TWELFTH ENTRY - Workshop moves to Italy

On the 13th of November, a week after leaving Cardiff, Liz and I flew to Italy, where I plan to finish pre-production, and to shoot The Unattended Lessons.

The last week in Cardiff was spent making a disastrous first attempt at a rubber mould of the grandmother figure. My hope was to safely make silicone moulds of the three sculptures that were closest to being finished, so that they would not have to travel, and I could continue working on casts of them in Italy. One must not forget that the learning through making mistakes is an aspect of this process that I do love, and I shall leave it at that, without going into detail about what happened. This picture of the figures packed for travel will suffice.

Liz is currently in the process of creating the patterns for her meticulous designs, directly onto the wax sculptures.

For a few days the living room table became the canvas for designing the layout of the two mirrored apartments, furnished with the miniature wooden props my father has been working on in the winter evenings, when it is too dark to paint. My mother worked with me to establish a functional and realistic space, which still would permit me to be able to reach across a room during animation.

There were three specific moments in the script that were very important and influential in the design of the spaces, particularly in the positioning of the bedroom doors, and of the windows near the pianos.

Since these photos were taken, the stage has been built, and the set walls are cut and fitted with doors and windows. January will be the month of plaster, wallpaper, and floor tiles, and of Tobias' lighting design.

I was forced to start over with the little girl's sculpture. Her original armature, as I mentioned in the Ninth Entry, was simply too large, as it had been designed prematurely. So I re-sculpted her onto a wire armature. She finally looks the age she should be. Meet Isolte's daughter. She will need a new armature...

Her arms and torso were shortened when she arrived in Italy.

Young Rainer and Mr. Russeau, standing with the large face of "Tilda" (not my creation). Interesting to see the scale difference between the puppets of Solo Duets, and the new work, both trying to be accurately 1:6 scale...