Plan of Set

This is the plan for the set from an ariel view. It shows where the doors, windows and fireplace will be as well as the positioning of the furniture. This is what we will use tomorrow to create our scale model.

Dining Chairs

I had been debating about whether to buy some dining chairs for the set and possibly adapt them or to make them from scratch. The benefit of making them would be having the exact design I had planned. However I needed to make a least three chairs which I wasn't sure how long that would take. Fortunately someone I know very well was getting rid of a couple of dining chairs which I thought I could use as a starting point and adapt them to resemble my designs. The chairs are very old, made of a strong dark wood and have decorative front legs which I thought would fit the theme well and would also match Eleanor's designs for the table. The padded seats of the chairs are ripped but can be eaily covered or repaired or left if it fits the scene. Unfortunately I only have two chairs but the rest of the group agreed that they would fit in with the style and decor of the room.

Flat Building

Today we were shown how to create our flats. This will be used as the walls for our set. When building flats, always make the frame fist then attach the skin afterwards. The standard size for our flats are 4'x8'. Start by lining up two pieces of timber at 8' each. Mark one end of the wood, this will be the corner that you start from at each stage. Mark along the timber at 2' using a tape measure and set square. Then you will need 5 4' pieces of timber which will go horizontally on the flat. Measure the width of these pieces as they will need to be deducted in order to get an accurate size. Line up a 4' plank against the end of the marked timber and drill together using two screws untill the screw is 1mm below the surface. Drill a 4' at each marked 2' then drill the remaining 8' plank to the ends of the 4's. Glue the top of the fame using wood PVA and place the plywood skin on top. Line the skin up in the corner you have marked. Using a nail gun, start at the beginning corner and go along the short edge nailing the skin to the frame. Then go along the adjoining 8' side and all the way around the frame leaving approximately 4'' between each nail. When it comes to nailing the 4' planks across the middle of the frame, it is useful to draw a line roughly where the timber is. If any of the skin is over hanging, it can be removed with a router.

Chiaroscuro

Chiaroscuro is an Italian term that translates as light-dark. It refers to the balance and pattern of light and shade in a painting, drawing, film or photo. Chiaroscuro is generally only remarked upon when it is a particularly prominent feature of the work, usually when the artist is using extreme contrasts of light and shade. This is used in the genre of Psychological horror to help create an eerie atmosphere, seen in Stanley Kubrick’s ‘The Shining’, and ‘The Haunting’, directed by Robert Wise.
I think it would be a strong achievement to create a chiaroscuro effect in our sets, especially in Gregor’s bedroom to reflect the destruction and terror on the walls, floor and furniture.

Fig. 1. Martin, Tommy (2001) Tommy Martin Photography
http://www.tommymartin.co.uk/Print_Portfolio/Chiaroscuro_I.html (Acessed 03/04/11)

Fig. 2 Unexplained stuff (2008) Ghostly Beings http://www.unexplainedstuff.com/Ghosts-and-Phantoms/Ghostly-Beings-Ghosts-of-the-living.html (Acessed on 03/04/11)

Art Nouveau (c.1880 to 1910)

Art nouveau could be said to be the first 20th century modern style. It was the first style to stop looking backwards in history for ideas, taking inspiration instead from what it saw around it, in particular the natural world.

(At:http://www.bbc.co.uk/homes/design/period_artnouveau.shtml)

Although our stylistic brief for our sets is constructivism and expressionism, we also decided to look at art nouveau style pieces of furniture. This was so that we could each individually research and design our chosen pieces of furniture or other aspects of the room which are similar to each other. We found that art nouveau was quite popular in the time our story is set, and is a less broad topic so all the aspects should look similar when put together, yet leave an impression of constructivism and expressionism.

This resembles the creative ideas the group spoke of when imagining what the sets will look like, including pale colouring, such as pinks and greens, curved detailed furniture, floral patterned fabric and walls, and soft furnishings.

Expressionism

Expressionism as a general term refers to art in which the image of reality is more or less heavily distorted in form and colour in order to make it expressive of the artists inner feelings or ideas about it. In expressionist art colour in particular can be highly intense and non-naturalistic, brushwork is typically free and paint application tends to be generous and highly textured. Expressionist art tends to be emotional and sometimes mystical. It can be seen as an extension of Romanticism. It then went on to create abstract expressionism.
Tate Galleries (date unknown) Tate http://www.tate.org.uk/collections/glossary/definition.jsp?entryId=48 (31/03/11)

Fig. 1. Schmidt-Rottluff, Karl (1912) Two Women [Oil on Canvas] At: http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?workid=13179 (Acessed on 31/03/11)

Fig. 2. Kokoschka, Oskar (1910-12) Dr. Fannina W. Halle [Drawing on Paper] At:
http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?workid=7815 (Acessed on 31/03/11)

Fig. 3. Kandinsky, Wassily (1910-11) Cossacks [Oil on canvas] At: http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?workid=8185 (Acessed on 31/03/11)

Constructivism

Constructivism is a particularly austere branch of abstract art founded by Vladimir Tatlin and Alexander Rodchenko in Russia around 1915. The constructivists believed art should directly reflect the modern industrial world. Tatlin was crucially influenced by Picasso's Cubist constructions (Construction 1914) which he saw in Picasso's studio in Paris in 1913. These were three-dimensional still-lifes made of scrap materials. Tatlin began to make his own but they were completely abstract and made of industrial materials. By 1921 Russian artists who followed Tatlin's ideas were calling themselves Constructivists and in 1923 a manifesto was published in their magazine Lef: 'The material formation of the object is to be substituted for its aesthetic combination. The object is to be treated as a whole and thus will be of no discernible 'style' but simply a product of an industrial order like a car, an aeroplane and such like. Constructivism is a purely technical mastery and organisation of materials.' Constructivism was suppressed in Russia in the 1920s but was brought to the West by Naum Gabo and his brother Antoine Pevsner and has been a major influence on modern sculpture.

Tate Galleries (Date unknown) Tate http://www.tate.org.uk/collections/glossary/definition.jsp?entryId=75 (Acessed 8/04/11)

Fig. 1. Pevsner, Antione (c. 1923-24) Head [Plastic] At: http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?workid=11530 (Acessed on 31/03/11)

Fig. 2. Gabo, Naum (c. 1920) Column [Cellulose nitrate] At:

http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?workid=4836 (Acessed on 31/03/11)

Fig. 3. Gabo, Naum (c. 1917) Constructed Torso [Cardboard] At:

http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?workid=21293 (Acessed on 31/03/11)