Is a Model Railroad a Theatre production
I recently went to another live theatre production, performances in three dimensions instead of on screens. As seems to be the trend these days there wasn’t a curtain concealing the set, all was visible, just awaiting the actors to bring it to life.
However it was interesting as to how much insight the director was giving the audience even before the play began. In this case the social context, historical era and the country in which the story was set.
I once worked as a volunteer at a theatre helping with set design and construction, so as I sat waiting for the start of the play I had a good idea of what a cunning illusion the set really was. What we were looking at was basically styrene and dabs of paint interspersed with a few real objects, and yet when the actors take their places we accept it as reality. When the play begins our focus is on the actors and the set becomes, as it should, simply the background.
The principles of theatre and movie set design readily transpose into the principles of building model railroads.
I believe that while model railroads draw on various art forms, as a independent art form they are closer to theatre in concept than any of the others.
I’m being a little self-indulgent with this article because I enjoy building scenery, including painting backdrops and tying everything together to create a believable piece of theatre, where the scenery is the set and the trains the actors; although some of the actors can at times be real pains in the derriere.
There are lessons to be learnt from set design:
Blocking. It simply means choreographing when and what the audience sees by the placement of props and actors; in model railroad terms it means placing scenery elements purposefully rather than randomly.
Perspective Set designers are masters of forced perspective and the techniques they use work extremely well with scenery. I’ve read about using models from a smaller scale to force perspective, but it wasn’t until I made a mistake and ordered some N scale autos. instead of HO ones that I tried it. I have a road that disappears into the background and does have some forced perspective because the road has been made narrower to change its perspective. Put two N scale cars on the narrow end and the effect is quite startling.
Lighting As with stage lighting we light our layouts to create the effects we want, soft or harsh, cool or warm. We can also move the lighting from daylight to night. You can now buy a lightning and thunder generator to add yet another dimension.
After visiting numerous layouts it seems to me that they fall into one of three scenic categories, all of which are quite valid, I’m not making value judgments or proposing how things should be done:
Occasionally you visit a layout that like the theatre set instantly places you in recognisable environment, from deserts, mountains, pastures and forests, it is simply a theatre set. Even the time of year can be identified, autumn colours, snow, crops and animals. The created environment tends to anticipate the trains that will travel through it.
The architecture may also be an indication, Australian corrugated iron or English thatched cottages tend to quickly locate the layout and the interests of its creator.
Establishing an era is an interesting exercise. Of course the trains can set the era quite specifically and architecture does to a certain extent, but it is really the props such as vehicles, signage, styles of street lights, power poles, farm equipment, road surfaces, bridge design, stations, loco. depots that flesh out the illusion, it really is a lengthy list when you think about it. Interestingly most of this is evident before the trains even begin moving! If it’s done well the trains and the scenery simply make sense.
For a long time our layouts were like silent movies or actors that couldn’t speak. The first time I heard a sound equipped loco. I realised that our actors finally had a voice and the illusion could be complete. Of course there are also all of those wonderful sound effects that can be added, seagulls around your waterfront scene or cows in the stock cars.
When the trains are running all layouts are theatre performances; the production created is solely dependant on the objectives, resources and vision of the director. We create the sets while also controlling the lighting, sound, and the actors; we should all have a chair with DIRECTOR on the back.
I recently went to another live theatre production, performances in three dimensions instead of on screens. As seems to be the trend these days there wasn’t a curtain concealing the set, all was visible, just awaiting the actors to bring it to life.
However it was interesting as to how much insight the director was giving the audience even before the play began. In this case the social context, historical era and the country in which the story was set.
I once worked as a volunteer at a theatre helping with set design and construction, so as I sat waiting for the start of the play I had a good idea of what a cunning illusion the set really was. What we were looking at was basically styrene and dabs of paint interspersed with a few real objects, and yet when the actors take their places we accept it as reality. When the play begins our focus is on the actors and the set becomes, as it should, simply the background.
The principles of theatre and movie set design readily transpose into the principles of building model railroads.
I believe that while model railroads draw on various art forms, as a independent art form they are closer to theatre in concept than any of the others.
I’m being a little self-indulgent with this article because I enjoy building scenery, including painting backdrops and tying everything together to create a believable piece of theatre, where the scenery is the set and the trains the actors; although some of the actors can at times be real pains in the derriere.
There are lessons to be learnt from set design:
Blocking. It simply means choreographing when and what the audience sees by the placement of props and actors; in model railroad terms it means placing scenery elements purposefully rather than randomly.
Perspective Set designers are masters of forced perspective and the techniques they use work extremely well with scenery. I’ve read about using models from a smaller scale to force perspective, but it wasn’t until I made a mistake and ordered some N scale autos. instead of HO ones that I tried it. I have a road that disappears into the background and does have some forced perspective because the road has been made narrower to change its perspective. Put two N scale cars on the narrow end and the effect is quite startling.
Lighting As with stage lighting we light our layouts to create the effects we want, soft or harsh, cool or warm. We can also move the lighting from daylight to night. You can now buy a lightning and thunder generator to add yet another dimension.
After visiting numerous layouts it seems to me that they fall into one of three scenic categories, all of which are quite valid, I’m not making value judgments or proposing how things should be done:
- Little or no scenery, perhaps simply a station or a loco. shed
- Scenery used to fill in the spaces between the tracks and where open grid construction was used to stop the trains hitting the floor in case of derailment.
- Scenery including backdrops installed.
Occasionally you visit a layout that like the theatre set instantly places you in recognisable environment, from deserts, mountains, pastures and forests, it is simply a theatre set. Even the time of year can be identified, autumn colours, snow, crops and animals. The created environment tends to anticipate the trains that will travel through it.
The architecture may also be an indication, Australian corrugated iron or English thatched cottages tend to quickly locate the layout and the interests of its creator.
Establishing an era is an interesting exercise. Of course the trains can set the era quite specifically and architecture does to a certain extent, but it is really the props such as vehicles, signage, styles of street lights, power poles, farm equipment, road surfaces, bridge design, stations, loco. depots that flesh out the illusion, it really is a lengthy list when you think about it. Interestingly most of this is evident before the trains even begin moving! If it’s done well the trains and the scenery simply make sense.
For a long time our layouts were like silent movies or actors that couldn’t speak. The first time I heard a sound equipped loco. I realised that our actors finally had a voice and the illusion could be complete. Of course there are also all of those wonderful sound effects that can be added, seagulls around your waterfront scene or cows in the stock cars.
When the trains are running all layouts are theatre performances; the production created is solely dependant on the objectives, resources and vision of the director. We create the sets while also controlling the lighting, sound, and the actors; we should all have a chair with DIRECTOR on the back.
