New Years Parade London

Initially, I intended to put a lot of effort into this project. The first meeting made me excited to get together as a group and discuss our ideas!
After several meetings, it was decided that there would be four puppets as well as props and costumes. I had raised some concerns about the workload at the time suggesting maybe we should do one larger puppet or maybe three. Already a lot of my time was being consumed with our uni work and I couldn't make it to all the meetings.
Despite this, I still stayed for part of the holidays to come into uni and work on the spider puppet. Unfortunately, I couldn't stay for many extra days.

This was a real test of collaboration and I found it hard. On occasion I'd have to defuse tensions and this I feel is a skill that I've carried with me from growing up with three siblings and constant conflict at home.

Transforming a location: White Card Model

Throughout the white card model making I have been incredibly ill (headache and general cold symptoms) which made this process so much more effort for my poor brain. Despite this I was determined to try get as much done as possible whilst I was at home.

It was all quite straightforward until I got to the point where I had to make the stairs and bridge. I made the railings as a seperate sheet to the base and I had to make two sets of these which was very time consuming. The bay window was also a little fiddly but not as complicated as the stairs.

To make the poles for the structure holding up the bridge I used a piece of mountboard cut to the diameter of the pole and then wrapped thinner card around it to get the cylindrical shape. This wasnt as neat as I had hoped but it doesnt look too bad in the grand scheme of things.

~My finished model~

I was able to complete my model for Monday in time for our lecture on colour models and to move on to the next stage. I am very pleased with how my first white card model turned out!

Transforming a location: Technical Drawing

This was my first time doing a technical drawing and before I was given talks on how they should be laid out etc I never imagined I'd be able to do one myself. With the right notes and instructions they're actually quite simple but time consuming.

At first it was difficult to get accurate and straight lines at my desk but the t-squares were quite handy. I have an A1 drawing board in my room at halls and when I took my tech drawing home it was so much faster to use this than the desk at uni!

My chosen location had a lot of details that made the technical drawing a lot more complex, especially when I hadn't made my surveying notes all that clear. But I had picked this space so that I'd learn more through my technical drawing and I think I had certainly achieved this.

My main error was that the stairs on my ground plan was meant to be a dashed line not a solid one. Also my lines were quite faint and not consistent, I think this is because I was worried I'd mess it up but I must get over this for next time. I was told by David that my lettering was very neat and almost looked printed which I guess is something to be proud of.

Transforming a location: Surveying

Surveying my space took a lot longer than I thought it would as there are a lot of small details that stick out and needed measuring. Plus the stairs, bridge, windows and doors all needed extra measurements. Kerry and Paul showed us a good trick to getting high up measurements with the tape measure which came in handy for the guttering and moulding.

Initially I got the overall space recorded, the length of the walls and where the door and windows were in relation, however I ended up having to go back a few times to remeasure as I was getting the measurements I'd recorded confused. Next time I will try record my measurements more clearly and neatly as this would help speed up the technical drawing stage massively. Also I discovered how important it is to have appropriate layers on when surveying an outside location, the weather conditions were not the nicest and it was really cold which made it difficult to focus.

The Jonathan Ross Show

Yesterday me and a group of other Production Arts students went to be in the audience of The Jonathan Ross Show which we had applied for through sro audiences. The security checks were set to start at 5.30pm however I knew from a past experience and second hand knowledge from my Dad that we should arrive a lot earlier if we wanted a shot at getting in. We aimed to be there at 4pm just to be safe and ended up queuing at about 4.30pm, it still shocks me how large the queues can get. After a lot of waiting we got into the studio and realised we only made it in by maybe 10-15 people.

The show lasts about an hour on TV but they filmed for about three in the studio. It was interesting to see how they edited it down to make it the appropriate length. I also enjoyed watching the camera operators and how they moved around the set and flicked between cameras.

Overall it was a very insightful experience into the making of a TV show but I probably wouldn't see Jonathan Ross again as it wasn't my cup of tea. I will definitely apply for more shows in the future though as I think its great to see the production process behind the scenes plus its really fun to watch live.

Ear Sculpting Continued...

10/11/17

---

11/11/17

It was by an unusual coincidence that the week I started this ear project my youngest sister had an operation on her ear to remove her Preauricular Sinus as it was becoming frequently infected. It was quite fascinating to see where they had to cut into the ear to remove it - the cut went from just inside her ear canal to the back of the Helix. This made me think even more about how complex and different each persons ear is; they are as unique as fingerprints and are even used as identification in some cases. I guess this is why its so important, when replicating an ear, to sculpt it as accurately as possible - it could be the difference between the sculpture looking like the real life figure or not.

---

14/11/17

~ The Finished Ear - Day 7 ~

I can see from looking at the photos of my finished ear that the lobe should be a bit longer but apart from that I am very proud of my first scale life sculpture. Simon told me my ear had character and was unique to me and he could see how I worked from looking at the way I'd worked into the clay. I think the same can be said for everyones ears.

We placed all the ears together on one table and they all looked so different but were all equally impressive! It was so helpful to have Simon Stringer in to give us advice throughout this project and it was really interesting to hear about his experiences throughout his career too.

Transforming a location

I went scouting out possible places for my location in breaks between ear sculpting. I knew that I wanted an outside space as I think it would provide me with a wider range of textures and interesting architecture to play with. These are some of the places from around uni I was considering.

Sheds behind the main building

Behind the canteen

Next to the college shop

WCA House 2

In the end I went for the location between House 1 & House 2. I think it would provide me a lot of technical drawing skills to learn and would make for an interesting space to transform.

As I only have 4 metres in any direction I had to decide whether I wanted the door and windows part or the part with the base of the stairs in it. I thought that using the section with the door would give me more options when it comes to transforming the space. The buildings look like they could have been built in the Victorian era and the fire escape a more modern attachment - I will keep this in mind whilst I think about how I might want to dress this set.

Ear Sculpting Project

Today we started our new project - enlarging an ear in clay.

We have to scale up an ear 1:3 measuring the dimensions accurately.

Simon Stringer, a sculptor, came in to help us on this two week project. We had an introduction lesson with him where he taught us how to measure the wax ear cast with calipers and scale it up to make sure our clay ear was to scale.

This is what my ear looked like after 1 hour 30 mins of sculpting. I'm very pleased with how its looking so far as I've never sculpted accurately in clay before. The experience was also quiet relaxing and therapeutic. Taking photos has helped me to see more clearly what I need to alter.