By Daniel Buckland level 3
North Kent college: Miskin
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Week 3
Making dead flowers
#Today I got set the task to make the dead flowers but first I researched “How to make dead fake flowers prop” but nothing appeared so I tried a few different ways of saying it but still nothing showed up so instead I looked up images of dead flowers to see what they looked like. Also, we looked in the big prop store and we found a medicine cabinet that we could use for our set. Then I started to make it by grabbing a handful of white fake flowers and using a paint spray bottle with the lid off with a sponge to create a brown that also darkened the existing white on the fake flower. I put a layer of the paint onto the flowers, but it didn’t show up very well, so I added more layers onto them one by one so that the first one did have a bit of time to dry before the new layer went on. Also, I added more of the paint into the middle of the fake petals to show that it’s dying from the centre outwards like an actual dying flower. Next time I’ll add a few more layers onto the fake petals then I’ll use a special kind of paint for the stem because of its material. Then we did an induction checklist on their website which we went through then checked them all off that had things like “I understand the importance of wearing my ID at all times” to tick off. Then I did my tutorial where I spoke to the tutors about my course, and I got the feedback to not use the titles like day 1 but title them things like Icebreakers.
Research images
<----Before After---->
Materials used
Induction checklist and my tutorial
The meeting
Today all the techies and actors got told to meet in the lecture hall which I was first confused about then got told that we would have meeting here every now and again. First an actor from level 4 started to talk about what they were all doing on their course level which was a Christmas show tour and then another actor represented the level 2s and 3s said that were doing Roahl Doahl stories after that another actor representing another group talked up making short pieces in groups for the Christmas show The Beauty and the Beast and then two techies stared to talk about the instillation project which we were doing. Then one of the tutors had 15 real or made up headlines which we needed to guess if they were real or not and I got 10 out of 15 correct. Then we were shown a YouTube video that talked about deep fakes which is a digital tool to put a face onto a body in a video to look like you’re in a different location or a different person like a celebrity. Then me and my group started to plan for the instillation project which we made lists of what we need I the different departments. For lighting and sound we want cold lighting, fading in and out, warm over glow, frezel lights, S4s, birdies, beeping flatline, Boris Johnson beginning of covid speech, muffle noise cutting out and screaming. For the set we need a hospital bed, tv or radio, curtain on wheels and three flats which one has a frosted window. For costume we need a black robe, black gloves, top hat and black boots. Then finally for the props list we need a plague doctors mask dead flowers, a chair and a cane. Then we made layout of the set which had the bed in the corner and the plague doctor behind it with a tv and chair that has Boris Johnson on it. Also, I did some research on what they believed to work as a cure for the black death that doesn’t work like rubbing alive chickens on the victim’s body to cure them which only spread it to the chickens. Then we looked in the big prop store for a bed and we found a wooden one that looked too old for a modern hospital then we found a black metal which we would have to paint white but still looked a bit old and that bed is re used for many shows so we probably wouldn’t be allowed to paint it anyway. When we were looking for a chair, we saw wooden chairs painted black which if painted another colour would still look too old or an armchair which looked like it belonged in a care home. We decided to have a radio instead of a tv because we could find or make one. Then we saw a medicine cabinet that looked perfect for our set. Then we looked in the small prop store where we found the curtains on wheels for the hospital and then we found a box labeled medical supplies that had things like stethoscopes and bandages in which we could put in the medicine cabinet. Also, we saw a box of bed sheets that looked like a hospital would have. Then we got given a tour of the lighting store which is in the workshop. It stored in it gels that change the colour of the lights. harnesses, clips, ropes and lights. The lights used not as much were stored at the back in a line. Also, we got shown the lighting desk room that was above the auditorium and studio which had a window to look through the rooms. In that room also has organized coloured gels, other items like tape and electrical boxes which can only be used with a key a permission of the tutor unless you’re stopping a dangerous situation. After the tour we went back into the auditorium where were shown the difference between a generic and intelligent light. An intelligent light is more expensive than a generic and it’s controlled from a lighting desk that be focused, changed colour, add a pattern, move a spotlight and have many more uses that can all be done from the desk. The generic is cheaper, but you have to go up a ladder to focus it, add a gel slide in it to change it’s colour or add a pattern and it get’s very hot quickly. The generic can also be controlled from the desk but can only be turned on or off or change the light intensity.
<---- Lecture hall where meeting was held
<---- Notes made while listing what we needed
Layout of our set---->
Research example
Planning what we need for our project
Looking for props
<----wooden bed and metal bed frame
Wooden---->
black chairs
<----Curtains on wheels
(ignore tiger)
Medical supplies box
Bed sheet (blue star one)
Learning about lights
<----Lighting store
<----Generic light
Intelligent light---->
The set
Today me and my group were focusing on the set and none of the beds in the big prop store looked like a hospital bed, so we were looking online for a cheap hospital bed but the first thing that shows up are beds worth up to £4,000 or more which was too expensive. Then we tried looking on ebay and facebook marketplace and after a while we found a cheap on ebay but it was on auction with 30 minutes left so we went to our tutor but he said that we had one from a student that use go to this college that needed a hospital bed near him because he had seizures but not long after arriving he left the college so the bed was taken apart into a box that stayed here. Then we went into the prop store where we found a small metal table and we moved the curtains on wheels into the workshop. Also, the tutor had a machine that measures how much electricity is in something which also looked like a machine that measures your heart rate. We wanted in our set so we added a small table into our layout and then we realized that our set would need 6 flats which we thought would be only 3 flats, so we made the layout different from the last one that used 3 flats instead of 6. Then we turned our window into a door which the plague doctor would be standing in but one of the walls would block the doorway, so we made another layout sketch. Then we went into the flats store, and we moved flats out to get to the 7ft flats but we couldn’t find any because we were the last group to choose our flats, so we decided to use 8ft flats instead. We found a doorframe and our flats that we needed. Then we put the flats that we didn’t need back into the container and then we got some help from the other groups moving our flats into the workshop. Then we were in the auditorium getting taught more about lighting and sound. First, we got told the differences between profile and washer lights. A profile light can create a soft or hard edge which with hard edge can create a box that can be adjusted with shutters. A washer can evenly spread light across the whole stage but only has a soft edge. Then I got taught how to focus a washer light on a person with the bar lowered onto the floor. First you unfold the fans then you loosen the top so you can move where you want the light to aim which should be in the middle of their body then you tighten it back up. After that you make the spread of the light smaller with a knob that is loosened then tightened and then you move the light by moving the fans which you shouldn’t touch with your hand but with gloves or the sleeve of your jumper. I focused this light on another student which he stood still a bit further away. Then I got taught how to focus a profile light which is loosened to move then a knob is used to turn it into a hard edge. Also, the light had four rods of metal with a handle on the end one was up, one was down, one was left, and one was right but whatever one you moved made the opposite side of the light spread get bigger or smaller which eventually I made a box with around the student. Then we needed to rig a light from on a ladder so first the ladder was set up and we needed 2 people to foot the ladder, a person holding a rope to bring up/down the light and a person watching for any hazards on the floor. I was holding the rope that had a bowline knot on the tail to attach the light to it while the other tail had a figure of eight knot so it wouldn’t slip out of the pulley that was holding the rope at the top on the bar. The person on the ladder is always in charge because they are in the most dangerous spot and when they say “I’m ready for the light” you pull the rope with the light attached up, so I pulled the rope up. After the person on the ladder has remove the rope from the light and hooked the light onto the bar they say “your line” then they drop the rope which I also drop the rope. Also, I watched, and someone was checking with me if they had tied the bowline knot right because they were de rigging it, so I looked then said yes. I tried to go up the ladder which I got up 6 steps up so next time I’ll try 7 or more steps up a ladder. Then we got told to leave the room for a couple of minutes and come back so we did but when we were back it was sabotaged with being unsafe in many ways which we had to fix as a team. The ladder safety latch wasn’t clipped on, the side spreader wasn’t on, the fans of the light were taken off, there was an object on a ladder step and the ladder wasn’t fully stretched out. Then we got shown an analogue sound board which could also be called the sound console. It looks complicated but one row going downward is just repeated so there were less buttons to learn. Each row is a channel that controls a different sound like a speaker or a phone playing music. The volume is called gain which has light indicators in green, amber and red to show how loud it is and it should be in the green and every now and again jumping in amber. The hertz is a different knob to turn which is changes depending on the pitch of a person’s voice into a microphone. Also, when two speakers are plugged in right and left two knob point inwards to each other. At the top the microphone, speakers and a wire that connects the phone to the desk. When setting up a desk you turn everything to 0 and the turn a knob to unity which you turn to at the back of the speaker too which makes it sound better then if you’re using a microphone you change the hertz depending on the pitch of their voice to create less feedback from the speaker that could damage your hearing then while someone is talking into the microphone you slowly move up the volume slider and if it’s a desk you turn a knob into the middle so that sound comes out of both speakers equally. Also there is an on button above the volume slider. Then we got told to leave the room for a few minutes then the sound desk got sabotaged and we needed to get it working again. First, we reset all the knobs and sliders to 0 then we plugged in the two wires needed for the phone to play music which the red stripped one goes on the right and the black one goes on the left. Then we unplugged the microphone connected to the speaker and moved it too be connected to the sound desk. Next, we plugged in the speakers then changed the gain to being barely on the amber light. Then we turned on the microphone channel and we slowly moved the slider up as it was being tested. Then we turned n the speakers that was music from the phone.
<----Metal table
Curtains on wheels---->
<----ECG machine lookalike
Layout change 1
Layout change 2
8ft flats we moved out for our set
Some flats moved to reach needed flats
Focusing and rigging lights
<----Washer light I focused
<----Profile light I focused
The analog sound console
<----Analog sound console
Back of the speaker---->
Our final idea and presenting it
Today we were in our groups for the instillation project, and we decided to that our final idea is the plague doctor in modern times which we decided on because Slenderman wasn’t very original we just took an already existing idea from a videogame, and we didn’t know much for what to do on the other ideas. So, I started to make a final idea mind map while the others made a mood board from online images. I grabbed the colourful pens and I created sections in different colours which were props in green, costume in orange, set in blue, lighting in red and anything else in black. Then I decorated it with swirls, lines, and a drawing of the plague doctor. Then we did a presentation to the other groups and 2nd years in our group about our first thoughts on the theme “altered reality”, the 5 ideas we had and our final idea which my group created on google slides and they made it when I was making the final idea mind map. I presented slides 2,3,12 and 16 and on slides 2 and 3 I talked about our first thoughts on altered reality. I talked about our past ideas off thinking to have a portal that split the set in half, the plague doctor, not having many ideas on drugs, sci-fi or horror theme and getting into the mind of someone with dementia or schizophrenia. On slide 12 I talked about our Slenderman idea set in the wood with haze, using a mannequin as Slenderman and I talked about the sounds and props too. On slide 16 I talked about our schizophrenia idea which was set in a school with whispers in the soundscape because a person thinks that everyone is talking about him. Then we went back into our groups, and we all made lists of what we need in different departments, and I did costume. First, I copied over all the costume pieces that we needed then I separated them into a find and make list with some other information added on it like the plague doctor’s outfit will be on a mannequin.
<----Where we presented
Press to view presentation---->
Weekly evaluation 3
This week I have chosen my final idea in my group and presented it to the level 2s,3s and the 2nd years in my group, had a meeting to learn more about news, deepfakes and what the actors do, planned what we needed for my project, looked for props to use, learned about lighting, I made prop dead flowers, grabbed props, grabbed flats, I learned how to focus lights and the basics of an analog sound console. This week I have solved the problem of not having the prop dead flowers made by making it for our project. When researching how to make this nothing came up online which first made me struggle to think how to create them then I looked at images of dead flowers which helped me. These flowers were made with many layers of paint on a sponge to make the petals look dead which I first thought wouldn’t work because the white kept on being seen after the paint was on. I have improved on how high I can get up a ladders when we were learning how to rig lights. During the ladder safety a while ago, I went up 6 steps but when learning how to rig lights I went up 7 lights so next time I go up a ladder I’ll aim to go up higher. When I go up ladders, I know I’m safe but it’s the view of looking down that freaks me out. I can improve on my planning skills by getting a notebook instead of having lots of loose papers in my bag and having to scroll through my photos to find a specific paper that I took of photo of the other day. This week I have researched how to make dead prop flowers before I started to make them but only alive fake flowers or DIYs that were made from paper not meant for theatre which I looked on websites and YouTube for. Then I looked at images of dead flowers so that I had an idea of what to make my prop look like when making it.