The Lion's Castle...or is it?

Through text analysis and set ideas coming into play the main focal point of this scene has changed dramatically since the original concept of a grand castle. To communicate this object within the Western/Native American genre, I have taken on the styles of the Native Indian tepee's and have considered the elements within them and have designed some in different styles.

Originally I decided to portray a traditional western tepee, this moved on to being more grand in design developments and finally becoming more 'animal' like. The design I decided to settle with was the one I felt communicated the Lion qualities yet still gave the grandness essence.


Final design sketch
Details: smoke flaps - made of lions fur to look like its mane / main material sandy colours, a fine hessian or calico material cover / tree branch supports / long grass along bottom / circular opening - to reflect animal like habitat.

When the time came to transfer my water coloured sketch into reality (well in 1:25 model form!) a template was needed to be made (now who would of thought a template would be so time consuming) Firstly I had to decide upon a sensible size - I wanted to communicate the grandness of a castle so a large scale was chosen. (4m height with approximately 2.5 m width) My trusty scale ruler became very useful here when working out how big this would be 25 times smaller! And when I wanted to check how big I was asking the set constructors to build I stretch my tape measure out across the room in true designer fashion!

The template of the tepee's structure wasn't the easiest object to figure out laid flat. To accomplish this, mock ups were made and played with - starting off with simple cone shapes and eventually achieving the desire shape to fit my design sketch (During this part I used various homemade methods of constructing this template, take for example embedding pins in a mound of blue tack to provide an anchor for a homemade string operated compass all for one 320mm arc!)


The image above shows one of the first templates. After mocking this up, I realised the smoke flaps (extra material at the top of tepee) didn't quite match the shape I designed - now I nearly moved on and said that'll do. But subconsciously I couldn't move on without correcting this error as it wasn't what I really wanted and designed , so more accurate shapes were cut out to fit.

The overall look I feel comes down to mainly shape, size and texture. In order to gain the right look for this scenic element contextual research was needed to be carried out.

This extract (below) from an interesting blog I found on Native American culture explained to me and supported my design choices.

'The Native people made the American Indian tepee out of an armful of small but strong trees all cut to equal lengths. (Supporting structure to be tree branches) They would tie these together with a rope type material that was made from animal sinew and then they would use an animals hide to cover the hand made frame. (My design would hopefully reflect the skin of a lion / lion's habitat) A door was also made out of a piece of the hide and there was also and inner layer of animal hide, so both sides of the frame of the American Indian tepee were covered. When finished the tepee was an A-frame structure and the top would have flaps that could be opened or closed to allow smoke to escape. The base was also made wider so there would be plenty of room for the fire.

Fire was another integral part of the Native American Indians lifestyle, so the creation of the American Indian tepee was perfect since it allowed the Indian people the ability to have their own fires to cook with in their homes. (Fire - additional scenic element to include in design). The other great thing about the tepees was the fact that they were so mobile, and the nomadic tribes could just take them apart very quickly and move them as they followed the buffalo. (My design would be made on trucks - not only for performance purposes but also to reflect the traditions of the Native Americans lifestyle) Other times the American Indians would have to move their homes quickly to avoid the stampeding buffalo, which would occur frequently since they lived in such a close proximity of the buffalo. (Much like the Lion's tepee appearing within the cacti forest when the father and servant approach on horseback). The buffalo hide was the main hide that the American Indian tepee would be made from, and many times the tribal families would decorate the outside of their tepees with their family of tribal symbol. (Additional scenic element - Lion's flag stand)'.

Now I can leap from this extract and go forward in my research into realising my design for the stage.