Prop Creation

So. This is what I consider to be our first day of production, even though we're not filming, this hands-on prop creation feels like a more permanent move, that comes from what we planned for in pre-production. As I mentioned earlier in this blog, our goal was to create a painting with an obstruction in the center of it, inspired by the show Love, Death, and Robots, Episode Zima Blue. Faye was having trouble imagining what exactly we were supposed to be painting though, so with a quick Google search of "abstract paintings," I stumbled upon this piece by Jill Dowell:

The "House of Enchantment" painting by Jill Dowell.

This colorful piece seemed perfect for inspiration, and so I opened up my sketchbook app on my phone and painted over a big white square in the middle of it.  Once I showed the image to Faye, we were both set on the same vision, and we began painting.

The edited version I created on my phone.

As we laid out our canvas on the floor, I realized this thing was LARGE. I bought the 6ftx9ft canvas drop cloth and it wasn't even the largest size; however, I think it was perfect for what we needed. Our idea is to eventually hang this from the ceiling possibly, so that it is able to stand upright and loom down over our character, in a moment of fear and awe.

The dropcloth options Home Depot had to offer.

The 6ftx9ft dropcloth laid out on the floor.

We discussed a little bit more about color but decided we didn't have enough bottles of paint yet to achieve the coloring, so we decided to just begin on the white. While painting, we listened to music and discussed some choices we wanted to make when we eventually film. In the end, we got most of the square painted before I needed to go home, but meeting up with Faye after school to get this done felt like a very productive step for our film opening. It truly is so essential to communicate in person, because text does not do our creative ideas and passions any justice.

Wrap on Day 1 of painting our "big prop."