Domiciles Gameshow Concept Bid Miniature Set Model


The immigration home office scene and location was described as miserable, distressing, depressing, dirty, not looked after, this damaged, worn, lacking warmth and humanity, ideally with dim sickly green lighting and a long corridoor.


As production designer it was my job to try and find good locations.


  • The description had me at first seeking
  • Derelict offices
  • Cold tiles basements such as a morgue or old swimming pool
  • Industrial basements
  • Prison


What I was ideally seeking was somewhere like the Hawkins Lab scenes from the TV show Stranger Things.

A secret government illegal lab where children with telekinetic powers were imprisoned devoid of any warmth love or fun
 
The tiled look had me thinking of morgues, what I guessed swimming pool basements may look like, an empty supermarket ware house with all the pipe work showing.


Below is a photo montaged concept art  for what we were looking for. A long green tinged, sterile corridoors with a reception, a set of double doors and some meeting rooms.

 



I searched on line with very little luck. I visited a variety of places, contacted owners to ask if we could get permission and what would the cost be including:


  • Community Centres
  • Old office buildings
  • An old abandoned car show room
  • Library offices
  • Old nightclubs in old building or railway arches


Either these locations did not fit the brief:



  • Too well-lit and nice
  • Not enough available camera angles
  • Too well used like community centres, meaning we could not get the time we needed for filming and likely noise from others using them next door messing with our filming. 
  • Too far away from the college
  • Too plain such as art galleries
  • No permission, but the primary problem is we had next to no money and costs to hire started around £1000
  • Class mates also just wanted to use a class room so did not have to travel and free even though nothing like the brief.
     

There was a location I found in the college which was a long conservatory next to the school canteen. But this was deemed to be too costly and time consuming to convert to what was wanted and to cover up all the windows effectively.
 
I did find another part of the college that was idea, all broken and damaged but we were forbidden as it had been condemned end for asbestos risk


I spent over a month searching but then had to submit to the pressure of running out of time, not being allotted any budget and class mates not wanting to travel to use a college classroom which I did not want to use at all.


I searched on line with very little luck. I visited a variety of places, contacted owners to ask if we could get permission and what would the cost be including:


  • Community Centres
  • Old office buildings
  • An old abandoned car show room
  • Library offices
  • Old nightclubs in old building or railway arches


Either these locations did not fit the brief:


  • Too well-lit and nice
  • Not enough available camera angles
  • Too well used like community centres, meaning we could not get the time we needed for filming and likely noise from others using them next door messing with our filming. 
  • Too far away from the college
  • Too plain such as art galleries
  • No permission, but the primary problem is we had next to no money and costs to hire started around £1000
  • Class mates also just wanted to use a class room so did not have to travel and free even though nothing like the brief.
     


 
I did find another part of the college that was idea, all broken and damaged but we were forbidden as it had been condemned end for asbestos risk


I spent over a month searching but then had to submit to the pressure of running out of time, not being allotted any budget and class mates not wanting to travel to use a college classroom which I did not want to use at all.


There was a location I found in the college which was a long conservatory next to the school canteen. But this was deemed to be too costly and time consuming to convert to what was wanted and to cover up all the windows effectively.

 I did find another part of the college that was idea, all broken and damaged but we were forbidden as it had been condemned end for asbestos risk


I spent over a month searching but then had to submit to the pressure of running out of time, not being allotted any budget and class mates not wanting to travel to use a college classroom which I did not want to use at all.