By Daniel Buckland level 3
North Kent college: Miskin
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The instillation project
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The christmas show
The dance show
TIE and level 2 show
The dance show 2
Removing tape for the dance get out
Today was the get out for the dance show so first me and some others went around the auditorium removing all the gaffa and glow tape we placed apart from the tape behind the curtains. So, I removed tape from around the lights, on the lights and random bits on the floor. Then I helped lighting and sound by footing the tallescope as someone was up there removing the lights and then moving them to the floor by tying it to a rope that another person on ground level pulled down slowly and the they untied the rope from the light so that the next light could be removed from the lighting bar also there was another person on ground level with me that was footing the tallescope the opposite side to me. Me and the other person footing would move the tallescope when the person up the top said so which was when the rope had been untied from the light to move closer to the next light on the bar. I was also checking the floor for any objects in the way of the tallescope when moving and at one point I moved some bags out of the way. Then I picked up a wire off the floor and I looped it around my hand and then I taped the loops together then I put the wire back into the correct case which I did with some more wires on the floor after that. Then the lights that were in the wings connected to a base and pole were moved into one area where I grabbed a podger and I loosened the bolt that kept the light attached to the pole while someone else held the light and then once it was loosened, I unscrewed the bolt by hand and then I grabbed the loose bolt then the person holding the light moved it to the floor. Then I took out the pole from the base and I moved it to next to the door for them to be moved later. This was the first time I successfully used a podger and I also learnt that left was to loosen the bolt and right was to tighten it which was the same with the switches on both sides to change between loosening and tightening. Then other people removed the lights from the pole and then I moved the poles to door which some other people did the same as me. Then I moved a couple of the bases that the poles and lights were attached to into a row on the floor. Then the dance flats that created the wings needed to be taken down which were drilled into the floor and attached to the by a long bar at the top which was the same on the other side and 2 people were needed to hold an end of each flat and then after they were unscrewed from the floor all the people furthest from the wall hold the flat walked down the flat to lie the whole thing down. I was holding onto a side of the flat that was being walked down which I struggled with the weight a bit but did successfully after the 3, 2, 1 countdown for everyone to move at the same time. After the flats and connected bars were put on it’s side, I continued to hold it so that it didn’t fall as some people were loosening the bolts that connected the bars to the flats. After the bars were disconnected, me and someone else moved the flat into the pile of other flats. Then we did the same thing to the other set of dance flats making the wings the other side. Then me and some other people carried the pole from the door to the back of the workshop where they are stored.
Tape being removed from around light base
Footing and moving a tallescope
Looking up the tallescope from my footing position
Poles moved to near the door
Row of light bases on floor
Taking down the dance flats
Moving the poles and bases lights were on
Dance flats on it's side lying down
Dance flats in pile
Making a prop weapon
After the dance show get out was complete there wasn’t much to do because we start working on the TIE and level 2 acting shows after the half term, so stage management students were making weapons from VA foam for something to do, to make our weapon props have more variety choices and to show them off for open day as props that students made. This was going to take a couple of days to make but first I needed to research for some inspiration online to create my own design. Before I started researching for weapon inspiration, I had the ideas of making a dagger with some sort of elemental theme like lightning or fire. I researched different videogames names with the word dagger in the end and then I found an image of many fire elemental themed weapons and one of the weapons in that image was a dagger and I liked the blade design, but I didn’t like the handle. Then I researched images of fire daggers which didn’t have many results so then I tried searching fantasy elemental dagger where I found an image of a double sided dagger which I thought would look cool with the blade design I found. Then I started to design my dagger by drawing it out on some paper so I drew the blade the best I could and then I drew a thick handle and since I didn't want to draw the same thing again to save time I wrote “Same as other side”. For the detailing on the blade, I thought to have a dragon head in the middle with swirls either side of it then I realized that the head would be hard to make on the small handle in real life, so I designed another handle that was an orange gem in the middle with orange fiery lava cracks coming from the gem with the handle being a silver or dark metal in the background. Then I got an A4 sheet of paper which was the same size the VA foam was in to draw templates to cut out and use as a guide to cut on the foam. So I drew a bigger version of my blade design and then I got told that the hole I wanted at the bottom with the half ring would make the blade and handle connection weak from the having glue only on the bottom edges and not the bottom middle, so I then tried to moved the hole over to the right and make it smaller but I didn’t like the way it looked so I’ll paint that bit black where the hole should have been. Then I cut out my blade template I made on the A4 paper, and I held it on the EVA foam as I used a box cutter to cut around the blade shape. When I went around the blade template it didn’t fully cut out so I had to push down on the blade a bit and go over it a few times and then I flipped over the EVA foam piece and I cut through from that side and then some of the corners weren’t cut fully through so I pulled on it a bit and then I cut the foam off to get my foam blade. Then I had to cut out another blade to increase the thickness of the blade that was going to be glued together so I cut out another piece with the same paper template but I moved the template a bit while cutting it out onto the foam so it was slightly bigger that the other blade piece it was going to be stuck down but they would be the same size after I use a rotary tool with a sanding attachment on it which I was planned to do another day. Then I cut out a skinny rectangle on the EVA foam to be the base of my handle and then I cut out two bigger rectangles to go either side and then I cut out 3 small pieces to go in between the two big handle bits to make it thicker. Then I cut out the last piece which was a rectangle with a hole in the middle to slide onto the handle end that the blade is going to be glued onto. Then we went to the workshop to glue the pieces together with multi-purpose impact instant contact adhesive and we needed to be in the workshop because a well ventilated room was needed from the fumes it gave. So, I put some of the glue onto a spatula that I spread onto the base smaller rectangle handle and then I spread some onto the blade and the I left the glue on them for a few minutes and then I put the two pieces together and then I held them with my hand for a bit, so it didn’t glue with gaps. Then I used the same technique to glue the other blade onto the basic handle and then I squashed the blade pieces together with my hands so there were no gaps seen between the two blades and the handle. Next, I glued the rectangle with a hole in the middle which I did by adding glue to the bottom of the two blade pieces and then I slid the basic handle through the hole and with the glue. Afte that I glued a big handle piece onto the basic handle piece and then I glued the 3 smaller pieces to make the handle thicker and to fill in the gap, but I glued the 2 longer pieces the wrong way up so the bottom 3rd smaller piece didn’t fit. The glue takes 24 hours to dry so I went into design with my dagger to do something else. In design we were introduced to a wireless rotary tool which could carve details into the VA foam with the attachment it had on, and this tool was going to be used on my dagger in the future, so I practiced using it on a scrap bit of VA foam after finding some patterns to carve out from the internet. I first tried carving a zigzag pattern onto the foam which was hard to control at first but when I held I at the correct angle it was easier but when it went down it jumped down with a bit of force and then I did swirls which were harder to do. Then I carved a circle and cracks around the circle for practice for my blade, but I found it easier to make the cracks as I could control it, but it was a bit random as it moved.
Researching for design ideas
Inspiration images from online
Designing my weapon and making the template
Weapon design
Blade template design
Making weapon pieces from EVA foam
All the weapon pieces made from EVA foam
blade and basic handle glued together
All pieces glued dagger
Glue that I used
Gluing the pieces together
Introduced to the rotary tool
Rotary tool I used with different attachment on
Image of a pattern I found online
Patterns I carved into the EVA foam
Smoothing the edges
Today I used a pair of scissors to cut down one of the 2 blades which were glued together because one was slightly bigger then the other one which would take too long to sand down with the rotary tool. Then I used the rotary tool on my dagger but with an attachment to smooth the edges of it which I needed to wear a mask for because lots of small pieces of the foam comes off while sanding down the edges that could be breathed in. So, I turned on the tool and I applied a bit of pressure to the foam and went around the edges a couple of times. Then I got some air drying clay to fill in the small holes like in between the 2 blade pieces that were glues together and the hole at the bottom of the handle from the smaller 3rd piece being too small because I glued the 2 smaller side pieces the wrong way up. Then I looked through what gems we had, and I found an orange gem which at first, I thought was too small to be in the middle of the handle and then I held it near the top middle of the handle which looked better, so I hot glued the gem on to the handle. Then I drew pencil lines on the handle to look like cracks that were coming out of the gem which I did to mark out where I was going to put the puffy paint. After I tested the puffy paint on a piece of paper to know how hard to squeeze the bottle, I guided the bottle while squeezing out the puffy paint onto the pencil lines I made. Also, the puffy paint is going to be painted over so it won’t be green when my prop is finished. After the puffy paint dried, I turned over the dagger and I did a similar design on the handle’s other side, but I didn’t add the gem and the cracks started from the middle and outwards instead of from the top middle. Also, liquid glue had to be painted onto the entire dagger so that the foam didn’t absorb the paint, but I couldn't paint the glue onto the handle since the puffy paint was still wet. So, after it dries, I need to paint the rest of my dagger with glue and when that dries, I can start painting it.
Filing in the gaps
Gaps filled in with air drying clay
Adding details to the handle
Mask I wore while using rotary tool
Gem and pencil marked handle
Gem and puffy pained handle
Handle's other side and painting on glue
Puffy painted other side of handle with glue on blade
Painting glue onto the handle
Today my puffy paint had dried so I painted the glue onto the handle so that the foam didn’t absorb the paint and then I waited for it to dry. After the glue dried, I painted a black base coat onto my weapon. Then I waited for the black paint to dry which took longer than I thought. Then I wanted to paint the puffy paint on the handle orange so instead of carefully using a brush on the black puffy paint with black paint behind it I put orange dyna paint on my finger and after rubbing my fingers together to take some paint off I felt where the puffy paint was and then I repeated this on the other side of the handle. Then I got some grey metalic paint to paint my design onto the blade and then I painted orange onto the blade as well, but I didn’t get enough time to paint the other side of the blade. Then we made molds of our fingers so next week when the fingers are hardened, we can make severed fingers. First alginate powder and water were mixed into a bowl with the ratio of 2:1 which was then poured in a plastic cup that I put my index finger into it. After a few minutes of my finger being in the mixture it had hardened into a rubber like texture, so I then pulled my finger out and there was nothing on my finger and an imprint of my finger was inside. Then a mixture of latex and latex thickener was poured inside the mold of my finger and then I had to write my initials on the cup and then I had to wait for the latex to harden.
Painting my weapon
Black base coat
Painted puffy paint
Painted blade
Making a mold of my finger
Glue painted on handle
Alginate powder
Latex
Latex thickener
After finger pulled out from alginate mixture
After latex mixture was poured in
Weekly evaluation 5
This week I have removed tape on floor from the dance show, footed a tallescope, used a podger to detach a light from a pole, moved poles and lighting bases, helped take down the dance flat, researched and designed a prop weapon dagger, cut out the weapon parts from VA foam, glued the weapon parts together, practiced and used a rotary tool to smooth edges on my weapon, decorated my weapon with puffy paint, a gem and paint and I made a mold of my finger to start making a severed finger. I solved the problem of not having enough time to cut out the other 2 parts for the other side of the double blade by making a tactical choice to change my design to finish so that I could glue my parts together sooner because the glue takes 24 hours to dry. If I didn’t make this choice, I would have cut out more pieces, glued more pieces and needed to paint a bigger weapon that would have taken longer to dry so I don’t think I would have finished my weapon in time. I have improved on my prop making skills from making a dagger made from VA foam this has improved my research and designing skills too. I now know how to use a rotary tool made by the brand Dremel and I know how to use puffy paint. I liked the puffy paint, but I didn’t like how long it took to dry which was hours because I couldn’t paint on the handle, and I had to wait for one side to dry and then the other side too. I can improve on my foam cutting skills with a scalpel and a box cutter because it take me multiple cuts around the whole bit I’m cutting out and turning the piece of foam over to see which cuts went through it. Also, I barely cut out my weapon pieces in time to glue it. I researched inspiration for my weapon before I started to design it by looking up images of video games, fantasy and fire weapons which eventually gave me the idea of my dagger design by combing a couple of different weapons and then adding my own ideas onto it. Also, I researched an image of a pattern to give me an idea what to carve onto a scrap VA foam piece to practice using the rotary tool.