Setting up for Teach Em' a Lesson.

After the design team set up the flats, the props team were able to go in and place the over sized props accordingly. At this point the final touches and reassembly of the flats had been made, and the cameras where getting set up ready to be filmed. The actors and TV production students where also running through their cues and lines in preparation for the dress rehearsal that we were able to view. 

Finished trunk holding both the historic and oversized school themed props. This was set the side, ready to be moved onto set during a break. 

Photo of the final set including desks and chairs, before lighting was set up (before props where placed.) 

Transporting Set; Tv Production

To move the set from where it was being worked on in our workshops to the TV studios in Maidstone, each flat had to be disassembled and packed up separately. This meant cutting through the paper that the chalk set was painted onto, unscrewing the supports and wheeling each one out to a van. These would then be reassembled in the studio where it would go on to be filmed.

The above images firstly show one of the five panelled sides in preparation of being taken apart after being lifted to the ground. The second image shows the finished separate panels getting wheeled away.

Completed Flats: Teach Em' a Lesson

With the design hand painted on by the design team, the 'Teach Em' A Lesson' flats are complete.

Recap: The design team decided to suggest changing the Victorian school house concept to a simpler, but very effective 'chalkboard' drawn backdrop. This meant less time spent sourcing, buying or building things for us, but the production students still got the immediately recognisable school environment that they desired.

Preparing Flats: 'Teach Em' A Lesson'.

As I was filling a support role in this project I focused mainly on preparing the old flats for refurbishment. This would mean that by the time the main design team had finalised their plans, the flats would be ready to be painted and have the designs transferred to them. Myself and Mel used a corded hand sander to remove all of the thick, dried paint, else the paper laid down with wallpaper paste would be uneven.

Leigh and I then spent a few evenings wallpapering the smoothed flats with paper and till roll. Under our supervisor, Bruce's advice, he suggested that till roll would neaten the edges that had to be cut when the flats had to be disassembled to be transported to the TV Studios.

The wallpaper itself was used to paint the design over, rather than paint straight onto a second hand flat that had a variety of paints and textures on them already. This was altogether a quicker and neater method.

Photos taken by Carmela McCarthy, Leigh Osbourne and myself.

Sculpting and Texturing

Before texturing, we assembled the main body of the set build; the archway. This was to make sure it fitted together so far, so any changes to the shape could be sculpted from the foam before the texture was applied over it. The texture dries very hard, so making changes prior to its application was ideal. The advantage of having a texture that dries very hard is that its also fairly impenetrable, and seeing as this piece will be in public use, having that coat protecting the soft polystyrene is really useful. At this point I had also assisted in the sculpting of the polystyrene, so it was beginning to resemble a rocky surface.

Once happy with the construction of the archway, it was taken apart into three separate sections again in order to be textured. As the Styroputz is quite a heavy texture, both when it's wet and dry, it's easier to apply when the polystyrene pieces are flat, else it begin to fall off. This is both inefficient and a waste of materials so deconstructing the archway was the most logical solution. 

Stone Samples

Before texturing and painting the polystyrene, I carried out some test samples in order to practise the scenic art before applying it to the final thing.

For this 'Flints scenic mud' was used to colour, and Styroputz was used as texture.

The styroputz is a premixed texture that can be applied straight to the polystyrene and left to dry. Once dried, it leaves a thick, course, sandy texture. It was impossible to apply with a brush as it kept rolling up and falling straight off the surface so ,with gloves on, it was applied by hand.

Final Design choice

Uploaded to the Facebook group by Tara Dunne on the 25th February 2016.

Having revised that it was not a historically accurate Victorian school house that the students wanted but instead simply something instantly recognisable as a school environment, the design team pitched the above mood board.
This design meant a much simpler ask for us as builders and sourcers, as all furniture/ windows/ wall texturing could be painted straight onto a dark grey background. Even though it meant we were limited to a black and white colour scheme, the mood could be changed instantly with use of coloured lighting.
As a whole, this design meant a lot less construction, therefore more of a budget to spend on other aspects, as well as presenting a far quicker method of creating the set which was vital in such a fast paced project.

Guildhall: Beginning making

After measuring out the polystyrene blocks we'd be using for the main body of the rock pieces, preparation for construction could begin. This included drilling into the polystyrene to begin creating the supports, (left) and using expanding foam to stick two pieces together. This would later on get used for the 'roof' section of the structure, (below).

Stage weights were used to weigh down the piece being stuck down with expanding foam, as as the foam expands, it would begin moving and pushing the top piece off if not adequately weighted. This was left over night to go off.

Digital Art; Drawing from Photos

As a change from drawing still life objects, we were challenged in class to draw a still form a film or movie. I chose an image from one of my favourite TV shows, 'Hannibal' as I liked the shapes seen here, and wanted to concentrate on form and composition. Because of this I think choosing a scenery to draw instead of a face worked better for what I wanted to practise.  

 I began my sketch by planning out the basic shapes, and using the colour picker to select key tones. At the beginning, I wanted to include the specific shapes of the horns and further in I realised how many beams there are! However, as I drew more of the picture I realised how difficult and time consuming adding all these little details in would be, especially for a simple sketch.

 Finished drawing: I found out that by concentrating on the shapes instead of counting the details, I was able to create a much more effective sketch a lot quicker. Even though the antlers aren't obviously antlers, it's the form; sharp, spiky, spread out fingers across the image. This created a much more stylised piece, but still conveyed the space and dark mood of the room.

As my first scenery styled drawing, I'm happy with the outcome, and I learnt a new way of drawing to create the scope of space.

Props; Titanic Sign.

Process from beginning to end of a 'Titanic Sign' made at university; Part of our props term that focusses on a different project each week.



- Designed to suit one of the Titanic's life boats.




- Made to look like rusting bronze and iron. 




- Originally made in MDF, then cast in rubber silicone.




- Final prop made of fast cast resin, then painted. 





 - Painting techniques used where dry brushing, sponging, and using wire wool to wear through different layers of colour.



- The images show, (in order:) 1. Body filler being applied to the MDF base to fill in the gaps between lettering and back board. 
2. Resin cast after just being removed from silicone mould.
3. Bronze spray paint and black emulsion paint dried and weathered.
4. Final painted piece. 



- Overall I'm really happy with this sample. I wanted to make a piece that looked as it if was made of metal that had been naturally weathered by salt water, and I feel I achieved this.