Greta Godnič is a scenographer. By training she’s an architect, but at heart she’s a television scenographer. “The most beautiful thing to happen in my life is for me to be able to do scenography”. There aren’t many opportunities for this kind of work in Slovenia so she feels privileged. Perseverance, extensive knowledge, and the love of her work find expression in convincing results, when an empty television studio is transformed into a sparkling new fairy tale.

MP: In the era of information and communication technologies, we’re surrounded by virtual worlds; is scenography losing something of its own sense?
GG: Not at all, on the contrary; as I work I’m coming to realize the number of people aware of the importance of scenography is growing. Virtual scenography is not my way of expression. It can only represent the phase between, but in the end it should become material. Television is sound and image. Sound without image is radio. People need space on the monitor – we want to feel it and play our role in it.

How is the scenography a TV born, how does the process develop?
Work is best when the process is long enough and a team is formed that works together all the time: scenario writer, director, scenographer and costume designer. We all translate the summary into the space. The director has to know precisely the points from which he’ll show something, from which the scenographer designs the entire scene, from an overall view to the closest shot.
With one time shows I have a lot of manoeuvring space. Otherwise scenes go in and out of the studios daily, sometimes through the night. So they have to be designed to satisfy the mobility requirements. The solutions lie in specially designed constructions, height limits, wheels and more. There’s always too little time so assembly and dismantling should be simple. When designing a scene I have to know an actor’s ways, where people are placed, who’s exposed, where the cameras are.

MP: How do you design a scene such that viewers enjoy a full show-experience at home on their TV?
GG: First of all I’m often working on the whole space using optical illusions. When the space gets a form I start to raster it, plot it on a grid. My approach to each new scenography is unique. I have to divide the skin into smaller, tightly-spaced grids, otherwise the close-up plans will be empty. There should be something to see at all camera angles. That’s why I’m reducing rasters regarding the cadres. I like using three-dimensional rasters to achieve a sense of depth, and a playground for shadows. Finally I add colours to balance the existing space. It’s very important that a scenographer understand the translation of real images to the picture on a monitor.
Scenes are made in our workshops. This is an indispensable part of the process, it’s a special craft. The dimensions, materials and details applied in scenography are not those from the real world. When a new scene is coming on to the set, the assembly room is usually completely full of huge elements. Once the show is over, pieces of the scene are falling apart. Initially this was very painful to me – even now it’s a shame to see these creations broken down.

MP: Your scenography is extravagant, fanciful, colourful, and varied in range. How do you manage to succeed in keeping things new, innovative, interesting?
GG: If I had to decide on my profession all over again I’d still choose scenography. I live for it and it gives me what I need. I tried doing scenography for the theatre, where there are no cameras, and in film, where the environment has to be highly realistic. But the biggest challenge for me is television stenography, as it allows me to create my own abstract fairy tale. It also has the special charm of the translation from real space onto a monitor. Working with new materials, with which I have little experience of can predict how they’ll come out on the monitor is, for me, a real adrenalin bomb.
Author: Mattea Panterr, with TV scenographer Greta Godnič
Photos: courtesy RTV Slovenija