Location visit: Stream

Photographs from my visit to the stream in Bournemouth town center which was encouraged by Gareth. The visit did help as I definitely felt I understood the atmosphere and movement that I need to re-create in my set to portray a stream. The key elements that I felt made the stream were:

• The rippling water
• Reflection
• Silhouette of the stream bank
• Its meandering nature and shape
• The sound of trickling water

Reflection: This was definitely of huge benefit to my set ideas and is something I will definitely carry out in future to fully understand the scene I am to create and the key features I need to suggest so it is clear to the audience without necessarily being obvious or too naturalistic.

Meandering shape

Reflections

Bank edge

Masks 1

Had a meeting with Doug today and as well adding a new twist to the set design by dipping it in cubism he also had an excellent idea for the changing indentification of the Devil... masks. This is something I touched upon in my early costume designs but it didn't evolve much further at that stage. However, Doug has a collection of masks made originally to represent alternative aspects of humor. They are beautiful and it is possible to manipulate them which will be done by Sarah. It was also suggested by Doug that a new 'cubist inspired' mask could be made to be worn by the Soldier for his final descent with the Devil, to illustrate his power and defiance over the Soldier. My inclination so far is to class them as follows:

Old man/ Cattle Merchant due to facial hair, prominent nose and colouration of the mask. The nasal hair makes my more inclined to place it as the old man as this is an obvious feature we all associate with old age.

Virtuoso Violinist - this mask has something quite snide and peculiar about it, this would look better later on in the play when the audience have their suspicions that it is in fact the Devil. 

The Old Man/ Cattle Merchant. Again the large eyebrows and bulbous nose suggest a male and of a certain age which is why I feel it would be appropriate for one of the characters.

Reflection: Using these masks will provide a fairly swift and significant change for each character which will make the new character obvious to the audience when combined with the costume. The masks distinctive features will really aid the clarification of each character and will also mean that during the quick changes the possible complications with facial hair/make-up etc can be avoided. This will hopefully result in an efficient, smooth quick change yet promote the new character successfully. From here I will speak with Sarah about the relation of the masks to the costumes as well as discuss how these masks could be linked to the Devils final headdress.

Cubism

The set has taken a drastic turn after a suggestion yesterday that it revolved around Cubism.... I actually feel relieved and extremely excited for this proposition as this provides a clear aesthetic for my design to follow plus I love the work of the Cubist movement! I looked into Cubism for my set design at level 4 and loved working with the textures, shapes and colouration they use. The colour schemes tend to be fairly grungy and muddy which tones in quite well with the WWI context as well as including textures such as wood affect, paper and paint effects. The harsh lines and juxtaposed angles are a great representation of the angst of the era as well as the Devil's cunning presence. Furthermore, Picasso being particularly relevant as he was a contemporary of Stravinksy's, both pioneering in their own art form at this time, connecting the music with the set aesthetic.

From this decision I went and researched into artists of the Cubist Movement, looking particularly at work that relates to the different locations throughout the story eg. The native village, but that also involve painting/collage techniques that I like and I feel could be incorporated into my set.

Set Tutorials

Have been struggling to get back into my set work on returning to the course, I think due to the costume that has issues that need immediately resolving and also panicking about the time available I have to complete my set. However, today the tutorials I have had with Will and Rebecca today made it all much clearer. I have resolved the confusion about whether the orchestra are to be upon a rostrum or not and also have been given time so I can think through why exactly I have made the design choices that I have. Will questioning the aspects of my set design such as the uses of space, reason for pros arch etc have really got my brain ticking about what I want the set to portray. Along with the tutorial with Gareth Corke who provoked my thinking and ideas - commenting on how there were both naturalistic and suggestive elements to my set and which I wished to be most prominent. Furthermore he spoke about the Naivity that runs through the piece in the set design, and humanity represented by the soldier's character and how I can link this is into the entire design. He liked my box idea to show the moving seasons and time passing but suggested I could take it further by making a bolder statement with them and  to demonstrate the river bed of the stream rather than my bullrushes  as well as use them as containers within  the set. Which I think are both great ideas. He also suggested visiting my settings to get a better idea of the feel I need to recreate.

Existing set design that needs some serious rethinking. Set to the first scene - 'banks of a stream' this representation is quite naturalistic and straight forward where as I want to create something more suggestive and surreal. 

Reflection:
These tutorials have given me the spark I needed to rethink my set design and make it much more intelligent. I plan to visit the stream in bournemouth town center and make observations and take photographs of it to pin point how to demonstrate a stream in a naive format. I will use this research to play with the box idea and see what can be created from them.

SP First Week and fabric sampling

A week that couldn't have been any crazier! Great to meet my costume makers and extremely excited to get things underway although I have found rereading through my sketchbook very helpful as it is rather a long time since I finalised my costume designs! The girls are all extremely talented and already are very enthusiastic, I am very lucky to have such a knowledgable team. Having had our first meeting where I described the designs ans the textures/silhouettes I want Grace (my costume supervisor) and I decided to jump in and search for fabric samples in London on Thursday as the suit fabric particularly needs to be found asap. Having scrutinised the collections of both Berwick Street and Shepherds Bush  we found some fantastic polyester chiffons that were as perfect as the silks we initially found and a third of the price. Overall it was very successful as we gathered a variety of textured fabrics for Emily to start experimenting with for the Devil costume as well as added bits such as iridescent feathers, leather and fur trimmings that will add to its magnificence. The dress fabric search was also fruitful with the correct colours found in the right textures at reasonable prices. The suiting was less so with the absence of Textile King we struggled so plan to ask Anushka's opinion of their appropriate weight etc. on our samples to aid the decision. (Sadly our final choice was gone when Amy went to purchase it so we have continued to look in the archive, online and with local suppliers.) As for the Soldier we found some apropriate shirt fabrics but will see if we can find the equivalent at a lower price.
Reflection: I can see that as a designer I will need to learn to make some compromises, especially where fabric is concerned, but also be resourceful to ensure any I do make won't effect the overall character of design. I am happy with our first sampling visit, how we managed our time, did thorough research and kept our focus on the task in hand. Having these samples to hand with company names and prices will make it much easier to order efficiently and be aware of the fabrics available when we come to order.

Textures seen in London!

Here are a selection of fabrics from our visit to London displaying textures that I really liked but that weren't quite appropriate for the textural element of the Devil costume. I plan to show these to Emily who is making the Devil Costume and see how could she could create these textures herself in the fabrics we did buy through fabric manipulation and dyeing.

 The texture of the above fabric I loved for it's leathery feathered look - gives great bulk and texture and would catch the light subtly yet beautifully.

I loved the feathery organic nature of this fabric given by the frayed edge. We purchased a fabric of a similar texture so Emily could create a similar effect but in the correct colour scheme as this is quite garish.

This fabric is quite bold but the laser cut technique could be applied to a fabric for the Devils leaves/feathers but in the correct shape. It would mean that many could be cut at once then added in strips to the costume itself which may save her much time. 

Love the hairiness of this fabric and the subtle yet animal print like pattern that is enhanced by the texture. This hairiness could be created by fraying the fabric edges to give a wispy, stand up edge. I would also like to see whether a ripple affect like this could be recreated in the dye room.

Box Ideas

An idea that I began developing over the summer from some work I did at a local opera. In the opera the designer had used lightweight blocks covered in astroturf that were then painted to create hay bales. As demonstrated below:

I felt that in a similar respect I could create boxes covered in grass that are then manipulated to show different seasons, they could have a season for 2 sides of each box so they can be easily turned, alter the set and suggest to the audience a passing of time and journeying that is key to this play. I will do a few sketches to see what I can use to show each season and how they might look.