The backcloth for the Rumour Mill Film is secured in place behind the main Rumour Mill set.
John Smedley's Mill sits in the valley like a sweet bird, resplendent in her nest. The autumn colours reflect the season when I first saw the area and the beautiful trees in the valley surrounding the mill.



The backcloth is following the concept by Director, Bexie Bush to echo the one point perspective and  two dimensional detail of the iconic shots from Wes Anderson films.

My approach as an artist is to draw inspiration from British watercolour artists of the post war period. Looking at the British countryside at a time when roads were quiet and harvests were abundant in both field and factory.
I enjoyed inspiration from artists such as John Nash, Eric Ravilious, Samuel Palmer, and S.R. Badmin. These artists were working at a time when Britain was still manufacturing and exporting a wealth of products.

'In 1950, in the aftermath of the Second World War, the UK accounted for more than 10% of global exports, yet by 2009 that share had declined to just under 3%.' (Ernst and Young)

The work of S.R. Badmin and his detailed illustrations of British rural landscapes in the Puffin book series was a particular inspiration to me in the planning and design of the woodland backcloth.

Art development of the Main backcloth for The Rumour Mill Film, 

daytime and night time.

UCLan VR House Research Project

The VR House Project was created as a test to use for Criminal Investigation by the Forensics team at UCLan in collaboration with Dr. Brendan Cassidy of Software Engineering.

I worked with Dr. Cassidy and 4 of my 1st year Games Design students in July/ August 2017 to create a virtual reality house that could be used to demonstrate how VR may be useful in replicating crime scenes for forensic investigation.

Article about the actual Forensics Crime scene house at UCLan: https://www.lep.co.uk/news/education/revealed-behind-the-scenes-at-a-preston-crime-scene-house-1-8618256

Here's a playful test import of some Mixamo characters and animations imported into an untextured kitchen scene which the students and I created:
https://youtu.be/9LaJAPGDOhA

Also playfully testing a prototype framework for an immersive home environment. Created as part of an immersive learning framework at UCLan. The UCLan Immersive Learning Framework (UILF) is a collaboration between Computing and Games Design Prototype developed by: Brendan Cassidy 3D models developed by: Bev Bush, Heather Holden, Marco Carmo, Ben Parkinson, Catarina Martins. The only video I have at the moment is of the old UILF house before it was extended to work as a teaching tool (which Dr. Brendan Cassidy called ForeSTT - Forensic Science Teaching Tool).

That video is here: https://youtu.be/98RXHoMoVuc

Dr. Cassidy plans to record a new video as that was extended significantly and was demoed at a European forensic science conference (eafs2018.eu) A SketchFab collection containing some of the 3D models that we created for the VR house.

Here's a collection of some of the 3D models created by Bev Bush and 1st year Games Design students for the VR House:

https://sketchfab.com/angieb1970/collections/vr-house

Here's a presentation about the project that we made to share with our Games Design Students.

BA(Hons) Games Design Book

http://www.photobox.co.uk/creation/4862212911

Backdrop painting to printed backloth!

The background of trees for the Main Building of the Rumour Mill was sent off to Optimum Signs Printers in Leyland, Preston to be re-created as a 12ft x 8ft acrylic banner to be used as a backcloth.
The banner has eyelets around the rim which must now be secured to a large frame for filming purposes.

The Rumour Mill Film backcloth art

As part of the Rumour Mill Film, Bexie Bush has invited me to produce backcloth art to be used behind the sets during filming to capture the feel of the surrounding environment.

Many of the pieces can be seen in the image link below in a book that records the first year of
pre-production work.

See the pages of the book below.

Night time woodland backdrops.

The Rumour Mill Film required a woodland backdrop by night. The same view of the hilside covered in trees but with a night time palette.
Here are some images taken of the artwork.