I was thinking that, but it's the summer so the schools and colleges are closed.
Ah well. I'll have a scrounge.... see what I can turn up [img]tongue.gif[/img]
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I was thinking that, but it's the summer so the schools and colleges are closed.
Ah well. I'll have a scrounge.... see what I can turn up [img]tongue.gif[/img]
Well since the schools are closed I would try colleges, I know my two local colleges, although they have no students in at the mo are still open. You could phone up and try to ask them where they buy their supplies from as they would be quite cheap I expect. Tried the yellow pages?
ah labs are fun! i spent a year making mine. of course you can do it MUCH faster if you need. i built walls, shelving systems, high tech tables, the whole enchilada! i spent about $100, but only about $10 total on props i think. sorry, i don't have any better pictures than this yet (will tommorow). but i'll give you a few tips.
for the cool, gadgety thing with tanks we used lots of cardboard, silver paint, soda bottles, and clear plastic tubing (the fact that my friends all had this stuff might be slightly odd, i don't know)
then we made this awesom shelf full of electronics and chemicals. i went to the nearest dump (rural rich neighborhood = town dump full of perfectly good electronics for free) . i got a bunch of vcrs and cd players and other odd things and took bits off til they look like gauges and monitors and stuff. fill a shelf up with them and it looks pretty good. then i saved up my glass recycling for a few months (you might have a problem collecting several hundred glass jars that fast), soaked it in soapy water to get the crud and labels off, and fill ed (why on earth is it replacing the word fill ed with **s??) it with various colors of food colored water. looks GREAT! i wish i had pics of it. we put a backlight in so they all glow subtly.
good luck! post some shots of the set for us when its done!
I'm building a lab set in my cellar for a short I'm shooting on monday. As always, I've left it till the last possible moment to sort everything out.
What I'm really needing is some test-tubes/beaker type things, but I'm not sure where to get them. I was considering buying a kids chemistry kit thing, but they look a bit shite, even for 15 quid, which I don't really have.
So anyone got any suggestions for lab type stuff you might find around the house? Or be able to make out of PVA glue and sticky-back plastic?
i would say borrow them from a school/college, but that will depend on your blagging skills.
I wouldnt bother spending lots on the stuff, and you certainly aint gunna make anything that looks ok unless you are going for a really camp **** take with cardboard boxes covered in tinfoil to be generators and what not... if you are going down that route just buy loads of tin foil and cover loads of things with it.
I would try a local secondary schools science department. Try asking them nicely if you could borrow some science equipment- they have some pretty good mad scientist freaky **** like test tubes, and glass tubes, and bubbling red liquid...
yep I agree
raid a skip/dump or whatever, use jamjars *****d with paint, rubber/copper tubing...even electrical cable painted the right colour may look OK.
you havent got much time or any money so its not going to look that great - unless you are a miracle worker, or know one so I should resign yourself to a certain style - cardboard covered in foil? and try and make that fit in as well as possible.
Perhaps you could paint some testtubes and dials batterys, and so on - equipment - onto a backdrop as if theatre scenery and go for an abstractish arty sort of look?
Jam jars! Why didn't I think of that... I've got a couple of old VCRs, quite a bit of clear plastic tubing (must be a filmmaker thing) and a bunch of wires/cables. I'm going for a really stereotypical lab. It's mainly just the test-tubes and beakers that are the problem.
This is where I'm building the set.
http://www.untamedaggression.fsnet.co.uk/cellar_01.JPG http://www.untamedaggression.fsnet.co.uk/cellar_02.JPG
Apart from the fact I've not finished tidying it up, I think it's pretty atmospheric. Just needs a mortuary slab in the middle and the illusion will be complete [img]tongue.gif[/img]
Thanks for the hints, peeps.
<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ July 31, 2003 06:19 PM: Message edited by: Untamed Aggression ]</font>
I have a friend who teaches in w.yorkshire, so I emailed him. I thought he might have been able to 'borrow' some stuff for you but they haven't got back to me yet.
Another friend however reckons many hospitals tend to dump a lot of things that are deemed 'safe' to be disposed of normally so you might try raiding their skips [img]eek.gif[/img]