Dressing the Pasty Child's Bedroom

Before we could start filming the block-through of 'The Pasty Child,' we needed a set to be complete so that we could focus on one scene and get an idea of how the set was going to look on camera. So last week I got cracking on dressing the pasty child's bedroom. We needed the room to look quite barren and unkept, so we decided that having bricks showing though the plaster on the walls would look nice and bleak! To do this, I cut a section of foam board and covered it in a thick layer of poly-filler. While the filler was still wet, I carved a brick texture onto the surface using a piece of aluminium wire and left it to dry. Once the filler was set, I neatened up the edges with a nail file and then added colour with acrylics. It turned out pretty well, and looks nice and bricky:




Whilst the bricks were drying, I painted the set with another coat of primer to stock any cracks or flaws showing through. The sink and cabinet was not yet stuck on properly so I could remove them during the messy parts! Once the bricks were dry, I cut away the foam bit of the board so that the bricks were more flexible. I then cut them into sections, and then glued these pieces of brick straight onto parts of the bedroom walls, on piece above the cabinet and one in the top corner:



When they were nice and secure, I added poly-filler around the edges of the brick sections to make it look as if the plaster on the walls was crumbling away and exposing the brick:




When the plaster had fully dried, I mixed a pale grey colours using the special bristol paints and then painted the set walls with a few coats of this block colour.




Once the block colour was dry, I properly glued the sink and cabinet onto the wall. I then added darker tones to the corners and edges of the room to create depth using a stippling effect with acrylic on a dry brush, and then added extra detail like mould in the corners and rust stains running from the metal bars in the window and the sinks pipe.which looks really grim! Here is the finished result with some of the props :D