The Nutcracker Sets

A good friend, Mrs Smith, a while ago commissioned me to paint the set for her local performance 'The Nutcracker'. I decided that it was important if we met face to face so I could see her reactions to my ideas and for her to also get a feel of how I felt towards the project. Meeting with her also meant that we discuss about certain dilemmas which Mrs Smith wouldn't have necessary thought about and quickly try to prevent or over come them. Taking into account the amount of work she wanted, I then returned fire with what was realisitic for me because my deadline is December 10th and obviously I made it clear that my university work came first. I tried to be assertive and instead of me completely changing her vision maybe I couldn't see them being effective I worked with my client to reach a conclusion which considered both opinions. So we constructed a priority list which consisted of':
A main set, which is a huge open mouth
A sign post and,
A flat popcorn box.
These are all simple tasks to complete but because of there size a lot of other factors come into play, for example even moving the sets from place to place was very tricky because I needed a vehicle big enough to carry them and the man power to move them because they are very heavy and awkward to carry.

 

 I have just started the main set which is this huge mouth which you can see in Matthew Bourne's The Nutcracker. I needed to consider how big I wanted the set, big enough to be impacting but not too big that I couldn't realistically work on it. Because of the size of it I needed to think about the supports it needs to withstand the weight because young dancers will be jumping about on stage so it will need to be able to stand strong throughout. To help me organize this i decided to talk to the Lights and Stage Technician to give me advise on possible fixings that the set could have to hold it steady.
I feel that this is a perfect opportunity to get some experience of client work in for my work based learning module in the year to come, I have already learnt about how vital communication is to make something work and also techniques during that communication to make something last.