Set Dressing Guide: How Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite Creates Meaning

The Meaning of Set Dressing

Defining set dressing

Before we get to our script breakdown for set dressing, let’s go over the meaning of set dressing and what film set dresser jobs actually are. This is also a good time to remember that set dressing is also referred to as set decoration (or “set dec” for short).

Set Dressor Definition

Set Decorator vs. Set Dresser

Set decoration is its own department within the art department, and the head of the department is the set decorator. The set decorator is responsible for sourcing anything to be used for set dressing.

In other words, the set decorator purchases or rents — or has other members of the art department build — whatever is needed to make each set look like a real, inhabited place.

On low-budget independent productions, the set dresser and the set decorator tend to be the same person. But generally, when thinking of set decorator vs set dresser, the set dresser works for the set decorator.

Set Dressor Meaning

Set dresser jobs in action

Set dresser jobs are under the overall supervision of the set decorator, and the immediate supervision of the leadperson. Like a key PA, the leadperson is essentially the key set dresser who coordinates the areas of responsibility for all the other set dressers.  

Set dresser jobs on a production include being responsible for cataloguing all set dressing items, transporting needed set dressing items to the set, and storing and securing all set dressing items.

Set dresser jobs may also include upkeep and repair of set decorations, which includes everything from furniture and rugs to wall hangings and books on shelves.

Script Breakdown for Set Dressing

1. Identify set dressing in the script

The line producer or AD will send the set decorator the initial script breakdown, along with several production reports that list the set dressing elements. One of those reports is called a breakdown summary.

We used StudioBinder's script breakdown software to generate a breakdown summary for Parasite. You can click the image below to peruse the full breakdown summary:

The set dressing in the report above is fully populated.

But how do you get there when you first import a script?

We need review the script — scene by scene — and identify every element that is related to set dressing.

In the scene below, you can see a scene in StudioBinder. Notice the only tags are the character names.

Think about the very first time you went to a particular friend’s house. What was the first thing you saw when you walked in? Was it what you had expected? 

Did they have pictures of family or friends around? Did they have matching furniture? What was the thing they had in their home that surprised you? 

Maybe your friend was given that chair or that TV when they moved in. Maybe one of their nieces made that weird little sculpture, and maybe your friend helped their grandfather build that table.

There is a story behind everything someone owns — even if that story isn’t particularly interesting, or if they don’t remember where they got it from in the first place.

We need to apply this same thought process to what our characters’ homes look like. We do this by looking for clues about who they are in the text of the script.

We’ve uploaded the Parasite script to StudioBinder’s screenwriting software to tag character information as notes using its breakdown function. That way, we have a separate element report we can refer to that helps us think about who these people are. 

We also get clues from Parasite’s dialogue. The things the Kim family say about themselves or about their apartment provide valuable insights into their characters.

This comment from Chung-Sook (Jang Hye-jin), for instance, lets us know from the outset that the Kims are dead broke. And without a phone, there’s very little chance they will be able to change their circumstances. When Ki-Taek (Song Kang-ho) mentions a cricket infestation, we learn more about the state of their apartment.

Bong Joon-ho illustrates the family’s poverty in the way he describes their tiny apartment, too: He uses words like “dank” and “semi-dark,” and he makes a point of showing us that their refrigerator is empty.

The Park’s, by contrast, live in a “mansion” where “the furniture and decorations are all tasteful.” It has a “gorgeously manicured lawn with majestic trees.”

Now that we’ve tagged all the clues we can get from the script, it’s time to start compiling references for the kinds of set dressing we might find in both the Kims’ tiny apartment and the Park’s lavish house.

Set Dressing Ideas

3. Create mood boards

As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. References are essential for relaying ideas between crew members and departments. 

In the entertainment industry, departments compile references into a lookbook bible or mood board. Lookbooks are just what they sound like: They’re a binder full of individual images that express the specific ideas we want to execute, in our case, as set dressing.

Our mood board for the Park’s house, for example, would probably contain images of oversized furniture that could fill the tremendous open space of the rooms. 

The script also makes a lot of references to the trees and the open “nature space” surrounding the house. So, we could add high quality, natural materials to our Park mood board as well, such as granite, redwood, or bamboo.

In contrast, for the Kim’s tiny apartment, our mood board might have a lot of disposable items. We might also include images of cluttered spaces and cheap furniture.

Where do we get these images? Of course, Google is your friend. But we can also take inspiration from shots in other films, advertising in magazines, or even a real-world home or other building.

Wherever our lookbook and mood board images come from, they’re only a tool for communicating our ideas. The director will have the final say. 

If you're using script breakdown software, you can create moodboards for every scene in the scene notes. It can also be helpful to embed video clips to demonstrate a look and feel in motion (something you can't get with a PDF):