from the book to the screen

Once we had all read the novel of "The Death of Ivan Ilych" we discussed as a group the themes that would have to be portrayed in the set design of Ivan's study and drawing room. As much as it it important to be historically correct and represents the baroque interior and architecture of 19th century Russia the psychological terror and insanity of Ivan that has to be portrayed.

We looked at how we could portray this feeling that only Ivan had and in many brainstorms over the past weeks the below bullet points are the ideas we came up with:

• A sense of darkness perhaps hidden behind a screen


• The use of hands grabbing/creeping up on Ivan


• A dreamlike state shown by the shape of the room or unrealistic furniture


• Pain shown as a third person such as an 'IT' like creature


• The idea of a very large or small room either showing his isolation or loneliness

The next few post will show how we came from the brains storms to the finished article.

Throughout the team meetings many opinions were raised and in the case of tutorials our ideas were challenged this was the first time for many of us that our ideas were criticised so thoroughly and at the time there was shock in the group but we now come to see how this benefit’s the group. Bad criticism is better then none and we are able to build upon theses ideas and better our work.
Working in a group was both difficult and helpful, we tried to play to every ones advantages and all though this worked in most cases it was important to remember that people could not always work to the same ability as your own. I felt coming into this project that I would be the ‘underdog’ but found out I was able to work well if left to my own devices. Our group has some very strong characters who sometimes helped in the order of the group yet there was sometimes a few situations where the entire group didn’t agree and we had to come to compromises that would benefit the outcome of our set. All though working in groups is most people idea of a nightmare I would be happy to do it again but have learnt that there is no point of sulking about not having your idea chosen but to inject your own thoughts and opinions into others thus helping the group and yourself learn the importance of team work. I have learnt that in group work you must not rely to strongly on other people as unforeseen circumstances could be the difference between the wok getting done or not.