Scene: A hiring freeze at Midnight OIl Studios for diorama characters leads to a protest in front of the studio by all the characters in the boxes of Midnight Oil. Here the beginning parts of this scene. Unsure what we’re putting inside the studio so added a stand-by Buddha with an LED light over his head. Just testing. What should the scene inside this semi-box model part be? I query Darryl on this and he says he has ideas and will get back to me.
My feeling is to make the studio front have rusted aluminum and vines growing up the side of it. Weathered aluminum on front. Weeds in front of the place. It is is a bad part of town. What is going on inside this place? Has the studio fallen on bad times? Or, is this what the studio has always been? Able to keep it’s true nature from many?
In the above scene, a sign from a union representing animals is seen. We have about five other signs and various groups for the scene. The little people characters protest. These are the N-scale and the HO-scale and the O scale characters. The main character by the gate at Midnight Oil looks to be about 1/25 in scale. This is the scale that the Midnight Oil Studios building is modeled in so it is a scale to assume. At the same time, many other scales of models invade the scene. What scale is this diorama in? It’s not a bad question.
I’ve been engaged in trying to figure out this question myself.
Here we are at the early part of a scene with a number of ways to proceed.
In a paper picnic dish I have all the various characters for my models. I have divided these characters into various boxes and each box seems to have a sign about their particular rights. There is Animal rights box. The super hero rights box. Small people rights box. There is a confusion of both scales and characters in all of this and it throws the entire system into an interesting new situation no one could have envisioned.
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Everything in front of the studio in the scene is in various scales from the Super Hero figures at perhaps 1/20 scale to 1/48 and 1/87 and 1/160 scale when the guard next to the door of Midnight Oil Studios looks to be in about 1/20 scale. A mixture of scales in the scene. Certainly something never recommended. But here, a natural gathering that forces the viewer to see the scene in a new way. Perhaps one of the most confusing things to ask an audience is to determine the scale of a particular scene. Here, many compete for the audience’s attention.
Creation of the diorama continues.
What should be inside the studio?
I am thinking it should be a scene rather than anything else. And, the scene inside the door of Midnight Oil should be the Moonrise Over the Mountains scene of our past post at. Perhaps this is the scene to be shown inside the door of Midnight Oil as in the Blackout image.
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(An ongoing story/project of Midnight Oil … Comments Always Appreciated)
“Get us out of this box!”
Hi John,
Re. Midnight Oil Studio, “Hiring Freeze” staging possibilities:
#1. The scale of the Studio structure looks to be Approx. 1/20, or the Bat Man, Super Man figures are about 3″ tall. These 2 figures can be bouncers guarding the studio, standing on each side of the door way, with groups of protesting animals outside, grouped by scale or type of animal, or special interest each group with a protest sign. I love the “Diorama Animals-Local 106 sign ! Almost like a Noah’s Ark scenario, all trying to get on board, but not happening. The camera angle can be behind all the animals looking towards the open door. The eye level would be at the smallest animal, HO scale. There could be a dim LED inside the doorway, with a picture cut-out of yourself sitting at the desk, with your feet up on the desk, smoking a cigar.
#2. The camera view is inside the studio building, looking out the door. The Studio building consists of just the inside of the front facade wall, possibly rusted and covered with foliage growth, with a brighter LED inside above. We see the arms of Bat Man and Super Man respectively on each side outside of the door. We are looking outside into hoards of animal groups facing the Studio, each with there own protest sign, with mirrors placed behind the animals to give the illusion of hundreds of animals.
#3. There are mirrors placed inside the Studio back and side walls, with a Styrofoam “iceberg” in the middle. The mirrors reflect the shapes to indicate a large “iceberg”, with blue LED light on it , with a white LED also in the center. The wall of the Studio can be placed more on the wooden base to contain all these elements.
Darryl
Darryl,
Thanks so much for the below. This really got me thinking. I currently have placed the moon rising over the mountains inside the studio but not sure if want to keep this. I do love the idea of me inside the studio feet up on the desk smling a cigar (the traditional studio fat cat).
Great ideas for outside the studio! I like your idea for use of the mirror outside to grow the number of protestors.
Still playing around. I did change the moonrise scene a little by painting the mountains dark blue and putting them against a black sky that wraps around inside. The original one has white mountains and dark blue sky. But wanted desert mountains at night which are close to dark blue.
Again, so much appreciate your thoughts on this! It’s interesting how you view this from various positions.
John