How the trailer interior was designed — concept, layout, and reference.
Concept
Alma and Olpa’s home needs to feel lived-in, old, a little neglected, and while it should for sure have a kind of “homey” feel, it should feel a little dark and lonely and small + claustrophobic. It should feel as though Alma and her grandfather have lived here a long time, possibly even Alma’s whole life, but it shouldn’t feel nice enough that Alma wouldn’t be ready to leave when the time comes.
I’m someone who needs inspiration when it comes to design, so the first thing I did was find some reference images.
I love Andrew Wyeth. There’s something about the thoughtfulness of the figures, the muted color palette and specificity of the poses – really feels like they are Thinking.
I also came across Vilhelm Hammershoi.
A previous film of mine (and the spiritual prequel to Alma), Where it Floods, heavily features farm buildings from the midwest US. It’s what I grew up with, so there’s a nostalgia that I love.
But none of these were really “trailer home” images, so I had to find some actual trailers. They all have a kind of clean, modern feel that I didn’t love, but with the design rule of “tomorrow” – where everything feels like it’s from a near future – I was able to shift things a little.
References
There are no real trailers that have the exact properties that I wanted – a bunk bed, with a bench in front, that was also really small inside. Plus the huge open windows at both ends were unrealistic, but I knew they were going to offer interesting lighting opportunities. So I found what I could and stole ideas from them!
As soon as I saw an image with wood paneling I knew that had to be incorporated. I have nostalgia for that as well!
The bunk bed I wanted had to be sort of awkward. I love designs that don’t TOTALLY work from an engineering standpoint, because it makes the characters have to move in a way that’s a little unusual and feels specific. The bunk bed being a touch too short felt right. The ladder being kind of in the way, and the bench in front making it challenging to get into bed – all of those offered interesting animation challenges that I enjoy trying to solve.
Interior Modeling
To figure out the layout and “architecture” of the interior, I started with the key focus of the bunk bed, thinking it would be against the wall.
But pretty quickly I realized the camera was going to be tight against the other wall. And I really liked the idea that the window could be a big backdrop. So it pretty quickly got moved.
When the main bed and sort of “kitchen” stuff was in, it was a matter of modeling the interior walls and wood panels and adding detail elements. Here you can see the television, and an edited stock car seat (the design I tweaked to be a little more “tomorrow-land” and damaged” as well as the sink and some fabric details starting to get placed.
Final designs
Here are a few images of the final designs.
There are so many artifacts from our world that stick around. Think about how many cell phones, and televisions, and keyboard keys and plastic bottles are just going to hang about forever! Of course those things would be repurposed. Alma grew up in a time when none of those things functioned, so she wouldn’t have any idea that a flatscreen TV is not a table. So I worked hard at coming up with ways to reuse elements of modern technology inside her home. Television = table, car seats are nice cushy things that are probably everywhere, keyboard keys become decorative tiles, etc.
Alma would probably find all kinds of tail lights from old trailers in this area and think they were pretty, and hang them up.
