We Made A Spaceship for INTERSTELLAR OVERDRIVE: Designing for 2004's ROUGE (Part 2)
I remembered back in a day, when we had a weekly/Friday screening session in the Production Services (Set Design department) for TCS (late-ish 1990s), where chosen folks screened a movie of their choice, and present and perhaps even initiate a discussion amongst the various departments. In one instance, it was my turn and I presented "The Fifth Element" as film of choice, complete with zeroxed pages off a "making-off"-book I'd purchased (stillo a prix=zed publication in my lil'library). None too ironically, none of my fellow set designers sat through the film (it was screened during our lunch time though), but by the end of that session, I had the most fruitful and engaging of conversations and discussions with the remaining folks, ever in my nearly-decade-long tenure in local media.
The question was "Can we ever make a film such as The Fifth Element?", and I've always felt we could, in varying degrees, notwithstanding the massive budget involved, it is achievable, in spirit, if not in scale, IMO. The various department folks who sat in the roundtable were from Sound Design, Wardrobe and Dubbing (I think). That conversion had always stuck with me, and quite frankly provided me with a "hope" of being able to continue in this industry... but alas I;ve not had the chance to work with any of the folks present in the session.
Fast forward years later, I had the opportunity to design for an episode of ROUGE for television broadcast (circa 2004), with that dedicated episode revolving around the "sci-fi"-theme, quite literally, in which our girls went undercover in a "B-Movie production", to which I'd featured a couple of sets before, while for today's blog-post, I will showcase the "SPACESHIP" we built.
I was torn between doing a utter low-budget cheesy make-shift spaceship interior / command deck, versus trying to make my design dreams come true. In the end, what I designed was something I'd been proud of doing and achieving with my team, through the years. From contractors/set builders, to the Art Department, I actually cannot fathom how I could have achieved it in THIS day and age, but was definitely within the realm of possibilities, twenty years ago. In fact, what you see here today in this blogpost, WAS the "reality", and would not be possible without everyone invloved - including the director(s)m and production crew, who held back their schedule, while literally waiting for the paint to dry on the set, at the moment of handover...
CONCEPT
The locale will be of the command deck of the space-faring ship, where all four ladies will be present together, navigating the ship, while saying their scripted lines/dialog.
Instead of a "Star Trek"-styled sit-down and press buttons set-up, I went for a more aggressive shoot-em-up formation, where left and right of the deck had communication (Comms) and navigation stations, a pilot-slash-fighter front and center, while the command station is centred behind everyone. Everyone will be facing a (movable) plasma screen, which will act a monitor of the window of front of ship, and POV of the ladies looking to camera.
LOCATION
We erected the set in the space which we first used as a "hospital", in our dedicated "studio backlot" (aka former military training buildings enclave somewhere in Lowen Road) in which I'd eventually painted the existing floor black (instead of pre-painted ply or any affordable flooring surface).
SET
Essentially made from (recycled) flats attached together to form the layout (sketched above). Once the shape and space is sorted, time to clad the surfaces in all manners of space-shippy doo-dads, including used computer keyboards, accessories from IKEA and parts from four washing machines, all sprayed and painted down in silver.
I remembered purchasing four used washing machines (from a junk dealer), and ripping it apart with the Art Department, underneath the night skies, in open air field in Lowen Road (our base of operations). And while I have no doubt everyone might have thought me insane, I am glad I had the used parts all over the "space ship", from portal windows to protruding engines.
Spare parts and toys completed the setting, all painted in a. Singular grey or silver, with red accents.
Here's a closer look at the set (most not seen on camera, alas), categorised into "zones", cheers.
COMMS/COMMUNICATION (Operated by Officer "Pam")
NAVIGATION (Operated by Officer "Pat")
PILOT (Operated by Officer "Thuy")
COMMAND (Operated by Captain "Ling")
When folks mentioned "Sci-Fi", instinctively "Star Wars" or even "Star Trek" pops into mind, but my frame of reference was more 1997's "The Fifth Element", as it's spirit reminded me tons of 1/6th-scaled kitbashes, which my youth revolved around for a decent period of time.
To the public, "sci-fi" might been "futuristic-styled aesthetics of space-faring vehicular units floating through the vacuum of space, where it could be a dystopian future perpetually dosed in rain and neon (Bladerunner), or even a whiff of time-travel. "Sci-Fi" is a genre, and not necessarily a "aesthetic". I am ranting against being told one time in my recent past, of not "teaching" my students "sci-fi", least they are engaged in doing the impossible. I've always wondered though...
The question was "Can we ever make a film such as The Fifth Element?", and I've always felt we could, in varying degrees, notwithstanding the massive budget involved, it is achievable, in spirit, if not in scale, IMO. The various department folks who sat in the roundtable were from Sound Design, Wardrobe and Dubbing (I think). That conversion had always stuck with me, and quite frankly provided me with a "hope" of being able to continue in this industry... but alas I;ve not had the chance to work with any of the folks present in the session.
Fast forward years later, I had the opportunity to design for an episode of ROUGE for television broadcast (circa 2004), with that dedicated episode revolving around the "sci-fi"-theme, quite literally, in which our girls went undercover in a "B-Movie production", to which I'd featured a couple of sets before, while for today's blog-post, I will showcase the "SPACESHIP" we built.
I was torn between doing a utter low-budget cheesy make-shift spaceship interior / command deck, versus trying to make my design dreams come true. In the end, what I designed was something I'd been proud of doing and achieving with my team, through the years. From contractors/set builders, to the Art Department, I actually cannot fathom how I could have achieved it in THIS day and age, but was definitely within the realm of possibilities, twenty years ago. In fact, what you see here today in this blogpost, WAS the "reality", and would not be possible without everyone invloved - including the director(s)m and production crew, who held back their schedule, while literally waiting for the paint to dry on the set, at the moment of handover...
CONCEPT
The locale will be of the command deck of the space-faring ship, where all four ladies will be present together, navigating the ship, while saying their scripted lines/dialog.
Instead of a "Star Trek"-styled sit-down and press buttons set-up, I went for a more aggressive shoot-em-up formation, where left and right of the deck had communication (Comms) and navigation stations, a pilot-slash-fighter front and center, while the command station is centred behind everyone. Everyone will be facing a (movable) plasma screen, which will act a monitor of the window of front of ship, and POV of the ladies looking to camera.
LOCATION
We erected the set in the space which we first used as a "hospital", in our dedicated "studio backlot" (aka former military training buildings enclave somewhere in Lowen Road) in which I'd eventually painted the existing floor black (instead of pre-painted ply or any affordable flooring surface).
SET
Essentially made from (recycled) flats attached together to form the layout (sketched above). Once the shape and space is sorted, time to clad the surfaces in all manners of space-shippy doo-dads, including used computer keyboards, accessories from IKEA and parts from four washing machines, all sprayed and painted down in silver.
I remembered purchasing four used washing machines (from a junk dealer), and ripping it apart with the Art Department, underneath the night skies, in open air field in Lowen Road (our base of operations). And while I have no doubt everyone might have thought me insane, I am glad I had the used parts all over the "space ship", from portal windows to protruding engines.
Spare parts and toys completed the setting, all painted in a. Singular grey or silver, with red accents.
Here's a closer look at the set (most not seen on camera, alas), categorised into "zones", cheers.
When folks mentioned "Sci-Fi", instinctively "Star Wars" or even "Star Trek" pops into mind, but my frame of reference was more 1997's "The Fifth Element", as it's spirit reminded me tons of 1/6th-scaled kitbashes, which my youth revolved around for a decent period of time.
To the public, "sci-fi" might been "futuristic-styled aesthetics of space-faring vehicular units floating through the vacuum of space, where it could be a dystopian future perpetually dosed in rain and neon (Bladerunner), or even a whiff of time-travel. "Sci-Fi" is a genre, and not necessarily a "aesthetic". I am ranting against being told one time in my recent past, of not "teaching" my students "sci-fi", least they are engaged in doing the impossible. I've always wondered though...
