All white mental institute room and 1 single bedroom set design ?
- Thread starter twocik23
- Start date
John Morrison
Well-known member
I'll try.
Have you ever seen the original "Manhunter", where Lector was interviewed by the FBI Profiler guy (can't remember his name)? Are you looking to build a room that size, with glass (or acrylic) walls?
...or
In Terminator2, where Sarah Connors is held, strapped down onto a bed within a room slightly larger than that bed, and about the size of a long closet.
I'm not sure of your vision, what your mind sees in this. From my perspective, it depends somewhat on the age, or state of repair of the facility you're trying to portray. If it's a "state of the art" facility, then I'd go more towards the manhunter feel, but without the bars and glass. If it's an aged facility, (older building), I'd go more to the cramped long closet-looking room.
By "sturdy enough to throw up on", do you mean it must be re-usable, or able to get wet and still be used again afterwards?
One way to create the padded walls...
- Obtain enough cardboard sheets to completely cover the walls and ceiling of the room (or, at least one portion of the ceiling that might be in frame and two walls).
- Paint those cardboard sheets white.
- Go to the grocery store, and pick up several boxes, or rolls of white trashbags.
- The object is to cut up those bags into 1x1 foot flat-bags, similar to what you'd find in a shipping box used to cushion impacts (just a little larger, and white).
- You'll need to use some kind of hot-iron (like the food-iron - something like this)
- Make sure you can create a hole so you can fill it up with air, and be able to tape it over (from the back).
- Glue all the bags to the carboard sheets, keeping the edges secured to the cardboard.
- If you need bars - build the fake door, and cut out the bar area, then use small sections of 1/4 inch PVC & paint them white (they'll probably be white or grey anyways, but I'd still paint them).
It should begin to look like panels of padded walls. Should cost less than $40 or so, and you'd have moveable walls that you can place anywhere in the room, without doing the entire room (this of course, depends on the shots you intend to take - you might need the whole room covered - but if you do, you'll still have to have lights and equipment "in" the room - so, doing just one corner at a time might be a better option).
You might have to reduce the saturation in post (to make the shot sequence look harsh with harsh-bright overhead lighting), or in camera to get the solid but padded look on those bags, and they won't survive a closeup - you could dust them (or spray hairspray on them) to dull any shine. Or, put a cover on top of that using a white sheet, and a sewing machine to sew the sheet in squares over that cardboard.
Just ideas off the top of my head - it really depends on how much time and resources you've got on hand - but seriously, we don't really know what your minds eye sees. Might need to help us out a bit.
TMerry
Well-known member
1. It might probably be expensive to try and do a whole padded room. I would invest in one wall. Then use creative perspective and camera angles, and shifting the bed around to get different perspectives to create the illusion that the room has four walls.
2. You might try and fine some fabric or restaurant supply store that has some kind of diamond tuck material (the type that covers booths seat etc.) that might be old or discounted for the one wall mentioned above, then paint it grey or off white.
3. ALT: get some type of padded material, ie used foam panels etc.
Tack thse to the walls, cover them with sheets and make the sheets taught, then added buttons that are secured to the walls beneath.
Example: pics to help visualize
http://vortis.com/blog/archives/2005/october/Padded Cell Squad.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_KsKYeGRMUkg/RrJpT5yydjI/AAAAAAAAAM8/dt8Q_9poLCE/s400/padded+cell.jpg
ABOVE ALL: As indie filmmakers I think the important thing is when trying to accomplish something like an effect or set design: don't become TOO attached to any "one" idea. If you stay flexible, your mind will stay nimble with it approach to coming up with alternatives.
let us know how it goes!
2. You might try and fine some fabric or restaurant supply store that has some kind of diamond tuck material (the type that covers booths seat etc.) that might be old or discounted for the one wall mentioned above, then paint it grey or off white.
3. ALT: get some type of padded material, ie used foam panels etc.
Tack thse to the walls, cover them with sheets and make the sheets taught, then added buttons that are secured to the walls beneath.
Example: pics to help visualize
http://vortis.com/blog/archives/2005/october/Padded Cell Squad.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_KsKYeGRMUkg/RrJpT5yydjI/AAAAAAAAAM8/dt8Q_9poLCE/s400/padded+cell.jpg
ABOVE ALL: As indie filmmakers I think the important thing is when trying to accomplish something like an effect or set design: don't become TOO attached to any "one" idea. If you stay flexible, your mind will stay nimble with it approach to coming up with alternatives.
let us know how it goes!
twocik23
Veteran
Thanks guys.
Tmerry the second photo is what I'm trying to achieve, shot & room design. From what I've found it's pretty expensive project and our client has about $130.00 for the set. I'm thinking white bed sheets, plywood, staple gun, but can't think of what to use for padding...
Tmerry the second photo is what I'm trying to achieve, shot & room design. From what I've found it's pretty expensive project and our client has about $130.00 for the set. I'm thinking white bed sheets, plywood, staple gun, but can't think of what to use for padding...
Zak Forsman
Major Contributor
those walls kind of look like futon mattresses. or even air mattresses.
White quilted blankets. Find the cheepest ones available (Target, your nearest discount store, or Wal-Mart if your production is ethics-free) and either frame them on 1xs or staple/tack them directly to the wall underneath. If you can't find white ones, get the lightest ones available and spray them with a thinned white latex until you've killed the underlying pattern.
I actually once came across pictures of a padded cell done using maxi pads (no kidding!) stuck in rows to the walls. Until it was pointed out what they really were, the texture *did* read just like padding. Which of course, in a certain sense, it was.
There isn't really a cheap, quick way to simulate a tufted structure like what you have in that picture; something like that you'll need to construct for real if it's the only look that will work. Although anyone who knows their way around a sewing machine should be able to handle that, given the materials.
I actually once came across pictures of a padded cell done using maxi pads (no kidding!) stuck in rows to the walls. Until it was pointed out what they really were, the texture *did* read just like padding. Which of course, in a certain sense, it was.
There isn't really a cheap, quick way to simulate a tufted structure like what you have in that picture; something like that you'll need to construct for real if it's the only look that will work. Although anyone who knows their way around a sewing machine should be able to handle that, given the materials.
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TMerry
Well-known member
Cool twocik23,
Idea:
I'm thinking on your budget. YOu could go to the back of carpet stores, and they have clean dumpsters (a musicians rehearsal room insulation trick), and they throw away their carpet remnants. Sometimes you can get large pieces left over from installation jobs their contractors do.
Anyway, look for the low pile stuff, not shag, and tack it to the walls.
cover with sheets. and then tack it up with your nails or screws,
you can use washers over the nails or screw heads so that each one makes more of a round dent (like picture 2). The paint - Voila!
Make sure and post pictures.
-T
Idea:
I'm thinking on your budget. YOu could go to the back of carpet stores, and they have clean dumpsters (a musicians rehearsal room insulation trick), and they throw away their carpet remnants. Sometimes you can get large pieces left over from installation jobs their contractors do.
Anyway, look for the low pile stuff, not shag, and tack it to the walls.
cover with sheets. and then tack it up with your nails or screws,
you can use washers over the nails or screw heads so that each one makes more of a round dent (like picture 2). The paint - Voila!
Make sure and post pictures.
-T
TMerry
Well-known member
Sad Max
I believe I saw that set, and thought to myself it looks cool, but there's something fishy about it. :2vrolijk_08:
Sorry .. bad taste
TMerry
Well-known member
Thanks Max. I wanted to add my own rimshot, but I thought it would be gratuitous ;-)
twocik23
Veteran
"I'm thinking on your budget. YOu could go to the back of carpet stores, and they have clean dumpsters (a musicians rehearsal room insulation trick), and they throw away their carpet remnants. Sometimes you can get large pieces left over from installation jobs their contractors do."
Ha yea a drummer buddy of mine told me the samething. lol
Thanks for the heads up.
Actually guys I'm having more trouble with finding 1950's props than anything. I'll post some pictures of a begin to end kind of thing as soon as I'm done with it..
Ha yea a drummer buddy of mine told me the samething. lol
Thanks for the heads up.Actually guys I'm having more trouble with finding 1950's props than anything. I'll post some pictures of a begin to end kind of thing as soon as I'm done with it..
twocik23
Veteran
I've finished the set walls and now I'm running into a problem. I can't seem to get the walls to match up perfect and if I did there would still be a seem line. I'm looking into a poster, dresser to cover up them. However if the client doesn't like the poster, any ideas on how to get rid of the gap ?
Here's a quick snap
Here's a quick snap
We kill seams by puttying/sanding/priming/painting, or by taping and painting if the seam is a wild join. It requires some time and a bit of skill. Also, the seams have to be a sufficiently close join that they *can* be eliminated that way...
...weren't you going to be putting padding up on these walls anyway?
Vertical 1/2-round or whatever molding sounds like a very odd wall condition, to me. Maybe paper them, or cover them with ship-lap or some other inexpensive paneling/facing.
*edit* also, how did you frame these walls? The flat lying in the foreground suggests that they're just perimeter-framed, which won't cut it for standing walls of that size (maybe the standing ones are properly framed; can't see the backs).
...weren't you going to be putting padding up on these walls anyway?
Vertical 1/2-round or whatever molding sounds like a very odd wall condition, to me. Maybe paper them, or cover them with ship-lap or some other inexpensive paneling/facing.
*edit* also, how did you frame these walls? The flat lying in the foreground suggests that they're just perimeter-framed, which won't cut it for standing walls of that size (maybe the standing ones are properly framed; can't see the backs).
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twocik23
Veteran
"...weren't you going to be putting padding up on these walls anyway?"
No two different sets. This is the 1950's room, the white mental hospital I'm going to use a white cyc I guess. I have three days to have this wrapped up.
A friend of ours recommended some kind of tape, putty (spack or something like that) and then rub it out smooth. Paint over that and that should do the trick. I guess I was kind of looking for the quick way out....
Just a simple frame, kind of like the one you see on the ground. 2 sides, top and bottom. Sorry I'm not a carpenter, just looking for a quick fix. The scene is pretty dark, so maybe the wall trim might work....
No two different sets. This is the 1950's room, the white mental hospital I'm going to use a white cyc I guess. I have three days to have this wrapped up.
A friend of ours recommended some kind of tape, putty (spack or something like that) and then rub it out smooth. Paint over that and that should do the trick. I guess I was kind of looking for the quick way out....
Just a simple frame, kind of like the one you see on the ground. 2 sides, top and bottom. Sorry I'm not a carpenter, just looking for a quick fix. The scene is pretty dark, so maybe the wall trim might work....
Spackle.
Unless you've got someone who's used to doing this kind of finish filling, sanding, priming and painting I'm not sure you can count on usable results in a short time. The way to save time on that step is in the way you build your flats, but you have what you have...if it's the kind of set where you feel right dressing it with some 'plumbing' or 'drain' pipes running up the walls, that's a good way to hide seams that doesn't call for any special work on the flats. Maybe that solve would work for you. Good luck!
Unless you've got someone who's used to doing this kind of finish filling, sanding, priming and painting I'm not sure you can count on usable results in a short time. The way to save time on that step is in the way you build your flats, but you have what you have...if it's the kind of set where you feel right dressing it with some 'plumbing' or 'drain' pipes running up the walls, that's a good way to hide seams that doesn't call for any special work on the flats. Maybe that solve would work for you. Good luck!
rsbush
Well-known member
You need to use Bondo or some other auto body filler for seams. Fill the seam as flat and even as you can. Use a palm sander with 80 grit paper to smooth and even it out. Then use spackle to fill small divots/holes. Sand with 100 grit sandpaper by hand. Paint. This is very easy, anyone who is remotely handy can handle it.