Jacks Design Blog

when we built the grass and the bench we used techniques such as black lining to make it stand out more, colour coding which was also to do with the concept. for the bench as well we also had to reinforce it so it wouldn't break when it had people stand and jumping on it. we also had to paint it with roscos very carefully because if we got paint of the black lining we had to do it again. a cirtain amount of carpentry had to be used as well to make the grass from scratch.

on the 'ubu plays' we used multiple washes of watered down stains on all the beams and struts that where meant to be part of an old barn to get the desired effect of weathered old wood. we also used a lot of black lining of the 'insect play' to make things stand out and give it detail. and as well we splattered paint on our crash mats of the 'ubu plays' to break it up and make it blend into the set more.

i did my scenic painting when i designed, marked out, built and painted my two pieces of grass set. it was made out of 4 pieces of 8 by 4 sheets of MDF. first i marked out all my grass, once i had done that i cut them out using a jig saw. once that was finished i reinforced it using long rods of 2 by 2, after that i hinged them together using split hinges so they would stand up right, we then braced them using 2 by 2 rods and split hinges. after that was finished them we needed to paint them brown because that was the concept, once we had done a couple of coats of it and it had dried it was ready to black line, after a few attempts it was quite clear i wasn't very good at black lining but after i was made to persist i was finished and ready to be put in.

this is the model box that we made of our show. we used measuring and cutting skills to a high level to create it. this is our finished design it looks like our beginning design with the crash mats as our break fall, the back wall is all still the same bar the climbing stuff but instead we moved that out more and used ropes instead. most other props items and set are basically the same as our original idea.

i used this while i was ordering and costing for fabric when i was ordering red crepe fabric for the swags in the dance show, i also used this for costing the gold larma for the curtains.

unit 79- crit 2 continued

this is my tech drawing for the dance show 'because we can can can' 

when you choose your model making material it has to be sturdy but easily usable for building. It cant be too expensive because if someone was to do it wrong then you don't want to have to spend a lot of money replacing it. it tends to need some amount of flex but not too beady but at the same time it can be brittle. the materials cant be too different otherwise it would stick out too much in the model box. the materials have to be fairly easy to cut with a scalpel but not be easily breakable. so for model boxing foam bored card and balsa wood tend to be the most used because foam bored is easy to cut, doesn't break easily, doesn't have that much bend and fits in well with the other two materials. card is useful because its easily cut, you can bend/fold and cut it and it can fit in well with the other two materials, and we make a white card model anyway so that shows its useful. and balsa wood is good because its light but you cant bend or fold it and its very brittle but it is strong. so thats why i would use foam bored card and balsa wood.

1:100 – is used for architecture - everything is 100x bigger than it says.

during the get in we were in charge on making sure the construction team were building the set correctly. while we did this we had to weather the beams down and stain them. i was part of the team weathering all the beams while instructing the crew on how to build the band platform and the beams coming out of the walls. i also instructed the rigging team that came in to put up all the ropes safely. they also had to be instructed on how the cladding was going on because they were trying to put in straight hand rails but because the barn was meant to be abandoned i had tell them to put them on a strange angle. after that i went and helped them with the wall cladding we ended up doing them the other way round so it would fit it was a shame cause we didn't get the effect we wanted but it was still good.

This is the first 2D sketch that i did for the show. we only really used the back platform idea and the tire swing but the rest was taken out or changed. it took us a long time of talking about if the platform should come out more and if there should be anything under it, but in the end only one side of the platform came out. the bit and under the platform was all scraped. after talking to the directors they wanted more toys like the tire swing put in so we put in a load of rope based toys that could of been put up by kids or at least that's what their idea was. the top of the platform wasn't closed in either like it is in this design it was made more open plan so we could chuck people off the top. and instead of the band being under the set we decided that we should put the band on top of it.

we started discussing ideas once we had read the scripts and got the concept of the directors. the scripts gave us the idea of building a tower that could be interchanged into houses village and a castles so we could incorporate all 3 shows in one. but once we where given the concept that was 'children in a 1930's barn acting out the plays as if they were playing'. so once we found that out, that kind of destroyed our ideas. so we knew we had to build a barn and our idea was to have a raised platform all along the back which in the end never changed. but i wanted to have the band pit in the stables under the raised platform but we realised it wouldn't of looked right and it would of been dark and difficult to light so under the platform ended up being all open for the cast to run around. other designers wanted to have cart wheels and tools all around the place. in the end we had loads of tools but the cart wheel never made it in. the other designer deigned barn doors to go over our fire exits to make it look more like a barn. the rest of it ended up being struts and beams that we sourced from our research. we also designed hay bails and bought bridles and saddles in to dress the set. a lot of this we spoke about for ages and a lot of all the changes took place between when we read the scripts and till we finished the model box. most the ideas that were scrapped was because in the production meetings the directors didn't like our plans.

when we started modle boxing i was given to task of designing and making the pallets and the wall cladding. first i build 8 pallets by using a source to get the measurements and so i know what its meant to look like. but the wall cladding i was aloud to design on my own, the head of design had already made the corner pieces so all i had to do was design was some more cladding. my first idea was to have lots of small pieces of cladding but after the first production meeting with them the directors didnt want them, they wanted two pieces of big wall cladding. so i went back and designed two pieces of cladding. i knew they needed to be about half way up the wall so i made one about 5ft and the second one about 7ft tall and one about 3m long and the other one just under 2m long. after i had finished and we took it back to the directors they liked it they just wanted to see if we could build a window as well for it and once we had build that it was ready to do the colour model and present.

unit 78- crit 1 & 4

When cutting you put very little pressure on the blade and using a steel ruler you cut into the card/foam board/ balsa wood by repeateadly going over the first cut until the blade goes through the material you are cutting. This way you are more likely to get a straight eage. For saftey you should always cut away from youself and concentrate on the task in hand because if you don’t you can cause injury. 

when we started on ubu and we were given the concept, we decided scafle boards look a lot like the beams and joists in all the barns we had seen in our research, so we decided to use them as the main material to use in our barn. in the research we collected we took ideas from them all. after we decided on the barn we needed to pick what kind of barn we want we ended up with a 1930's style barn that had been abandoned, so we have put in all the joists and weathered them down to look old. we also had a barn door that the directors wanted. because part of the concept was children playing we have put in a tire swing that can double up as a horse, we have a cargo net on one side of the theatre, there is also a load of climbing ropes to get up and down off the barn and a trapeze also dead centre just in-front of the crash matt descised in hay.

this is my sketch based on my research that is above this. a lot of the beams barn ideas and climing equipment was based on the research i have here. also a lot of this was original work, like the cart wheel and the  rope toy in the top right hand corner.