Creating mounds / slopes on stage

[poteen]

What would be the best and most practical way of building a set which is set in a meadow field?? the field cant just be flat. it needs to rise from flat downstage to sloped / hilly upstage- a rise of approx 4ft.

 

How best could I achieve the grass effect - grass must be slightly longer - not lawn like.

[Just Some Bloke]

Take a look at this, to see if it offers any inspiration:

 

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d31/JustSomeBloke/Eric%20Lund%20Lighting%20Design/Summer300.jpg

 

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d31/JustSomeBloke/Eric%20Lund%20Lighting%20Design/Winter300.jpg

 

(same set in summer and winter - 'Sisterly Feelings' by Alan Ayckbourn, set design by Sylvia Westwood, Lighting Design by me)

 

This was created by having a variety of different ramps put together and covered in a painted stage cloth then dressed with plants and assorted shrubbery etc.

 

Maybe you can get some ideas from these photos or maybe it'll just give you an idea of something you don't want to do!

[WiLL]

Very much depends on:

a) Your budget

b) The expertise you have available

c) The time you have available

 

The cheapest and simplest solution would be to build a multi levelled set using rostra and ramps and then swathe it in astroturf, which is what appears to have been done in the second photo above. And the most complex would be to build a lovely rolling landscape using a combination of rostra, shaped mdf polyhedronic ramps or reinforced resin forms and then building up the turf using a mix of artifical grasses in tufts, or even real turf, although this comes with a whole bag of dificulties.