An English Village, Hopping the Pond and a lot of bread...

From one film hub to another - I've just moved from Hollywood to Turville - *the* location most filmed in Britain. Flew across the pond from California to the UK with no less than 9 suitcases in the first week of this month. (Don't call my US cell btw... getting new UK phone soon).

With a population of 100 people (including actor Orlando Bloom who owns a house here) Turville has been used to film many movies and TV shows, including: 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang', 'Little Britain', 'An Education', '101 Dalmatians', 'Goodnight Mr Tom', 'Pride and Prejudice', 'Bride & Prejudice', 'Midsomer Murders', 'Jonathon Creek', Miss Marple'... the list goes on and on. I worked as a runner on set here when I was 16. Met Sam Neill ('Jurassic Park') on his birthday when he was filming here and had a slice of his cake. ;)

Anyway... my updates...
I am focusing on my short film (ish) whilst enjoying being back, eating English pub food and racing through commissions. Amazing what people will order - just completed a commission for 150 miniature baguettes in one inch scale for a woman in Paris. (See photo below).

Below are pictures of the English village of Turville. 16th century brick cottages, 10th century stone built church and a pub named after Henry VIII at the time he executed Anne Boleyn.

And here's some pics of Turville.

 

 

Testing Testing...

Yesterday evening I chose miniatures over cocktails. Yes, it's really come to this.
I'm still creating the 'enchanted forest' which is part of my set for 'Myrtle the Witch'. Each tree is individually sculpted and wired with glowing glass lanterns (filled with fireflies / will o' the wisps). I've only made 1.5 trees thus far. Playing with gel filters and a three point lighting set to see what kind of mood can be created with just the light from one tree and 'moonlight'. Came to the conclusion we're going to need about 4 or 5 more lit-up trees.

Stay tuned for more of this forest...

In the Woods...

A quick 'Myrtle' update before I nip out to my second screening of the day ;)

I'm in the process of building out an entire enchanted forest in one inch scale as part of my set for the Myrtle short film. Trees complete with faces and jelly jars hanging from the branches filled with fireflies / will o' the wisps. It's starting to look pretty good and I'm pleased with how the glass jars light up. They're all hand-blown glass and less than 1 cm in height. So like me, this project is pretty teeny.

I'll show and tell a bit more in the next few weeks. Most likely getting this enchanted forest set of mine featured in a magazine, so won't show too much too soon.

miniature scale sets for films, TV, music videos by Caroline McFarlane-Watts

The Magic Trade Shop - Final Result

I started working on this miniature model commission back in Dec of last year (2010) whilst working full time in visual effects (doing 3D conversion) at 'Illuminate Hollywood'. It gained interest from a trade magazine editor who asked for an exclusive on this project for the Nov issue of her magazine. (See previous post about this here)... but now that this mag has wrapped yesterday's fish and chips I can share this with you... 

It's the smallest model I've worked on. Most are 1/6 scale (6 times smaller than real life). You'll be familiar with model sets of this size if you've seen 'The Nightmare Before Christmas', 'Wallace & Gromit', 'Coraline' etc. A lot of the models I've worked on have been smaller, at 1/12 scale (12 times smaller than real life), but this project was actually 1/24 scale. Pretty teeny.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read all about it! NEW magazine Feature

Hot off the press... just been featured in another trade magazine for my scale miniatures. 3 magazine features in 5 months - very pleased!

Dollhouse trade magazines often take an interest in me because my scale miniatures extend past making miniatures sets and stop-motion...  I sell scale miniatures to collectors too.

Have a read. Just click on an image and click again to zoom in.

Baking with Snails

It's a gag in short film 'Myrtle the Witch' - she cooks with un-savoury ingredients. I'm focusing on the kitchen set at the moment, and sculpting the food out of polymer clay in tiny 1:12 scale to fill it. Take a look at the cakes topped with minuscule 'garden snails'.

 Caroline McFarlane-Watts miniature model-maker cicada princess nightmare before Christmas polymer clay miniatures

Flash back - 'Ín the Workshop' (2010)

Because some people have emailed to see more of a project I did for Christmas 2010, I'm posting pictures of this. It's called 'Ín the Workshop' and I had a lot of fun with it. The 'workshop' consisted of an 'L' shaped conveyor belt in front of a Christmas tree and surrounded with little worker elves and a plump foreman. The elves were preparing for Christmas by making cakes, candy, gingerbread houses, gifts etc. All in miniature (one inch scale) of course and designed, built etc by me.

Caroline McFarlane-Watts miniature sets miniaturist miniature model-maker stop-motion film Nightmare Before Christmas

Making Magic - to Scale

As some people know, I am working on a short film entitled 'Myrtle the Witch' and it requires miniature sets, miniature props and miniature characters. I'm funding it in (small) part with money from my online shop which I run as a hobby alongside a career here in LA. So whenever I make necessary props and bits and bobs for Myrtle, I make 10 or so extra and sell them online. Smart little arrangement, right? ;)


The script necessitates two shots of Myrtle's back weed garden and here are some props (miniature pumpkins and gourds)... all in one inch scale (this means 12 times smaller than real life). Handmade by me using polymer clay.





Caroline McFarlane-Watts, Tall Tales productions, concept artist, miniature sets, miniaturist, fantasy stop-motion film-making