Wednesday 13 May 2009

Improvements to Wings

In one design day Tina had a visitor over from the USA called Jeff, he works at a university doing costume and design. He had recently design and built giant puppets for a promenade performance himself so he has experience with what complications I might come up against when building Kenneth the Sad Caterpillar.
I had had worries over my design for the wings and whether the structure was strong enough as well as what materials I should use and so wanted to discuss my design with him before he left to fly back home the next day. I found this to be a very lucky opportunity for me and would pick his brains for every little detail.
He had designed birds that had a wing span of eight feet that was controlled using sticks, unfortunately he did not had his designs with him so I was able to see for myself. He then drew the design he had used for his wings which turned to be quite similar to my design. He had built a structure for the whole wing because his bird would be flying horizontal where as mine only had a top half wing structure allowing gravity to pull the bottom half down. This was because my butterfly was vertical.
I then explained what the height and wing span I was hoping to get with my butterfly and that it would have the wings moving in a different way to a bird. I was also using sticks to control the wings but I needed something a little strong especially because it was going thirty feet in the air. I wanted to use stainless steel tubes that could be connected together but the weak point when having something that long would always be the join between the two tubes. What I would need to get is one long tube, which turned out that I could not get. The longest tube I could get hold of was eighteen foot; I then had to change the height of my design.
To build the structure of my wings I had been given some long strips of strong plastic which was very flexible. I showed these to Jeff to see whether they were going to be strong enough to hold the wings shape. He though that they were perfect for the job. Having a little flexibility in the wings would be better than having a ridged structure, this would allow the wings to move and bend with the wind without breaking.
I wanted the whole design to be light so I wanted to use a mesh material to make the wings so that the wind could pass through it. Jeff thought the mesh would be the lightest and easiest way to build my wings from and suggested ways of connecting the meshes together. I looked into getting different coloured plastic mesh so I would be able to create a pattern on the wings, this proved difficult because of the price and the colours I wanted. Tina found so cotton mesh that she thought would work for the wings and you could also dye the material to the colour I wanted. This meant that I could tie dye the wings so get the pattern of a butterfly wing.
After having this discussion with Jeff I was more confident with my design and felt comfortable that it would work especially now I had made improvements using Jeff’s knowledge.

Monday 11 May 2009

Build and Construction Weekend

This weekend we had the whole cast helping the design team to put together, what would turn out to be a very successful weekend, the Sphinx, Kenneth the Sad Caterpillar and the remaining costumes and props. Th design team had spent some time planning the weekend so that everyone had something to do throughtout the whole day. We also sheduled lunch and when they were able to have a break. This was so we had a clear structure to the day.
We also needed to make a list of what was still left to do so that we could allocate people into what skills they had. We needed three people to work along side Carolina and Emma making, and sewing costumes as there is little space in Tina's cabin so having too many people in there just wouldn't work. Everyone else was put in the SU Hall where we were painting and making things waterproof. There was still a little paper mache to be done on the Spinx's face.
So with a timetable layed out and people allocated to their positions we began to race through the list and by four o'clock most of it was done. When had shedulade to finish at six then start again the next day, but we had finished at five and had everything done that was needed to be done over the whole weekend.
Now that we had done everything in one dy this left a free day from the directors to have an unexpected all day, all cast rehearsal which was needed because the story was changed for the better and we had to start finishing scenes so that we could have a full run by friday 15th July.

The First Meeting with Tina

With this meeting in was more of a crash course in design and colours that would work when performing a promenade performance. The first thing that Tina tackled was colours. We had planned to give the audience members sashes that would symbolise which tribe they would belong to, so Tina explained which colours are effective when fighting against the greens of the grass and woods. Her way of explaining was to show the group what she meant so as Tina looked around see finds some athletes on the running track four of which are wearing dark browns, blacks and grey, the last athlete was wearing a pink t-shirt which drew your eyes to it immediately. These meant that the focus of the majority would do the same and so the character that we want to stand out, we would have to make sure the colours are correct same with if we want a character to blend into the background like a Tree Trickster. Moving on from colours Tina wanted to talk about fabrics and how they can be used to our advantage. We needed to use a mass amount of fabric which if we picked the wrong one we would have to hem the edges so all the fabric we get didn’t want to fray at the edges. This proved a genius idea when we changed our minds about the sashes the audience would wear. This changed to poncho’s thus creating the group the work load of making two hundred and fifty ponchos’.
Once Tina had finished she wanted to know what we had done so far from our theme to how we had decided to manage the project. We discussed what we thought epic was and how we could use this theme in our design ideas. The main theme that ran through our ideas was size. How big can we get everything? From this Tina raised the issues that were involved with constructing designs that big for example making sure that it would work from paper to reality, finding materials big and safe enough, especially as we were doing a show for two hundred children. After we had examined all possibilities that could go wrong Tina talked about the impact that if the ideas do work then it will leave a lasting impression in the audiences mind. Taking all this on board we set our sights to the future of our designs and set to work doing all the research required and making models.

The First Meeting with Tina

With this meeting in was more of a crash course in design and colours that would work when performing a promenade performance. The first thing that Tina tackled was colours. We had planned to give the audience members sashes that would symbolise which tribe they would belong to, so Tina explained which colours are effective when fighting against the greens of the grass and woods. Her way of explaining was to show the group what she meant so as Tina looked around see finds some athletes on the running track four of which are wearing dark browns, blacks and grey, the last athlete was wearing a pink t-shirt which drew your eyes to it immediately. These meant that the focus of the majority would do the same and so the character that we want to stand out, we would have to make sure the colours are correct same with if we want a character to blend into the background like a Tree Trickster. Moving on from colours Tina wanted to talk about fabrics and how they can be used to our advantage. We needed to use a mass amount of fabric which if we picked the wrong one we would have to hem the edges so all the fabric we get didn’t want to fray at the edges. This proved a genius idea when we changed our minds about the sashes the audience would wear. This changed to poncho’s thus creating the group the work load of making two hundred and fifty ponchos’.
Once Tina had finished she wanted to know what we had done so far from our theme to how we had decided to manage the project. We discussed what we thought epic was and how we could use this theme in our design ideas. The main theme that ran through our ideas was size. How big can we get everything? From this Tina raised the issues that were involved with constructing designs that big for example making sure that it would work from paper to reality, finding materials big and safe enough, especially as we were doing a show for two hundred children. After we had examined all possibilities that could go wrong Tina talked about the impact that if the ideas do work then it will leave a lasting impression in the audiences mind. Taking all this on board we set our sights to the future of our designs and set to work doing all the research required and making models.

Thursday 7 May 2009

Props and Set List

Props and Set
1. Puzzle – made from wood - 3 part key 1 part Jewel - Amir
2. Key - Amir
3. Lock - Amir
4. 4 x Flags – Tribal colours - Dan
5. 220 x Poncho’s – 55 x for each tribe – Tribal colours - Dan
6. Chocolates and sweets - Amir
7. Tree cast to fit puzzle in? - Amir
8. Portal - Dan
9. Sad Caterpillar/Butterfly - Dan
10. Cocoon - Dan
11. Instruments – Workshop children
12. Sphinx - Amir
13. Smoke for Milky the Magician - Matt
14. Pyro’s – Matthew Stenning risk assessment and responsibility?
15. Wooden Sword/Stick – Dan – Sekani
16. Pyro’s Risk Assessment
17. Pyro’s Hiring Equipment

Monday 4 May 2009

Designing Kenneth the Sad Caterpillar

The first meeting we had as a design team went very successfully because of the way we were making decisions together and being very direct with our approach of ironing out the fine details. The reason for this directness, I think is because of the dynamic of the group. We had a few days where we were getting to know each other because, for me I had never worked with anyone in the design team before. Once we had settled into what needed to be done and the realisation of the task in front we went about making a decision about what our theme would be for our designs throughout the show.

Our main aim for the design team is the theme Epic. We would be using different mediums of stimulus to help inspire our own designs. The first medium that we looked at was The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolken. The Epic scale that is used throughout the film in its character and costume and also the set was so visually exciting that I wanted to have a grand scale to all my designs. This is important for performing outside in Chiswick house so that all the two hundred strong audience would be able to see it and also for the design to create amazement to an older audience for example the parents of the children also need to enjoy the performance even though our target audience is primary school we need to consider everyone that is in the audience. This is why I wanted to use The Lord of the Rings as my main stimulus because it was made with a target audience that had already read the books and had their own idea of what the land and characters would like. So the design had to create something on screen that people could only imagine.

Now that our theme had been chosen we could more onto what needs to be design and built and general ideas for construction. We had been given the synopsis of the play to work with as our initial guide to what costumes, props, puppets and set where require for the show. We read through the synopsis again and made a list of everything that could be used. Then we divided the list into two groups: costume and props and set. We did this because we felt that all this work for one person to manage would be too much so in dividing into two groups we half the workload and it would be managed better throughout the building process. Carolina and Emma wanted to take on the role of designing and making the costume while I, Amir and Matt would organise the props and set for the show.

Now that we had been put into our groups our group then delegated who would take charge of individual designs and acquiring props. We worked from the big project first giving Amir the Sphinx, Matt risk assessments and pyrotechnics and I would take on the Caterpillar. (for full list refer to Props and Set List blog)

The concept of Kenneth was first brought before the group after the creative team and devised a synopsis of the performance we are doing on the 21st of May 2009. Kenneth is part of an adventure where the tribes of Kalku are thrown into the human world and have to find their way back home. On their was they meet several characters from a Milky Magician who wishes he was more musical and a sphinx that gives the tribes a riddle so they may obtain the last piece of the puzzle to bring life back to the Magical Tree of Kalku. Kenneth's task to get a piece of the puzzle for the tribes was to make him become a butterfly so he can become beautiful and happy.



When I first heard this I initially sketched a drawing of a Chinese dragon style caterpillar using hula hoops as the main structure, so when the design team met up after the meeting luckily Emma Harvey had the same idea and a very similar sketch. When it came down to the business of designating roles Emma wanted to design and make costumes and because we had the same idea she was happy for me to design and built Kenneth the Sad Caterpillar.



When I was designing Kenneth I first thought showered ideas and sketches as well as coming up with ideas for construction and the structure. Going from our first design meeting where we decided to design everything to an Epic standard, using Lords of the Rings and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as a simulus. I wanted to design Kenneth to be ten metres in length and width once it had become the butterfly.