Friday 26 April 2013

Set Completion (Very Nearly)

So today I essentially finished the hallway set save for a few little details yet to be finalised and near as damn-it finished the living room and bed room, save for the floorboards which I'm presently working on. So below are some more test photographs in lighting that can only be described as diabolical.


(Above: Hallway- Carpet not intended)

(Above: Living Room minus curtains or floorboards)

(Above: Bedroom minus curtains or floorboards)

(Above: A semi-successful moody shot of Violet)

(Above: How the set is held together. Standards shall improve when shooting commences.)

Still extremely excited about the project and feel the story is heading a new and exciting direction. I plan to start shooting Wednesday 1st May. I look forward to setting up proper lighting and getting some lovely shot from the sets and puppets

More to come.



  













Monday 22 April 2013

Set Pieces

Been working on more set pieces, experimenting with paints and other such stuff.

(Above: Living Room wallpaper colour, green and damp. I like it a lot)

(Above: Bedroom wallpaper colour, meant to imply pooling stale blood, however red is an extremely tricky colour to work with so shall probably repaint it soon to give it a darker, more uniform look like the living room wallpaper)



(Above: Unsure, I may use carpet for the floor in this set, would be interesting if a little tricky to work with)

(Above: A "Ariel" shot of the set in its basic construction for future reference)



Tuesday 16 April 2013

Wardrobing 2

Managed to pretty much finish the wardrobe prop/set piece today which is a good feeling indeed.





I was going to add a physical sculpted "carved" motif to the door but I no longer think it needs it. I rather like the blobby messiness of the brush strokes.
This blobbiness is something I am carrying throughout the film in the set design, it is something that has become a motif which I feel is rather important for the film.
The film deals mainly with paintings and the creation of paintings, so therefore I feel the set in places, specifically the living room and bedroom should reflect this hand make almost organic feel.

More to come....

Portraiture

Moving on to something different for the project, I turned my attention to the portraits that would hang in the hallway of the house.

Each portrait shows a different person from a different time period. With pale white skin and haunting searching eyes.
There are three paintings, and one empty frame hanging. I shan't go into further detail.

A good friend of mine Natalie Todd (Who I would link you to but alas she doesn't appear to have an online presence as of yet) was kind enough to knock up some gentle pencil sketches for these portraits as I didn't feel my drawing skills are in no way up to creating what I actually want for the film.
I felt far more at ease knowing an actual illustration student was helping me than knowing I was relying on my own perhaps sub-par abilities. I am a sculpture primarily these days and it would only show in the drawings I would produce.

But anyway, here are the pencil tests she was so kind to provide for me as a clue as to what she had in mind.

(Above: Left, an Elizabethan gentleman bearing a slight resemblance to Peter Cushing. Right, a woman from the Regency period intended to have a hint of a resemblance of Elisabeth Sladen)


(Above: Left, a young Dickensian gentleman with a dash of Ben Whishaw in his face. Right, a woman from the 1940s with a delicate hue of Sophie Aldred in the face)

The people I suggested to Natalie as reference all have or had soulful, evocative eyes which is very important for these paintings. They must have a haunted unsettled feeling to them, and I feel that Natalie made me proud in these sketches.


The idea was for Natalie to produce said portraits in photoshop to mimic the feel of an actual painted portrait which I would then print out onto high quality printer paper then "paint" over it with PVA glue to give it a painty texture and a gloss as well.
Eventually time passed and Natalie had to reluctantly pull out of the project leaving me with an incomplete but terribly lovely digital painting of what to expect.
Her schedule was and is still hectic and so my project was only interfering with her own education. Something I could not willingly allow.

And so that was that.

Then I turned my hand to trying to make the portraits myself. I got less than five minutes into sketching what I wanted when I lost the will to live. But, more importantly, had a bravewave and suddenly realised the answer was staring my in the face all this time.

Why make three new portraits myself when I have three beautiful pencil test sketches from Natalie all ready to go?

So I printed the portraits off onto some lovely textured paper, cut them out and gently coloured them in with watercolour pencils, giving them a light wash of water to get the colours to run a little.
I then cut them out, along with a rectangular slip of acetate, four strips of angled wood and hay-presto, done.

Here is part of the process










I'm still tinkering with the frames but I am also aware that I don't want it to look perfect. I want it to feel slightly cobbled together not to mention old. I'm very pleased with how these turned out and am terribly thankful for what Natalie has done for me.
(I did, just to be clear, run this by Natalie who gave me her approval to use her work anyway, which I'm terribly grateful for)

More to come...




Sunday 14 April 2013

The Psychology of the House


Whilst drawing up the plans for the set I started thinking about the "Personality" of the set, the "Psychology of the House" as it were. It sounds a little pretentious I will admit, but it suddenly gave me a brilliant idea for how to approach building, dressing and filming the set. Soon after this idea stuck I thrashed out a tiny bit of writing to put my thoughts into words. It is as follows:

These Four Walls: The Psychology of the House.

The House is like a Venus Fly-trap, its hallway is inviting and comfortable, the windows around the front door are long and friendly, like eyes wide and open, welcoming its new friend.
The hallway is modestly decorated. Pale-off-yellow wallpaper, slightly stained but nice nonetheless. The colour does however lose its pleasantness as it moves down the corridor towards the paintings hanging on its wall.
It is as if the colour has died on its journey, all life sucked from it.
As Violet moves throughout the house, the condition deteriorates; the rooms become danker, darker and nastier.
The living room is relatively well-kept, the wallpaper is a deep green, almost damp looking.
The floorboards creak under foot.
Again this room is in reasonable nick, not as homely as the hallway however, something sinister, the walls are crumbling beneath the paper.
The bedroom is totally different.
The wallpaper is a dusky red, a couple shades difference from that of stale blood. The colour pooling in the corners where it meets the floor.
The paper is again peeling and the bare wall behind is exposed.
Again crumbling, stained and damp.

It is almost like moving through a predator’s digestive system. The surroundings are progressively unpleasant and inevitably heading towards a horrible outcome.

Violet's outfit shall contrast with the set, for instance, for the scenes that will take place in the living room, with its dank green wallpaper, Violet shall wear her newer deep red (deep as blood) jumper to contrast, and in the scenes that take place in the bedroom with its dark red, stale blood hued wallpaper, Violet shall wear her deep green jumper as contrast.
This way the colour red, a foreboding and even primal colour is nearly always present. 
I want to create a feeling of decay throughout the house, give the impression it is alive, or better yet, on the verge of death.

More to follow...

New Jumper




So it was my birthday yesterday (22. Goodness me) and I received a package from a friend in America who is graciously helping me by providing Violet's jumpers. My friend Brenna being a prodigious crocheter, her site is http://www.etsy.com/people/nutsaboutcrochet13 (Note, she only sells patterns)

I now have two lovely jumpers for Violet to wear, beautifully made by loving hands.
I already know how and when these two jumpers shall be used within the film (i.e. what scenes and sets they shall be worn in) which shall be addressed in the nest blog update.

More to come....

Banisters

And so on to another piece of the hallway set, this time the banister that alludes to their being an upstairs part of the house that Violet lives in.
In the film the actual stairs won't be seen on screen only implied through the use of sound and the element I'm building below.
Bit of a trick really.








More to come....


Doorways





   
(Above: Weighing down strips of wood as the glue dries. Who needs a vice.)






(Above: As I was setting up the photos above, Violet suddenly tumbled off the table, he head flying off her neck joint. Luckily nothing was broken or damaged. Apart that is, from this single curl of hair that I ended up searching for on the floor for about half an hour, scrabbling around in the mess that surrounds me. Felt terribly relieved when I found it and glued it back on and saw that it looked fine)


                                                         


 


The design on the door windows took a while to settle on. The central flower is a Violet. I wanted something simple, and it links in with the designs on the other windows that surround the door.
The design of the other windows, for me, was to reflect the story arc of Violet being surrounded the licks of black paint that ultimately lead to her demise. At the risk of sounding portentous, I shall say no more.

More to come...





Monday 8 April 2013

Varnish and Wallpaper






Started varnishing the door and it looks a treat, have also started wallpapering this part of the set. A long way to go yet however.

More to come...

Sunday 7 April 2013

Age and Wisdom


Feeling on top form today, made the door and aged it all in one day, very pleased with myself.
Added old scuff marks by dry-brushing lighter paint, adding a lock too, because you rather need one of those in this day and age.

And also remembered to put a letterbox on the door, which is something I famously managed to *not* do with my previous project which involved a door being in shot quite prevalently, which I didn't seem to live down.
So I'm addressing that here and now.

More to come.

Door Work

Right, so more productivity. Started turning my attention to the set itself which is rather fun. Using large sheets of Poly-board. I was going to build large elements from light weight wood but it soon became impractical, fortunately brush-strokes make up for woodgrain texture.

(Ceiling Required, good advice)








More to follow...