Jades Blogbook

This was the set completely finished!

Monday 25th November 2013 Today we started our paint calls, we got put into groups to paint the base coat of certain pieces of the set. The way we painted the set was putting one group on a building they didn't design and paint. So the way the whole team was split was by putting Me, Sam and Dan into a group to paint the base coat of the airship, whilst Keeley, Michael and Phil painted the base coat of Dan's and Sam's buildings on stage rights side. Once my group had finished the base coat of the airship we started putting colour onto it. The first colour we put onto the airship was the red/ brown colour, we had to paint the outside as well as inside, making sure we left certain bits so they could be painted in another colour! The paintbrush I used to paint the red/ brown colour was a paintbrush called an edging brush which helps painting the edges because the bristles are diagonal! The reason they are like that is so when you are going along the edge the paintbrush leaves a nice finish to the painted area! Once we done that Alan showed me how to do a wood grain affect on certain areas of the airship ! To make the wood grain affect Alan told me to get a old brush with the bristles all jagged, to get the brown paint I need to use, make sure there was enough paint on the paint brush then drag it across the area that needed to be painted, making sure you aren't pressing too hard. By doing this it made the wood look like it was old wood with the lines in it. Tuesday 26th & Wednesday 27th November 2013 On Tuesday and wWednesday we started at 6pm to be able to paint the set without actors on it. On both of these day we focused on painting the buildings in both sides making sure they had the grey base coat then the correct colours that we design for them. We made sure the big areas on all of the buildings before painting all the details on them. At the end of the these two days we had all the buildings painted in their right colour and we even started painting some details but not a lot! Thursday 28th November 2013 OVER-NIGHT PAINT CALL Thursday was our over night paint call, where we had to work all night to get the set completely painted! We got put into teams there were a few people working on the small details on the airship, other people worked on the small details on all the buildings whilst me and Keeley started marking out the floor design on the floor we done the middle cog and the cogs around it the scale then after that we had a few marks in the string so used that to add the rest of the cogs changing their size from small to big! Once we done that Michael and Phil got put together to paint the trucks whilst me, Dan, Keeley and Sam started painting the floor at first me and Dan worked on one painting techniques which was dark red as a base then add yellow to lighten it up, whilst Keeley and Sam worked on mixing the different yellows and oranges and red. After we had painted a few cogs with those techniques we had to fill the gaps in with black paint. So Dan, Sam and Alan carried on with the techniques on the cobbles and cogs, and me and Keeley started on the black filling. We managed to get all of it done by the morning which we were really pleased with. I think we worked extremely well as a team and got everything done in no time at all!

This is stage by stage of painting the floor design

This is the floor design before we painted it

Today we had to start painting the set and the floor design. We was [were - ab] yet again split into two groups! Dan, Sam, Mike and Phil went into the dirty room to paint all of the models with the colours that we researched so the buildings are the same colours as they were in Victorian London! Whilst they were doing that me and Keeley were design and painting the floor design! Alan showed us how we can paint it, by using a light golden colour, dabbing a darker colour where it would be shadowy and then a lighter colour the other side then mix it together to give it a nice effect! Then paint black around the edges to make it stand out, we didn’t finish the floor design exactly but we got a lot of it done and it looks really good and we think that it will look very nice in the theatre on stage!

This was my original design of my building then my model building of it which I'm very pleased with

Today we were against time we had to finish building the model of the set and give it to cooper and his team to build it. We got spilt into 2 different groups, there was Dan and Phil working on the trucks design and what they would look like and you had me, Keeley, Dan and Mike working in the sides of the set. We agreed on having buildings different heights with the tallest one at 14ft and the smallest one at 7ft. Mike was working on the clock tower whilst me, Keeley and Sam worked on our designs that we drew! We worked very hard all day and got it all finished by 5:30 and we gave it to construction to have a look at it all!

As soon as we got in we had a long discussion with Alan and the rest of the design team to let them know what was said in the production meeting and went through the major points that Robbie had said about the set! We spoke about the negative bits of the set that Robbie didn't like and we spoke about the positive things that Robbie did like and what we could of improved. We started thinking and discussing different ideas that could make the set better! In the afternoon Alan had a teaching observation which he taught us about paint and mixing paint we all got given a different colour and had to try and mix the exact colours. After we finished the painting lesson we went back and carried on thinking about the set!

Today we had to finish the set to show to Robbie so construction could build it! We were working really well as a team, we had to build a model of the gantry and the rostra, the people who were making the models were Sam, Phil and Dan whilst me and Keeley started to come up with ideas for the floor design and we started drawing it out! Whilst we were building them Alan was building different buildings from mine, Keeley's and Dan's designs from the other day. Near the end of the day we had to find out when Robbie would come up and see the set so we can get an all clear. Alan had to go to his teaching lesson so the whole design stayed so we could show Robbie! At 5 Kelcie came up to design and said there was a production meeting at 5:30 so we decided for me Keeley and Dan to go so we could all present the set! Within the production meeting Robbie said he didn't understand the design and wanted it more Victorian than steampunk, he wanted more ladder points for the actors to get up and down and he wanted the set more detailed so it looked like London in 1800's

Monday 18th November 2013 Today we had to basically re design and make the set because when the design team went up to Robbie he said we couldn't be able to do it as we don't have the time or money. So Alan made me, Dan and Keeley measure the ladders, gantry and flatage by the containers as we had to make scale models of them as that's what we are using. Whilst we were measuring them Sam and Phil had to go and measure the rostra. Once we had all the measurements me and Keeley had to make the models of the rostra whilst Dan was working on puppetry and Sam and Phil were working on building the gantry. My first rostra was very good and exact but then my next ones weren't but I'm sure I will get them done quicker and accurate

On Friday 15th we carried on designing the set we used the 5 perspective points with the long distance and short distance points. The pictures are the before and after design, in the first picture I my design that I drew out using a long perspective point once I done that I started measuring and cutting out strips of wood and sticking them together to make the design. As soon as I finished I showed Alan my work, he thought that if we split it in half and for me to make a replica of that half we can put them at the back and use them as either side of the gate by the dock doors.

Today Alan took me and Dan off making the air ship so Phil and Mike can build it as well. Alan made us start thinking about the walls and different designs we could do. We designed the walls with 5 perspective points one in the top right corner, on in the top left corner, one in the bottom left corner, one in the bottom right corner and one in the middle at the bottom. I mainly focused on the middle bottom point and the two points either side at the top, with the bottom middle point it was a long length away from the paper so I had a different effect from Dan's design where his was closer to the page. After I drew some buildings on the page making sure I include all perspective points I had to make the design out of 2x2 strips of wood and stick them together so we can see what they would look like in the model box. The effect that the design had was it looks 3d but is actually 2d it makes a wicked effect to the walls.

These pictures are my finished deck which is used for the base! How I made this was I worked out the size of the deck and how we need extra lengths on either side for the poles to hold up the wood. I had to make them 45 big each side which made the measurements 1920 instead of 1830. The other lengths had to be 2440 which is a standard length of the deck. I then had to measure the all the sides so it looks like deck and is the right shape and size of it, how I done that was I had to do the height of the side 175 but I had minus the two 45 widths so the right about of deck was correct. I took the 45 widths measurements off of the shorter sides as it wouldn’t make that much difference. Once I done that I had to take the width of the card off of each side so when it was glued together the measurements would all be correct! Also I had to take the width of the card, off of the ends of the smaller lengths to make sure the measurements were right. Once I done [did - AB]  all of that I had to cut it out and make sure that my cutting was straight otherwise when glueing they wouldn’t fit together. My cutting was good on the sides as when I put the sides on the deck the sides were straight and the measurements were correct. After I glued the deck together making sure that the 45 widths were taken into consideration I had to make the legs! There were 6 legs one in total 4 in each corner and 2 exactly in the middles. I had to find wood that was the thickness of 56 but the only measurements were 40 or 60 so I had to do the legs at 60! The lengths of the legs had to be 1080 and I managed to measure and cut them out properly without any being wrong! Once I done that I stuck all the legs in the corner first as they were the easiest then got a scale ruler and measured halfway on the deck and stuck them [the - AB]  legs on the inside. Everything went better than I expected and was very please that I got it right!

This picture is the design and measurements that Dan drew from the exact life size model! I had to start by making the base first which is made by steel deck and on legs so the whole truck can move!

Today we finished off the cranes for the model box as we had to make them exact to size and shape by cutting out all the little triangles in the truss! After that Alan asked me to start building the model of the hot air balloon which I think is coming along quite nicely I am glad that my measuring and cutting is getting a lot better and I'm very pleased that my work didn't get smashed!

Today we carried on making boxes! I made an acceptable 1m by 1m box and moved on to making a 2440mm by 1220mm box with the height of 600mm box making it out of card, I had a few tries of that but my cutting wasn't very good but was getting slightly better. Once I finished that I had to make a 450mm by 450mm box, the first box I made was very bad because it had wonky sides and the measurements were all wrong but by the time I figured out what I done wrong I managed to fix it and do the second one a lot better. In the afternoon I finished the 450 by 450 box and helped Dan cut out the little gaps on his model of truss by doing that my cutting was getting better and not so wonky!

And then you should have a perfect model cube