By Daniel Buckland level 3
North Kent college: Miskin
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Week 4
Continuing to sew
Today I was continuing to sew the fabric to the elastic strips which was finished and the done the same as before. Then I got glow in the dark paint that I used to paint the tree branches and I painted the joints with some other random spots of paint. I had to put a lot of paint on my brush to make sure that the paint glowed in the dark. I repeated painting tree branches until we painted all of the dry branches, but we couldn't paint some of them because the rain made them wet. Then I did some course work.
Painting tree branches
One of the tree branches I painted
Glow in the dark paint I used
Pile of painted tree branches to dry
Finishing the tree branches
Today I finished painting the glow in the dark paint onto the tree branches on the joints and I also spread it about randomly but one of the branches was big with dead leaves on, so I picked off the leaves that I then put into the bin. The branches went into a pile to dry because when the paint dries it is not visible unless it's in the dark and we needed to be able to tell which one had been painted. Then a chandelier needed to be made that is going to be rigged high up with wood, string and beads. A circle was made of 4 pieces of wood, one piece of wood for each side that would be drilled together. Then we needed to have a hole for each piece of string that would have the beads on which we didn't know how much there were because it was bought a long time ago also, we couldn't measure it either from the beads being different sizes so me and another person needed to count the beads. First, I grabbed a bowl from design to transfer the beads while counting them one by one that took the whole morning to do. When I got to 1000, I got another bowl then I wrote 1000 on a bit of paper that went on top of the bowl, and I counted from 0 in the new bowl which had 604 beads in. Then we added up me and the other person's bowl numbers which gave the number of 4304. Then 96 holes were marked with pen on the wood in the circle. Then I hot glued the wagyu beef to the plate better by putting glue anywhere not visible as much as possible. Doing that definitely helped because when I turned the plate upside down nothing moved and before it would drop down a bit and the fabric spaghetti would go out of place. Then I got told that the glow in dark paint didn't glow very much, so I added a second layer to 20 of the branches because that's how many we need, and the rest are spares in case they break. Then I went to the prop store to put back props that weren't needed like the onions and lanterns. I carried a box with props in while someone else carried a crate. Then I put the props into their correct places like the onions in the fake food box and the frog with other frogs.
All of the painted tree branches
Counting beads for a chandelier
4 pieces of wood the circle was drawn on
Close up of the circle
Beads I counted
604 beads 1000 beads
Box of beads I counted from ---->
Hot gluing Wagyu beef
Hot glued Wagyu beef
Painting a 2nd layer of paint onto tree branches
Returning props to the prop store
Box of props I moved into the prop store
Crate moved to the prop store
Researching tassels
Today I researched curtain tassels online and I first looked at Dunelm which only had a small tassel for £14 which was too expensive. Then I looked on amazon where I found two for £18.99 With multiple colours selection which gold was selected then I sent the link for stage management to buy. Then I moved some props back to the prop store which was a box with halloween things in like a skeleton and the box went on a shelf at the back of the container. Then I went the workshop where I grabbed a hand full of branches that were pained with two layers of the glow in the dark paint into an empty bin in the corridor out of the way which would be in the office next to the stage doors during tech week. When going through the doors with the branches I went through them backwards, so the branches squeezed through instead of being snapped off. Then I got some orange plastic cups and plates that I used sand paper on so the shine was gone, and the paint would stick to it. When I thought I sanded them down I got told that it wasn't sanded down enough so I sanded everything down again including the inside of the cups and the bottoms. Then the science potion table was being taken apart, so I made multiple trips to empty the paint and water mixture into the workshop sink. I carried 3 glass science flasks at a time, and I ran the tap while I emptied out the mixture so that it wouldn't stick to the bottom of the sink. Then I carried the table with another person to the area which had all of the rubbish in. After I moved the table, I went into the workshop to see if any help. There wasn’t much help needed in there but the fibre glass string that is going to be used for the chandelier was being cleaned with a bucket of warm water, soap, a cloth and gloves. So, I put on the gloves then I dipped the cloth into the water and then I put the cloth over every bit of string individually with help from two other students.
Dunelm tassels
Amazon tassels
Moving props
Props moved to prop store
Tree branches in bin in corridor
Sanding down plastic plates and cups
Sanded down plates and cups
Taking apart a science lab table
Science flasks about to be emptied out in sink
Table that potions were on in rubbish area
Cleaning glass fibre string
Gloves and cloth I used
Bucket with water and soap in
Glass fibre string cleaned individually
First, I got a task of adding a brown wash to a small sign with the name “Sven” on it, so I grabbed light brown paint and a container where I added a bit of brown paint into it then I added water from the kitchen tap into it and I mixed them together with the brush to get rid of the lumps. Then I put the water and brown paint onto the sign with the brush over the writing and on every side of the sign and then I left it to dry. Then we went to the props table in the corridor to mark out where the props were going with thin blue tape and masking tape to write on with a pen. Then me and the other students moved the props from design to the table and then I pushed a box of heavy books across the floor to go underneath the table. After the box of books was underneath the props table, I carried the box of wolf masks underneath the props table too. Then the props were laid down on the table that was marked into sections with the thin blue tape and then masking tape was put on every section with what was meant to go in that section like 21 times roses and magic mirror. When all the props were marked down on the table with the tape, we moved all the props back into design apart from the boxes. Then a checklist of props was made for tech week so we can see if any props are preset and to see if we have everything in the correct place but some of the props were being practiced with by the actors so me and another person went inside the studio, and we noted down what they had, and we told the others what was in there to add to the checklist. Then I did a bit of course work while waiting for the rehearsal to start. Then I watched the first full run through with a small audience in the studio which had the tape showing where the set was and how big it is. The show overall was good, and it was 15 minutes longer than last time I saw it so all together it’s 1 hour and 15 minutes. While watching it I thought that the music was too loud because I couldn’t hear the actor’s singing or talking at some points which was a bit annoying. During a song about how great Gaston was being sung and danced too Gaston throw his axe then he catches it to show off and then he throws it to his henchman who barely caught it and I thought that it wasn’t worth the risk of the prop breaking. I also noticed that the actors mimed jumping on and off the circle stage in the centre of the set which was good. Also when Maurice was attacked by the wolves one of them took his invention and scarf off him which was effective to show that he was lost and afraid.
Adding a brown wash to a sign
Before painted
After painted
Preparing the props table
The marked props table
Boxes underneath the props table
Checklist and watching a rehearsal
Research on Beauty and the Beast
I also did some research on the Beauty and the Beast’s different versions, and I looked at Disney’s carton versions cottage and tavern then I look at the real life film version and show sets from other places that put the show on.
Cartoon version
Live action version
Other show sets on Beauty and the Beast
Weekly evaluation 4
This week I have finished sewing the wolf masks, painted tree branches with glow in the dark paint, counted beads for the chandelier, hot glued my wagyu beef again, returned prop to the prop store, researched tassels, moved tree branches into a bin for storage near the auditorium, sanded down plastic cups and plates, took apart a science lab table and moved it, cleaned glass fibre string for the chandelier, brown washed a small sign, marked the props table with tape, checked what the actors had in rehearsals and I watched a rehearsal of the whole show in the studio. I solved the problem of not knowing having beads we have to attach to string for the chandelier which each string piece is going to a hole drilled into the wooden circle for. We also wanted the same amount of bead on each string, so the gap isn’t too big between each bead on the string. We couldn’t weigh a bad then weigh all the beads because they were all different shapes and sizes me and another person counted them one by one into bowls. This process took up the whole morning to do and we ended up with a number of 4304. I guessed that there were 5000 beads in the box which was a close guess. This taught me to be patient which is a useful skill to have when prop making so the prop isn’t rushed and looks bad because it was rushed. I have improved on my knowledge of the show by watching a rehearsal of the show in the studio that had the set marked of the floor. Also, they spit the actors into two acting casts Beauty and Beast but before they were practicing at the same time, so people played as the same characters. It was good to watch and some of the song’s choreography had improved. Knowing the show is important so you what props are used when and what for. I can improve on my coursework website because where I put everything onto one page my laptop can’t load all of it at once. So, in the weekend I will borrow a more powerful laptop to move the weeks onto separate pages. Also, on some research I did at college I saved the images on the computer without looking where I saved it which wasn’t to the cloud so I can’t get the images on my website from my laptop so I to find the images on the college’s computer and put it on my website. I did research on curtain tassels for stage management to buy so I looked on Dunelm which only had a small white one that was too expensive for what it was at £14 so I looked on amazon which had more options. On amazon I found a pair of two large ones for £18.99 that had colour options where gold was selected. I also did research on Belle’s cottage and the tavern on the cartoon, real life film and shows performed and other places. I liked the look of the tavern on the cartoon version with the barrel tops on the walls.