Iraqi Town

[Gyro]

K, as some of you may know PMW is under way and what would be sweet is an Iraqi town. I've got plenty of desert with some random concrete walls and freeway overpasses/bridges, but does anybody have any idea for a set built Iraqi town, that's not to horrendously expensive. I'm open for any suggestions.

[SgtPadrino]

I dunno - you could try building some basic square buildings with plywood, then going to work on them with paint and stuff to try and make them look like stone. Otherwise I don't really know how you could pull that off.

[U.S.Amateurfilmaker]

Are we talking downtown Baghdad here or just a small tribal village? If it's the 2nd one you could try biuilding a rough square shell with plywood and then smear mud on the outside. When it dries it should look something like the concrete substance many poorer Iraqis use to make their houses.

[UFProductions]

Make it out of mud, it's as free as you can get. Make a ladder form out of wood, lay it on the ground, fill the squares with mud, and let the sun do it's thing. After a day, pop out the mud bricks, and start another batch. Stack them using more mud as mortar, then when it's dry cover the whole thing with another layer of mud, like spackle. Work intensive, but absolutly no cost and completly authentic. Then blow it up!

PS. Mix straw in with the mud when you make the bricks, they're much stronger that way.

[OutcastJiob]

This may sound bizarre, but I just thought it up. . .

You've got desert, so presumably it isn't going to rain on your sets? If this is the case--build some exteriors with cardboard. And yes, I'm serious. Here's what I'm thinking: you stack boxes up a couple boxes deep, filling them with dirt (or sand, whatever), as you go. Then, once you've got the basic shape built up a decent height, say nine or ten feet, you place a roof on top (not sure of what to use, cardboard may be too flimsy. . .although I guess you could use duct tape on the underside--facing down into the structure side--of the roof and have the roof be a few boxes thick, but I wouldn't fill those boxes with dirt). Then you with U.S.Amateurfilmmaker's idea and spread mud over the exterior.

Pros: free, except for the duct tape (you can pick up cardboard boxes for free many places). Depending on how far you want to go with this, you can create interiors, too. It won't blow away due to the dirt being inside the boxes.

Cons: if it rains, you're screwed. Also, that's a LOT of digging to fill the boxes up.

There, just thought that up in 5 minutes, hopefully it'll be of at least some help!

EDIT: Just saw UFP's post. He's got it, that's the single best way to do it. And definitely the most authentic! I never considered actually building it the way the Iraqis do >_>

[UFProductions]

Rain still screws you over with my idea though, the mud will melt away in a snap. Oh, and I forgot to mention the roof. I would use corrugated steel, like you see on chicken coops and stuff, that'd afford some security from the rain.

[OutcastJiob]

Corrugated steel is a good idea, but it might get to be a bit on the expensive side if you're roofing an entire town. I'd use a combination of corrugated steel, the cheapest tar paper you can find, unwanted scrap lumber, and heck, even plastic sheeting. The cardboard roof I mentioned in my first post here might be useful, too, as would some mud bricks on wooden supports.

And just by the way, Gyro, you've now officially inspired me to go dig through some of my old brainstorm notebooks and write a modern war script!

[spoonstudiosintl]

Rain will not be an issue in the west desert. Frankly, we could make a set that no one will ever even notice. Frankly, I like the idea of smearing wood with mud. What would be a nice touch would to get Chris to take a shotgun to 'em, to give that nice downtown Fallujah feel. I like your idea UFP, but good Lord, that's a lot of work. Constructing an Iraqi town out of individual bricks is a daunting task.

[UFProductions]

If you made a lot of moulds you could just go out in the morning, fill em', let them sit all day, then empty the moulds and re-fill the next morning. After a week you'd have enough to build a town, but yes thats a hell of a lot of work. What might be better is using the plywood for most of the buildings, then make a few featured houses the fancy way, for detailed/interior shots.

[Gyro]

I plan on doing some location scouting this weekend. The place I have in mind is probably about 45 minutes from where I live, it's a mass desert and what I'm looking for in specifics is some sort of old highway overpasses. Some canal drains that are all concrete and dried out. If I found something like this that I was allowed access to film on I could withspan upon that. I do like the various ideas and I may try a few of the easier ones for possible far background stuff but maybe instead of spreading mud over the exterior of 'em I could paint them a deep gray with some mud to add realism, this might reduce the risk of ruin by rain. Maybe even get some big murals of Saddam to put on some of the walls. And yes, Chris will have to shoot it all up. Thanks for the replies though.

[I3lade203]

Spoon, from the minuite gyro got the idea of making an iraqi town, he should have known it was going to be a hell of a lot of work. Make a plan first, building blindly will screw you up really badly, unless you have the location mapped out on paper, with where your going to build what, and how.

[Gyro]

Well yeah! I didn't plan on throwing together an Iraqi Town in an afternoon. I'm sure if anything is considered highly or large I'm sure that appropriate preperations will be taken.

[foxwood]

The best idea might be to use the wood idea and make a few "hero" houses, (they use that term for swords so why not buildings) that will stand up to closeups, and are stong, with intereres, etc, and then use the cardboard idea and make a bunch of houses that we are not going to get a close up view of so that the town looks full. Also run close lines and such across buildings, and put down broken market place things, have paper all around, it is the little things that will sell the town, loot at a ton of file photos and lift the detales out. If this town comes out looking really good then it will really sell your flick.

[Gyro]

I was unable to make it out to Tooele for some location pictures this weekend so hopefully next week I'll make it out.

[JMBOWZER5]

Hey I just got a couple of good ideas for this. U could make a lot of those canopy tents that u see in all the terrorist camps. They are just poles with alot of that mesh camoflauge on top. Under them u could have tables and chairs with junk all over them. Park one or two jeeps out in front. Take some trash cans and stack them to look like gas tanks. Mix in the mud hut ideas to add some variety. For the tents, u could wrap some mesh around them to make them have a door. If u wanted to u could dig a hole in the ground and add some steps. Then show the actors going down the steps, and cut too someones unfinished basement decorated with terrorist stuff. It would be a good way to expand the set. If u show them coming down the stairs, get some big lights to show how bright it is outside. Also, too add to the outdoor set, make a bunch of sandbags and stack them to make a bunker. Lay a big gun on top. Put a couple bunkers around the set and you have a terrorist camp. Ya I read your post again and i realized u want more of a town, not a camp. But still, i think this is a realy good idea. It could realy work.

[tallman_house_pictures]

Cool....

[crb]

You could do the cardboard thing that was suggested, but I would use joint compound (drywall mud) and what drywallers called spead set (setting compound drywall mud). After you have stacked the boxes, then use a large drywall knife and spread the drywall mud and spead set across the surface. The drywall mud will dry white color and the speed set will dry mud color. Keep in mind the speed set dries like a rock within 15-20 minutes.
I used the speed set idea in my movie for a tunnel wall in my house. I removed a door. Grabbed two large peices of cardboard and stappled them to the door frame go out the direction of the tunnel. then spread the spead set across the cardboard and from the camera it looked like concrete/mud.

[Epsilon]

We're trying to get Blue Cloud Studios for our film...

www.veluzat.com

...muahahaha

[OutcastJiob]

H-O-L-Y C-R-A-P. That place is amazing!

I'd imagine it's extremely expensive.

Gyro, where're the location pictures?!

[I3lade203]

Woah epsilon! Lucky you.. How much a day or week or whatever?

[Epsilon]

Hey, we're trying very hard to convince the owner (lucky us a reenactor knows him) to let us use it a day or two or three for free. So we'll see...

[Houdini713]

i'm working on a valley with like a dirt road running through it and i spent like $10 on it altogether and it looks pretty decent so far...you can do so much with a little bit of money...

[Houdini713]

the valley thing was a miniture BTW lol....thats what i suggest is to make a mini and detail it really well, then use JMBOWZER5's idea about the tent thing...i think it would look pretty good

[Epsilon]

Nifty, can we some pictures of it?