Playing with Scale: How Designers Use Set Models

There is a fantastic exhibition at the National Theatre in London, UK on designing with set models for theatre.

It looks magical.

As reported in Design Week in an article written by Sarah Dawood November 20, 2018 5:23 pm.

"Playing with Scale: How Designers Use Set Models looks at how stage designers for the National Theatre have used model boxes to help inform entire sets, and will feature original model boxes used in the theatre's productions, archive materials, films, audio and photography.

..."

As described in an article on National Theatre

"This free exhibition explores how designers use set models for theatre-making. Playing with Scale unfolds the idea of a scale model and explains the importance of models as a design tool. The exhibition features examples of models from five productions designed for the Olivier stage between 1977-2018 and explores how these intricate models are used in the process of theatre-making. Production models include Exit the King, Antony and Cleopatra, The Life of Galileo, Antigone and The Comedy of Errors.

The exhibition includes archive materials, films, audio, images and set models. The exhibition is curated by Eleanor Margolies, who has been the Jocelyn Herbert Fellow of Camberwell, Chelsea and Wimbledon Graduate School, University of the Arts London, and is designed by Jemima Robinson. This exhibition is the outcome of the Jocelyn Herbert Fellowship (2016-18) and forms part of a collaboration between the National Theatre and Camberwell, Chelsea and Wimbledon. The exhibition is funded in part by the Rootstein Hopkins Foundation."

How Great Directors Frame and Move the Camera

I'm completely self-taught. I learn film making by reverse engineering DVD's of movies and doco's in my head as I watch them play. Figuring out how the scenes are lit. What crane was used and how it tracked. Where the camera was placed. What lenses were used and why? How the actors moved. How the scene was composed.

The second source has been reading every ASC magazine from cover to cover and then reading them again.

The third source has been watching "The making of" docos that are often included on DVD's. And reading any books that come with the film. I now have a great and growing collection of these books mainly purchased used from Amazon and library surplus book sales.

The fourth source has been watching YouTube-style videos from web sites like Stan Winston School of Character Arts, BAFTA, Weta Workshop, etc and today Wolfcrow.

So here is a great video description from Wolfcrow of some of Roger Deakins methods. Roger is probably my favourite cinematographer.

And work by Christopher Nolan.

And Ridley Scott - a master of quick setups.

And focal lengths and lenses.

David Neat - A Maker - A Teacher of Making

I came across David Neat a few years ago. He has a wonderful website that I found very useful for drawing and making model sets.

He is a real teacher. As described on his web site.

"I am, quite simply put, a maker and a teacher of making. That may neatly embrace a lot of what I do, but it doesn’t really touch the heart of my interests or intentions. Having struggled for a long time to find a better job description, the one that I think I’m most comfortable with at the moment is .. practical investigator!

My own ‘making’ encompasses sculpture, model-making, painting, graphic work and design. My ‘teaching’ involves undergraduate or post-graduate lecturing/tutoring both here (England) and abroad; running my own short courses, whether independently or hosted by institutions; writing instructional books and articles. I am, for example, author of the (fairly successful) book Model-making: Materials and Methods and this WordPress site is meant to be a continuation or an ‘update’ of it.

Here is a list of the places/courses where I either work regularly or have given workshops/masterclasses to date:

Wimbledon College of Art, BA (Hons) Set Design for Screen, BA (Hons) Technical Arts & Special Effects, MA Theatre Design; Rose Bruford College, BA (Hons) Theatre Design; Central Saint Martins, BA (Hons) Performance Design and Practice, MA Performance Design and Practice, Foundation Art and Design; Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, MA Theatre Design; Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, BA (Hons) Theatre and Performance Design; Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, MA Theatre Design; National Film and Television School, MA Production Design; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; National Gallery, London; Microsoft Mobile (formerly Nokia) London South Bank University, BA (Hons) Architecture; Aalto University School of Art and DesignHelsinki, BA Scenography; Royal Central School of Speech and Drama BA (Hons) Theatre Practice Design for Performance"

He also includes work from other model makers, suppliers, materials, tools.