Luckily clever Emily had the foresight to call up the help number for 'Crown' to ask them if it were possible to get it mixed in matte. They told us it was possible but we'd have to go to our nearest 'Crown Mixing Centre'. This was brilliant news, although we were slightly worried about how far away our nearest 'Crown Mixing Centre' would be. Southampton? Weymouth? London? or worse?
No.
Wimbourne Rd.
Briliant!
So we ended up back where we started, on Wimbourne Road, but this time in Brewers. The kind man there mixed us up a tester pot with no trouble at all- we painted a bit on the Ultramarine colour sample I'd been carrying around all day, and you could hardly see where one ended and the other began. Not only that but he informed us that this brand of paint would be on special offer (almost half price) until the end of October! Budget saved!!
So everything happens for a reason- we had a rubbish morning, but only to achieve us an excellent result in the end. Emily is going to paint me up some samples over the weekend, and hopefully I'll feel just as positively about it on Monday as I did today.
I had just enough time to nip home for lunch before my meeting with Doug at 3. However, since I'd been out, I had discovered that Pete (Lighting Designer) also wanted to join the meeting, as did John (Production Designer). Therefore, with only half an hour before 3:00 I called-up Zoe my Set Assistant and asked her to join us too if she was able to. I can't believe she actually came, it was so useful to have her there. I thought if it were just me and Doug I wouldn't need her, but if Pete and John were going to be there aswell, it seemed like a lot of the conversation would be about the Set and therefore Zoe's presence would be valued- which it was, greatly. I felt bad getting her to come in (in the rain) at such short notice so I gave her some biscuits.
The Production Meeting really lived up to its name and was very 'Productive'.
This is a copy of Zoe's notes:
Drapes of fabric around balcony lower, hanging down.
as audience entering washing being put on line and winched up, once don pedro is arriving rush to bring washing down again?
torches for watch? one lantern and one early looking beam torch
Lantern/torch for conrade? inside tent…
tent over boarded over fountain, or towards north wall. either end open,
cleaning pump back to green?
triangle in corner of pool so that pump is over pool.
cutting gobos, thin metal as possible. Tell Ed it has to withstand hot lights
3 entrances?
fire retardant- soak edges (flambar) technical budget.
Every time I have a production meeting, I regret not recording it or videoing it or something, because it's so hard to keep on top of everything. My notes are never as expansive as I need them to be, but it's impossible to make detailed notes and keep up with the conversation/discussion at the same time.
When I worked with Natural Shocks on 'PEEP' I noticed that during each production meeting the Company Manager would take detailed minutes of every discussion and decision and then email the minutes to everyone onboard- reminding everyone of what had been said and keeping those in the loop who were unable to attend. Alas, we do not have such luxurys, so I might have a look for a Dictaphone.
Here are my notes:
Masks- Doug will talk to Paul- head of model-making about whether it would be possible to get them involved. However, if that fails we've got to do the back-up idea.
John has found a good bench, but the legs need to be sprayed bronze and then 'weathered'.
John has also found 2 Wicker chairs, but these need to be stained dark.
Poster- The Poster has been printed, so the issues we had with colour and John's issues he had with format, are too late.
Lighting
-going to be hard to be dappled on the incoming/houselights.
-Are we going to have to paint the horizontal scaff under the mezzanine? No
-Subtle House lights.
-Festoons for the Masquerade scene?
-Get rid of fabric going across the bars, hang it instead, just under the bars.- will enable audience to see if they need to sit down and will disguise lighting an horizontal scaff.
-Interval will happen mid Act 3, Scene 3.
- Lantern for Dogberry, Lantern for Borachio.
-Fog for Hero's grave? (we don't need a monument- let's use the well)
-Beatrice's bedwear has been cut
-The seating rostrum on the North wall are having a board fitted to the back.
-Need to do illustrator file for the GOBOS, do it this weekend, take it to Ed to get Lasercut out of thinnest metal but must be high temp resistant. 10 gobos.
One of the most positive things for me that came out of the meeting was the agreement of being able to include one of the original scenes that I had visualized for the piece. It was the scene-visualisation that I was most in love with when I first designed it, but it was also the one I saw as being the least realistic to be able to fully realise. This is the scene (act 3, scene 3) where the watch look-on as Borachio reveals his treacherous debauchery to Conrade. As you can see from my previous drawings, I designed it so that the washing on the line could somehow be manipulated into a sort of tent fort, lit from within by a hand-held torch, with the traitors within and the Watch outside looking on. there were all sorts of logistical problems with this scene, the utmost being how to craft a tent on stage mid-scene, with very little time. The answer? Shove the interval in just before! Luckily enough, this is about the right point in the play for an interval, and isn't unheard of. This brilliance means that we will have the whole of the interval to orchestrate a tent on stage, and then as the second-half commences, the audience will be plunged into darkness. I am SO excited. I really hope we can do this.
We also had some more discussions about the washing interfering with the lighting. After voicing a lot of points I think the dynamics are suggested as so..
As the audience come into the auditorium the washing line will be down, and the washing will be being hung (the sheets placed higher up the line will already be there).
When the play begins, the washing line rises (full of washing) like a curtain on a traditional theatre.
Possibly on learning of Don Pedro's imminent arrival, the washing is hurriedly removed (thus making it easier for lighting throughout).
At some point in the next few scenes, a few pieces of washing make their way back onto the line in order to be in place for Benedick to get tangled in/hide-behind/ dress as a woman in a sari with, during the eavesdropping scene.
During the interval a lot of the washing is back on the line, with a sheet configured to make a tent for conrade- see logistics of this during rehearsals.
Here are some masks that I have been thinking about as a back-up from The Range:
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