Realised Design Project

Going into this project I was very excited, it’s kind of the project that all the designers look forward to the most because it’s actually going to be created, and we nag the tutors basically every day with the question ‘when do we get out shows?!’ and then as soon as we found out time started flying! Running out of time for most things meaning blogging has come at the very end of this experience. Something very different about this module in comparison to the other is obviously the fact that you are working with a director, who has his opinions and his visions of how he sees things and you just have to hope that the both of you are sitting on the same ground. I had heard of other designers from the course talking about their first meetings with their directors and how they lasted hours so as I travelled through to Edinburgh to meet mine at the Traverse I was expecting to be sitting in that café for a while (not that I would be complaining, I’ve always wanted to look important sitting in that café!). the meeting did last a while but we only discussed the show for about 20 minutes, the rest was spent in general chat which I suppose is a good thing to do with any director you work with so you can get to know them, but it shows me that my director had very set clear ideas of what he wanted to see and how he wanted it done so I knew from the start that I would have a challenge changing things and putting my own stuff in, but I was up for that part of the journey.

Having created the concept in the first meeting I knew that what we wanted was going to be over budget, so I went to my production manager and explained what the concept was so that I could cut things before our actual concept. This was my time to get rid of some of the things that I didn’t like that was costing far too much, and surprisingly it was rather easy to say, we can’t afford this I think it should go, here’s a compromise that’s cheaper. So already things has started to move closer to what the final design would be like.

I had heard that my director isn’t very good at imagining things and as part of my research I was going to go to a Georgian house that was in Edinburgh to get inspiration and find out information about the Georgian era and the fashion that they wore. So I asked my director if he would like to come with me, and I’m very glad that he said yes, is gave the both of us an idea of what kind of things we would like to see, finding out new things about the era that we would like to incorporate and put us both on track for the kind of things that were around for wealthy families much like the family in the play.

Eventually having the real concept meeting where I was expecting it to be 4 people myself including turned out to be more because the show is so big, already I know I don’t like presentations so when more people come along that what I expected, it wasn’t too fun, but we laughed throughout the presentation and they laughed at my jokes, which not many people do. We discussed things that would need to happen with the set build and we discussed the costumes and the fact that because they are regency they can’t be altered easily meaning everything will need to be a stock. Luckily because my director works at the lyceum we had contact with their wardrobe so we felt like this wouldn’t be too big an issue.

From this point on is usually my favourite part, getting ready for the white card, making the model and technical drawings and slowly piecing everything together and going into the fine details. For the first part of this I moved through to Edinburgh as I had other commitments over Easter and so I set up camp in my mums design studio, this also meant that I could easily meet up with my director who is based in Edinburgh. I made a meeting with him for a time I knew my model would be finished to a good enough standard for him to easily imagine what this would look like and the meeting went well until he decided he wanted to add in an extra metre into the side flats, meaning I would need to remake the model, slightly annoyed but I didn’t mind, these things happen. I then moved back to Glasgow where I started remaking the model and doing everything I had done the week before again.

The process taking me up to the white card was quite a long period of time but I’m grateful of that because I had to remake my model and redo some technical drawings all of which took up quite a bit of time. I never got panicky about anything, if any disasters came up I dealt with it, my only problem I had was when I was needed to make a decision where I wanted to get the director involved, it wasn’t always the easiest thing getting in touch with him. I eventually would and then everything would get back on track again. My timing of my final had changed to being the week before which means I would have less time between my white card presentation and my final so I was making sure that I had as much work done for my final in order for me not to have to do too much work before the final.

The day of the white card presentation I am very happy with everything that I have and completely prepared! Until my director comes along and adds things in, and changes things all at the last minute leaving me unprepared for certain parts of my presentation, it was not a good feeling. The presentation itself was okay, but it could have been a lot better, I was very flustered and even though I had notes in front of me with the order of my presentation it still didn’t run smoothly. Another downside to my presentation was the fact that my director added things in half way through presentation making me look like I didn’t know what was going on, not a good look in my opinion, but you know what they say, grin and bare it, which I hope I did!

As the size of my show was so big obviously things had to be cut back and throughout the time between the white card and the final a lot of things went away, including the bed which I had been wanting to get rid of for a while, so the day that bed got taken away was a very good day! The sizes of flats were cut down as well and became a size that was suitable for stock which did mean re-doing my technical drawings and making my model, again! But I wasn’t fussed, I think one thing that I have definitely learnt is that these things happen, to be patient and not let everything get on top of you so that you’re buried underneath all your work. Remain on top of everything and you’re more likely to succeed.

the 23^rd of may, the day of my final, I had planned everything that still needed to be done the night before and in all honesty I never thought I would get it all done, I had asked for a time constraints as a challenge and well I felt like it had one. Arriving in uni at 8.30 and going straight to work without a cup of tea to kick start my day was quite possibly one of the worst things about this project but I got everything done and in record time too, done by 11 which meant I could get a tea and a roll from Scottish opera and then I still had 3 hours to double check things, meet up with my director and set everything up in the room my presentation would be in.

The presentation unlike the white card felt like it went a lot smoother, I had created a PowerPoint to aid the presentation and I think that definitely helped me keep on track, and if anyone missed something I said, it was there on the screen. It also meant my costume drawings and any other references were on the screen which meant people couldn’t see my hands shake unlike the white card. Overall I think the presentation went well and I brought the design across to the best of my abilities. I had stated last year that I wanted to work on my presentation skills and my confidence levels by the time of my realised final and I feel as though I actually achieved that! The questions at the end were filing down to the details and some of the questions I have to say I was stumped, only because I didn’t understand what something would look like, but I feel we came to a reasonable conclusion. Of course the question part of the presentation is when I get to see the bits that I missed and I think I definitely should have taken a closer look at my scenic pack, my list of jobs that needed to be done were slightly wrong, but it was cleared up, everything else seemed fine. The end of the presentation gave me a weird feeling, something I had spent so many hours on was now handed over to this group of people to realise, and my model box is now sitting in construction waiting to be build, it’s a strange feeling but I kind of like it, this project has definitely made me realise I have chosen the right career.

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.

 

Minor Subject - Costume

For the past 5 weeks we have been in our minor subject allocations, I was half excited to get back into costume and learn more sewing skills, and half not wanting to do it because I knew I would miss design so much. Which I did! At the beginning of our five weeks we got put straight onto the two shows that would be going down to the Tron, 'Victory' and 'The Possibilities'. We wroked along side the second years, who at that point were managing the shows, and we spent the week working on notes, so taking up hems, doing repairs and such like, I learnt a few new stitches during this process which definately came in handy later!

The second week was spent on a cushion project, making cushions which involved using different techniques which we would need to know, so I learned techniques like; pinning, stitching seams, pressing, top stitching, overlocking, ironing, inserting a zip, applying bias binding, making and applying piping, machine gathering, catch stiches, tacking and attatching buttons. Some of which I had already known, but it was really great to do a project which included so much!

Once I had finished making my cushion, I started making a 1560's womans hat. I found this task paerticularly difficult as I had never made anything without having an example infront of me where I could take reference as to how it fits together, all I had was a black and which photo of a 1560's woman, and the pattern. I started by making a toile which took alot of time, but I managed to nearly finish it by the end of the week. During this week, we also got to stand in on a costume parade for one of the tron shows, it was long, very long, and i've definately learned a few things to think about when it comes to designing my costumes, and things to be prepared for in a costume parade because, personally, I think it could have run alot smoother, and not have been as long. It was a very good experience to watch something that i will need to do in 2 years time, so im grateful that we managed to go and check it out! of course, leaving the costume parade meant more notes for the shows had to be done.. so... roll on week 3!

The third week, and we were back onto doing notes for the two shows again, we also had the seonc of the two shows, costume parade, which went just about the same as the previous one. I have to say I found doing ntoes rather boring, but I learned quite alot from having to alter a few garments, though taking out sleeves, and putting new ones in is so annoying, I really was tempted to chuck it out the window! On the 4th week we were down at the tron helping with the two shows. I thought it was a really good experience and it was really fun to get to work in another theatre and get to know how it all works there!

Now on week five and at the moment I am in the middle of finishing off a crinoline cage which I am making for the west end parade, which has definately taken longer that I initially thought it would, but I am glad that we have been given the time so that we can finish it. Its Tuesday at the moment and we have another 3 days in the costume department, and I think, I will hopefully be able to finish making my 1560's hats, and we might be starting to make some of the costumes for the shows that are at the beginning of next year.Which will be fun and a new thing for us to learn!

I have put in some photos of some of the garments that I worked on, aswell as close ups.

D1- Figures in Action

For this task we had to create six figures at a scale of 1:25, they were to be in a girl and boy pair, all at differnt ages; so a young pair; a middle aged pair and an old pair. If I'm honest I didn't feel very motivated for this project and found I had alot of time. I made my old couple last and because I had so much time left to work on them I found I put more effort so ended up with an old couple that I really liked that had a better shape to them,  compated to my middle aged couple with round heads. I did have fun with this task as I did enjoy making model figures, but I think if i were to be given the task again i would have taken more time over the young pair and the middle aged pair so that they could have been of a higher quality. I did find the project very easy to do in terms of just being able to sit there and create somthing, so I think I will definatly continue to work on scale people which will come in handy for model boxes and such like.

I have included some pictures of the three couples I created.