Richard McCabe is a Production Manager and Set Builder who has been in the industry for an extremely long time and is currently working for Industrial Set Design company Helix 3D. Yesterday, Richard came in to work with myself and In Extremis Set Designer Rhiannon Price to discuss the construction of the set.
Being part of this meeting and discussion about how exactly we were going to build this set, where we were going to source materials from and all sorts of other topics covered was a really brilliant experience as it showed me how my role would translate into industry and what exactly I would be doing if I was a Production Manager.
Richard is a fountain of knowledge, and full of good advice and tips from the industry for us. He explained that timber can come in (within reason) any size we need it, and there are lots of different types. The ones we need to know about at the moment are Rough Sawn as most of the set will be made from this to give it the medieval effect. There is also PSE (Prepared Side Edge) and PAR (Prepared All Round)... these are the same. Timber generally starts at 4mm thick but that is a bit too thin to use for the floorboards. Richard also explained to me that for every cut that is made, you are losing 4-6mm as you need to take into account the thickness of the blade. This means that you have to over-order timber to make sure you have enough.
"If you cant hide it; highlight it." - Cant remember why I have this written down but it sounds good.
Richard is a fountain of knowledge, and full of good advice and tips from the industry for us. He explained that timber can come in (within reason) any size we need it, and there are lots of different types. The ones we need to know about at the moment are Rough Sawn as most of the set will be made from this to give it the medieval effect. There is also PSE (Prepared Side Edge) and PAR (Prepared All Round)... these are the same. Timber generally starts at 4mm thick but that is a bit too thin to use for the floorboards. Richard also explained to me that for every cut that is made, you are losing 4-6mm as you need to take into account the thickness of the blade. This means that you have to over-order timber to make sure you have enough.
"If you cant hide it; highlight it." - Cant remember why I have this written down but it sounds good.
We spent the morning going through the set piece by piece starting at the front, working our way back and then upwards discussing each set piece in great detail. This was a really good process and Richard's knowledge of construction is brilliant. I have a lot to learn about timber and building materials! Richard was intrigued by the wheel that Rhiannon had designed, and seemed determined to build it; probably because John said it would be too difficult to build!
After lunch we created a budget list working out how much wood we'd need for each piece, calculating the amount we need in total and how much it's going to cost. This was great because it got the first load of budget breakdown done, and I think it helped Rhiannon a lot because she was unsure of how and when she could do this.
Myself and Richard then started working on CAD together, and we worked through drawing the Wheel in preparation for the CNC cutter, which felt good because I had some responsibility. What I was creating digitally is actually going to be made and if it doesnt work then that falls on my shoulders!!
Richard set me a deadline and a load of work that needs doing in preparation for In Extremis and it finally feels like I'm doing something with some kind of responsibility as opposed to just floating around not being considered and involved.
Items for submission to Richard:
Full Studio Groundplan with IE Set
Front Elevation of IE Set
Front, Side and Flat Elevation of Structure
Full Tech Drawing of Floor
Full Tech Drawing of Rostra
inc. CNC Ready Drawing of the Stairs.
Full Tech Drawing of the Wheel
A Page with each item listed.
These drawings also need to be fully annotated and fully layered correctly.
The date for submission to Richard is; 26th October 2011.
I really enjoyed today and the experience of working with Richard. It made me feel like the role I had undertaken had a contextual use, after feeling very left out of Top Girls. I understand that I have a lot of work to do, I'm determined to produce a beautiful set of drawings to send to Richard on time.
