Blue Remembered Hills Setting

[johnnydarko]

Hiya as apart of my college course I have to director a play, I have chosen Blue Remembered Hills. I am going for a in the round staging idea. I was wondering, how would you go about finding 'tree's' and other woodland setting for a low budget production?

 

 

 

Many thanks,

 

 

:D

[alistermorton]

I guess the first question is how low is the budget?

 

How big and realistic do you want your trees to be, is the next question. You can get quite creative with painted canvas rucked over a light frame to make trunks and branches, but it all depends how long you have to make and paint your trees and how much you can spend on them, and how you light them, how they'll look.

[johnnydarko]

Well the budget is as big as I can afford, really no more that £100,

 

 

I want them to have a fairly child like look to them, as the play is based on adults playing children, so this will work to my advantage I guess.

 

 

 

I guess the first question is how low is the budget?

 

How big and realistic do you want your trees to be, is the next question.

 

okay that's great, thank you. I was thinking about having branches or tree's hanging down, do you think that this would be possible or just unrealistic?

[alistermorton]

For a performance of The Clearing we built a tree up the pros of our stage with a card frame and canvas folded and painted to look like bark, with a combination of similalrly manufactured and real branches, which were fixed to the main tree frame, and the ends suspended from the grid. This was lit from the main rig and also lit through which looked quite effective. I'll try to find a photo. We've also had just a trunk built up the pros to give the impression of the edge of a forest, which also worked well.

 

E2A There's a view of part of the tree in one of the photos here - just select the photos tab. I've got a shot taken during the tech setup which shows it just lit by the auditorium workers which show it in all its glory. I'll have to find somewhere to host that and upload it.

[Brian]

In-the-round + child-like = sheets of ply cut to look like trees and painted 'cartoon' style.

[paulears]

One thing I did a very long time ago was make all the scenery very cartoon like, but 3D, so my trees were real scrub type branches, with glued on foam rubber leaves, painted dark green with light green veins. The branches were painted flat brown, so all looked very unlike reality most of the stage was small blocks, covered in a big grass carpet borrowed from a market stall. Ours could have been in the round, but we had a big white cloth flow behind which I lit a really summer blue, with a foam cut out single cloud on fishing line. The set was sort of a caricature of reality - I think I got the idea from the Will Y Coyote cartoon scenery. Nice scenery, hated the play (and still do).

[johnnydarko]

Thanks for all of your help, thanks

[jonathanhill]

I was involved in a production of BRH years ago. Again, presented in-the-round, with a painted floor cloth as the main scenic element. The four corners were different locations such as the woods, a clearing and the barn. There was a central path wending its way from one side to the other. I think that the barn was just a couple of cutaway walls and some hay.

 

Being in-the-round, I would be a little wary of anything hanging, or set that is tall, as it will complicate lighting.

[birt]

I was involved in a production of BRH years ago. Again, presented in-the-round, with a painted floor cloth as the main scenic element. The four corners were different locations such as the woods, a clearing and the barn. There was a central path wending its way from one side to the other. I think that the barn was just a couple of cutaway walls and some hay.

 

Being in-the-round, I would be a little wary of anything hanging, or set that is tall, as it will complicate lighting.

 

I've only seen it performed outside at sunset. with HQI, HMI, halogen floods and PAR's. after seeing it like that twice (once in the dunes near the sea, once in an open space surrounded by trees) it's hard to think of an indoor setting. but maybe this will give you some ideas? I liked the fact that the lighting changed from dusk to only lighting coming from the ground. only 4 PAR's were rigged far away as a fill in front light. this change adds to the drama of the play.

 

oh and the burning house had metal plates falling of as strings burned. the whole metal structure is connected to gas bottles and has tiny holes all over to get the flames. behind it was a fogger with a big pipe running inside the house.

 

http://images18.knack.be/images/resized/400/036/487/149/8/500_0_KEEP_RATIO_SHRINK_CENTER_FFFFFF/image/4000364871498.jpg

 

 

http://theateraanzee.be/images/tazette_2013/tazette_blue_remembered_hills2.jpg

 

http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4135/4795716813_7b14c52ceb.jpg

 

http://1.standaardcdn.be/Assets/Images_Upload/2010/06/17/CULT3_G6T2RI5VO.1_FC_rooversOK.jpg?maxheight=416&maxwidth=568

 

http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4100/4796350750_468750a59c_z.jpg

[alistermorton]

This was the tree we had for The Clearing, which was performed in the round. We lit onto the tree and lit through the tree to get the effect we were after.