Tag Archives: dystopian future

Behind the Scenes with “The Secret Keeper”!

Posted on by Collette Knowles
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Who are these peculiar people in their fetching Steampunk/Cyberpunk coats? It is Collette Knowles and Tim Austin of Rough Magic Theatre on a family outing to the YSP (Yorkshire Sculpture Park) in the torrential rain! The Sculpture Park is on the site of the former Arts University (Bretton Hall) where they met for the first time 19 years ago!

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Thanks so much for contributing to our work! 😃👍

Thanks so much for contributing to our work! 😃👍

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  • Working on a bomber style jacket for the King of Junk Town’s Party Clothes
  • Finished Look with crown over the top of the Bowler Hat
  • Front facing view

Here is some of the work on the character of the King of “Junk Town”. In the first episode he is attending a party so the first look I needed to create for him was not his normal wear but his party clothes (what he would wear to show off his wealth and importance to the City Folk).

I have been watching a lot of videos on YouTube showing people how to make their own top hats out of foam to look like they are made out of riveted metal so we fancied the idea of a metal top hat. This turned into a crown with bits of iron railings bolted onto it.

We also figured it would be cold in Junk Town so his clothing would feature lots of fur perhaps so for a party look we settled on the idea of a sheepskin bomber jacket.

He also has a pair of delicate sunglasses which would be very valuable at this time and a status symbol because there would be so few undamaged pairs of glasses left.

If you too would like to get into a steampunk mood while reading this marvellous blog why not check out this video on how to make a steampunk top hat out of foam from “Lost Wax”:

Some Sneaky Peeks of Work in progress on “The Secret Keeper” and a Thank-you to Beverley Puppet Festival from Puppet Dracula.

Posted on by Collette Knowles
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Here are some of the initial designs for characters on our new show “The Secret Keeper”.  This is our main character, (the “Secret Keeper” from the title).  He has a library of crime related books which make him an ideal person to act as detective for our murder mystery series.

You will note that he is wearing mismatched glasses frames (one square, one round).  This is because they do not have the resources/skills to create new pairs of glasses; so they cobble together what lenses they can find from different sets of glasses (whatever they can find that is mostly okay for their eyes).

We wanted him to have a gun/guns for a weapon.  The future in our story is a dangerous place where people have to protect their resources from others, (who might try to take them) so being heavily armed is the norm.

We are assuming that as a lot of skills and resources have been lost there would not be much in the way of futuristic “new made” weaponry.  They are largely re-purposing things that they find.  So we came up with the idea of a nail gun using a pressurised gas canister as a weapon.  Electric battery operated ones would not be a reliable option.

Our main character’s daughter is his bodyguard so we came up with a very heavily armoured/armed look for her.  She is designed to look intimidating to others so that (in many cases) a physical confrontation can be avoided.

She has a broadsword and a crossbow which presumably have been reclaimed from an old country house or a museum collection.  Bones of cows would be an abundant resource to make things out of so we decided to stick a cow skull on her shoulder for added intimidation factor.

She has another hidden side which is quite fond of delicate girly things and pink (the toy unicorn on her helmet is not quite so hidden).  We decided on a double french plait and lots of butterfly clips when she removes her helmet to reflect this.

We will be starting to post subscriber only content on this blog soon, where you will get to see more “behind the scenes” content like this.  This will include pictures, commentary and some videos too.

Meanwhile for those who haven’t seen it already here is my “Puppet Dracula” sending a big thank-you to the Beverley Puppet Festival for the prizes I won for making him.  CLICK HERE to see the “making of” post for him and CLICK HERE for the original Puppet Dracula video.