Week 6

Practical Exploration

I tried to make a model of my building using mod roc plaster and mesh wire. I made only the central part of the building for experimentation and trial. I enjoyed making this and it infact turned out to look very good and kind of realistic because of the worn out look. This can definitely be considered as an option to make the building. The problem I faced while making this was that the surface was uneven and to draw on an uneven surface was difficult. Also it didn’t give a proper shape of the building because the building has straight edges and this model can’t give that look.

Presentation

I presented my work till now in the class this week. I told about what all I have done, and what all I am planning to do. I talked about having 3 ideas for my project, first to make a real life looking set, second of making a destructive set look comical and last to make futuristic set of the destruction. I took voting for it in the class and most of the people chose to make a real life set. Even I wanted to challenge myself and make a real looking authentic set. So, my final idea is to make a Aftermath of a riot scene in Nottingham, 2019.

Experimentation

This week, I also went to the Wheel of Nottingham, there I saw the backside of the Elite Building and what amazed was the fact it also had red bricks which took me back to my research where I said I have seen so many buildings in Nottingham made out of red bricks. So, I had an idea to show some red bricks of the building when it gets burnt. I tried that idea on paper first by drawing the building, then burning it and then colouring it.

For the first time, I didn’t look at the picture of the building while drawing it. As I had drawn it so many times now, I kind of know how it looks. Therefore, I thought of not looking for reference and drawing it by my own which could also maybe help me to simplify the structure as the building is very complex and I might face difficulty while actually making it.

I tried make a box look like a building by cutting out windows and door in it. Then I burnt it to see how will it look. It didn’t look nice and not even real or maybe burning was not enough. For my set, I am thinking to burn the buildings first and then maybe I could use some paint to give a worn out and destroyed look.

Week 5

Research Site

I clicked photos of the research site like the street lamp and shops nearby. In my research in week 3, I found out that during the 2011 riots, police cars were attacked and burnt. So, I first looked at some photos and then made a destroyed police car as well. Such kind of research will help me to make my set look more authentic.

Material Experimentation

Black card burnt
burnt plastic
burnt white card
dried leaves and flowers

For my practical exploration, I tried to burn different type of materials to see what will give a real destruction look. The black card didn’t look very well but the white card did and upon burning gave many ashes too. When I burnt plastic wrapper, it got scrunched up and got stuck on the floor. It gave a really nice look and as it stuck, it will be easy to use and stick on the set. I also thought that dried leaves and flowers can also be used along the ashes.

Survey response

I got 13 responses till the end of week 5. My first question was about which film genre did the respondent like and comedy got more response than action/thriller. So, for my second idea, I thought of giving a destruction scene a comical turn.

To make a destruction scene comical, I thought to make all the buildings white and make the windows and doors coloured. Instead of using real looking cars, I can use toy cars. As it is going to be comedy, it would be fine if there is no proportion in all the structures. The ashes and everything can be colourful instead of being dark like black, brown and grey.

Mood Board

Colour Palette

Another question in my survey was an open ended one where I asked suggestions for an action/war film. Out of all, I selected Independence Day Resurgence for my second set analysis.

It is a film about a threat to Earth due to alien invasion. There is a lot of destruction in this film too in major parts of the world.

Artist Analysis

Production Designer: Barry Chusid
Colours: Blue, orange, brown and black
Elements: architecture, fire, sky, space ships
Emotion: thriller, shock, little bit of grief
Content: destruction due to alien invasion
Space/Scale: The set are not miniatures but real sized though VFX techniques have been used as well
Opinion: According to me the designer has done a really good job in combining the actual design and using VFX technique. The building in the scene are actual buildings which are famous and people know about. So, it is very tough to make the exact same thing.
I chose this film because I wanted to see how futuristic destruction will look and I believe the designer has done a good job to make it look futuristic with the use of blue colour and using futuristic vehicles.
Critique: The designer though could have reduced the amount of orange used in some scene because it just looks too much. Orange signifies fire and that is what designer wanted to show but too much of that colour distracts the attention from the destroyed buildings.

Mood Board

Week 4

Critique Session

According to my critique, I have done a good and detailed research till now. The aim of my project is clear and seems unusual but achievable. What surprised me that Ivy (who critiqued my work) noticed how much research it takes to make a model look real and authentic.

Furthermore, the critique gives me motivation to sketch more as I haven’t showed much of sketches because I had to do a lot research first.So this week i.e week 4, I will be focusing only on practical work and try experimenting with materials and do more sketches.

Though I thought the critique could have been better if she also gave me ideas for the project like I gave to John (whose work I analysed), because everyone thinks differently and an idea from someone else’s perspective is helpful.

Project Proposal

fc031-project-proposal Download

This is final project proposal. Marking other students’ proposals made me realise the importance of academic words, content and the length of your project proposal. I improved mine by removing what was not unnecessary and adding things which could help the reader give a clearer aim of my project.

Our group discovered how a person should neither be extremely pessimistic nor praising themselves continuously in their proposal. One should be critical and the critique has to both positive and negative. We also observed that some people have not mentioned the final aim of their project which makes the reader believe that the person himself doesn’t has a clear idea.

All of this helped me to improve my proposal as well as my project.

Survey

Survey link:

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/8KRKJGC

QR code:

We were told to prepare a survey, so that we can get help and a direction for our project as we can get to know what the audience expects to see in our project.

So, I asked questions to solve some of the problems that I was facing. For example, I am still confused if I should make a set based in 2019 or a futuristic set, so I asked the respondents the film genre they prefer to watch.

I hope the survey response will help me in problem solving.

History Research

Project Outline

For my final project I am thinking of making a film set as my pathway course is Design In Film and Television. In my class I got to know that there were riots in Nottingham in 1831. I thought of setting up a scene where riots has happened in present day Nottingham. For that I researched history of the 1831 riots and the England riots of 2011, to get a reference of present day riots. I will make a set for a documentary taking about the modern day riots. The documentary will have visuals of my set, like the photographs and videos

Nottingham Castle Riots of 1831

There were reform riots in Nottingham Castle in 1831. During the 1830s, the electoral system in Britain was corrupt, the people had no influence over the MPs and found the system unrepresentative. The working-class population was discontent and the poor suffered severe working conditions with low pay.

In 1831 the Reform Bill was rejected and that led to serious rioting, in Nottingham and the neighbourhood and the castle was burnt.

Gill, H. (1904). A Short History of Nottingham Castle. http://www.nottshistory.org.uk/gill1904/reformbill.htm

Nottingham Industrial Museum. (2017). News Archive- 1831 Reform Riots- Object Handling. https://www.nottinghamindustrialmuseum.org.uk/1831-reform-riots-object-handling-2/

Nottingham Castle Riots, 1831
Objects from that time
Model of the 1831 Riots
The Castle in present day

There are not many pictures of the riot, but I seems like there was a lot of destruction even though there were not any tall buildings, or any proper buildings for that fact.

England Riots of 2011

In the 2011 riots of England, thousands of people rioted all over England which involved looting and deaths. The protest started in Tottenham, London followed by destruction of vehicles, homes. In Nottingham, more than 90 people got arrested, fire bombs were thrown, police stations attacked and cars were set on fire. According to the people who instigated the riots, the reason was that they didn’t have equal rights to the police and didn’t get the same amount of justice.

BBC UK. (2011, August 10). Nottingham riots: Dozens of arrests made. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-14472172

Clifton, H. (2011, December 6). Nottingham: less looting, but five police stations were attacked. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/dec/06/nottingham-less-looting-five-police-stations-attacked

Carpetright store in Tottenham, where protests started.
Aftermath of the building
A car vandalised in Hackney

Notes

So my idea is to make a scene of aftermath of a riot in Nottingham. From the research above I found some pictures of the Carpetright store in Tottenham where the riots started. I found a similar looking building called the Elite Building on Queens Street in Nottingham and am planning to make that.

Elite Building, Queens Street
Cartpetright store, Tottenham

Sketches

I made some sketches of destruction taking reference from the research. The sketches are made using white chalk, black charcoal, and black marker. I used 2-point perspective to draw these sketches.

Before riots
After Riots
Destroyed houses

Film Set Analysis and Research

Over the weekend, I watched ‘The Foreigner’, which is a British-Chinese action/thriller film about a bomb blast in London. I chose this film so that I can help from the blast scenes. I chose to watch this film because it was both about destruction and also set in London, that will help me to see how buildings or shops in Britain look after destruction. These are some of the screenshots from the movie:

Blast in men’s washroom
Wood and other burnt and broken material
damaged cars and store
Street light broken
damaged car
flying car

ANALYSIS:

Colour: There is a lot of use of browns and blacks. There is also tint of blue in the stills, it could be because blue depicts sadness. There are a lot of white particles on the ground.
Subject: There are destroyed cars and shops, pieces of wood and ashes on the ground.
Content: The above images show a scene of bomb blast in a London street.
Space: The set is a real life location in Churton Street in London.
The production designer: Alex Cameron
First Reaction/ Emotions: These scenes arouse the emotions of sudden shock and grief.
Lighting: There is a use of artificial lighting which is clearly visible because of the appearance of blue light.
Opinion: According to me the destruction is well portrayed to arouse sadness. As it is a real location it would have been difficult to show these scenes.

Week 2

Good, Bad, Weird or Wonderful

In our first class of the second week, we saw a presentation of both successful and unsuccessful designs in creative industries. After watching the presentation, I got some ideas for my project proposal.

We saw an animated Anti Drug PSA by Hanna Barbera from 1970. After watching that I realised how I have seen so many people smoking in Nottingham and my project can revolve around that too. After that we saw the trailer of Stick Man which gave me the idea to create an adventure spot based in Nottingham. Later in class we saw the making of Harry Potter sets. So, I thought how there were so many similar kind of structures in Nottingham too and maybe I can build my very own Hogwarts set.

Primary Research in Library

I picked out a book about set designing in the library and clicked some visuals of the set that I liked.

I liked the Victorian interior designs, especially these cut work patterns on walls and windows, these resemble the kind of cutwork I saw in Noorani Mosque . I also clicked this picture that portrays destruction as it might help in the research of the 1831 Riots.

Spencer, C. (1994). Cecil Beaton Stage and Film Designs. London: Academy Editions.

Surveying II

My classmate Zoe had to research about animals so I accompanied her to a place called Stonebridge City Farm which is just 20 minutes walk from the City Centre.
I loved the design of the bench here, and it reminds me of the Art Nouveau movement that I researched about in FC073.
Visiting Wollaton Hall
Live drawing of a building I discovered near the Wollaton Hall.

Notes: My visit to the Wollaton Hall and Deer Park was a splendid experience, as I reached there late I wasn’t allowed inside the hall. I loved how the yellow ochre colour in the building pops out and also not missing the intricate architecture makes it more loveable. As I was exploring the place I spotted this white building, absolutely pretty with such a nice window design. I sat down and sketched a little part of it too. I visited Wollaton because Batman was shot here and I thought it would be helpful in developing ideas.

Week 1: Exploring Nottingham

Mind Map

While making the mind map about Nottinghamshire, I thought of events, places, activities and even detailed items about Nottingham. First I noted down all the places that I think inspire me like River Trent, the Arboretum, Nottingham Castle and Nottingham Waterways. Then I thought of events and activities here like the Goose Fair and a place called Sherwood Pines. As my pathway course is Design in Film and Television I put Playhouse and the Theatre Royale on my mind map and some of the shows which I can watch there. Later I researched about all the movies that have been shot in Nottingham and found out that some part of the movie Batman: The Dark Knight Rises had been shot in the Wollaton Park so I put that too on my mind map and planned to go there for primary research. When I was wandering in places nearby for inspiration from tiny details, I observed how there were so many buildings made up of red bricks and how so many cafes in Nottingham had decorative light strings. In the class I found out that there was a riot in Nottingham Castle in 1831, so I planned to go there too.

Surveying

This week I set my foot out and explored popular and unpopular places in Nottingham. I clicked photos of every small detail and concept that I liked. I also collected many leaflets and brochures that I found which I used in my mind map.

I loved the use of colours in the store’s window and door and it could be helpful in my future designs.

I liked the textured white wall of this inn and the lichen on the roof adds more detail to the place.

The colour and shape of this door gives a very old vibe. Also there are a lot of buildings made out of red bricks in Nottingham and that has caught my attention.

I visited the Waterways in Nottingham and I loved the colour palette of the boats there.

Noorani Mosque, I loved the cut work windows here.

I went to the castle as it will help me in my research of the Riots of 1831.

OBSERVATION – I have observed the growth of lichens on almost all the buildings, decorative lights in cafes and the red bricks in buildings. I think all these details are going to help me to build my project and give it a vibe of Nottingham.