Character & Narrative- Week 7 - Set Design

Week 7 - 

Set Design

For the set, i'm designing a small board that i will be building up into a graveyard. I need to create enough of a scene for my audience to know where the characters are being placed and live in, but also it must be balanced. This is so the eye is not taken away from the focal character but not bare enough for it to be empty.

To start with, I carved out headstone shapes from sheets of Polystyrene that I purchased. I bought 12 sheets for £10 which was more than enough for me to do the base as well as these so it was a good purchase. As there were many needed, 3 basic shapes, 3 crosses and one vintage style tied together headstone were enough. Originally there were more planned but the set will be small and I dont want to overcrowd.

To do the text on the headstone, these stamps were very small so I thought they would be good enough to use but when i tested them out they left the circles as well as the letters so this would not work. But it was good to test them and see if they could be a possibility.

To cover the headstones, I covered them with tissue and watery PVA glue. This meant that i could keep some texture, as well as the PVA being able to harden as it dries. I then covered them in a black undercoat mixed with PVA again, so it can be a dark base as well as adding to the harder outer shell.

It was at this point I found that for the older headstone, the Polystyrene was too thick and fragile, so i used tinfoil and covered it in the same PVA and paint as the other headstones so they all look the same.

These are what they looked like after being blotted with a sponge with a lighter grey coloured layer so that the black can still show through and give it texture as well as being able to still look realistic.

These are all of them together. As you can see the older headstone is made of wood so looks different but still looks to be from the same place. They also look like they could be made of concrete. I just need to attach them to the base when it is complete before adding more texture by the base so they look like they are in the ground not just placed.

As I needed a prop of the tree that my character will hide behind, this is the starting point of the tree. I wasn't sure if i was going to end up making this prop as i was at one point being to either buy one or digitally add it in, but since in the industry they have to make everything. I thought it was really needed to make sure everything in the world looked correct as it would all be made by me so all look the same, therefore belong.

I started with balling up tinfoil and tightly wrapping it before glueing with UHU so it will be very secure. I then kept adding more to the base for when it wasn't high enough, as well as adding a branch coming off at the top so it can have more body and structure. As there wasn't enough shape, foam came into use as it could add twists into the structure that add to the overall look.

Once it dried, I twisted it to give it more shape and add an authentic feel as trees naturally twist when growing.

After this I started adding more branches where I thought needed them to create a more realistic tree. As the glue took some time to dry, I knotted tissue around the base to the branches when they were drying so they could move or fall which proved very useful.

This is the final outcome for the shape. I've added many branches as it needed to look full but as I'm not even good at drawing trees this was a struggle but i'm very happy with the overall result. I've done what was done with the headstones and covered them in watery PVA and tissues as adding more foam to areas that needed more bulking out or shapes adding.