Hi everyone,
My next set design features a vast muddy wasteland. It's an immersive theatre production in an unconventional venue and the audience will get quite up-close-and-personal with the set.
I'm looking for any advice in sculpting terrain and making scenic (or real!) mud.
The director's concept is to have the audience walk through this landscape in "trenches", i.e. the mud would be roughly 1500mm off floor level so that only the spectators' heads would pop out and intrude on the world of the play.
So basically I need to make a giant mud pit about 16m long x 7m wide x 1.5m deep with trenches diverting through it.
Questions for the hive mind:
- have you ever made stage mud and what did you use? The director's reference is really sloppy, slimy mud like the stuff you'd take a mud bath in.
- have you sculpted fake terrain, and out of what?
- is there a sustainable material that you can use for large-scale sculpting?
- any other advice at all?? This is totally new territory for me.
- do you have any contacts in your network that I could call up for advice?
Things I'm conscious of:
- the weight loading on the floor: obviously I can't literally fill the room with mud so I'm thinking of faking the floor underneath with something very lightweight to build it out and just dress the terrain with a few millimetres of mud, or scenic painting in parts where the audience can't get too close.
- eco-friendliness: I'd like to sculpt the terrain & fill out the depth of the pit with something recyclable or degradable.
Thanks in advance,
Ellie
My next set design features a vast muddy wasteland. It's an immersive theatre production in an unconventional venue and the audience will get quite up-close-and-personal with the set.
I'm looking for any advice in sculpting terrain and making scenic (or real!) mud.
The director's concept is to have the audience walk through this landscape in "trenches", i.e. the mud would be roughly 1500mm off floor level so that only the spectators' heads would pop out and intrude on the world of the play.
So basically I need to make a giant mud pit about 16m long x 7m wide x 1.5m deep with trenches diverting through it.
Questions for the hive mind:
- have you ever made stage mud and what did you use? The director's reference is really sloppy, slimy mud like the stuff you'd take a mud bath in.
- have you sculpted fake terrain, and out of what?
- is there a sustainable material that you can use for large-scale sculpting?
- any other advice at all?? This is totally new territory for me.
- do you have any contacts in your network that I could call up for advice?
Things I'm conscious of:
- the weight loading on the floor: obviously I can't literally fill the room with mud so I'm thinking of faking the floor underneath with something very lightweight to build it out and just dress the terrain with a few millimetres of mud, or scenic painting in parts where the audience can't get too close.
- eco-friendliness: I'd like to sculpt the terrain & fill out the depth of the pit with something recyclable or degradable.
Thanks in advance,
Ellie