Beauty and the Beast Set Build Challenges.... No.3

 The wolves scene! 

Obviously in the Disney film production, Beauty escapes from the Beasts castle in an attempt to get back to her father. She ends up lost in the forest and is set upon by vicious wolves.
Just as she is about to become lunch, the Beast shows up and fights them all off and saves Beauty.
I wanted to stick to this simple story line as much as possible as the children would instantly recognise it because of the film, it gels the beginning of their relationship and because I thought it would be great to try and recreate this particular scene live on stage.

I decided that black puppetry was probably the best way forward but making 6 to 8 wolves bodies realistic and operable seemed almost impossible so I threw that piece of paper away and started again.

Finally I decided that just showing their eyes would suffice - and if they were red and evil to boot then that would be fabulous!

I went searching for materials and came across rear bicycle lights - perfect!!

They were about the right size, they were red and battery operated and most importantly they were £1 a pair!
I emptied the rack and set to work...

Firstly I tried tracing paper, then lighting gels of varying colours - different materials and different thicknesses all to try and mask the rectangular shape into an eye shape and to try and diffuse the fact that the light emitted from 3 central individual LEDs.

After many attempts I ended up cutting the shape of an eye out of a strip of black gaffa tape with a craft knife, then placing that over the entire light face.
It was okay but because you could still see all 3 LEDs it still lost the eye shape somewhat.
So I tried covering the LEDs directly to push the over spill light out of the gap, instead of the direct light - this seemed to work so I stuck a thin strip of gaffa across each one.
You can see each step of the process below:

Initially I had expected a blacked-out member of the chorus to be able to operate one pair with each hand but on testing the gaffa elements, it became obvious that that is exactly what it would look like so I then set to work designing an extension they could hold which would have the eyes mounted inside and which could block the lights entirely if necessary, and allow them freer and more unrestricted movement.

A simple box surrounding the lights and deeper than the light box itself seemed the quickest option. The light box backs were secured in place and a 2ft MDF pole was attached to the rear. This now allowed 4 chorus members to operate 8 wolves in total across the whole stage and as an effect was not easy to figure out.

Once all 8 sets had been constructed we tried out the effect on stage - now our only problem was in lighting the lead character (Beauty) without showing the puppeteers behind.
That proved harder than first expected but after several attempts (the video below shows an early trial) I decided to go with her carrying the miniature Lumiere which glowed - she placed one of the glowing candlesticks underneath her chin at all times and this sufficiently lit her face throughout this scene.
Once the Beast entered and the wolves began to withdraw to the rear of the stage we used an ultra violet blue gel on the follow spot to light both characters.

I think the end result worked excellently and just to dot my I's,  I asked the puppeteers to lean forward like animals during the scene because any small glimpse of their bodies just looked like the wolves bodies when in this position.
The video doesn't really do it any justice and the camera was struggling with such low light but its enough for you to get the jist 8)

Beauty and the Beast Set Build Challenges.... No.2

 Beasts Transformation! 

I wanted to try and keep the magic of the Beasts reveal as much as possible, but when your budget is £0 that becomes quite challenging!
I had seen some illustrations by an IA colleague - Shaun Duke - which were fabulous, and having had conversations with Isaac Priestley (also and IA colleague) regarding using projection for special effects, I decided to approach the problem from an animation viewpoint and get both chaps involved in the process.

Although I already had the initial concept in my head, I allowed the boys to give their input and we worked well as a team. I arranged a venue, equipment, cast and costume for early January and collected them to start the filming. We had agreed on filming the movement of the Beast in full costume, from above, in a fluid motion from a lying down fetal position, up into the air, arms outstretched and facing the front as if suspended on a cross.

Setting an elevated filming position so the action was done safely on the floor

Raising the actors head so his face etc could be seen clearly

It took several attempts, change of start and end positions and a new camera angle to get the correct shot but we got there eventually after about 4 hours!

Once in that final position we filmed removal of fur from each leg and arm one by one, then finally his headpiece.
The footage was then edited together into a final single piece and run through rota-scoping software so that the image went from real to animation. Then Shaun added effects so that each limb would magically change from Beast to human in time with some dramatic incidental music until he became entirely human again and drifted back down into a standing position.
The finished product is as the video below:

I was really pleased with the end result but none of us had envisaged the extent of problems that would follow!
I had made a gauze from butter muslin and dyed it black with pen ink...

The gauze having been dip-dyed, drip drying on my washing line 8)

Black pen ink - £2.85 cheap as chips!

8ft square wood edged black gauze screen

The plan was....

The Beast would supposedly die on rear stage left and whilst the audiences attention was drawn elsewhere, the projection would start on top of the actor and the black screen (As above - which can't be seen when there is no white light) would be slid on just in front of him so he was then free to exit and get changed whilst the scene continued with the projected image taking his place.
The initial image used was a real photo of the start position lying down on the floor so looked very realistic. When the audiences attention was brought back to the screen there was now only a small follow spot on Beauty so in the darkness the projection looked amazing.
Once the animated character was revealed and came back down to a standing position, the real actor would be positioned directly behind it and then with an explosion of white light the screen would be slid off and the projection would dissipate directly onto the actor and therefore effecting he had gone through the transformation.

Although we had measured the distance from where the projector would sit to where the screen onto which it would be projected would be placed, what none of us had considered was the distance the image would travel from the lying down position up to the mid-air position and then back down to standing whilst being the life size of the actor - which was a huge six foot seven inches!.
Therefore when we came to test it the week of the show it became apparent that in order to keep it at that scale we had a serious problem because we either cut his head off once the image was in mid-air so it could start on the floor - or to fit the mid-air image on he would end up looking like he was on his knees instead of standing at the end.
The last resort was to reduce the size of the character so the entire video would fit on the 8ft screen....

... but when the actor stood behind it, the top of the image of himself only came upto his chest!

Plan G! 8) next we tried repositioning the projector - very limited on options - not one worked, so
Plan H! next we tried repositioning the gauze screen - we had it all over the place - we even tried closing the curtains and then opening them to reveal the screen immediately behind but it just wasn't working at all.

Time for a brew.....

...several in fact ..... 8 /

.... and a good coat of looking at!

Eventually with the start of the first show looming ever closer we had to make a huge compromise - we had to project it onto the main curtains.
This was not the best practice by far but considering the circumstances we weren't left with many other options.
We tested the curtains to ensure we got as flat a surface as possible - I quickly reset the cast and the lighting plot for the last scene (People were beginning to arrive for the first show!)
We ran two test runs and it seemed okay so that was that - done and dusted!

The end result was sufficient, the last petal of the rose falling (look on the left) and Beautys excellent acting helped sell the scene massively!.....

- I learned a lot through this saga but can't wait to take it forward to the next venture in SFX projection!

Beauty and the Beast Set Build Challenges.... No.1

 Chips Trolley! 


Chip was played by a 10yr old boy who was effectively just a tea cup so following on from other stage productions I designed a trolley that could house him comfortably whilst still giving the right effect.
I purchased a regular 1980's catering trolley from a charity shop in September for £5 -

... then cut out all the middle of the shelves but left the structure on 3 sides. The base plate was then strengthened, extended and superior castors added, before it was boarded out and decorated to look like open shelves.

Then to cover up the character from the rear I designed a 'tight' curtain that allowed easy access to get in and out of the trolley but also closed off the entire rear so that nothing could be seen.
One of our backstage staff (Susan) who is studying a Design for Performance degree at Edge Hill University worked with me on this particular bit as I have excellent design but few sewing skills! 8)
We cut strengthened black felt to size allowing for just a slight gather, rolled over the sides to make a passage big enough for net curtain elastic wiring to go through. I attached hooks to the rear of the trolley top and bottom on both sides, and eyes to both ends of each piece of wire. It worked without fault!

The initial build was a collaboration between myself and Chips father, Brian and we were both really happy with the end result! The guys who made the big costumes bought the trolley off us as they liked it that much and it is now being used for Salford Universities production of the musical.

Beauty and the Beast staging photos made life size:

 

 

 

 

 

Beauty and the Beast Set Build...

 January 28th 2012 & Sunday 29th 2012: 

About half the cast met at the scout hut in Chorlton with power tools and scruffy clothes at the ready!

I had visited our lock up the night before and retrieved all materials and MDF suppllies ready for the set build.
There aren't any Picasso's in the group so we keep it simple but even if there were we rarely have the time to go mad on scenery, staging and props - and what we do, do is easy as but very effective!
I pick high resolution pictures off the internet and run them through a little gem of a program which allows you to re-scale the object at the same resolution and then prints it out on mosaic A4 sheets up to 36 square feet!! Get that!
So I usually spend a day finding the images, photo-shopping them until I have exactly what I want, and then running them through this software and printing off raff-loads of paper.....  it takes a while 8(

However its worth it because then anyone can help at the set build whether they're creative or not! All we have to do is cut them out, stick them onto MDF or cardboard and then jigsaw the finished product - pimpse!

They work really well and can sometimes have an almost 3D property if the original image is good enough.

We had to construct a few things on this build though - 3D food platters / Villagers sign / Loading Sign / mad invention machine and most importantly Chips trolley.

At about lunch time on the Sunday we were finished, so we loaded up several cars an ferried everything to the theatre.....

Previously we have always done the set build in the venue the weekend before the show but we couldn't do this on this occasion as they had a show running until Saturday night - however, because of this I would definitely consider doing this again even several weeks before the show as it was far less stressful and way more fun!

Beauty and the Beast rehearsals....

 October 4th 2011 to January 26th 2012: 

Rehearsals began and continued every Tuesday at a GMP canteen up in Sedgley Park 7.30pm until 10pm.

We spent the first 3 weeks reading through the script - the next 4 weeks were spent 'blocking' the movement and scenes - then I went into hospital so my partner Jennie spent the next 3 weeks hammering out all the dance routines and running the dialogue.
When I returned at New Year things had progressed well but the deadline was fast approaching and I still had oodles of detail to insert plus a few minor changes here and there when it became apparent a scene didn't flow.
So I booked extra rehearsals actually at the new venue on a thursday - albeit in the rehearsal room upstairs! - but the stage layout was taped out on the floor so it gave us a rough idea of what we were dealing with.

For the first few weeks in January we were plagued with missing cast for varying reasons and as the winter bugs started to get a hold.
We soldiered on regardless (As we always do) videoed each rehearsal and uploaded it onto facebook so that the missing members could catch up from the comfort of their beds ready for the next rehearsal.

The last few rehearsals were slightly scary as there were still script referrals required and a lot of stopping and starting but overall I wasn't too concerned as they are all seasoned amateur pro's now! 8)

Thursday January 26th 2012 was our last regular rehearsal and on the Sunday we moved into the theatre.....

Unit 2 - Initiating Creative Practice

 November 14th 2011: 

I manage a comedy theatre group in Manchester called Stage Squad (please see associated blog) and we were due to produce a family panto the week before this unit was due in so I asked if I could use the show as my 'work' seeing as I write the script, produce, direct, write the theme tune, sing the theme tune etc etc 8 )
Thankfully My tutor agreed but work had already started as I'd written the script back in late September 2011.

I had initially considered doing Jack and the Beanstalk but found out early on that my leading character would miss the show due to a holiday so I went back to the drawing board. I ummed and arred and finally decided on Beauty and the Beast - mainly because of the cast I had available to me and because we were performing it in a new venue so the huge costumes required would hide a multitude of sins staging and scenery wise!

So I set to work - eventually! and within a week I had pretty much a full script - let rehearsals begin!