EOW 119 The Magic Flute.....opera set

[chaosrocks]

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e181/chaosrocks/EOW2.jpg

119 Stage set from Mozart's "The Magic Flute"

Brief:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magic_Flute

for anyone unfamiliar with Mozart's opera this show is a fantasy and has many oportunities for Imaginative stage treatments. the link above has a fairly complete plot synopsis.

I am your Director for this one. And i will try to give feed back as a true director would

* choose a scene to design the set for
* your stage is as large or as small as you like, and you have an unlimited budget
*yhe show is a fantasy and as the director I am in the earliest stages of deciding on the style and look of the showi. I am asking you as the set designer to toss your ideas out and see what flies
* welcome to my world, this is truly concept art.


DUE September21 (equinox) 2009
and we're off again!

NO description required, say what you need to say visually.


:right: FOLLOW THE TOPIC.

:right: POST YOUR FINAL HERE THREAD.


:right: SAVE YOUR FILES IN THE FOLLOWING FORMAT. EOW##_Nickname
example: "EOW#100_Chaosrocks.jpg" ;)

:right: PLACE THE IMAGE IN A FRAME WITH YOUR NAME/TOPIC

example from CHOW

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i222/ChowPics/frame.jpg
(you can add CA logo, etc).

Add an icon to you final post
150 pixels either direction
PLEASE OUTSIDE HOST THE ICON
k thx

[Ian J]

Aw man, now I wanna cry...Magic Flute is one of my favorites, but I really don't have time on my hands, because I gotta get a portfolio finished for University application...hmm..maybe I can try to make some time...anyway, great idea chaos! :yayca:

[chaosrocks]

http://www.eugeneopera.com/Opera_sets/MagicFlute_Set/MagicFlute_Sets.html

http://www.operatoday.com/etomagicflute-397.gif

http://www.wickhamdesign.com.au/Opera%20Photos.htm

Its a very large box :P

[revenebo]

Another great topic!!!
Everything I know about The Magic Flute are the background scenes by Karl Friedrich Schinkel like this (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/SchinkelDesignMagicFluteAct2Scene3.PNG) and this (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3e/Mozart_magic_flute.jpg/790px-Mozart_magic_flute.jpg). That was a scenography...

[chaosrocks]

theres is a great ingmar Bergman movie of it too

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magic_Flute_%281975_film%29

[guilefine]

Hi Chaosrocks,
Thanks for taking the time to do this.

My environment of choice is the grove of palms with The council of priests, headed by Sarastro. I am foucusing on capturing the epic theme in this scene.


I think the first sketch has alot of energy and mood. The first sketch also dosen't really show that its a grove, it looks more like a swamp so....

The second sketch is more epic and describes more of a grove and has more of a theatrical look to it. I would like to combine the two somehow but I can't really think of what to do.

Let me know.

and how do you create a space inbatween the attached images so they are not stacked ontop of each other?

[zimfin]

Hi Chaos, sorry for the stupid question but are we meant to design this so our image looks like what you'd see looking at the stage from the audience's perspective, (so it looks like a stage set) or are we just doing an image which could, theoretically, be used to create the set? I hope that makes sense.

[Wixxi]

Hi Chaos, sorry for the stupid question but are we meant to design this so our image looks like what you'd see looking at the stage from the audience's perspective, (so it looks like a stage set) or are we just doing an image which could, theoretically, be used to create the set? I hope that makes sense.

I think we need to create a landscape that is viewed from the height of a normal person. In this way the image can be used for a stage background.
So don't think we need to draw the stage itself.

[Cyberman]

its on like donkey kong! great Idea Chaos! cant wait to get started.

[ashton]

http://www.musicwithease.com/magic-flute-synopsis.html

[ashton]

http://i356.photobucket.com/albums/oo7/ashtonsimmonds/wip-119-eow-.jpg

act 1

[chaosrocks]

Actually I meant a stage set not just a back drop. the straight backdrop style is about 200 years out of date for theater. this is a 3 dimentional space seen from the audience point of view. Guilefine this is a lovely start but you seek to be concidering it as a flat painting see how you can develope the space a bit more. remeber your character will be interacting withe the space like a town in a video game or soemthing.
Ashton
It's a lovely snake but you haven't really made a set... more a scene fromt he opera. the Snake is either a character or a prop depending on if it's a puppet or mechanical

[chaosrocks]

wixxi is inncorect

a there is a difference between an environment ..and a landscape.
I intend for you to draw the stage.... it is a rectangular space, with one wall missing that is viewed through the transparent or missinfg wall
the space can be divided and subdivided in any fashion you chose to make the space
a. more interesting
b. represent a much larger area
c. provide multiple levels for the actors to play on.

[chaosrocks]

http://www.lyricopera.org/uploadedImages/Shared_Content/Images/Tristan2.jpg

http://www.musicweb-international.com/SandH/2009/jan-jun09/27._Act_I,_The_Abduction_from_the_Seraglio_DAN_909 5_c._Dan_Rest.jpg

http://www.sceneryfirst.com/images/stage-opera-6.jpg

http://pro.corbis.com/images/CS005980.jpg?size=67&uid=3D0B1914-D59D-4BBD-A480-C278932F1FD4

examples ...from other shows of course

[audit]

ok, my concept of the aim of this EOW seems to be wrong, but I'm posting these anyway. Both are ideas for the look of act 1 scene 1 - the 'foreign land'. I guess too epic and landscapey for the purposes of the project. Blah, nevermind. I'll try again at some point.

777945

777946

[chaosrocks]

Audit nono
the images are actually pretty close especially the top one.. I m really liking it...
opera is epic.... and the scene is out of doors. I could see papageno and the dragon
and the ladies fro the queen of the night manifesting on the stage right platform.....

If you think Of this as a 3 dimensional space... buiding the foreground shapes as platforms with your sillouhetted shapes in the back could work beautifully... assuming you have a really good ligthing designer... which , of course since this is imaginary... we do.
the scale on the second on is pretty much unworkable though... I know I said the stage size was unlimited... but the actual idea is to be able to see and hear the actors :P

[audit]

Ok, thanks chaos, that's encouraging! I was thinking of bringing elements of the second scene into a smaller scale, more constructed..

Speaking of scale, they can do all sorts with mics these days, haha - have you seen Bregenz opera (their Tosca was in Quantum of Solace)? Random blog has these shots of it, it's utterly enormous: http://gyenge.blogspot.com/2008/08/tosca-bregenz-seebuhne.html

Anyway I sketched out another idea, this time for Act 2 Scene 5, Temple of Ordeal exterior.

778088

[zimfin]

Great work so far audit. Last one could be a great set.
Thanks for clearing things up chaos. Hopefully I will have time for this still.

[chaosrocks]

heres a thumbnail it did for Act one
Im not the best artist around
but you can perhaps see how I am dealing withthe space

[chaosrocks]

Audit --YYYEEESSSS! looking good
the stage is huge but thats ok some of them are.
don't forget that you can use different platforms so that the stage floor isn't one flat plan
and that tilting the whole plan at an angle to cheat perspective is quite possible and done all the time..in theater language it's called "rake" actors hate it but it can look great

[guilefine]

Audit your colors are super nice.

Okay making a stage but still not there yet.

What does everybody think so far?

[zimfin]

Looking good guilefine: I would be tempted to make the viewing area larger or rather, higher to show more scene. At the moment it seems a little cramped in the top. Promising start though, keep up the good work.

Chaos: Nice to see some art from you. Do you have any pics/refs of stages with the "rake" effect you mentioned? Would be good to see an example. Do you have some background in theater?

[chaosrocks]

hey zim um let me see actually most stages are raked a little some more extreme than others. And yes my primary job is as a costume designer in theater. although I have done set design, lighting and music direction as well.
the set for Cavaleria rusticana at the lyric in chicago
http://www.musicweb-international.com/SandH/2009/Jan-Jun09/cavpag1.jpg
Porg and bess lyric in Chicago
http://victorrebullida.blogia.com/upload/20070807091744-porgy-and-bess.jpg

Pagliachi
http://www.musicweb-international.com/SandH/2009/Jan-Jun09/cavpag5.jpg
oddly this set has a 22% rake (they told us on the tour.
but really all it does is lift the actors at an angle so as to be more visible
its subtle but what it does is cheat the perspective and make the space look bigger than it is

part of the challange adn joy of set design is to both break ut of the boxlike shape of a stage while remaining contained in the theater space adn still be physically feasible for the actors to work on... becasue ultimately one is tryingto tell a story and make a certain kind of magic. which can really be done best when the stage doesn't really look like a stage but tranports you into another world

[chaosrocks]

poll is up
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=2425405#post2425405
please go vote and crit and otherwise be the wonderful good citizens I know you all are :P

[chaosrocks]

poll is up
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=2425405#post2425405
please go vote and crit and otherwise be the wonderful good citizens I know you all are :P

[chaosrocks]

OMG I've Killed EOW....too much real world context I guess :P.... you know if the idea is good, I do n't really expect ya'll to get he stage craft right. It's all about presenting the concept Right?

[guilefine]

I think real world context helps us apply what we do for these contests to the "real world." The goal of getting better at concept art is to one day apply those skills in a real life application and not just for show. I feel that if we have come across a obstacle and can not get by, then we have reached some of our limitations. It is up to us to expand our knowledge base so we may be able to increase our range. With a wide range we may be able to become very successful with expanding our imagination, and making it easier to think outside the box to overcome an obstacle.

[chaosrocks]

guilefine- thanks for the support. I really am trying to give some actual application for our work here. I use the theater setting because that is the one for which I am most familiar. but I also think that the application of your environtmet to an actual three dimensional space directly relates to building worlds for video games for instance, which although virtual, is still a three dimensional space. sometimes in these challenges I think of these as illustrations, or landscapes... 2 dimensional work. In this case, I am looking for a concideration of the three dimensional space.

[Windsrock]

So much to do with this...

[Windsrock]

maybe I will get somewhere with this...

[Windsrock]

slowly

[Neonoir]

Don't know much about stage design, but I thought I'll give this one a go :)

Here's the progress so far. It's part of the courtyard with the entrance to the Temple of Ordeal.

[chaosrocks]

nice... mind the tangent of the circle on th e slight stage right of center

[chaosrocks]

for anyone brave enough to finish this, the Final burning thread is going up now. Please move your entries over. Don't forget the Outside hosted Icon. you have about anoouther 48 hours.
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=2440688#post2440688

Crx

[Windsrock]

if you didn't guess this is the first set

[Windsrock]

getting better and better :assspank:

[tsujni]

??????

[chaosrocks]

you always come up with interesting solutions.. the vertical window would make it nearly impossible for more than a tiny portion of the audience to see wjhat is going on... but the idea odf emphsising the fantastic story and fable of this show by setting in a framework... is a workable concept

[illustrateth]

Chaosrocks. . I think you're idea was great, and I would've loved to do something with an egyptian style theme. Especially the two gates of fire and ice with Egyptian columns and hieroglyphics. . . .

I've just got a 10 month old, and being a mom takes priority at this point. . . Otherwise I would've been totally into working on it to get some experience . . :P

[Cyberman]

I have had a lot of fun working on this one I dont think I will finish it today I have the next two days off though and I would like to finish it still, Awesome subject Chaos, maybe my favorite ever so far, so many cool choices! I chose the garden with Pamina asleep, I will post tommorow or the day after, Nice work everyone so far as well. I am really excited to see the final burning:)

[chaosrocks]

only 2 entries?
only 2?

My heart is broken (although the two we have are fantastic, and polished way beyond the nessisary level to convey the concept)
might I ask why you all couldn't do this?
the real application .. as if it were a map/design for a video game scene.. should apply to many of you that want to work in that industry.
the specifics of designing a scene in which to play out a story
is also applicable.
The fantasy elements of it should have appealed to some of you at least
adn one could set it in any time period or imaginary setting oe wanted
why was this round so diffucult?


I'll leave it open about another 12 hours
in hope

[chaosrocks]

the new round is up

I can't tell you how discouraged I am

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=2443726#post2443726

[buka]

Don't worry I'll post mine in few hours ;P

[ashton]

Don't worry I'll post mine in few hours ;P

Your work is amazing. I love it.