Models and Miniatures

Okay, there are the models we build to explain a theater set... and then there are Miniatures.

Which may be a whole 'nother thing.  Look at these by Mylyn Nguyen!

Images from designyoutrust.com - copyright to the artist

Wonderful detail, in observation and execution.  Amazing.

New Leaf Turned

 Another fresh green blog post!  Woohoo!

I thought I'd show you this theater work in Sketchup - a (complicated!) 3D model for the old version of that hypnosis show.  Done in a steampunk style, which is rather fun to design!

(This is a not-quite-complete model.)  Note that the central 'droid face was... interesting... to learn to draw.  I have to say that this project is improving my Sketchup skills!

For this particular client the 3D model is essential - 2D drawings just don't communicate well for them.  And, though a physical model would also work, they prefer computer graphics stylistically and, since there have been more changes than with some shows, now, for this job, I prefer CAD too!  It is somewhat easier to modify.  (Mind you, the weird way these CAD models can stretch like taffy while making changes needs a little adjusting to... after the first freakout!)

I did say my Sketchup skills were improving, yes?

Model Making: Tapes and Glues

Just found a great discussion (by an architect who obviously builds models) of various tapes and glues at youngarchitect.com.  HERE.

To which I'd add a recommendation of gaf tape - wonderful gaf tape!  On stage, of course, it's ubiquitous, but it's also useful in tiny amounts in model-making, especially used as hinges between cardboard pieces.  Particularly if it's a painted model.

And I'd add a caution about all glues - and even tapes - to beware the fumes and chemicals involved.  You can develop chemical sensitivities to the stickem if it touches your skin; the fumes can be sickening, carcinogenic, or occasionally instantly fatal like the methylene chloride used in paint strippers.

Ventilate, people!  Read safety instructions!

"Black Gaffer Tape" by c Marie-Lan Nguyen / Wikimedia

ADDENDUM:

Also helpful is a brief post on the same site about building architectural scenic models HERE.

Set Dressing

Well, the set for Kitchen Dog's Thinner Than Water is about wrapped up (bar last minute things).  Which is good since Opening is tonight!

Here's a photo taken by our hardworking set builder Dean McBride.  (Someone who shows up at 5:00 a.m. to build deserves my official Hardworking! badge for sure.)

That's me sorting through comics to dress the Comic Shop... one of seven locations crammed into the MAC's black box.  Just barely showing to the left of me is the Apartment Stoop; I'm sitting (worn out) on the Comic Shop floor; behind me is the outside door to the Hospital; then the Hospital Waiting Room; to its right the Coffee Shop patio; and in the foreground the Living Room.  (The seventh setting is a reveal.)

At this instant the Hospital sign isn't up yet and neither are the Coffee Shop's chalk board drawings.  Phew!

Thinner Than Water at Kitchen Dog Theater - photo Dean McBride

Now the chalk gets drawn...

Thinner Than Water's coffee shop 

And just for fun, here's a look at the model this is all based on (a very fast model made from cut-up sketches mounted on Foamcore).

Thinner Than Water model 

"Early or Latte" the set gets finished... As one of the last duties, the faithful set builder showed up at 5:00 a.m. again to tidy up the edges of my faux plank and concrete and to paint the rest of the stage floor black.

Opening is tonight!  Thinner Than Water by Melissa Ross at Kitchen Dog Theater.

Come see.

Monsterpiece Theater

I just saw this great little Muppet masterpiece and thought you might enjoy it: the Monsterpiece Theater rebuttal to Godot... "Waiting for Elmo."  HERE

What else has been going on?

Well, Fun House's brilliant version of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is over... hope you caught it.  A great experience.  Gidion's Knot at Kitchen Dog was struck this last weekend - it took 30 times as much time to strike all that classroom set dressing as it did to strike the two walls!  Venus in Fur is now open at WaterTower Theater and The Other Place is about to open at Circle Theatre in Fort Worth.  

Now for me theater design is just simmering, while architectural things are boiling.  I've been very busy with continuing ed sort of stuff.  First came the yearly ADA seminar (that's the Americans with Disabilities Act), which is always amazingly persnickety.  Don't get me wrong, I'm entirely for the goal of removing architectural barriers... but is it really sensible that the government mandate emergency flasher alarms and roll-in showers for all those deaf, wheelchair-bound firefighters?  Or that the rule is that, if a company's breakroom has no stovetop or oven and only a countertop microwave then that food prep area need not be wheelchair accessible (i.e. kneespace at sinks, limited reach ranges etc.) but if that microwave is built-in then it MUST all be accessible?  ADA rules are filled with such logical... idiosyncrasies.

Also a front burner project for me right now is learning to use Sketchup - a very cool, free, 3D modeling program (with its own amusing idiosyncrasies).  I'm researching CAD classes too, as it seems time to improve those skills.

3D Sketchup model of Circle Theatre: non-commercial, self educational use!

Here you can see my first ever 3D CAD (computer aided design/drafting right?) project, a little Sketchup model of Circle Theater's stage.  Those fat tubular columns at the corners gave me an extra tool to play with.  Just don't look too close at the klutzy construction, huh?  I've since started a much more complex model of  a hypothetical architectural project which also has cylinders - tilted at weird angles, sloping surfaces, cut-in windows....  And I'd thought making this little stage was a bit of a monster!

But I can see that, once I get practiced enough with it, Sketchup is going to be rather fun.

So...  Think AutoCAD is going to be a real hoot then?

Rush Models

I actually rather like model-making...  But I never seem to get enough time to take my time.  So, once again, I'm typing with sticky fingers as I wait (hope!) my latest model dries before it has to be carried off for a meeting.

No sunshine or time for a photo!

Model Photography

Many set designs can be well described by sketches, but more abstract or 3 dimensional designs demand a model to explain them.  So last night and this morning I've been building a rough but colored model.  This afternoon I've been trying to photograph it.  Guess which is harder?

Okay, okay, building a model is harder than photographing it - but just barely!

Not having a proper indoor photo studio with lights, I ended up carrying a kitchen chair outside, along with two sheets of white cardboard, masking tape (to deploy these with), the camera, and the model with its 10 little accessory pieces.  Luckily no wind.  Also no real sun - but eventually the cloud passed.  Then I could mock up 6 different scenes with tiny accessories: an itty bitty drop, even teenier tinier trees, a minuscule castle, and a teeninesy heraldic doodads...  Fun!

Image copyrighted Clare Floyd DeVries

Mystery Model

I've had very glue-y fingers lately, first with Shakespearian trees, then with Broadway teeny tiny sticks.

Designing in Model

Recently I tripped over an unexpected hazard in designing a set first in model, then drawing from that to create the construction drawings needed to build it.

Ya gotta rip the model to shreds.

I found myself, gently, delicately, holding-my-breath carefully cutting apart the model so that I could trace out all the (too many!) trees.  Then just as delicately trying to glue it all back together.  Next time - I vowed - I'll photocopy each piece just before I glue it in.

I learn something every day.

As You Like It - Trinity Shakespeare Festival

Held Captive By Deliveries!

Ever notice how waiting for deliveries or repairmen kinda, um,  takes over your day?  Today and tomorrow are waiting around days for me.

So maybe I'll get lots of drawing and model building done?
Place bets on it?

Now THIS Is What I Call A Model!

One of the "miniatures" (Ha!) for the film Metropolis.

Model Building

I'm at the very sticky-fingered stage of building a model for Broadway Our Way.  I turned in the construction drawings at last week's production meeting and construction has begun, but because it's mounted on a turntable and my Mondrian-ish design has levels and layers, it's a little hard to grasp from drawings alone.  So I'm model-building.

A teeny, teeny little 3D grid from slivers of cardboard.

Hence the sticky fingers.  It's starting to look interesting... so, naturally, I need to leave it part-built to drive to Fort Worth with fabric for Marvin's Room which is a'building at real life size.  Sigh.  Still I'll get a lunch in Fort Worth, always good.

As You Like It

I don't usually design first in model.  Because it takes longer, mainly, and I usually have a good grasp of the space, so I don't need the model so much for myself as to explain my idea to directors and builders.  But this is a new theater for me and I'm less comfortable with prosceniums.  Hence the model.  ModelS.

# 1 the straightforward what-we-were-talking-about version:

And # 2 the more 3D version:

The director picked my favorite, # 2.

SNIPPET # 9

An appropriate clip from Alice Through the Proscenium:

Model – Theater is a three dimensional art.  Make a study model.  Just for you.  Build it out of dirty cardboard and used tape.  The messier and more ripped it gets, the more useful.  Later you’ll build the clean white (or colored) model to be used by the director in blocking and by the TD, carpenters, and painters as a guide to construction.  Do be sure that if a window, for instance, will be seen through, that you build it see-through to check sight lines.

 

                                 

Practical pointers.  Measure twice - cut once.  Use a metal straightedge to cut against.  If it lacks non-skid backing, add masking tape underneath.  (Never cut along drafting tools as lines drawn later show every notch you cut!)  Use sharp new blades.  Remember Alice’s caution: “if you cut your finger very deeply with a knife, it usually bleeds.”  Wash hands.  Wipe off excess glue. 

Model Building

Some shows can only be designed in model...

So I have very sticky fingers today!

Time to run and gather furniture: IKEA (love it), antique/junks stores, and theater warehouses.