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| Chapter 8 Overview Graphics and sets are the two major pictorial elements that are a part of television production. Graphics include lettering and artwork, normally displayed on-screen to supplement the images captured on-camera. A news anchor's name, for example, can be shown on a graphic with simple lettering. More-advanced graphics might include the map of a war zone, a chart showing how tax money is spent, or even a moving graphic of a working piston engine or blood flowing through arteries. A wide variety of set designs are also possible, from the simplicity of a single folding chair and a curtain for background to an entire re-creation of a classroom, corporate office, or apartment. The disciplines of using pictorial elements include understanding and applying appropriate design principles. It is also important to have a clear understanding of what you want to convey to the viewer and how you will do it. The techniques of graphics include understanding your particular graphics system as well as a more general knowledge of the types of equipment and graphics effects available. Some of the techniques needed for sets require the skill of a carpenter or painter, but others are simple tasks that anyone can master with a little practice. This chapter covers graphics and sets by emphasizing the following topics:
One of the major reasons for using graphics and sets is to convey a wide range of information to the viewer without disrupting the overall flow of a program. During a baseball game, for example, a graphic in the upper-left corner constantly shows the current status of the game (score, team batting, number of balls, strikes, and outs, and runners on base), while supplemental graphics show information about particular players. The lower-screen crawl showing news headlines has become a fixture on cable news channels like MSNBC and CNN. (See Figure 8.1.) Sets, too, convey information to the viewer, although in a less direct way. A well-designed set made to represent the inside of a church tells the viewer that the scene is happening inside a church yet does not call attention to itself. In the same way, the set for a news program should provide an inviting, pleasant, and functional background without distracting from the message provided by the news anchors. Beyond informational functions, graphics and sets also play emotional or psychological functions. Many subtle messages can be conveyed by the total production design, and the pictorial elements—graphics, sets, props, and furniture—combine to give an "image" or "feel" to the program. In a news program, do you want the image of an advanced technological communications center or of a working newsroom? In a religious program, do you want the image of a traditional church service or of an avant-garde contemporary movement? The emotional function of design also includes creating and maintaining a style or continuity for the program. This style should carry through to all the pictorial elements used in the production; each pictorial element should look like it belongs with every other element. In some cases, for instance, a station has a news bureau in another city, and thus part of the newscast originates from the set located there. These "satellite" sets should match the main set, exhibiting similar style cues such as color and decoration. Maintaining this type of consistency is especially important in designing graphic elements; watch an evening newscast and notice how the various graphic elements seem to fit.
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