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Flat Making Workshop
As part of our skills passport module, we learned woodworking skills in the form of creating flats for our upcoming construct the moment project. For this project, workshop safety is foremost important, we all wore glasses to avoid sawdust getting in our eyes as well as ear defenders when using extra loud equipment such as the mitre saw. We started by drawing a quick technical drawing to understand the size and construction of our flat.
We then measured out the lengths we needed and marked them out with a tape measure and a combination square to get straight lines we’d then cut with the mitre saw in the bench. Once all the pieces were cut, we laid them out on the workshop bench and screwed them all together. To strengthen the corners and stop the flats from swaying we added corner pieces we cut, glued and eventually nailed into the frame.
We then laid out canvas and, using a nail gun, attached it to the frame, ensuring it was taught. This workshop taught me woodworking skills as well as an understanding if the construction of timber stage flats for theatre shows and the standard sizing and shape.
SketchUp Workshop
Over the course of two SketchUp workshops, we created both the Waverly Theatre space and chairs to give us an idea of scale for our Hamlet design project. I then went ahead and used these skills to create a digital 3D model, practicing my SketchUp skills over Christmas for a school's production of James and the Giant Peach.
Model Making Workshop
Over the course of the skills passport module, we've had a number of model making sessions. Within these we have learned how to create a window, curtains, a working detailed door as well as making a 1mx1m cube and a piece of standard sized steel deck. This helped us understand how to make solid constructions for a model and got me used to working with the craft knife, materials and glues.
Over the course of the skills passport module, I have learned nearly all I know about professional theatre model making. One of the first things is learning what material to use and when, such as mount-board for thicker smaller pieces, ticket card for details and smaller layers and foam board for bases and thicker sections, learning that you can also carve it to create sculptural shapes, something I achieved with my construct the moment model of the Waverley building.
Getting to grips with cutting skills and other intricate elements was challenging when creating my model, throughout the modelmaking workshops, learning how to make a window and a door, I soon learned how to cut different materials accurately and create realistic models for proposed stages. Something that surprised me was, once I had got to grips with using my scale ruler to measure and create 1:25 elements, how easy it was to follow in the end. This helps make the model accurate to measure if a scenery studio was to create it and get a reference for both sizing, scale and scenic artwork, alongside technical documents and scenic samples the designer has sent to the studio.
This was something I learned massively from our visit to Rocket Scenery in our work-like experience week, one of the biggest scenery studios in the UK. We saw their scenic samples they can show to designers as well as the model and technical sheets the designer creates to let the studio understand the scenic finish.
Working in 1:25 scale has improved my observational skills by learning about scenic reference details. A couple key examples would be creating small bricks for my wall and how bricks have different colour tones and imperfections, the same also applies to my floor as I had to create weathered, broken-down tones in my floor. I also learned this from our visit to Rocket Scenery where we saw their vac-formed bricks and how they texture and paint them.
Learning technical skills as part of the module was important to aid the design process, this came in the form of a photoshop tutorial in which we learned to use key tools within the software, something I ultimately ended up creating 2D technical drawings in to visualise the construct the moment measurements. We also learned SketchUp in a series of workshops where we played around with creating small items such as chairs and bigger walls to create a replica to the Waverly Theatre space. I went on to use these skills in a work-like experience project in designing a set for James and the Giant Peach.
One other crucial skill we began to learn was flat making with Ollie in the workshop, learning how to safely and efficiently use equipment aided us into minimising waste and creating solid walls for us to use in the upcoming construct the moment project.
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