Exciting Stuff!

Today I met with both the Poster Designer and the Head of the Make-up team. It was so exciting to meet with them both- it really reinforces quite how much individual work will go into creating the show- it is very humbling.
As I eagerly told both the girls, they each have SUCH important jobs- the poster artwork is often the deciding factor as to whether people are interested in coming to see the show and the make-up and wigs (ESPECIALLY FOR THIS PRODUCTION OF MUCH ADO) are literally the make-or-break of the production- if done right everything could look beautiful, and no-one will even question which characters are Indian etc.. but if done badly, the show could look offensive, racist, or just plain silly. Luckily both the girls seemed incredibly competent and I am so pleased to have them on board. I got to ask the make-up designer about some of the issues that had been weighing on my mind- how do we henna Hero's hands for the wedding scene each night but conceal the henna for the rest of the play? Do we match the beards to the actors' natural hair colours or do we make them dark, and can we ask the actors to dye their hair dark if necessary? etc etc. And Vicky had some very insightful suggestions as to how to solve these issues and  I am very excited about all the amazing moustaches she will make for me! I'm sure we will be working closely together through-out.
I also spent a lot of time today researching into different regiments of Lancers around during the beginning of the 20th Century- and their different uniforms. There are so so so many, but my favourite have still got to be the ones for 'Skinner's Yellow Boys' as pictured in the previous post. One thing did suddenly occur to me though, I was hoping to dress Benedick and Claudio in different colours (as seen below) BUT surely if they are of the same regiment they would be dressed the same? Unless the uniform changes for rank- which is also possible. I couldn't get a straight answer out of the internet, but I'm going to read back over my research and see if I can find a definitive answer- and more-over work-out what will look 'right'.
Having now arranged a meeting with the director in 2 days time, I am a little nervous. Time is so quickly running out, and he hasn't seen any of my designs..... what if he hates them? what if he wants to change all of them? what if he thinks they won't work? I just can't see that I'll have time to redesign everything at this point. My only hope is to dazzle him with a good-old pitch, which I am working on as I type (multi-tasking). I am excited about my designs, hopefully he will be too, providing that I communicate them well.
As a result I have made another film (shorter this time, I promise): optimistically titled "Final Set Design". Fingers-crossed this is the last time I will ever have to deal with Google Sketch Up ever again ever- and once the mezzanine/gallery level is up on Monday- then I can finally switch to my preferred medium of the model box.... I just really hope it doesn't take too long to build.