Great Expectations - Final Shoot

These are a collection of images from my final shoot for the set of Miss Havisham's house.  

I designed, built and dressed the entire set myself.

 Overview of whole scene

       

Close up of wedding cake, made from polystyrene covered with icing and decorated with icing frills, twists and roses, then dressed with cobwebs.

Close up of sourced props (pewter tea set) dressed with cobwebs and grated chalk for dust

 Plaque made for the fire place, designed for the set. "SATIS" was the name of Miss Havisham's house, by creating the plaque it gave the scene more of an identity. 

                                     

 More pictures from the shoot

Set Build Progress

Havisham set 2 weeks before deadline, fireplace to finish, window to glaze and curtains to hang. 

The crackled wood effect paint was created not by crackle graze but by using a mixture of pva and water brushed in one direction over the surface of a base coat, then a top layer of paint applied to the glue when tacky.

 I created a moulding for the fireplace, depicting the word "Satis," the name of Miss Havisham's house in Great Expectations. It will be set in silicone rubber then cast in Plaster. 

Great Expectations

For my final project at university I have chosen to use Mr Charles Dickens as the starting point for my theme. As 2012 marks the 200th anniversary of the writer i felt that it would be fitting to adapt one of his famous novels. I chose Great Expectations as the book my set would be based on. Every time I have readthe story ,the house belonging to Miss Havisham; "Satis House" has always struck me as a setting full of mystery and a place that would be fascinating to explore. I therefore felt that recreating Miss Havisham's wedding reception room on the day that Pip revisits her would be interesting and allow me to explore a wonderful setting and era.

I began research and looked into timelines and what Dickens based the house on, once i had collected information i began designing and made a 1:25 scale model of my set.Wallpaper design and colour way

1:25 scale side wall

Curiouser and Curiouser Props

The flamingo table was made from a variety of plastics welded together

included the vacuum formed flamingo bodies.
The wonderland key was made with resin then painted and aged.

The cake was a fruit cake with currents cut up then placed onto the surface

with tweezers. The cake case was cut from cardboard with a scalpel, the words "curiouser and curiouser" wrapped around the sides.

The bottle's label was a parcel tag with the words "drink me"

written on it in black ink.

A page taken from my folder

Curiouser and Curiouser

Current project at university is Adaptation, using an extract from a book and creating my own version of the prop, I have chosen Alice's Adventures in Wonderland after she has fallen down the rabbit hole and comes across a "three legged table" a "little golden key" a bottle with a label that says "drink me" and a cake with the words "eat me" written on it in currents.

The title for the project is "Curiouser and Curiouser" my choice of title is down to the original text where alice exclaims this line when entering Wonderland and also because i want to look at playing with the scale of the objects.

These are my initial designs for some of the props

Drink me Label:

Flamingo glass table:

Tiny gold key:

Detail: Key

Props for the BBC

Just finished making props for the BBC Inside Out South East programme. This show was about the future of Pfizer, i was asked to sort out props for the laboratory scene including an "experiement" in the shape of Kent, i sourced the majority of the lab equipment from Gravesend Grammer School who kindly lent me a variety of beakers and test tubes.

I made the "experiment" by mixing condensed milk with gelatin this when set made a gummy block, I then traced the shape of Kent through a template with a scalpel to cut it into the shape i needed.

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Magwitch

Have been busy for the past couple of months undertaking the role of Production Designer for ViolaFilms production "Magwitch" a prequal to "Great Expectations." The short film is to be shown in February 2012 and is currently in the post-production stage.

Here are some previews of some of the sets I designed, dressed and created.