Scenic Painting: Burial Mound

The burial mound was painted with a range of scenic painting techniques, beginning with base coats of varying greys and whites. Then darker washes were brushed over these, picking out the natural textures created by the Styroputz. Sponges were used to dab on a green moss effect.

Final Lighting tests: Dress Rehearsal

Photos taken after the final set up of both flats and props.
About half an hour was taken to set up lighting and cameras to the point where filming could begin. Being able to watch the set and props in use, both with TV crew running about before filming and actors in character pacing across the set was really rewarding! The blue and red lighting brought the set to life and gave the impression of three different sections of stage, supported by the three angled walls themselves.
Seeing the TV Production students carry out their part in the project now ours was finished was also really interesting, and we were able to see both teams work combine to create a really cool finished product that was fun and satisfying to watch.

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.) 

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.

Styroputz and Texturing.

At this point the archway had been covered in the Styroputz, and had begun to be textured. Wooden supports and figuring out the set overall was also getting thought out. The flat wooden shape that Debbie is standing on will eventually be the floor of the set.

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.

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.