NEED SOME HELP ON SET CONSTRUCTION IDEAS?

[Greg Crawford]

I have an idea for a short film, a parody of the cold war paranoia of the 1950's

For this film, I would need to have a set built of the pilots station in a flying saucer. 1950s sci-fi Camp ....looking !!

My forte is not in set construction...any ideas on how to go about how to get this type of set done cheaply? And what it might cost? The set would be used for medium to close up shots at the pilots station two walls. Possibly a miniature looking in to a small live action area?

[Matt Pacini]

It's been done, and done well.
Doctor Strangelove...

Anyway, I can't say I have loads of set building experience, but this I will share with you.
For my film Lost Tribes, there are several scenes that take place in a cave, with an altar in the middle of the room, pillars, and candles and cobwebs everywhere.

So I spent like months and months of weekends, over $3,000 on materials, constructing this elaborate killer looking cave set, using casting plaster (just like the big boys do!), over chicken wire & gauze, nailed onto plywood, etc.
1100 pounds of plaster!
It looked great in real life.
When I actually shot it, you could hardly tell.
Moral of the story:
Use cardboard and tin foil. Just make sure to paint everything really well.

Matt Pacini

[Greg Crawford]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Matt Pacini:It's been done, and done well.Doctor Strangelove...Matt Pacini</font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

No...I'm not trying to best a wonderful film like "Doctor Strangelove."

Living in Michigan, I see lots of people who are my age or younger who are retired.

Ever since the 1980's, junk bonds, hostel takeovers , the start of lay-off city and trickle-down ....most workers and doing worse. More and more companies are not offering retirement any more and are hopping for and creating attrition, to keep labor cost low. Looking back, it seems the 50's and 60's were a better time for the American work force.

(This last comment has noting to do with the race problems that were so prevalent in the 50 and early 60's. I can see how people of color might think this comment is going in that direction...it is not!)

This script idea is about the paranoia of employers if workers would be on better footing. No this is not a take off of "9 to 5."

On the set construction....my church will
let me use an old broken down TV switcher as a prop. A friend suggested that I use bubble rap painted silver...That sounds like a good idea if the paint will stick to it.

Any other ideas??

[eddie]

I agree, paint everything really well.