Part two - The Joy Of Sets

I'm sometimes asked about how many sets I have and where do I keep them.  The answer to this question
is that most sets get damaged, start falling apart and generally become unusable very quickly.  So, other
than the 'Steppin On My Toes' video dancefloor area that still seems to be holding together in the downstairs
toilet, all I have are bits and pieces.

Every movie that I make has a variety of props, a lot of which get reused, broken up and generally abused.
Many props are purchased from the hobby shop ( one called Hobbycraft in the UK ), dollshouse props
mostly.   These aren't very cheap.  Ebay is a good source of small props, often way cheaper.  Playsets like
ones from the Sylvanian Family series are very useful sets for things like restaurants, house fronts and other
buildings.  They also come with great 3 3/4" scale props.

Here are a selection of my props boxes.  If I had labels on them, they would be -

Top row - Consoles and electronics, Xmas1, Xmas2, Household various1
Bottom row - Food, Drink, Household various2, Small Animals

There are also large boxes of stuff that hold things like cookers, chairs, tables etc -

Most films are now made in the garage, which keeps away some of the light problems.  Not sure how I
will cope with this in winter, but for now it is fine in there!

So, how are sets made ?  Mostly they are a printed background and an attempt to make it a little more
3D by using other props in front.  Sets tend to start A4 or A3 size, all have a floor of some description,
very few have ceilings.

In this, one of the opening shots from Star Wars : Farmboy Tales, we see the Comic Con Stormtrooper Commander
reading a news paper (Hobbycraft), with chairs and sweeper that came from a seller of Sylvanian stuff at a toy
fair.  The mug says Paul on it, that was from a card shop.  Pizza was an Ebay dollshouse item and the plastic
boxes are all SW figure parts.  The wall is from a scan of the old Palitoy Death star (yay!), along with rolled up
post adapted from the same set.  The podium is from EV 9D9.

Sometimes the set is made up of an original plastic piece, superimposed onto a background, such as this
Death Star fly in.  In this scene, I shot 5 different angles on the Tie Fighter in slow rotation then placed them
onto an existing Death Star.  It sort of gave the impression of turning, could have done with more rotations
though.  I also added some 'Accentuated Edge' effect to the fighter prior to the animation.

This final set explanation is a mixture of an off the shelf set ( Hasbro Lars Homestead ), plus a digital background
for part of the scene.  It isn't quite blue screen as I have to cut things out digitally, then animate over the top.
The Luke figures is the VOTC one from a few years back, which tended to be a bit top heavy.  His taped down
feet are just out of shot!  Digital work here was done on Adobe Photodeluxe. Here I added stars, made an attempt
at widening the sand floor and moved Luke's head slightly.

To end, one final wide shot, which doesn't really make it look particularly organised !!  If you have any questions
on how I built a particular set, please email me and I'll explain.