Chicago Overcoats

Final Project - Production shots

 Paddy's arrest shoot in progress

 I ended up with about 6 of these piles of multi-cultural eyelids, each character had 4 separate sets of lids.

 At this point you may be able to tell that the majority of the sets are temporarily built over the speakeasy one.

 The X-ray, which is backlight with an LED torch.

 The narrator's hospital room, with the light shining through the blind

 The same set but at night, with a filtered LED light above the narrator.

Using a cocktail stick to manipulate the puppet's eyes by sticking it into a hole in the pupil and swiveling it around.

Final Project - Props

 The bust wasn't originally created for the film, but i liked it so I put it in Sal's office

 The electric chair that Paddy is executed in.

 Various 1920s weapons that will be used by certain characters, the tommy gun belongs to Midnight Dave, the revolver belongs to Agent Friel, the Mauser belongs to Giovanni and the colt belongs to the narrator. The knife broke and then I lost the handle, so it won't be in the film.

 The 'moonshine' bottles are just party poppers with stickers on them

 These barrels are mini coke cans covered in plasticine, I left the cans full to keep them weighty so they wouldn't be moved around accidentally during filming.

The liquor bottles are food colouring bottles with different labels, the 'gin' is glycerol, the whiskey is Pepsi and the rum is Jack Daniels for some reason.

 One half of a distillery I made for the speakeasy, This is just a bottle painted black, then bronze to make it stand out

The other half of the distillery, on the bar with a tube connecting it to the tank. It is (obviously) a coke can also painted black and bronze.

Final Project - Test shots

Here are several test shots from various stages of the film.

 The Narrator and Dave observe a dead body. (The body is actually the nurse, I didn't include her in the film because the scenes with the narrator mostly take place at night, and it didn't make any sense to have her at his bedside at 3 in the morning, so she has a cameo role as a corpse instead.)

 Paddy having a drink at the bar.

Gio reading the newspaper.

Final Project - Sets - Paddy's execution

This is the 'room' where Paddy is executed, is actually just two black boards, but the focus was supposed to be on Paddy, so the set isn't important in this scene.

His leccy helmet is a rolo yogurt pot. With grey plasticine on it.

Final Project - Sets - Sal's Office

Sal's office was made at the last minute, about 2 hours before filming, the set was repurposed from the narrator's hospital room, and his desk is the same as Friel's. The blind from the hospital is also reused and the effect works very well on the beige colour of the walls. The poncey gold swirls are just for fun. The sculpted bust was made as a random experiment, and I decided to include it as a prop.

I don't know who that devilishly handsome fellow in the painting is, but I feel it gives an air of majestic grandness to the room.

Final Project - Sets - Gio's padded cell

This is the padded cell that Gio ends up in after he is committed by Friel and the police. The walls are made of canvas panels on plasterboard, which I feel gives it an old timey feel. The lighting is simply an LED light with a magnet attached, stuck to a metal grid suspended above the set.

 Gio's 'crazy face'.

Final Project - Sets - Agent Friel's office

Agent Friel's office is designed to look quite dull, it has a wooden desk with a name plaque on it, and paintings of U.S. presidents and Andrew Volstead (the man who proposed prohibition) on the walls. There is also a suspect board on the wall which displays the main characters, Friel will often be seen surveying this.

 An early test shot of Friel at his desk.

  Friel surveying the suspect board, I think I already showed this picture, but in black and white, that's how it will appear in the film. The painting on the left side is Andrew Volstead, and the one on the right is Calvin Coolidge, the 30th U.S. President. (although this section is set in 1920, so it technically should be Woodrow Wilson, but you know, swings and roundabouts. Plus this section was originally set in 1923, and I spent 20 minutes making that picture.)

Final Project - Sets - The Speakeasy

The Speakeasy is the primary set and receives the most screen time (about 2 thirds of the film is set here) and is where the narrator works, along with Dave, Paddy, Giovanni and Henri. It is also the largest set, with 3 walls, (the main one, the bar side and the door side) one of which will have to be removed to allow camera access to film certain scenes.

 The 'wooden' panels that will decorate the bottom half of the wall.

 3 walls, 2 of which are unfinished.

 The legs of the bar. It also has 2 balsa legs in the middle to help stabilize it.

 The floor is made of foam board, and has grooves carved into it to give it a wooden board effect.

 The set with the floor removed, revealing the perforated metal for the magnetic tie down.

 Henri surveys the room

 The shelf that will have the booze on it, it is behind the bar and Henri will stand in front of it most of the time. This is the wall that will be removed to allow access to a bar shot.

 What the bar will look like in the film.

 The main characters at the bar.

Final Project - Sets - Hospital.

The hospital room where the narrator lies in his bed, waiting to die. The set is the same one from the BAA sting, but repainted to look more 70s. It is also slightly smaller.

 The set during filming.

The set was originally bigger, but I had to bring in one of the walls to shine a light through the window.

Final Project - Sets

The film will have 10 sets:
1. The hospital, where the elderly narrator lies in his bed.
2. The speakeasy, where the majority of the film is set.
3. The child narrator's house, where his parents die.
4. Frank's alley, where Frank the Tramp stands with his burn barrel.
5. Chicago alley, where the Narrator and Dave steal and move barrels of booze.
6. Agent Friel's office, where he surveys his suspect board.
7. Sal's office, where Sal makes the narrator an offer he can (and does) refuse.
8. The padded cell, where Giovanni ends up.
9. The room where Paddy is executed by electric chair.
10. The hospital X-ray room where Dr. Rothstein delivers the bad news.

Most of these sets are made out of foam board, and the rest are made out of either plasterboard or MDF.

Final Project - Puppet - Dr Rothstein

Dr Rothstein was a very last minute character, he went from concept to design to finished puppet in the space of a day, and only appears in the film for 6 seconds. He delivers the news to the narrator that he will die in hospital. He is named after Arnold Rothstein, but this isn't overly important, as he will only ever be referred to as 'Doc' in the film.

 His glasses have acetate for lenses.

 I will probably remove his glasses in the final film, as his scene is dimly lit and the glasses will prevent anyone from seeing his eyes, and having to remove them every time I want to move his eyes might create a shudder effect on the glasses.