INTERSTELLAR OVERDRIVE: Designing for ROUGE (Part 1)
One of my wish/dreams in my short-lived renewed on-going career in designing for media, is to do a science fiction film. Through the years, there had been close-ish instances, but ultimately my wish was somewhat sated (before I went on my hiatus), with the 2004 television series "ROUGE" (Continued Coverage on #anyhengart-blog).
In a particular dedicated episode, the girls went undercover into a "sci-fi"-theme B-Movie production, and I got to create a series of kitschy retro-fueled sets and situations, for which I've split into two main blog-features.
For this particular feature today, I take a look into the set designs for "Interstellar Overdrive" (The name of the B-Movie), and associated imagery, done nearly two decades / 20 years ago...!
Three sets were created: 2 sub-sets and a main set. Today we delve into the former: A Film Studio Setting, and a Outdoor Filming Setting. For the next set, we'll take a look at the Spaceship, but before that...
The "film studio" set was erected with a main backdrop filled with "stars" (black-painted back flats with cut-thru for x-mas lights = a trick I learn from my Television Corporation of Singapore-days), plus lunar rock foregrounds, which were made essentially of cut-styrofoam and painted grey". Natural filming equipment provided the "sell", with apple boxes, light-stands and camera tripods.
I drew inspiration from the 1901 Hollywood film "A Trip to the Moon", but I had wanted to have the set look "low-cost" and cheesy. As well the segment was none too long a duration to invest in, but of course the Art Department did, cutting and painting the styrofoam underneath the night skies filled with stars (#truestory), and "black-trash-bagging" the entire "sound stage", for more visual cheesiness. My only "regret" was not taking a group picture of the Art Dept in the set itself! LOL
The second setting was for a sci-fi-themed music video shoot outdoors, for which the Sand Quarries of Tampines was scouted for! We had looked towards the background that did not show HDB flats or any man-made building too!
The concept I was going for: zero-budget Ibiza Oasis club performance in a desert. Whatever could be converted low-cost were used, including a constantly reused bar-counter (now covered in foil), colourful chairs and streamers. I really wanted the mannequin to be wearing a "alien" mask, but in the end it went to actor Pierre Png, as a "disguise".
In line with the "B-Movie production" concept, technical equipment was in shot, including the actual tech crew for the production, doubling up as film crew for the fictional production shoot. If anyone had a chance to watch this sequence, it literally is/was a living visual representation of the film crew in shot. Fun times!
Accessing the location was uber-tricky, but striking the set and coming down (before the sun set) proved more fun than expected. Looking back, I wished I could have engaged more to the "fun" aspect, rather than being the stoic-"Art Director on-set"...
For this episode, I had invested a lot more time (than I had planned for) to create visual imagery to support the story concept. While a "easier" way was to write the film title on the clapper board prop, I instead went and created the production logo and text, using clip-art and photoshop. The final result was used as a "prop" too, printed unto "FILM CREW" tees, seen on the crew in production! Served somewhat as the production crew tee. My one regret, was not being able to access and save a unworn tee of my own design, alas.
All images featured here are also viewable HERE on Facebook. And alas I no longer have any higher-resolution images.
In a particular dedicated episode, the girls went undercover into a "sci-fi"-theme B-Movie production, and I got to create a series of kitschy retro-fueled sets and situations, for which I've split into two main blog-features.
For this particular feature today, I take a look into the set designs for "Interstellar Overdrive" (The name of the B-Movie), and associated imagery, done nearly two decades / 20 years ago...!
Three sets were created: 2 sub-sets and a main set. Today we delve into the former: A Film Studio Setting, and a Outdoor Filming Setting. For the next set, we'll take a look at the Spaceship, but before that...
The "film studio" set was erected with a main backdrop filled with "stars" (black-painted back flats with cut-thru for x-mas lights = a trick I learn from my Television Corporation of Singapore-days), plus lunar rock foregrounds, which were made essentially of cut-styrofoam and painted grey". Natural filming equipment provided the "sell", with apple boxes, light-stands and camera tripods.
I drew inspiration from the 1901 Hollywood film "A Trip to the Moon", but I had wanted to have the set look "low-cost" and cheesy. As well the segment was none too long a duration to invest in, but of course the Art Department did, cutting and painting the styrofoam underneath the night skies filled with stars (#truestory), and "black-trash-bagging" the entire "sound stage", for more visual cheesiness. My only "regret" was not taking a group picture of the Art Dept in the set itself! LOL
The second setting was for a sci-fi-themed music video shoot outdoors, for which the Sand Quarries of Tampines was scouted for! We had looked towards the background that did not show HDB flats or any man-made building too!
The concept I was going for: zero-budget Ibiza Oasis club performance in a desert. Whatever could be converted low-cost were used, including a constantly reused bar-counter (now covered in foil), colourful chairs and streamers. I really wanted the mannequin to be wearing a "alien" mask, but in the end it went to actor Pierre Png, as a "disguise".
In line with the "B-Movie production" concept, technical equipment was in shot, including the actual tech crew for the production, doubling up as film crew for the fictional production shoot. If anyone had a chance to watch this sequence, it literally is/was a living visual representation of the film crew in shot. Fun times!
Accessing the location was uber-tricky, but striking the set and coming down (before the sun set) proved more fun than expected. Looking back, I wished I could have engaged more to the "fun" aspect, rather than being the stoic-"Art Director on-set"...
For this episode, I had invested a lot more time (than I had planned for) to create visual imagery to support the story concept. While a "easier" way was to write the film title on the clapper board prop, I instead went and created the production logo and text, using clip-art and photoshop. The final result was used as a "prop" too, printed unto "FILM CREW" tees, seen on the crew in production! Served somewhat as the production crew tee. My one regret, was not being able to access and save a unworn tee of my own design, alas.
All images featured here are also viewable HERE on Facebook. And alas I no longer have any higher-resolution images.
