Titan Props and Glasgow Graffiti

It's Bridge Week, so no students are actually scheduled in this week for production work - instead it's sort of a half-term (bridge) between semester 1 and 2.  During bridge week I have been painting a personal project for a commission and on Thursday I took some time off from painting to go on a mini trip with some people from the scenic department - Gary, Jude, Rosé and Rosie.

The five of us headed off to Titan (http://www.titanprops.co.uk/) props after lunch as Simon from construction had told us about their workshop/warehouse facilities. It was literally like walking into Aladdin cave, there was a studio space for photography as well as filming, a workshop for construction/prop making/scenic and thousands of props you could hire. Sadly lots of the props weren't actually there (they had been sent down to London for the Doctor Who set) but it was great to know it was there. In the middle of the warehouse, there was a great scenic set and the painting was really good. It was originally a set for a film, but the film company went bust! Titan props was really good to know about as if I ever need to hire space in the future I know it's there and they also have student, as well as recent graduate rates which is always a plus!

My Kiwi Bird Hot Air Balloon

It was rather hard to try choose something to make in props, as literally the world was my oyster and I was given the option to make anything I wanted. So i spent about half the day researching with Rose and she came across a really cool Art Director/Set Designer/Prop Stylist called Rhea Thierstein (click for her website) who has made prop and designed sets for one of my favourite photographers - Tim Walker. Whilst looking at her portfolio I came across a really cool hot air balloon bird, and I thought not I try make that!

Props

My time in props has been really good, I'm so happy I swapped my elective from design to props or i think i would be going out of my mind! There has been times in props though when I feel I'm just plodding along and this has shown me that I really like working in fast pace environment, but I guess it has also shown me that in the theatre business sometimes its all work, work, work or just plain sailing.

Creatures of the Night - Ashton Lane

I had a great time working with Moose Corporations being a prop assistant at the 'creatures of the night event' on ashton lane. It was a long 8 hours starting at midnight and at 6am I could start to feel myself doozing but I kept a happy, hard working determined face on as I knew this was a huge professional event. Nikki, Jill, Jude and I had the task along with Nigel's wife and a girl named India to turn G1 bars/clubs into scary venues. There were van loads of props (some of the skulls had even come from some of the indiana jones movies) and as there was not a lot of time we had to improvise using any tools we could to get the right finishes! We turned 'The Lane' into a scary Vodoo Temple, 'Jinty McGinty's' into a general scary place with a grave yard out back and skulls,rats, spiders etc. dotted around inside, 'Vodka Wodka' was turned into a scary labatory, 'Brel' became a creepy burlesque film house and 'Nude/Radio' got turned into a derelict ballroom. Working on this event was a great experience, and I was so happy/lucky to get picked. I got to strengthen my team working skills, learned to become quicker but still professional when working against the clock and was great insight to were I can use my skills from TPA in the future.