SET DESIGN
PLASTICS
FORMING THERMOPLASTICS
As the initial experimentation stage of the set design brief I participated in a plastics workshop, learning the processes of strip heaters and vacuum forming. The plastics we worked with were acrylic (perspex) and High Impact Polystyrene (HIPS) sheets of varying thicknesses.
EXPERIMENTS
WORKING WITH SCALE
In order to bring my 2D sketches to life I needed to figure out the correct scale for my set. The way I found easiest to do this was to just go in and start making experiments. I often find it hard to plan everything out meticulously on paper, it slows me down but I also prefer to plan smaller elements and let the model form itself naturally. As I tend to be drawn towards the details I decided to let go of my perfectionism and try processes with more malleable materials like the foam board and recycled wire.
By figuring out what size an average door would be in 1:50 scale and in comparison to my figures I was able to estimate the rough scale of everything else.
PROCESS
FROM CONCEPT SKETCH TO SET BOX
After working with the recycled materials I moved onto creating elements for the final product. When experimenting I determined the size of door I was going to use to reference most other things against. I began my first stage of the actual making process by cutting strips of aluminium and coffee stirrers. Staples were used for door handles and I even cut out tiny hinges.
To get the three stories I measured the hight of the stage and divided into three. This was to provide different levels for extra performance space and dimension.
From this I could calculate the height for the stairs. Next was making the stairs the right hight and angle. They were made up of black card and coffee stirrers.