Set Stills

The Final Stretch

Just putting all the pieces together now... just set dressing and additional scenics to go. Yay finals!

Beach Tent Shooting Day!

Richard Roy helped me light and film the opening and closing set the The Fair film. The shot was pretty tricky—a dolly move and a track focus. For the final composite, I'll be adding a layer of lightly falling snow in After Effects.

Lamps

I found some great little glass bulbs at a dollhouse making store. From there I did some simple wiring, painted some straws, and built up the features with black ribbon.

Foam Caving Party at 555 Gallery!

All painted and ready to go... Only melted the foam once (live and learn, right?)

A little sanding goes a long way.

Who knew curry combs were for more than horses?

Ellen and I playing in the foam room!

I made some new friends, Ying and Yang!

234 dipped lights!!!

Carousel Zoetrope Horses. Take 5.

Updated Work Reel

Backdrop Underpainting

Carousel Progress 4

Let's build a VERY large canvas

The backdrop for this project is about 10'/4' and that means I need to learn to build my own canvas:

Ellen showing scale. This thing is huge!!!

Nearly finished painting the horses

Lights and Encaustics

I've been working on lighting for the carousel. The challenge is the number of lights and the fact that they need to be spinning with the zoetrope (so the power source needs to be isolated). 

Right now I am giving fiber optic lights a try. The pictures below show me modifying a fiber optic strands by dipping them in tinted damar crystals to give them a tungsten quality. 

There are still a lot more strands to go, but the overall effect is on track. 

Progress Reel

Tests in Glass

Cutting glass for the first time

A little scary at the beginning, but the good news it that the process is definitely going to work for what I need. 

Casting Begins

Casting is one of the processes that I've been looking forward to the most. Int he past, I have done some plaster casting with latex rubber and plaster molds, but nothing on this small of a scale. Larry Larson did a great demo of the mold making process this week.

For this step, I made a silicone mold of a piece baked Sculpy. Once cured, I pored in the casting medium--a two part urethane plastic and waited. Now all that's left is REPEAT! 

For the retaining wall, I used cut pieces of flexible baseboard material. To seal it, I hot glued the material to a piece of glass.

The original sculpted part and the silicone mold

The first cast!

And so it begins...

Shopping for Supplies

I found silicone rubber for casting at a great shop called TFB Plastics in Shelby Twp.

Samples of work from custormers

Soooo many choices... Thank you Mr. John the Salesman who helped me decide!

Drove past it twice, they should get a real sign :/

Also, if you didn't know, Michigan is cold and snowy in February. 

Technical Drawings