Gritty City Fever - Set Design

Hello everyone!! Here is a set I just designed and painted for the Vancouver Theatre Sports League on Granville Island. It was a Two day job that I did by myself and it was a lot of work. The show is a 70s cop television show spoof called "Gritty City Fever" and they wanted a 70s style setting with sunsets and city skyline...so thats What I did! Please enjoy the pictures and commentary:)

Of course it all starts with a concept. I thought since we were in Vancouver I would use the 70s Vancouver skyline

I created a template of what the existing set looked like so i could do various options for the director.

I decided to use the doors and windows in the set walls as the scale for the buildings. Notice the Woodward's "W"

This door is becoming an entire building and should disappear nicely. That's the Vancouver Lookout tower.

Here is the sketch concept colored. I used pencil crayon for the sunset sky and professional markers for the rest.

The final color scheme for approval. Im going to turn the square cubes into crates with a paint treatment effect.

This is going to be very difficult to transfer to the walls, lots of measuring and planning.

The stage left door and stairs is just a curtain, so I didn't bother trying to disguise it...it just vanishes anyways.

This plan shows all the buildings lit...but as you will see the director has a few changes that will happen on the fly.....

Crate effect detail...very 70s cop show prop

This bench ended up with a brown base and orange top...also very 70s

Here is the set as it was when I arrived day one. This is not my design, it was the designer who worked before me.

First thing I did was prime out the previous design...the colors I was using are bright and need a white surface to begin.

You can really see the doors and windows with the walls white.

I left some areas I knew were going black NOT primed, just to save time and paint.

First thing I did was draw out the basic building silhouette, then I worked on the top and bottom in two stages

The yellow areas will become the lights in the buildings and the orange the sunset.

It will be much easier to paint black on the yellow than it would be to paint yellow on black. Notice the block and stools.

Here is all three ready for black outlining.

This is the scene outlined in black. As you notice the Vancouver Icons are missing.......

The director wanted a more neutral city, more towards the Now York Skyline

This is why communication with the client is Very important. But no big deal, I changed it on the fly.

He also wanted more rooftop business and definitely a water tower.

I put the water tower where the "W" was, removed the Vancouver lookout, added a water tower and problem solved!I used a poster paint marker to draw some of the lines too small for a paintbrush, saves on time and mistakes.

Here is the full set. I painted the floor high gloss black to create a rainy city streets effect, very 70s as well.

View from the back of the theatre.

Close up on some detailing. These warehouse windows are very common in New York.

Here is the windows in the centre flat (name of a theatrical wall unit like this one) opened

And here is the door opened. Its on a spring so i had to use the stool.....

The Box with the crate effect on it.

Detail of the crate boards. I painted it all black first the brushed on the boards manually. Very simple.

Ha ha, this is such a funny picture of me. The director decided he wanted some of the windows blacked out,no problem:)

Stage right windows blacked out. Looks so cool on the floor

Centre flat with windows blacked

Stage Left flat with windows blacked

Here is the set completed!! I just love the color scheme....my favorite tones.

In the end the set turned out so vibrant and exciting, the director was very happy.

I really love the rooftop outline...so fun

My water tower........

All done...two LOOOONG days of work, but great experience.

Here is a link to the Vancouver Theatre Sports League website, in case you wanna check out the show!!
Vancouver Theatre Sports League Website

Well that's all for now, thank you again for checking out my blog and Ill be posting some more real soon!!!