The Avocado 70s

As I’ve mentioned before, one of the sets for my film is a 70s kitchen.  I grew up in the 70s, and have fond memories of those colourful appliances, the wall phones, and oddly combined colours.  Avocado, orange, “gold,” deep brown, and turquoise were popular choices for interior decoration.

I try to go with a sense of realism for my sets.  This means doing some research:  finding references, carefully measuring things and following a formula for miniaturizing them, as well as researching and choosing the colour palettes.   For the kitchen I went with a very typical avocado fridge and stove set, along with orange cabinets and “gold” formica countertops.  The little cannisters on the countertops are covered with a fake wood grain, as they would have been at full scale.

Luckily I happened to have a couple of Eaton’s catalogues from the 70s to rely on for research.  These catalogues not only provided colour and style reference, but they had specific measurements for everything they sold.  Super handy!

They were also fun to browse through.  Here’s a sample:

I had a lot of help building the props for the set.  One of the wonderful prop modelling helpers is an OCAD stopmo animation student, Miriam, who is in her last year of university, and about 13 years younger than I. When I asked her if she could make a 70s avocado wall phone, she had absolutely no idea what I was talking about.  Oh well, sometimes you just have to laugh about such things!

Here is a tiny glimpse of the set, with the avocado stove peeking out in the corner:

3 thoughts on “The Avocado 70s

  1. Shelley Noble

    Oh my goodness, that looks incredible.

    Wondering… do you only give peeks at your project development because you prefer not to reveal the visuals until the audience sees the final film? Or perhaps is it that you intend to show the final film at festivals that require more secretiveness/discretion?

    Reply
  2. stephanie dudley

    Thanks Shelley!
    I only give peeks because I don’t want to give too much away. I don’t have any official obligations to festivals or anything, and I actually haven’t done too much research into their requirements… but I guess it’s just a preference for when I see films, I’d rather not know too much about them in advance.
    I’m also new at the whole blogging thing, so it might be something I loosen up about as I go 🙂 I just started the blog last week, and one of the biggest questions in my mind for what kind of content to post was — how much do I show? When do I start giving too much away? So far I’ve been pretty conservative, as you can see!
    What’s your thinking on this for your own blog?

    Reply
  3. Shelley Noble

    oh! I completely understand! I wouldn’t wish to try to sway you one way or the other. I was only curious, which you were very kind to even indulge me in answering.

    When I first started blogging about 2.5 years ago I was so afraid of being hurt by crazies in general public I wouldn’t even use my real name! I called myself “herself” and my husband “himself”. I still wouldn’t publish my actual physical address but I’ve come to find blogging to be a supreme tool of support.

    I find that there are indeed crazies in the general public online to be sure but the circles that I run in are only filled with caring, smart, stop motion lovers who have become some of the best true friends I have ever known.

    In terms of revealing details of the project, I took the approach of showing everything as it happens, the good, the bad the mistakes, the development, the change as things develop further, all of it, right on the blog for all to see and judge as they will.

    I do that because I use the blog as a personal project journal rather than a carefully crafted part of my professional portfolio. I have the freedom to do that because I am not a professional and have no aspirations to be hired. So, the uglies can be on display without any impact on my income/reputation.

    Your works are so intriguing and wonderfully crafted, that I’m sure others as well as myself hang on every peek! Show us little slivers, as small as you like, it’s all completely fantastic!

    Reply

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