Left: Living Room

Right: Bedroom

Once I got to B&q I found that the wallpaper that I originally wanted was too shiny and felt to modern. Luckily I looked around the store and found two new wallpapers which fit the brief which I had created for myself.

I have found at B&Q two wallpapers which I like and think would be suitable for the set. I felt what would work best would be the red floral for the living room and the blue for the bedroom.

Looking into what the fashion was in the 1910's to 1920's is vital for my personal project of creating the walls.

from my research I have found that there were two main types of wallpaper that came around that era: floral and 3D. In the birth of the 1920's 3D wallpaper became very popular (as long as you could afford it).

That is an aspect I need to take into account along as one other. Firstly this family in Czech most probably would not be able to afford wallpaper such as the 3D one. Also the wallpaper would have been put up before 1920 so they most defiantly would not have it. These details I must look into to make sure that the set is accurate.

This means that I have to find a floral wallpaper which I believe would fit the era.

a wallpaper such as this I think would be sutiable. Also I could add an effect with this green slime to help the effect more.

I think that this would be a good base coat for the whole wall.

Now that we have finalised our design I am going to be designing and painting the walls for the rooms. I want to create an obvious difference between the two rooms. The living room I want to have a faded wallpapers. This is to show their wealth, having pastel colours which have faded show that they have had money once but now is starting to struggle. This will also show the time period of war which the piece is set in. The bedroom I am thinking of creating three layers. Firsly a dark, greasy/slime effect. Dark browns and greens which set at the very base of the walls. On that I want to stick roots ontop to give the idea that the room it self is becoming ifected at the same time as him and also becoming part of him. Then wallpaper sililar to the paper in the living room. In the bedroom the paper will look much grubbier and torn. I want to create the idea of Gregor has been climbing and skratching at the walls. i think this will reflect the story and the character.

We have decided to a Living Room which will be slightly overly tidy. With this it will represent how hard the family are trying to make sure they are living normal lives with everything that is happening.

There will then be a set of double doors which lead into Gregor's Bedroom. Around the door frame there will be mold and infection seep through from Gregor's room.

Inside Gregor's room it will a dark gloomy and slimy mess. We wanted to show the disgusting transformation he has recently gone through. The only life left in the room will be that of a new plate of food which is sitting by the doors.

I have recently been looking more into the work of Carol Spier, I have always been a fan of her work and thought I might find some tips from her.
Carol Spier is one of the most famous Art/Production designers in the world and has work with some of the biggest directors.
I have mainly been looking at her mid 90's work, films such as 'The Naked Lunch'. This film, in my oppinion, is one of the best book to film interpretation there is, and this is mainly done through Carol Spiers excellent direction. She creates the atmosphere perfectly, the constantly eerie but nothing wrong. Also because the film is suttle you never realise quite how 'in your face' it really is. The contant use of green washes and slightly distressed areas within sets create the constatn unknown.

This Silent Hill image also holds the damp and dry atmosphere which I want for both rooms but mainly of the living room. I want to find a way to create an eerie atmosphere, where you can sense some thing is wrong instead of very in your face which the bedroom will be.

This image is also taken from the film Silent Hill. I have chosen to use it because I like the contrast which is has on the other image which is below. Firstly I really would like to use colours such as there. The off greens adn mustard yellows work well to together to create the sickly atmosphere which I am hoping to create. Also it would create a nice contrast between the wet slimey undneath the to this very dry and dusty top layer. I believe it would help to emphasise that this is a new growth which is happening to the room.

This is taken from the 2006 flm adaptation of Silent Hill. I have taken this image as an inspiration for the bedroom walls which I need to create. I think that the red grime which looks like a growing organism on the walls could be done on the bedroom walls. I have thougth that i will do the walls in layers and something such as that could work well. One idea we want to create, is that the building is is part of the change which Gregor is experiencing. That the house is also deleveloping and changing.
If I could find a way to create the idea of an extreme mold which is growing underneath the wallpaper and walls, I think this could be done. I also would like to try to create that wet, slimey which this set holds. This aspect, if achieved well, would help to create the smell which the room wont actually hold.

In a book I found which is about Kafka's memoires I found a few drawings which he did based on Metamorphasis. They show how gothic and symbolic the piece is for me.

In this image i like the idea of old rotten food littering Gregor's room. May be around the bedroom set I could put old food which has only been nibble at. This could show how the family still feed him and also how now, because of his change, he only eats what he wants.

This is a great image for Adam to look at to help him with making the chair for Gregor's room. I love how grotty Kafka has draw this old chair from it you can really tell how mucky Gregor's room has become.

These two designs are our first ideas come together. I design the bedroom in this shape because i felt that it would create the sense of claustraphobia and warped atmosphere. The living room is design to have more shape to give it a stronger homley feeling.

First Main Design Bedroom

First Main Design

These image I have collected from a play which is meant to be set in Czech. I feel that these images sum up the style and look that we want for the rooms. these faded colours, the clutter of collected pieces. I like the build of layers which these sets hold.

this image i love! Silent Hill I think will come up a lot when I'm thinking about the design aspect for the rooms.

This image I think would be great as a reference for the bedroom. The sickly green tints and and the underneath brown colour I think really sums up the mood of the piece. These colours could have a bright at one point but with age and lack of care they slow become darker and grittier.

I also love the roots which are spreading out from one area. This could work well around the double doors which lead to Gregors bedroom. The idea of the insect infection seeping through into the rest of the house really gives the sense of a gowing force from within the room.

Silent Hill, I believe, will become a big inspiration for this project. The Silent Hill franchise has always had a big impact on me and has helped me with many project which I have done in the past.

The story of Silent Hill is far to big to tell for this one project, but the setting is the main inspiration for me with the set. Silent Hill is set up within 'two worlds', reality and non reality. In reality the world looks extremley tired, damp and run down. The image (above) will help me with the living room of our set. It is very subtle is its 'dark' atmosphere. I would like to take into account the colours which are used to create the damp atmosphere with this room holds. For the living room I beleive that I wont need to darken the room quite as serverely because I think that this room is to dark and wouln't suit the family atmosphere which I still need to create in the living room.

'Haxan' is most probably the darkest film which came from the era. The director Benjamin Christensen also got into a lot of trouble for the film for being extremley blasphemous. The scene with the witches which can be scene to the right is a great set piece. The bed which can be seen would work well with our bedroom. I like the idea for the bed being all torn and looks rugged. I think this would help to emphasise the idea of how unsleepable the room has now become.

For the final photograph which we need to take, I would like to take into account the shadows which can create. This image also from Nosferatu (like the film) shadows are very important. So during our final shoot we should think how we can light the set to make sure we get emphasised shadows.

Nosferatu is another one one of the great German expressionist films. I chose the film as an example for its extremely dry and dusty visuals. In this image you can see this and I would like to add this aspect to our own set. I want to push the bedroom as far as I can before it turns to 'stereotypical' old school horror.

These two images, also from Dr.Caligari, also represent the awkward and eerie atmosphere that the film holds. These are much more extreme examples, I don't want to make our set into a surreal piece but I think it helps to see the more extreme examples as guidance. The set which we design has to hold atmosphere, because that is were true horror lies for me. Entering into a room where you know something is not right.

When thinking about and designing our set one of the main aspects of history that I believe we should take into account is German Expressionism.

German Expressionism, in a manner of speaking, was the birth of the horror film. The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari 1920 was one of the first, and most probably had an effect on Kafka himself. These films of this era were the ones which gave a huge headstone for the horror films of the near future. For example, the image above is now known as an horror set the warped walls, dust and grit and the overall awkward atmosphere.

I think for the sets we are going to design, especially Gregor's room, should hold these great aspect of horror films such as this. I think that we could have warped walls such as these to help emphasize the idea of claustrophobia in the room.