Feature Props and Art Assistant – 2022

– Under the Water and Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge

Under The Water

Hand bound book prop and Cover Design

  • The Brief: create a custom cover design for a specialized book prop and bind the book with illustrations by Isabella Andronos.
  • The Context: Under the Water is an AFTRS capstone film, that tells a coming of age story in a seaside setting.
Festivals: Flickerfest International Film Festival 2024
Custom cover design and hand book-binding.
cover design - The book sits at an angle, with the spine facing the camera. The spine has the title 'Under the Water' written in gold.
Book sits on table with spine facing camera. The cover design has a white square in the centre, with the title 'Under the Water' with a blue border with a design of interwoven ropes and fishes
Film screenshot, showing a child's bookcase, dimly lit to highlight a big book with a blue spine, titled 'Song in the Water' by R Thompson
Film Screenshot - A girl in dimly lit room handles an ornately bound blue book.
Film Screenshot, shows a girl in a dimly lit room, reading an ornately covered blue book titled 'Song in the Water' by R. Thompson.
Team: Director: Isabella Andronos. Writors: Isabella Andronos, Rebecca Thompson. Producers: Katherine Shearer, Sasha Dyer, Isabella Andronos. Production Designer: Robert Manzini.

For this project, I worked with director Isabella Andronos and production designer Robert Manzini to design and bind a book as a feature prop for their short film.

The binding is a ‘half binding’ with a heavy canvas spine, and boards covered in printed paper. The spine is printed with a gold vinyl heat transfer, and the covers are decorated with imitation gold leaf.

Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge

Puppet, Hand Knitted Beanie and General Assistance on Costumes.

  • The Brief: To create a handmade puppet and beanie to match illustrations by Julie Vivas, and to assist with costumes and props.
  • The Context: Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge, adapted from the book by Mem Fox, is an AFTRS capstone film, directed by Hattie Archibald, with production design by Robert Mazini. It tells the story of a young boy’s quest to help his older friend regain her memories.
Festivals: Flickerfest International Short Film Festival 2024 (and tour), Chicago International Children’s Film Festival 2023
Team: Director: Hattie Archibald; Writer: Jacob Melamed; Producer: Caleb Irwin; Production Designer: Robert Manzini

Production designer Robert Manzini designed the film based on the watercolour illustrations by Julie Vivas in the book by Mem Fox.

I created the puppet directly from the illustration. The proportions are taken from the size of the puppet compared to the female figure in the picture. I then colour matched the stripes to suit.

For the beanie, I used soft lumpy wool in similar soft colours to those in the illustration. The rolls were made using alternating purl and plain horizontal stripes.

I also assisted in sewing and dying other costumes in the film, as well as aging costumes, shoes and props.

See also: