St Mary's University Theatre - Back wall repaint

After 'They Shoot Horses, Don't They?' had been struck from the theatre, once the posters were removed, the double sided tape that was used left marks all across the back wall.

The extension with posters

I was approached by Alistair Milne, Senior Theatre Technician at St Mary's to return the extension section to it's former state. 


With help from my good friend Greg Smith, we spent a morning sanding off the tape, then simply repainting the whole wall.

Sanded down

The double sided tape

Final product - fully painted

Odds and Ends: Guitars - Telecaster

Following on from the previous post of the complete re-wiring and modelling process of the Eddie Van Halen style Stratocaster guitar, this post deals with another guitar project. The aim of the project was to change the colour from red  to black and white striped. 

The original factory paint job with an EVH style design

Replica of the original design. The same template was
used, albeit adapted for a Telecaster and the colour
scheme inverted.

Considering the experience with repainting guitars from the Stratocaster project, the job in question was far easier and quicker due to my new found knowledge and process of the actual job itself. 



To begin with, I removed the crude tape design from the body of the guitar. Next, the guitar was dismantled completely so I could effectively access every nook and cranny on the body of the guitar. 

Semi-painted

The body was then completely sanded down by hand to remove the gloss finish from the red factory paint job. I decided that, to simplify the process, I would stick with a black body with white stripes. This also proved a lot quicker, as it only required one coat. After the black had fully covered the previous coat of red, the body was then lacquered to finish.

Painted and lacquered 

While the body was left to dry, I photographed the body and planned using PhotoShop where the stripes would go.

The PhotoShop design template for the stripes. The thinner red lines represent the first layer of tape,
the thicker red lines representing the second.

Once the body was completely dry, I followed my PhotoShopped plan of where to lay the stripes using white electrical tape.


Finally, the guitar was reassembled and rewired.

Fully functional, the project was successful and I am happy with the outcome (above right image). The experience on the previous guitar project proved invaluable, as the whole process was swift and had no hiccups

Odds and Ends: Guitars - Stratocaster

A great hobby of mine is guitars, both building and playing them. I don't claim to be the best at either task, but it's something I enjoy greatly nonetheless.




Stratocaster
Some time ago, I began work on a guitar styled after Edward Van Halen's own design for guitars. I began with two guitars, a Peavey Vortex and a 3rd party Stratocaster model. 

Edward Van Halen with his homemade 'Frankenstrat' circa 2007.

Essentially, the whole project was to transplant the Vortex's guts into the Stratocaster. The process began with dismantling each guitar, and removing all the 'guts'- wiring, bridges, pickups, necks, jacks, etc. Because the Stratocaster's body wasn't built for the Floyd Rose style bridge the Vortex has, the housing around the bridge had to be delicately chipped out to accommodate the larger bridge.

 Once both guitars were gutted, the Stratocaster body (left picture, right guitar) had the glossy coat removed via sanding. Once the coat had been taken off completely, the excess dust was wiped off and the body primed with white primer.























After the white primer coat was dry, tape was spread across the body to mask the white sections from the  red coat of spray paint that was to follow. Once the red coat was finished, the same technique was used again to add the final layer of black paint.

After the aesthetics of the guitar were finished, I moved on to replacing the guts of the instrument. This involved cutting the pick guard out to accommodate larger pickups (see above left image) and rewiring the guitar as a whole. Being a novice with soldering in general, this proved challenging, but not impossible. After several attempts at soldering, I finally managed to get the wiring right. 

The above right image shows the initial final product of the project. Overall, I was relatively happy with it. Although, after all the hard work I put into the project, it still didn't sound and feel quite right.


After six months or so of the project gathering dust, I returned to it and had another go. I re-dismantled the guitar again and tweaked the design. I added more black stripes to it than I originally did, added damage to the guitar such as heavily scuffed edges and cigarette burns as well as replacing the original bridge. Even after the second attempt at the building, it still wasn't quite right. 

Once more, I revisited the project recently and de constructed the guitar again, this time intent on getting the wiring right once and for all. With this in mind, and realising that what I had just wasn't working enough, I completely started again with the wiring. So as to simplify things, I simply wired  one pickup to once control nob and the amp jack. And it works! Well, almost anyway. There are still some wiring issues (as I said, I'm not the best in the world!) but (I think) it's a case of the grounding of the electricity.


Even now, after all the time I've spent on making this guitar, I will admit, It still doesn't work; with the wiring issues, tuning, problems and a problem with the bridge, there is still ways to go before I get the right. I'll get there in the end. Because I've been working on this on and off for so long, I don't think I even could just throw it all out and be done with it. I've enjoyed the whole process thus far, and it has enlightened me that, yes, I am capable of doing things such a this, but I've still got a ways to go to get things perfect, and that no matter how hard something is to do, keep at it.

And you have my word that one day, I will get this blasted thing right!

Love's Labour's Lost

Earlier in the year, I was asked if I would like like to be set designer for a production of Love's Labour's Lost at St Mary's University College that would be taking place in mid to late April 2012.

Unfortunately, due to many conflicts with other commitments and scheduling issues between the majority of the cast and crew, the show has had to be postponed until September 2012.

Much of the work I had commenced was still in the design phases, but ready to go to be built by myself and Abi Toghill, who had volunteered to help me out.

The concept of the play was to have it set in 1980's Oxford University, with the story unfolding through the students. The play would be set outside on the priest's lawn. With this in mind, I began sketching general ideas for an outside set after conducted some research.

Scan of the initial design

A more refined idea, closer to what the set should look like

From the start of the design, I wanted the set to be completely static, but fully functional (eg; if there was to be a door, it would work). The grander idea (see top left image) would have ideally be built as a 3-piece set onto flats that bolted together when needed, then weighted at the back with stage weights for stability.Although I would have greatly enjoyed all the attention to detail this design required, I knew it could not realistically done considering time and budget constraints.


The next idea I worked on is the pillar (see top right image). This idea came from researching a particular campus in Oxford University; Corpus Christi (see below image).

Oxford University's Corpus Christi Campus' Quad.
The design was focused on the pillar.

Seeing as the set would be static, the pillar idea would work extremely well outside. Paths would be laid down in each compass direction from the pillar in gravel or sand, and benches would be added on two sides.

3D drawing of the set 

Scale version of the set

Cross-section showing how the set should be built

The pillar will be around 12ft high and built in sections for ease of transport, with the bottom oblong section, the pillar section and base section being separable.

Carvalho Studio

21/3/12

Today I worked at Carvalho Studio. Based in Hoxton in East London, Carvaldo Studio is a small studio dedicated to bringing the best sets and ideas for theatre into life through precise and beautiful scale models.

The workspace

Luis Carvallho invited me to visit the studio for a day to see the work  that goes into set model making. We spent time going over the process of the making, and chatted away about our own backgrounds in theatre and design. Currently, Luis working on developing a model box for a production of Eugene Onegine taking place in Canada later this year.

Luis' model thus far for Eugene Onegine

I was able to help Luis along with some of the work; I was asked to complete a digital scale version of some rolling flats that will have tree silhouettes spread across them. The design was made from a photograph of a wood. Once the design is fully finished, it will be sent to be laser-cut for the best precision in the model. It roughly measured  34 x 77 cm

The forest silhouette design

It was a pleasure to work at Carvalho Studio for a day, and will hopefully work there again in the near future.

They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (4)

 7/3/12

With the show starting today, everything has been completed. Since the last post, the posters have all been put up around the theatre; across the back section and across the adjoining pillar. The bed section has had flats put up inside it to mask the walls, which has since been painted black and dressed appropriately with a noticeboard full of photos and sign-up sheets from the age. The hours elapsed board has had the font amended and extra panels made for the ease of the cast. Also, it has been painted to give it a wooded effect. With the 6ft section up and ready, it has been masked with sheets of board and then had posters scattered across the masking. For Rocky’s office, a flat was reconditioned to be able to accommodate a door. When the door was found, it was a flat black; it has since been cut and now has a window made from a frosted gel. A new addition to the design was a banner that hangs above the postered section which reads ‘Marathon Dance Contest 1936’.

The show run from Wednesday 7^th March through to Friday the 9^th at 7.30pm each day, with a matinee on the 7^th at 4.30pm.

All in all, this production was an absolute delight to work on. It had a great production team and a great work ethic behind everyone involved.; it’s been a pleasure working alongside TA2 and the technicians.

They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (3)

22/2/12

Scaffolding for the set was cut today (6 x 6ft scaffold poles), but we are still currently waiting for the supplier to deliver the rest (another 6 poles). Also, work began today on the ‘Hours danced’ board. Using old materials found in the workshop, a 60 x 140cm board was cut out. To provide the numbers for the board, sheets of board with the same dimensions as an A3 sheet of paper (29.7 x 42cm) were cut, with 13 in total.

24/2/12
Progress on the ‘hours danced’ board continued today; the sheets have been painted white with the numbers in black. The scaffold for the 6ft section also arrived today after much delay from the supplier. The posters have all been printed and are now ready to all be placed on the conservatory section.

They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (2)

23/1/12

The photo shoot was successful; the appropriate cast turned up in an early design of the costume and plenty of photos were taken for myself and the publicity crew to work from. These photos will then be taken and illustrated appropriately to match the style of the intended 1930s material.

To see the photographs taken, please follow the link:
https://picasaweb.google.com/117599584378156466291/TheyShootHorsesDonTTheyPreliminaryPhotos?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCMrg78jMldy8rwE&feat=directlink

21/2/12

Since the photoshoot took several weeks ago, I have since finished work on the posters that will be used for set dressing. With a total of 21 posters, the posters have gone to print to be used to dress the set. The majority of the posters were designed from the photoshoot, but the rest were all deigned as posters you would have seen in a 1930s sports hall where the action of the play takes place. The designs for the posters range from advertisements for the dance marathon itself to posters promoting local businesses, holidays and mayoral candidates. The designs for the posters are all sourced and inspired by the research I found relating to the 1930s, ranging from movie posters to old flyers. These posters will be used to cover the back part of St Mary’s Theatre, the section nicknamed the ‘conservatory’. From the measurements taken, I calculated that we would need around 380 A3 posters to cover the face and side of the conservatory, but that number may change depending on how overlapped the posters will be.

To see the processes of my designs and the final images, please follow this link:
https://picasaweb.google.com/117599584378156466291/TheyShootHorsesDonTTheySetDressingPosters?authuser=0&feat=directlink

During a production meeting, the problem of how to increase the staging area and solve the problem of masking unused space arose. It was my suggestion from a quick doodle on paper to change the shape of the steel deck stage to more of a pronounced L shape rather than the flatter, less pronounced shape of the initial idea model. This has since been approved, and is a major part of the layout of the steel deck part of the staging.  The steel deck area has enough room for a 4-piece band and an upstairs office area for the character ‘Rocky Gravo’. 

Early set concept

Another early set concept

A more finalised set concept, with the 'office' section between the
pillar and the wall

The set set out

The lower part of the steel deck is around a foot from the ground, with the taller section (as of yet to be set up due to suppliers not delivering scaffold in time) at 6 foot high. The steel deck is covered with a tacky-looking orange valance, so as to elaborate upon  the makeshift nature of the actual dance marathon event.

 The theatre floor has been taped off, with the actors playing to a line of action for the rehearsals. The idea for the floor is to convey that this was indeed a beat up old sports hall with markings for sports such a basketball and tennis mapped out in various colours of LX tape. Director Patsy Burn was specific about not using red for this; it would draw too much attention away from the action and would stand out more during flashback scenes where the lighting changes dramatically to convey the sense that the scene happens in the past.

The floor has been painted in the style of a worn out dance/ sports hall floor, with layers of grubby yellows and light browns. The sports lines will be added soon.

Concept model for the 'hours danced board'

Also in development is the ‘hours danced board’. After several placements with problems with visibility and functionality, it has been decided that the board will be rigged between the 6ft steel deck and the parallel pillar.