Sergio Leone Movie Set Diorama

[JohnReid]

Hi! I am new here.I make museum quality storyboard dioramas in large scale.My  next piece of work will be a tribute to Sergio in static model form.A diorama of a movie set from "Once Upon A Time In The West." Hope you guys like it.Cheers! John.

[cigar joe]

lets see some images when you get a chance

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

This is a mock-up of the scene that I am planning to do.In this case I am using a model train as a stand in for the larger diorama yet to be built.The scene itself is the opening scene from the film.Right now I am in the early research stages trying to come up with the right composition.I have the special collector's edition of the film and study it frame by frame. Cheers! John.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

This could be considered my layout for the diorama that I am working on right now.It is made up of five different modules.
2 backyard modules screwed together,surrounded by a building facade module and two lane way modules and attached the same way.The whole thing can be taken apart in minutes.With a little planning the joints can run along fence lines etc.. and never show.

[JohnReid]

 Hi guys! I am new here but have been doing dioramas for a long time.This will be my first RR diorama and will be dedicated to the film and its director Sergio Leone.

This diorama will be for me! Long before other models came into my life their was my American Flyer train ,that I played with for years just on the floor, more than 60 years ago now.
Sergio gave an interview once and told of how his interest in the old west was developed in his childhood probably about 10 years before mine.Like he did I went to the movies and sucked in all that old west mythology,then came home and played out the scenes with my buds or my model train.
As I reach my 70's it seems that I want to re-connect with my long gone childhood and play with my trains again.

[JohnReid]

 .You know it is funny how these creative seeds are planted in your brain.When I walked out of the movie theater 40 years ago after seeing this movie for the first time,I knew something had changed,that I had experienced something that really hit home.I couldn't quite figure it out at the time but I new that I had just witnessed a great piece of Art.I have seen the movie many times since but it was only when I got into storyboard dioramas that I really began to appreciate it .The genre I had always loved since I was a kid, "The Old West", but this film was different from anything I had seen before.
I bought the special collector's edition DVD of the film and began to really study it this time.
This edition not only has the movie itself but you can program it for a running commentary on every scene by knowledgeable film people.
There is also 3 documentaries included.
Maybe its because I am an old fart now but for me this is a wonderful tool that I would of never dreamed of years ago.A university course on film making in a box. "WOW"
When studying this film I sometimes just run it with sound,sometimes without sound and sometimes just the sound alone.I freeze frame compositions that I like and note lighting ,composition etc...I take pics with my digital camera right from my computer screen for research purposes.Never before have artists had all these wonderful tools at hand whenever they need them.It kinda blows me away!Home based artists have never had it so good!Now we too can learn from the masters in an exciting new way.

[cigar joe]

Yea I felt the same way after seeing For a Few Dollars More, that was my first intro to Leone, I knew that I had seen something quite different and more magical from the Westerns I had grown up on from Film & TV.

[JohnReid]

Well I have changed my plans again,I will build a sound stage.This will give me the freedom to really do what I want.
The story is that for one reason or another a sound stage had to be built. this may or may not have have happened but....in my world it did.Maybe Sergio wasn't happy with a scene involving the locomotive and the station.Rather than go back and re-shoot it it would be much simpler to create a sound stage with a fake train and station.He was a perfectionist so this may have happened in this or another movie of his but it does show the lengths that he would go to to make it right.It makes a statement about his personality which I happen to share.
This will be a story of artistic license in the extreme and how movies are really made.
I plan to cut down the scale of the diorama to just the locomotive and the half passenger car /shack.I think that this is quite enough to tell the story but with the option of adding more modules later on,although this may not be at all necessary.
My locomotive will be a complete fake actually probably only half a locomotive made from wood and tin of whatever.Basically all I need from the kit is the shape and something to weather.
This is definitely a work in progress !

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

[marmota-b]

Good luck in your work! I hope it will turn out to your satisfaction (because, after all, the author is usually the worst critic of his own work).

[JohnReid]

The first pic has just two subjects on a square.The second pic is three subjects on a circle.I think that I will go with the circle.
Why? the circle idea gets rid of all the boring squareness.It also allows me to add other element to the story that of the robber baron Morton's private car, which I can finished inside and out if I want.It also makes the whole piece viewable from just about any angle.It means that I can eliminate the windmill and water tank and concentrate more on the real elements of the story.I can add things like painted scenery out of Morton's car windows etc...
I can see this whole piece going on a turntable moving a 1 RPM.

[cigar joe]

Interesting, but I'm not sure exactly what you are doing and the end result, do you have a completed example from another project that you could post also?