Buildings

I know most people here would use some form of CGI for this... but I was planning on making model buildings for a skyline flyby scene for my film (think of scenes from Blade Runner). I'm trying to figure out how big I should make these things... 3 to 5 feet tall?

 

Well, you can...
Some buildings can be found in the rail-road department of your local hobby store.
The main thing isn't size so much as consistency and detail that looks good on-camera.

Good Luck.

 

Sounds about right. You need to be able to get your camera to move through these buildings enough to shoot what you need, so I'd recommend maybe 3-4 in scale. Hopefully you can cram a lot of detail into your buildings. Don't forget that you also may need the buildings to be removable so think wisely in building the structures, in order not make moving buildings a hassle.

 

Well, that's the thing, the bigger they are... the more detail I can put in them... maybe I should first find out how big of a floor space I would be working with.

 

[image=http://www.brmovie.com/Images/Locations/brsm_building_models.jpg]

Same amount of detail... but maybe a third of the size. For the lesser detailed buildings, those in the background and might be out of focus anyway, I was just going to drill holes for windows and place holiday lights behind them.

 

good to see someone actually making props ad stuff instead of opting for CGI

 

I've been working on one about 3 feet high.

There was a film called Escape with models, and his main building was an upside down planter, looked pretty good, and it's only a foot or so.

 

good to see someone actually making props ad stuff instead of opting for CGI

I go with what I know I can do. Besides, I want something I cut a panel from and hang on my 'I love me' wall to go along with my first storm trooper helmet, my nation defense medal, and the first spelling test I got an B+ on.

 

For my the Mars colony buildings I used a size of about 1:65 or so... But I also used larger scales, depending on the distance between the camera lense and the object (not the miniature distance, but the distance that is intended to be pretended). So, I used miniatures of scales such as: 1:72 1:32 (for trees) 1:65 (or so) and even larger, like about 1:8 or so...

 

Foam-core, cardboard, styrene, hot-glue and dremel are all going to be your best friends!

It doesn't have to be perfect, it has to look good on camera.
Too fine a detail, and it won't show up at all.

Good luck.