Unit 6 - Conceptualising Ideas

For the first unit in our second year, we were tasked with choosing a set from a prescribed list of films and reproducing it in a technical drawing and white card model. I was enthusiastic and excited for this unit, as I enjoy drawing and was excited to learn industry specific skills.

We first had to learn and practice draughting techniques. In order to do this, we first surveyed our studio. I did a rough plan to work out what was in the room and which measurements I had to collect. After measuring the space, I initially drew out the plan and elevations on to A4 paper. This meant that I could trace it on to the A3 to make it neater and also collect any final measurements I needed as I drew.

Finally, I traced the plan and elevations on to A3 tracing paper. I found that tracing the drawings I had already done made it easier to plan out my drawing and also correct any small mistakes I had made on the A4 drawing.

Next, I looked into which set I wanted to reproduce. I considered sets from The Great Gatsby, Jo Jo Rabbit and Parasite. The Great Gatsby was the most appealing to me though, because of it's Art Deco design and details, which I thought would be interesting to explore.

I looked into two different sets from the film: the sitting room and the trophy hall.

I really liked the shape of the sitting room and the large French doors surrounding it. The trophy hall appealed to me, because it is structurally simple, but has a lot of details in the panelling and mouldings that I thought would be interesting to explore further.

I chose to move on with the trophy hall, as I enjoy drawing smaller details rather than working out the structure of a space. I also liked how it is different to the typical Art Deco style of the rest of the movie.

I first watched the scene that the set is in - it is very short, which made it difficult to get screenshots.

At a first glance, I noticed that the room is symmetrical - this would make the drawing easier and would give me more time to focus on the details. In order to figure out the components of the room, I did a quick, rough plan and elevations. I also started to see if I could figure out some of the measurements based off of the actors' heights.

After figuring out what built in furniture there is and how many columns there are, I went on to figuring out the dimensions of everything. I based most things off of the heights of the actors and the door width. I researched a standard door width and used this to work out the width of most components of the set. This allowed me to work out the dimensions of the plan. At first, I was surprised by the height of the walls, as they seemed too high, however after checking it turns out it was accurate.

Before moving on to starting my rough technical drawing, I decided to do some architectural research. I thought that this would help me in drawing the details and also give me some context to the design of the set. I did some online research and also looked through The Elements of Style by Stephen Calloway in order to look further into the architectural details of the set.

Most of the film includes design that references the Art Nouveau and Art Deco design movements, which were prevalent in the 1920s. Tom’s Trophy Hall diverges from this and references American Colonial design (1607-1780), which includes bold, symmetrical structures.

This is perhaps to reflect Tom’s masculine and dominant personality, which would not be shown through the feminine and delicate style of Art Deco or Art Nouveau. This older, classic American style may have also been used to reflect Tom’s outdated views, which is displayed through his casual racism and classism

In The Elements of Style, I found many references that are very similar to features of the Trophy Hall set.

Next, I moved on to doing a first practice technical drawing of the set in 1:50 scale. I found that it was extremely difficult to include a lot of the details in the columns, mouldings, panelling and door frames in this small scale.

I also did a sketch white card model in order to figure out if the proportions in my drawing were correct. I photocopied the plan and elevations and used foam board to put together a rough model. I also made a small figure with the same height as the actor in the scene - this helped me to compare his size to the dimensions of the set.

After doing rough versions of the technical drawing and white card model, I realised some changes I needed to make. Firstly, I decided to do the final drawing and model in scale 1:25, so that I could fit more detail in and also make a bigger model. I also needed to draw my elevations as sectional elevations for my final drawing in order to show the depth of the doors.

The final technical drawing wasn't too different than the practice one - I just scaled it up and included more detail in the door and columns. I also added a title box and comments to provide clarity.

After doing the final technical drawing, I photocopied it in order to move on to the model. I first put together the walls and then started working on the details. I used thin strips of wood to create the columns, door frames and mouldings. I also fitted the doors with a hinge - I did this using tape and then covering the tape with the thin pieces of wood.

Finally, I covered the exposed wood with my photocopied drawing. This gave it a more put-together and consistent look.

Final Outcomes

Overall, I am happy with my final outcomes. I particularly feel that I made large improvements in my final white card model compared to the sketch one. I have learned a lot of new skills in this unit and enjoyed discovering how they are used in the industry. I am eager to continue to develop my technical drawing and model making and attempt to do more complicated sets.

In the future, I will make sure to use a scrap piece of paper to rest my hand on while drawing - I did not do this while doing my final drawing and I felt that this resulted in a quite messy and smudgy drawing.