Sisu Production Journal: Preproduction 6: Carpenter?

We are seriously in need of some talented woodworking on this film. There are four main props that we really need to have built, and here are my ideas about them. I am NOT a carpenter but have done lots of set building and prop construction for both stage and film, so I do have a bit of an idea of what these props would entail. If you're a carpenter, welcome to the blog and we hope you find something here you'd like to build! And forgive any stupid ideas I might have about how to go about building these set pieces!

We needed a coffin, but we found a free one that just needs a little paint at the Globe Theatre and they're going to let us use that so we're down to just three things that need building!

The first prop we need should be really fun to build. It's actually two props that are supposed to be the same one: an unfinished, handcrafted ship's wheel, with all the joinery and pencil marks still visible, and a section of the same wheel, as if the wheel had been chopped up with an axe. These should be two separate props. The wheel should show a level of craftsmanship and love as it has a special significance in the film. Here is a painting I did of what I think it should look like. In case you can't tell from the painting, it should look definitely handmade rather than machined.

Again, I am not a carpenter, but I did come up with a sort of blueprint for this prop:

And I also thought about how I'd try to attempt this if I were to make it. If you're a carpenter you might have a better idea, but here goes:

The second prop we need is a section of the deck of the ship. Tom tore his barn and house down for a lot of the wood he used on the Sontiainen, so weathered, recycled planks are perfect for this. It needs to be strong enough to be raised on some crates or apple boxes or something, as we do need to put our actor on top of it.

The biggest and probably most complicated prop we need is a skeleton of the ship that Tom is building. The actual boat is almost 45 feet long, but I have a feeling that we could fake this length by building the skeleton in forced perspective and making it about 20 feet long. I hope this drawing makes sense (below):

I think if we took this thing we could use it both for medium shots where Tom is between the ribs of the boat near the front end where the ribs are correctly spaced, as well as place it on the prairie on an angle and shoot it from below to make it seem really quite big like in the drawing below (imagine the little rectangle in front is Tom):

Now for wood. Brenda Boan, who is quickly becoming a great friend of the Sisu production, took us out to see this old chicken coop on her grandfather's land, just a few miles from the Sukanen museum, and said that we could take some of the wood. It's already weathered and yet still quite sturdy in many places, is built of both 2x4s and wall planking, and is just perfect for our two larger set pieces! Check it out:

Of course we don't want to disturb the barn swallows, but I think we can work around them.

Some parts are more intact and others are already falling down. We'd need a carpenter with a good eye to pick the best lumber. And ideally a carpenter with a truck!

Also, I came across the perfect door for a scene D and I were just talking about. Because there wasn't plywood in the early 1900's, we needed something like it for Tom to post his threshing machine plans on. This would be perfect! My picture was a little blurry so I darkened the background a little so you can see it:

The dogs of course loved our trip. Moxie loves to bite the air at 120 km/h.

But then we hit the biggest thunderstorm we've seen yet on the prairies (we even think we saw a small tornado forming for awhile) just in time to head back to Regina! Ah, the prairies.