Hospital Signs

An important scene in our production is the final scene before the title where the PCI is informed by the Pathologist that the case is not as clean cut as first thought and the DNA results have been tampered with. This scene we wanted to film in a Hospital as the mise-en-scene would be perfect for such a scenario. Obviously, however, on the tight schedule and resources, this would not be possible. When we decided we wanted to film in a Hospital corridor, I set out to design some relevant signs that would be found in the Hospital. They can be found below:

Hospital signs typically found in hallways

Name Plaques to convey who resides in the room

An extra Poster to make the office seem more legitimate 

A sign not seen on film, but was tacked to the wall to the right of the room we used.

Composition

We used a variety of techniques to produce the signs above, below are a few steps showing how they were created. 

Directional Sign

We added this bevel effect to each individual section of the main sign so that it would look as if it were actually bevelled on metal as opposed to simply printed on paper. We found that a flat, raised inner bevel as these are the kind of effects metal shows when it has been embossed. I was very happy with the effect though I believe the final sign may not have been the right size. This could however merely be because I know it's fake as others believe it looks incredibly reallistic.

Name Plaque

It took a number of effects using trial and improvement to create the name plaque, below are some of the most important and useful:

To the inner text, we added noise to make the sign look a little warn and expensive, as it could be etched in some form of impure stone. This small change adds validity to the plaque and breaks up the solid black colour of the text.

The inset emboss was probably one of the most significant effects as it gives it the overall etched effect, making it 3D and tricking the eye of the viewer into seeing depth. This was an effect we wanted to create mostly with the first two signs as both are seen fairly close up and if not, focussed upon fairly tightly. If they did not look 3D, the effect would be broken and they would be nowhere as impressive. 

Finally, we added a slight gaussian blur to the entire text on the plaque to make it seem less sharp and, again, more worn. This enforces the sometimes rough chiselled effect that can be seen on some real plaques.

An accidental, but helpful fact was that the directional sign was dented slightly after printing; originally we thought this would hinder our film, though it actually now looks as though the sign is worn from age, giving an even more authentic look.

Feedback

After our audience saw this scene in the film, the general consensus was that we had done very well in recreating a hospital hall way; most viewers have actually been shocked to find that we did not actually film in a hospital and in fact used my living room.