D2- Advanced Major – Pinocchio

 

When we were first told that we would be designing for Pinocchio at the beginning of the year I was really excited to do it but when it came to actually do it I realised how much I don’t like the style of panto, it’s too cheesy and bright and fake for me and I found it a challenge creatively to create something that I would actually like. Because I didn’t really enjoy the experience I was having I decided to turn it into more of a model making challenge and try to work on my model making which I really enjoyed maybe a little bit too much enjoyment as I took about a week making a gypsy caravan with exterior and interior detail, which was probably an unnecessary process creating the interior but I enjoyed it and I feel I learned a few model making tips! One thing that I really am grateful for during this project was that I managed to learn how to solder which I used to make my caravan wheels, I think this is something that will really come in handy for model making a lot so I am glad I learned it now! I feel like I don’t actually have too much to say about the project as I didn’t feel like I learned much other than stuff to do with building my caravan and the fact I realised pantomime really wasn’t my thing!

Below is a photo of my caravan at its white card state but without wheels.

 

D2 Production work- Jack and the Beanstalk

Working on panto was an interesting four weeks of my life, I think whilst I was there I hated it, the atmosphere and the people I was working with I really did not enjoy and I came home every day feeling crap. Now, looking back on my time on production work I think I really appreciated it and learned a lot even if it didn’t seem like it at the time! Being put on production work in a venue that we had never designed for but could possible design in one day was a really good way of getting to know the venue and seeing what it could do! I think one thing that I really didn’t like about my time on crew was that fact that at the beginning of our time we were told that no questions are silly and we can ask anything we don’t understand which obviously would be for quite a lot of things considering it’s the complete other side to our course, but if we did ask any questions because we were completely oblivious to most things they use or do we would be told off for not knowing or get treated like idiots. I think one important thing that the technical production students should be reminded of when the designers come to work on their side is that we do not know what we are doing and we are trying to learn, were expected to do things that they have spent however long they have had in the uni or even out with uni learning, all things that we have never really learnt. If it was the other way around and they came into design and didn’t understand something we would explain it to them without treating them like a fool!

Another thing which I thought was wrong about our four weeks there is that we were encouraged to ask questions about why and how that works, but sometimes if we did ask a question we would be told that there wasn’t enough time to explain it and so we would get an answer and would just carry on as clueless as before. The point of us being there working on production work was for us to understand the venue and how things worked together when it comes to the fit up etc. but we weren’t also told which completely gets rid of the point of us being there as we were no longer learning things that could possibly come in handy later on!

So although at the time I hated being on panto crew I would say to anyone from the years below who would be doing it, to stick it through and ask as many questions you can even if sometimes you don’t get an answer it’s worth it! It’s the only time you get in the venue and your one chance to ask questions to people who work on shows in the venue constantly!

 

 

 

Visual Communications and Choice Module (Creative Drawing for Production)

As part of the first trimester module we have a module which consists of life drawing, Photoshop, technical drawing and technical sketching which is a series of classes once a week. I also choose Creative Drawing for Production as my choice module which consisted of life drawing, Photoshop and coral painter classes. Looking back on the two of these I probably wouldn’t have picked the choice module that I had chosen and I felt like I was doing nearly the same thing every week. However saying this, my tutor knew that most of us in our visual communications class were taking the same choice module and so gave us other things to learn so we would become more experienced with Photoshop etc. so because these two modules were fairly similar I’m just going to talk about them in the same blog.

Life Drawing was one of the subjects that was in both of the modules and I think this is probably the subject where I needed the most work, and although I still could do with some work on getting the proportions of the body right and other small things I think I have come a long way from where I used to be with my life drawing skills and although they are not perfect drawings I feel really proud with what I managed to achieve. Once all the life drawing classes were over I was designing a costume for a pantomime and I just sat and drew it and was really happy that I had managed to draw a costume on a body without a template which is what I usually do! I do think I need to work on life drawing and from doing so many life drawing classes I have realised that every time you try and draw someone or something you will get that little bit better which is what I want to continue to do, whether it’s be drawing the person down the train from me on the way to Edinburgh or someone in a movie that I’m watching on a lazy Sunday afternoon I want to continue so that I can continue to get better and better which is something I think is a very important factor for a designer to have!

 

 

 

 

The Photoshop classes we had were really good! It reminded me of how much I used to love Photoshop which is something I used a lot during my time at school and I did a lot of photo manipulation throughout my A levels in art. It’s come in handy quite a bit for designing, just seeing what things will look like together changed the shape of doors and also for costumes drawings, giving my costume drawings background that relate to the stage etc. I plan to continue using Photoshop as I think it’s a brilliant design tool for getting your design ideas across to those who are supporting your show and making it a realised production.

 

 

Coral Painter was something that I experienced a little during the summer school design course that I did a few years ago and I really loved doing and thought that it was a really good resource to use for costume drawings because of the different brushes that you can use and textures you can create with it. I have coral painter on my laptop and have a drawing tablet but using the drawing tables from uni showed me that my drawing tablet was a bit aged and I should probably get a new, up to date one so that I can use coral painter quicker!

 

 

Technical Drawing classes were okay I felt like I had learnt a lot about technical drawing when I was at school which put me at a great advantage, I was a bit rusty to begin with but after getting into the swing of it again I remembered really how simple it can be! I also learnt a few tricks about doing close ups in technical drawings and using things to show more detail in drawings. One thing that I am really glad I learned was how to use the big massive drawing boards! I think they are great and I can’t wait for the day when I can use it so quickly that I can pull out a drawing within a few minutes that’s perfect! We got taught about using skins for technical drawings and if I’m honest I don’t really like them, I understand how they can be useful to see how things can come together but I really don’t think I would like to use them! Although when doing a technical drawing for a flooring I understand why that would come in handy and I would definitely use skins for that type of thing!

Our technical sketching class went missing in our timetables so we were given and hour class the week of our hand in and we all just sat drawing and object which would be our hand in. I think technical sketching is a good form of communicating how you want things to look and I think it could really come in handy and I think I would like to learn more about them. I feel having an hour class on technical sketching was definitely not enough and so would like to have more classes on that area!

D2 - Macbeth

 

The first project for this year was to design a theoretical design for Macbeth in the Chandler Studio Theatre. It was really good to get back into the design swing of things after summer and it was great to start with a full design. This ran for 6 weeks and I spent about 2 of those weeks choosing between concepts, although my final design was actually the first one I came up with but I loved it and really believed I could do a lot with it and I think this feeling made me want to work as hard as I did on the project. I set my Macbeth in an old boarding school set in the modern day, twisting the characters so that the witches were the bitches and Macbeth was trying to be the popular guy in the school and Lady Macbeth was madly in love with him writing I heart Macbeth over her books and carving it onto her desk. My white card presentation didn’t go as smoothly as I was hoping, it was pointed out that I needed to have more pazaz in my presentations which is something I took a little bit to the extreme for my final presentation.

Below is a photo of my white card model for my prelim presentation.

 

Because this project was a full design process it was really good to sit through everything and realise that the more you did something the quicker you get at it, for example technical drawings, I had so many to do for this project and the more I did them the less mistakes I was making, the faster I was doing them, and the more I found myself enjoying them! I know that before I used to look at technical drawings and think ‘oh god, that’s going to take me ages’ but I honestly grew a large fondness for technical drawings and now want to learn how to become even better at them. Another thing I found really good was having a budget and coming to the conclusion during my prelim that I wouldn’t be able to afford everything I wanted and I would need to make sacrifices which is something I did for my final presentation so it would be cheaper for the production but still create the impact I wanted to create.

My final presentation for Macbeth went well, I made sure that I had enough pazaz to please my tutors and gave my costume, props, construction, and scenic hand outs in school jotters to tie in with the setting of my design and to get people in the mood which I think worked well! I know that doing presentations I get really nervous and end up talking quite fast which is something that I need to work on so that people understand everything clearly.

 

Below are photographs of my model box from my final presentation.