The inspiration for my house set piece was the 1986 film 'Labyrinth'. I therefore researched certain scenes and how they were made.
The shaft of hands
For this Set, the 'shaft' was constructed out of plywood in a tube shape with levels of scaffolding for the puppeteers to stand on. There were holes in the plywood tube so that the puppeteers could put there arms through to act as the hands. For the interior of the 'shaft' the plywood was covered in foam and rubber to look like a rock surface.
The bog of eternal stench
The set was built over a huge tank, the 'bog' was filled with by the special effects department. It was mostly water with the addition of a jellifier, celacol and a thickening agent methylcellulose. Also, they added coloured dyes which asll resulted in the sludgey textured gloop which was knon as the bog of eternal stench.
The Ballroom Scene
The ballroom was meant to be a bubble, but, realistically that would been hard to build. So, Elliot Scott, the production designer, created the essence of a ballroom with mirrors, collumn tops, cushions and chandeliers which were decorated with beads. This created the perfect dream like world which Sarah experiences.
The Goblin City
The Goblin City set was constructed on the star wars stage at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire. The large stage was covered in the the Goblin city and the junk world sets. The backdrop which covered all this was, at the time, the biggest panoramic backdrop ever made. It was a large drapped cloth covered in pink and grey streaks to represent thinning clouds. Elliot Scott and his team then created a network of cobbled streets and small squares, surrounded by small cottages. Scott himself said, " the whole effect is that of a fairytale city, conqured some time ago by invaded by goblins and allowed to go seed"
The Endless Staircase
The set for this scene, which was a large wooden structure, was inspired by 'Relativity' by dutch artist M.C Escher. This set was very hard to complete and it took art director Terry Ackland-Snow 6 weeks to create 3D models of what the set was going to look like. They had to consider how they would create the illusion of all the staircases going in different directions like M.C Escher's painting.
Information from the book - Labyrinth: The ultimate visual history.