Set Design: The Evolution of Einar's Hut

Set design is about telling visual stories that enhance the experience of watching a film and give you subtle additional information. It's a great example of soft world building. In Charge, Einar's hut was a great opportunity to present the viewer with additional layers of characterization that make him more believable and grounded. In this article, Beau and Andy explain their process of designing this important set.

The hut is a place Einar (and supposedly his companion Huginn) inhabited for quite some time, so there are a lot of little details that tell you more about his character and the world of Charge in general.

Initial concept and mock-ups (Andy)

First and foremost the hut was meant to present a stark contrast to the Factory environment later in the story. The building materials were supposed to consist of of up-cycled materials, trash and scraps from the junkyard. In terms of color this would give us a quite warm palette compared to the middle section of the film. I looked at a lot of tiny house projects and "Earthship" homes for reference on how to re-purpose materials in the building process. In the story, Einar was supposed to be crafty and inventive so it made sense that his home was well thought out and built, the overall concept was to keep it utilitarian without a lot of design flourishes.

Getting started

For me the best approach to set design is starting with a floor plan. Initially, my first floor plan was round: It was an attempt to create a more organic environment as opposed to the more angular design of the Factory. The design was more reminiscent of a yurt. But when Hjalti saw the first blocking, he immediately pointed out that they did not look Icelandic and he had never seen such a building there!

I immediately scrapped that idea and instead referenced traditional Icelandic turf houses which in turn are related to traditional viking designs. These types of huts are often embedded into the ground which were perfect for Einar's character. The factory is supposed to be an oppressive towering presence, whereas Einar was more earth-bound. Like turf houses, the hut would be composed of locally sourced materials: futuristic scraps, stones and corrugated metal and fiberglass sheets.

Important elements

We theorized that Einar was actively fixing electronics for the other inhabitants of the scrapyard, so outside there were stacks of old machines and various other things. He needed a workbench for building things and a way to maintain his robotic arm. Besides that the design was pretty much done around basic human needs: A bed, a kitchen, places to sit and store things (the toilet was conveniently put outside so we didn't have to worry about it occupying any living space). The big fireplace was added later in the layout process. Initially the idea was to create a blank wall where Huginn would project their old memories.

Lighting considerations

To help give the lighting later on a sense of realism, it's vital to design sets in mind with practical light sources. Where to place natural sources (windows) vs. artificial ones. Color temperature plays a big role, too: Since the outside and the factory were supposed to look harsh and cold, the warm interior light had to be balanced accordingly. Since Einar has no electricity, all his lights would be fuel based, either candles or oil lamps. This again helped convey the contrast to the factory. Initially we placed a big home-made stained glass window (from old glass scraps and bottles) behind Einar to give his home a warm touch. But this caused a certain disconnect of the interior to the outside since the jump happened in only over the course of a couple of shots. So instead we colored it in colder tones to give us a subtle hint of what is to come a few shots later.

Blocking

While layout was still being worked on, I started blocking out the set. The idea was to have a very quick template to inform the modeling process that Beau would take over. I also added more rounded frame structures. The hope was that they would look more 'sci-fi' next to all the ordinary everyday objects and would help frame the characters in certain shots. While blocking out the shapes I imported the cameras from Layout to help with angles. So while blocking, I did a bunch of quick renderings to get an idea where to place candles that would serve as key lights.

Modeling (Beau)

Gathering reference

Around Amsterdam are various artist villages or commercial areas with improvised housing and constructions. Places where someone could buy some scrapmetal, or get help with a project (sawing wood or welding). The nice thing about these places are the creativity people have to solve practical problems through ingenuity and building materials.

This is an important aspect and strengthens the sense of a dystopian setting where Einar and the populace build their home with what they can find. But also my dad’s farm where we tinker a lot is used as reference, especially the messy workbench! The photos taken are great for both constructional and texture reference.

The added benefit from shooting reference images is how metals oxidizes and develops or how wood is affected by moisture.

Interior detailing

After the handover from Andy, who already modeled quite a lot of medium details, the detailing stage of the hut began. The detailing can be separated into two different categories: constructional details and narrative details. Constructional details are the wooden beams, metal plates, bolts, and corrugated metal panels that form the base of the hut. These should be believable enough that the hut could in fact be structurally sound.

Narrative details are different sections of the room like Einar’s workbench, kitchen, fireplace, entrance, and sleeping area with more unique assets. These areas of the room is where the biggest focus will be and often the most detail.

These aspects motivated the design when detailing the set:

• We wanted to make sure that we didn’t incorporate any machinery or tools that are battery powered or the use of electricity. Since our story is about taking power to save your loved ones, we wanted to avoid any ambiguity that Einar could have used any source of electricity at home.
• Everything surrounding Einar is old scrap and thus forces people to improvise their homes, tools and living spaces.

Workbench

The workbench is constructed from various pieces of metal with a worn wooden surface. There is a contraption for Einar’s arm to rest on and work on it. The improvised cupboard is built with metallic tubes and irregular pieces of wood to store items. On the wall are various tools like screwdrivers, pliers, hammers and wrenches. Underneath the workbench are pieces of metal and junk that Einar scrapped together. On the ground a wooden log with an anvil nailed onto it to shape metal.

The fireplace

The fireplace is built of bent metal panels nailed together with on the floor a cut barrel with some turf or wood as fuel. On the side is a cooking tool for roasting food and a stove. On the mantel are some personal memorabilia and items with more details.

Entrance

The entrance has a quick storage rack for the most common tools for going outside such as an oil lamp, improvised shovel, folding stairs and chains. There is also a storage closet with cardboard boxes filled with junk and extra building materials. The door is reinforced with metal plates bolted onto a wooden frame with a view guard. On the outside, the door is reinforced with metal tubes clamped together.

The kitchen and sleeping area

These areas are kept quite simple and lower in detail. The kitchen has a tank full of water that filters rainwater as well as storage containers with grains or dried foods. It also has a wooden rack with spices and dried foods. To bring some live into his home, Einar created a stained glass window of various glass sources.

The constructional details are re-used around Einar’s hut and other huts from the created asset library. The charge asset library was used to create the set dressing in certain scenes in Charge.

Thank you for this chance to take another deep dive into the Icelandic dystopia that is Charge! If you want to know more, take a look at this page for various progress content uploaded to the website for more insights.