"Highrise Christmas" - Prop Modeller

'Highrise Christmas' is a short film idea by Ruth Ducker, a story about the challenges Santa encounters while delivering presents to good children of the world.    

By Ruth Ducker

Please press this link to find out more information about this great short film idea: http://highrisechristmas.blogspot.co.uk/                                              

Ruth asked me if I would be interested in making the props for this short film, to which I was thrilled to have been asked and couldn't wait to get stuck in.  

The Sofa:

The first prop I was asked to make was a sofa. I started by cutting 2 pieces of thin plywood to give it a strong, but lightweight base to build upon. To achieve the desired shape of the sofa that was needed I added pieces of foam board, cut to the required shape to get a curve. The final base structure of the sofa can be seen below:   

The next stage was to bulk it out a bit and create nice curves/surface for the final covering to be placed over. For this I used a thin sheet of polyester material, attaching it to the base using pins. 

The legs for the sofa, which can be seen below, will be added once I have covered the model in its final material. 

                                       

To cover the sofa using the linen bag, I started by wrapping the cushion first before moving on to the main section. I cut a pattern for the middle section, using the sown edge of the bag in the centre where I knew it would be hidden. Next I focused on an arm, which I sowed to the first piece along the bottom and around the curve of the arm. The hardest part was neatening the section on the back corner. I then added the end piece to the arm by sowing it on around the curve. I was pleased with how this arm turned out as I'm not the best sower. I think some more padding needs adding and maybe some more sowing to tighten it in more to the shape of the sofa. The tricky bit now is to achieved exactly the same look on the other same. 

To have a break from sowing I made a variety of cardboard boxes. I started by drawing the net of the boxes before cutting out and gluing together. To make it look more like an actual cardboard box I added extra pieces to the lid sections to show the woven layer within cardboard. I also added pieces of brown tape, cellotape, logos, scribbles and torn labels to indicate that had been used before. I want to continue adding a few more details to these especially to the ones that will be on show more, as well as creating some more plain ones for in the background.