Transcript SET DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION - Mount Pleasant High School

SET DESIGN
AND CONSTRUCTION
Basic Drama Projects
Chapter 18
p. 212
Intro p. 212
• The magic of theatre, like the
genius of invention, is as much a
matter of sweat as inspiration.
Set designers and construction
experts use hard work
and
imagination in order to help realize
a play’s vision.
OBJECTIVES
• 1 - TO LEARN ABOUT PRODUCTION
CONCEPTS AND THE DIFFERENT TYPES
OF SETS.
• 2 – TO LEARN THE BASIC TOOLS AND
PRINCIPLES OF SET CONSTRUCTION
• 3 – TO CREATE A SET DESIGN FOR A
ONE-ACT PLAY OR SCENE
THEATRE TERMS
Arena
stage
DECORATED CANVAS OR
Drops
MUSLIN
CURTAINS
A STAGE WITH
SEATING ON ALL
FOUR SIDES.
THAT FORM PART OF
THE SCENERY.
Permanent
set
FURNITURE AND OTHER
Set
THREE-DIMENSIONAL
OBJECTS
pieces
A SET THAT REMAINS
IN PLACE THROUGHOUT
THE PRODUCTION
Box
set
Elevation
sketch
A SET THAT
CONSISTS OF TWO
OR THREE WALLS
AND A CEILING.
A DRAWING THAT
SHOWS HOW THE STAGE
WILL LOOK FROM THE
PERSPECTIVE OF THE
AUDIENCE.
Prism
set
Teaser
A SET MADE OF
TRIANGLES OF
FLATS MOUNTED ON
WHEELS
A HEAVY CURTAIN OR
FRAME THAT ADJUSTS
THE HEIGHT OF THE
PROSECENIUM.
Curtain
set
CANVAS STRETCHED
Flats
OVER WOODEN
FRAMES,
A SET THAT USES A
WALL OR DRAPERY AT
THE BACK OF THE
SET.
PAINTED, AND USED
FOR SCENERY.
Proscenium
stage
A LOW PLATFORM STAGE
THATThrust
JUTS OUT INTO
THE AUDIENCE
stage
A STAGE IN WHICH THE
AUDIENCE LOOKS
THROUGH THE "FOURTH
WALL" TO SEE THE PLAY
Cyclorama
A CURTAIN THAT
COVERS THE BACK
WALL AND SIDES OF
THE STAGE.
(stage curtain)
Minimal
set
A SET MADE OF TWO OR
THREE FOLD FLATS
THAT CREATE WALLS.
Scrim
A GAUZELIKE CURTAIN
USED AS A DROP (SEE
THROUGH DEPENDING
ON LOCATION OF LIGHT)
Unit set
a set made of several pieces
that can be rearranged to
produce more than one
scene.
Go to page 222-224 for examples of stage types
Principles of Design
p. 213
• ? – How do you match your wardrobe?
• ? – How do you decorate your room?
• These are the same skills that help
you fulfill class projects and stage
design.
Use of design
• Learning set design and construction
principles can take you a long way
toward understanding the play’s
meaning.
• For what jobs could you use set
design and construction principles?
Purpose of set design
• Scenery is often the first thing that shows
the audience something about
1) the time,
2) the setting, and even
3) the purpose of the play
4) the people who live there
5) the environment
6) their psychological states
7) the conditions under which they live.
ON YOUR FEET
• Using the materials available (teacher
provided), design a space that is especially
suited to one of the following functions:
a business meeting, a friendly lunch,
a therapy session, a flea market.
Test your design by inviting two or more
students to improvise a short scene
in the space you have created.
SCOPE
Student creative output exercise
• Using the graph paper provided, draw
to scale what you think your dream
bedroom would look like.
• (TD will show drawing to scale)
10’x10’
Or
20’x20’
Make 1 block equal 1 foot or 2 feet
AUDIENCE
Example:
• OUR TOWN is a very powerful play
about human emotion that uses
very little scenery. Instead
the imagination of the audience,
and the strong interpretations
of the actors set the scene.
Video clips
•
•
•
•
•
1- Into the Woods
2 – Fairie Tale Theatre
3 – Phantom of the Opera
4 – old sitcom
5 – old style musical (Brigadoon,
Oklahoma, Fiddler on the roof)
How to achieve
• When designing scenery,
– the director,
– set designer, and
– technical director
*study the play to determine
- the style,
- atmosphere, and
- color they want to create.
Review chapter 16
ground plan
• See p. 184 for example of ground
plan
• And/or An example ground plan
is the next slide
Demonstrate blocking
Review chapter 16
• p. 185 – areas of strength
5 –eavesdropping 2 – dignified
or foreshadowing scenes
6 – Horror and
unrealistic
scenes
3- love scenes
4 – scenes that
build tension
events
1 – climactic
scenes
Audience
ELEVATION SKETCH
• Not only does the designer do a
detailed ground plan but they also do
an elevation sketch: how the stage
will look from the audience, and a
color rendering of the set.
• These sketches and the ground plan
go into the prompt book.
Box set
audience
Also, draw in other set pieces
audience
Build model sets
• Motivation activity –
– TD (Technical Director) will give each
crew member a sheet of poster board.
– Scissors will be available but nothing
else.
– Each crew member must build the
highest tower which will stand without
assistance.
Build model sets
• Crew members will be put in teams
of 2 or 3
• Crew members will repeat the preceding
tower building but as a team.
• Team will be graded on working together,
creativity, finished product.
EXAMPLES
OF MODEL SETS
• SEE PICTURES OF VARIOUS
MODEL SETS
• A three dimensional model that is an
accurate miniature reproduction of
the set, showing construction,
furniture etc.
SCOPE
• Crew will be given miniature unit set
pieces
• Crew will construct a set for an
instructor selected set.
Design Requirements
p.224
• Your play’s scenery will depend upon
the stage facilities, available crew,
and your budgeted time and money,
your design should meet the following
requirements.
Design Requirement
• The design and setting should provide
adequate space for movement,
including several acting areas or
levels to provide variety and interest
and to motivate the actors into using
the whole stage in the course of the
play.
Design Requirement
• The design and setting should
communicate the time and place in
which the action occurs and the
cultural, social, and economic
status of the characters.
Design Requirement
• From observing the scenery with its
particular color and design, the
audience should immediately be able
to judge the mood and style of the
play.
Design Requirement
• The design and setting must be
technically usable and safe. Doors and
windows must open if they are to be used.
Stairs, platforms, and ramps must be
built firmly if they are to bear the actor’s
weight. If there are set changes,
scenery must be planned for quick shifts
carried out safely.
Design Requirement
• The design and setting should be
pleasing to the eye. It should be
unified, balanced, and varied, and it
should allow for the actors’ faces to
be readily seen. Most of all, it should
be unobtrusive – except in the rare
case when the characters are in
conflict with their environment.
Design Requirement
• The design should include set pieces
that are functional and that
contribute to the overall design of
the set.
What is necessary…is…a design
that has clarity without rigidity;
• One that could be called “open” as against “shut.”
This is the essence of theatrical thinking: a true
theatre designer will think of his designs as being
all the time in motion, in action, in relation to
what the actor brings to a scene as it unfolds.
In other words, unlike the easel painter, in two
dimensions, or the sculptor in three, the designer
thinks in terms of the fourth dimension, the
passage of time – not the stage picture, but the
•
stage moving picture.
From The Empty Space by Peter Brook, Producer and director
Setting the Mood
p. 225
• Your set can help establish the mood
of your production by its angularity
or softness, its luxury or sparseness,
it’s complexity or simplicity. None of
these elements will have as
immediate an effect, however, as the
colors you use in your design.
What is colour?
• In 1666, Sir Isaac Newton
discovered that white light – sunlight
– could be split into segments of
coloured light by means of a glass
prism. He decided that these
component colours were violet, indigo,
blue, green, yellow, orange, and red.
From 1666 to now
• It has been realized that this visible
band of light and colour – the
spectrum – is only a tiny segment of
the waves which travel at the speed
of light; from X-rays to long radio
waves.
Confusion is likely to set
in here.
• The three primaries are different
colours whether one speaks about
light – that is, transmitted colour, or
the colour of an object – reflected
colour.
Perceived colour
• Light and colour can be measured by
instruments – can be translated into
charts and statistics, but the
sensations of light and colour can
only be appreciated through our eyes.
Why we see colour?
• We are aware of colour and light by means
of a series of cones and rods in the retina.
Rods perceive tones only, a monochrome
scale from light to dark. Cones are colour
perceptors. There are probably three
series of them in the eye: one is sensitive
to red, one to green and one to violet.
Normal eyes can see 10 million shades of
tone and colour.
Reflected colour
• It is colour reflected from surfaces that
makes one aware of light. The more of
the spectrum a surface reflects, the
nearer white it will look. The more it
absorbs the nearer to black will it appear.
Grass looks green because it reflects only
the green part of the spectrum, absorbing
all others.
Setting the Mood
• Scientists who have studied color
have learned that various colors
have specific emotional effects.
Colouring the feeling
•
•
•
•
Materials – notebook, colored pencils
Various music
Divide paper into 4 sections
Listen to the music and with the
colored pencils –color the feeling the
music gives you.
Towards a personal sense
of colour
• Green with envy, in a blue mood,
seeing red, black despair – colours
are not just sensations on the
retina, they are feeling and emotion.
warm
• Reds, oranges, and yellows,
are considered warm tones.
They tend to be stimulating and
exciting.
cool
• Blues, greens, and violets are cool
colors that tend to be relaxing or
sobering.
Too much
• Of any one tone or set of tones can
be simply annoying. But careful use
of color can help establish the
character and overall mood in a play
and influence the audience’s
response.