Generic Sci-Fi Set

Howdy, in a few months I will (hopefully) be making a short sci-fi film I've been writing. the video takes place in a small space ship and i would like to build a set instead of using a somewhat sci-fi looking location or a digital set.

I am not very experienced at all when it comes to larger construction projects like this (i built a few picnic tables once, that was about it lol) so i really have no idea what i am doing. I watched a few videos about building movie flats and more specifically about building sci-fi corridors. The one i found most helpful was this trilogy of videos about making a small corridor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JorPhRD-Xs4

Although what Im building is a bit more complicated (and i will spend a lot more time on the set dressing) the main idea is there.

so since i know so little about building i have no idea if the structure i designed is going to work. Is it over designed? under designed? am i making any really obvious mistakes? i have no idea. If anybody has any experience and can give some input on my current design, that would be great!

Essentially i am going to make two wall segments of an octagonal hallway, and then build a cockpit for the front end and an airlock for the back end.

the "hallway" (really its more like a room but its design is inspired by numerous sci fi corridors) is supposed to be 16 feet long with each wall segment being 8 feet long. instead of doing 4 entire segments i am going to make two, this way i can have one entire wall and then i can just rearrange the segments for when i want some shots that show both walls (they will be limited to tighter shots of course) for now i dont plan on building a ceiling and will just use higher angles, but i wont be surprised if i change my mind later on. the floor will just be made of plastic pallets (hopefully, if i can find them really cheap) or something similar.

anyway, here is what i have so far:





















all the vertical/horizontal plywood is 1/4" thick and all the slanted/angled plywood is 3/16" thick (all cut from 4' x 8' pieces)

all the structural wood holding it together (sorry if i am using horrendous terminology) are cut from 8' x 2" x 3" planks. The basic struts that hold together the walls and the cockpit are made from two 2' long horizontal pieces, two 2' long angled pieces, and one vertical
6' 9 15/16" piece. Seems like a strange length i know but thats the proper length needed so i can get the proper sizes for the plywood pieces.


The cockpit is what i am most worried about, because of its shape i cant really build supports at the edges because they would get in the way of the wall piece when i go to put them together. Because of this limitation i feel like the design i came up with is rather flimsy but i dont know for sure

the airlock is the most complicated part for sure (at one point had the same angled shape as the walls and cockpit so was even more complicated but i scratched that idea) and might have the opposite problem as the cockpit, i think its overly designed but again i dont really know for sure.


anyway this is just the general lumber and layout, i still dont know what kind of fasteners to use or anything like that, but i figured i should finish the basic design first before getting too detailed.


So does anybody with building experience see any major flaws in my design? or just ways to make it better? if so please share!

Also if there are any threads that cover similar builds you could link me to that would be fantastic!

Alright, so far so good...but questions: no ceiling? On what kind of floor are you building: I'm asking because you'll have to secure your wall to the floor, specially with no ceiling (heavy sandbags if not possible to screw anything on the floor). Also the building of some kind of second corridor (elbow like) would be great for filming (other angles, making it look like a longer corridor, etc). What kind of mechanism are you going to use for the airlock door? I'm sure it'll be manually activated (cheaper) so pocket door kinda thing?

I was avoiding having to make a ceiling for now because A: its cheaper, and B: having a ceiling will make rearranging the walls for different shots that much harder. However, knowing me i will probably end up wanting a ceiling anyway to give me more freedom when shooting, but for now the design lacks it.


A second corridor/elbow eould be cool and help sell thr setting but unfortunately i dont have the budget for that (if i did i would go ahead and build all four wall segments instead of just the two)

As for the door, it actually wont open at all in the film. One of the major plot points involves the characters in the ship debating whether or not to let another character inside (the eventual answer is no lol) however the little window will have a metal shutter that will be manually controlled

What about the cockpit...any drawing?

the 4th and 5th picture are of the cockpit. I know its not really a cockpit, more like a wall with windows lol but once the walls are on either side and the control table is in place it will look nicer.

here is a quick mock up of what it should look like when its done



edit: that chair model is courtesy of the sketchup 3d warehouse, i just threw it in there to give you an idea

Yeah, simple for sure and with the greeblies/lights on it (and fancy lighting) it'll look the part. It looks very flat for my taste; I would've cut curving pieces (up and bottom windows) to make it more interesting (look at the pics from 2001 A Space Odyssey: Aries-1B or Orion III ). Fairly simple but just by adding those curves, it pimps your look by a 100%

Here I am over a year later haha but this project is still underway.

Due to price, space, and time the design was changed significantly and is much smaller/simpler but I figured i would still share some progress photos haha

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View attachment 13.jpgView attachment 12.JPGView attachment 14.JPG


still very much a work in progress, lots of painting and detailing yet to be done (we also need to increase the height of that chair haha) but let me know what you think, if anyone has any tips that would be great!

Looks great, your weathering is very effective.

It looks great! Do you have any pictures of it in action? Did you make the film?

In case anyone else needs any tips/tricks for DIY sci-fi sets on a budget:




If you can't do it full scale, consider model miniature sets:

Snow Builder said:

Looks great, your weathering is very effective.

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Thank you! Adam Savage has great videos on weathering, came in handy!

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13doctorwho said:

It looks great! Do you have any pictures of it in action? Did you make the film?

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Not quite yet! we are still working on the set/pre-production, as soon as the set is finished and I have some nice properly lit shots I will post them here

CB2001 said:

In case anyone else needs any tips/tricks for DIY sci-fi sets on a budget:

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all great videos, I haven't seen the broken allegiance one before, thanks!

mrcarkeys42 said:

all great videos, I haven't seen the broken allegiance one before, thanks!

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You're welcome. The Broken Allegiance one is a BTS for a fan film that came out a long time ago. You can still find it on YouTube.


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