point is asking

QCAA organises making and responding around three media practices: production design, critique and stylistic production. This dot point is about production design, the planning practice that turns an idea into a deliberate, documented plan for a moving-image media product. Production design is where intention, audience and the five key concepts are set down before a frame is shot.

The answer

What production design is

Production design is the disciplined process of planning a product before and during its making. It is not decoration; it is the practice of deciding purpose, audience, platform, codes and structure, and recording those decisions so the product can be built deliberately. In Unit 3 (Participation), production design centres on planning products that invite audience participation.

Design documents

Production design produces concrete documents. The most common in this subject are:

• A treatment a written outline of the concept, audience, platforms and how the codes will work to engage and involve the audience.
• A storyboard a shot-by-shot visual plan showing framing, angle, movement and transitions.
• A script structure, dialogue and direction across the running time.
• Supporting plans shot lists, schedules, platform maps and asset lists.

These documents make intention visible and let a maker (and a marker) see whether the plan is coherent.

Designing for an audience and context

Production design always starts from audience and context. Who is this for, where will they meet it, and what do you want them to do. An original example: a student designs "Night Market", a multi-platform piece about a local street-food precinct. The production design specifies a vertical short-form teaser to hook a young mobile audience and a longer companion piece for a community page. Every design choice is justified by the intended audience and the platform context, not by personal preference alone.

Designing participation in

Because Unit 3 is about participation, production design here must plan the participation, not leave it to chance. The treatment should state how a specific code or feature (a poll, a prompt, a branching choice) will invite the audience to act. Participation that is designed in from the start reads as deliberate; participation bolted on afterward reads as an afterthought.

Justification: the key concepts as a checklist

Strong production design justifies choices against the five key concepts:

• Audiences who is it for and what will they do.
• Technologies which platforms and tools and why.
• Institutions what distribution context and conventions apply.
• Representations what or whom the product represents and how.
• Languages which codes deliver the meaning and the participation.

A plan that can answer all five with specific reasons is a strong plan.

Production design and the other practices

Production design feeds the other two media practices. It precedes stylistic production (the making practice assessed in IA3) by setting the plan, and it is informed by critique (the responding practice), because studying how others work teaches you how to plan. The three practices are a cycle, not a list.

Making and responding

Production design is primarily a making practice, but it depends on responding: analysing existing products gives you the design vocabulary and the evidence for your justifications. Treat every product you critique as a source of design ideas you can adapt with intention.