Today we started the project ‘Design for performance’ based on the text ‘The Butterfly Man’. I decided to join the Set Design team but I was torn between this, costume design and the broadcasting and documentation group.
In our teams we began making mood boards together and then developed onto our own individual ones. This was just to gather ideas and see what everyone was initially thinking on where to progress and start from. From the beginning of this project we quickly learnt that communication was key with each other and across all the groups, so that we were all on the same page and knew what was going on.
As a team we made a group desicion to make a plan for the next workshop and decided we were going to immediately start with just creating pieces for the set getting basics such as leaves created whilst we wait for more intricate details of the story as it was yet to be rewritten by the script writers. I went into the mushroom making team. I helped cut strips of cardboard for Percy whilst we followed the idea she had. I had done a bit of research on set designs and looked at artists such as Barrie Kosky and David Hockney and also looked into the set design on ‘Charlie and the chocolate factory’ as this set would always amaze and appeal to me. However, although they had described their vision to me I was finding it difficult to understand and because they had to leave I decided to try out my vision, rather than messing up their idea or being stuck.
Using tape I stuck down shapes I cut out to create a 3D texture on the mushroom. I got this idea from a step by step guide I saw on how to make a 3D wall and thought this concept could apply in the same way. This was quite difficult to paint because it took a few layers to be able to cover up the tape. Although I love the affect it produced, especially with the darker parts of paint I added around it to make the illusion stand out more and produce some depth.
When thinking about a solution of how I was gong to stand my mushroom up, I got inspiration from Eisen as she was making big models of grass. I had to make the stand for mine quite thin so that it wouldn’t be on show because of the curvy shape I made the bottom half of my mushroom. I came across many problems with this because it was heavier than I thought. It was more weighted on the right side from how I had cut it. After many attempts of trying to resolve how to get my mushroom to stand it worked. I used many pieces of cardboard to weigh it down more on the left side and tried multiple mini stands. However this was not fully stable so in the performance we decided the best idea was to stick it to the stage. I then came across the same issue in the smaller mushroom I made.
After making mushrooms I decided to make a bunch of branches to help fill the surroundings of the stage and to attatch to items such as the seats in the bar scene. I produced branches as it was a generic thing within the subject of the performance, so it could be applied anywhere.
As we got further into the project more specific items were being requested to be made by the other groups. I took upon the challenge of creating the cups for the bar scene. I started off by making a net but ran into the issue of having no hot glue, so I ended up using a few layers of tape to try and hold it together. However I had to redo this again the next workshop as it had gone missing and someone else was using it.
I went through many test and trials when creating the lid of the mushroom cup. I wanted to create something that portrayed the top of a mushroom well, which meant creating that top heavy piece. Using wired netting, I hot glued down the ends and tried to bend it where possible. Once this was finally done, I started covering the netting in strips of card so that I could eventually paint it but this became a waist of time when I realised I could’ve just covered it in a few pieces of newsprint like I did shortly after.
Once I hade painted it I realised, although it captured the image of a mushroom, it didn’t look like a cup. Therefore, after a long time of thinking I came up with the idea of adding a straw.
As the first cup took longer than I imagined it would, I had to come up with a solution to make cups quicker as performance day approached quicker than I thought and I resulted in these four cups with twig straws. I used the same method as the previous cup but just added leaves to the straws and no mushroom top. I think this solution provided helpful and happened under a lot of pressure.
These are some photos that document the development of our stage. We had a lot of material to work with. I was assigned the duty of moving the chairs on and off stage but on performance day I was not needed so I helped the documentation team instead.
There were certain elements I enjoyed about this project but I didn’t as a whole. Working in a team and across the groups, getting feedback and advice was really refreshing and helpful but as a whole I don’t feel like I didn’t produce that much but this could’ve been because I wasn’t enjoying it too much.
I’m really happy with the poster I created for the performance. At first I wrote the original title then shortly realised I had wrote the wrong thing. I stuck with the colour theme of the performance and I’m pleased with the boldness, I think it’s quite eye catching.
