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Author Topic: The Read House  (Read 2649 times)

Snowth Woogle

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The Read House
« on: November 23, 2012, 04:31:50 pm »
I've been wondering, I know sometimes attentive fans of shows and such will create maps and layouts of sets and such, has anyone ever tried to map out the floorplan of the Read house?

The layout of their house tends to confuse me from time to time, mostly, I keep getting the living room and den mixed up, as well it seems like on rare occasions, the bathroom and the master bedroom seem to switch places. Another little detail I've noticed is that when one walks into the bathroom, the bath tub is immediately to your right, however, the layout of the hallway indicates that spot in the room is too narrow to even fit a bath tub there.

In "Arthur's First Sleepover", whenever characters step out the back door, from the inside it looks like it would be the front door.

Slightly OT, they seem to have a really nice and spacious house, I wonder what it would look like in the real world.
« Last Edit: November 23, 2012, 04:35:21 pm by Snowth Woogle »
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Crossover Dreamer

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Re: The Read House
« Reply #1 on: November 23, 2012, 07:25:21 pm »
No, I've never made a layout of the floorplan, but I also keep mixing up the living room and the den. I have noticed that the fixtures of the bathroom keep moving around. I have especially noticed this with the toilet.
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Earwig

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Re: The Read House
« Reply #2 on: January 13, 2013, 07:24:28 pm »
Arthur's house is pretty screwed up since it was the first house designed and the writers just keep adding stuff that wouldn't be possible. Such as it would be impossible for DW to have a closet in her room. She occaissionally has one in a show but because of the shape of her room it's really a cheat. There is also a mixup on the front door vestibule. The door with the staircase is actually the back door but again many times you'll see it used as a front door because of the script. There is a mud room on the back of the kitchen that is rarely used.

The layout of Buster's house is also kind of screwed up because of where the staircase would need to be. Again the writers have a hard time understanding that he lives in a townhouse(rowhouse) and it's not a one floor apartment. Buster;s room is on the back of the house which also throws people off for some reason. I'll see if I can post the floor plans but don't remind me of how screwed up they are.
Here is one of Francine's apartment to test the uploading. It was done for the show with Ms Pariseau but it looks like it was copied onto a model sheet for PFB.

Snowth Woogle

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Re: The Read House
« Reply #3 on: January 13, 2013, 11:14:57 pm »
Hard to believe that Francine and Katherine's room is larger than their parents... their parents' room doesn't even have a closet it in... it doesn't even look big enough to fit a BED in there.  :-\
I stretch like a snake, and I shimmy and shake, and I bounce like a ball, and I say something cute when you give me a squeeze!

Earwig

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Re: The Read House
« Reply #4 on: January 13, 2013, 11:59:30 pm »
That's funny. None of the  floor plans are too scale or anything but mostly they just show the placement of the rooms and major objects like beds and desks if they are important.  I don't think we've seen the Frensky's parent's room come to think of it. I guess it's so small you hardly get the camera inside if they both in there at the time. Maybe you'll  like this next one better.

I attached Arthur's house floor plan. This is actually the very first drawing done for the series. It was done by Marc Brown himself on an easel with a magic marker in the conference room at Cinar. I was done just shortly before the deal was done to start the co-production with Cinar and WGBH.

This house is actually based on the house Marc owned until recently, in Hingham Mass.

Snowth Woogle

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Re: The Read House
« Reply #5 on: January 14, 2013, 09:00:07 pm »
Okay, that makes a little more sense.

The top floor on the show doesn't EXACTLY match Marc Brown's original floorplan, but it does put it into perspective fairly well.
I stretch like a snake, and I shimmy and shake, and I bounce like a ball, and I say something cute when you give me a squeeze!

MCCJ

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Re: The Read House
« Reply #6 on: January 14, 2013, 09:09:17 pm »
It's cool seeing these drawings. It's very interesting to see the room sizes and where everything else is. I do have to ask Earwig where did you get these floor plans?
« Last Edit: January 14, 2013, 09:21:29 pm by MC CJ »

Earwig

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Re: The Read House
« Reply #7 on: January 15, 2013, 11:19:47 am »
They are from the Arthur  TV series main model pack. Please be lenient  how you regard  the scale of the room sizes though. They aren't accurate like an architect blueprint. It's more of a map that the storyboard artists and designers follow when doing a drawing. For example if the character is in the den and he needs to look to the front door then he knows it won't be possible without going to another room or setting the scene other than the den.
There are a lot of idiosyncracies and errors as well because often the houses where intended to be used in one show and then the character comes back again and you need the kitchen or a closet in the room then they need a door to go to the backyard but there wasn't one. It also needs to relate to exterior in some regards such as windows and slanted ceilings. So you end up getting a pretty weird hybrid house after a few seasons. Buster's house is  odd with his staircase placement for example and how do you get to his backyard from inside.

Note on Arthur's house where the stairs are compared to the front door.


MCCJ

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Re: The Read House
« Reply #8 on: January 15, 2013, 01:40:25 pm »
They are from the Arthur  TV series main model pack. Please be lenient  how you regard  the scale of the room sizes though. They aren't accurate like an architect blueprint. It's more of a map that the storyboard artists and designers follow when doing a drawing. For example if the character is in the den and he needs to look to the front door then he knows it won't be possible without going to another room or setting the scene other than the den.
There are a lot of idiosyncracies and errors as well because often the houses where intended to be used in one show and then the character comes back again and you need the kitchen or a closet in the room then they need a door to go to the backyard but there wasn't one. It also needs to relate to exterior in some regards such as windows and slanted ceilings. So you end up getting a pretty weird hybrid house after a few seasons. Buster's house is  odd with his staircase placement for example and how do you get to his backyard from inside.

Note on Arthur's house where the stairs are compared to the front door.

Thanks for the information.

Dark Bunny

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Re: The Read House
« Reply #9 on: January 16, 2013, 11:07:22 pm »
Hi,
Floor plans, yes they are a bit mysterious. They are done loosely as a reference only to guide the storyboard artists to stage the action. Because of the scripts, we sometimes had to cheat and add a door or a room that's is not suppose to be there. We try to stay accurate with the existing designs. The houses in Elwood City were done based on a series of photographs taken in a small town in New England. The Arthur's house exterior and interiors are based on the house of the creator of the original books serie, the one and only Mark Brown.The size of a particular room for instance in a floor plan do not really matter since when the storyboard panel is done we need to add a tv cut off plus a safe paint to allow a security margin for the characters posing. Like in a movie set we need to be able to pan or to zoom out the camera freely.
P.B.

MCCJ

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Re: The Read House
« Reply #10 on: January 17, 2013, 12:32:14 am »
Hi,
Floor plans, yes they are a bit mysterious. They are done loosely as a reference only to guide the storyboard artists to stage the action. Because of the scripts, we sometimes had to cheat and add a door or a room that's is not suppose to be there. We try to stay accurate with the existing designs. The houses in Elwood City were done based on a series of photographs taken in a small town in New England. The Arthur's house exterior and interiors are based on the house of the creator of the original books serie, the one and only Mark Brown.The size of a particular room for instance in a floor plan do not really matter since when the storyboard panel is done we need to add a tv cut off plus a safe paint to allow a security margin for the characters posing. Like in a movie set we need to be able to pan or to zoom out the camera freely.
P.B.

Thanks for going more in depth into that.

Earwig

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Re: The Read House
« Reply #11 on: January 17, 2013, 01:47:19 am »
Dark Bunny you sound like you have some pertinent inside infromatiion about how the artwork was created for the series. I am glad to see you onboard to this site  I hope you will be able to provide more information as to how the series was created.

Dark Bunny-
What you said is interesting and I would like to see some specific examples of that small town in Mass  uploaded to this great  site. You can upload file less than 500k.  There are some street scapes as well as Arthur's house that I know are based on photos of Hingham Mass. Do you have these designs or the photos to post on this site?

I love those Mass. locations as the architecture is so distinct and lovely. However I am very interested in the designs and references that are based on Montreal and Canadian ferences. 
I know that the  exterior of Lakewood Elementary school is based on the school St Hubert Elemntary in  Windsor Ontario crossed with a school in Montreal near the old Cinar Sudio. Do you  have any information on that?

I also heard that the Montreal City Hall was used as the Elwood City  mueum in The Trouble With Trophies and a later show,

MCCJ

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Re: The Read House
« Reply #12 on: January 17, 2013, 04:05:05 am »
Dark Bunny you sound like you have some pertinent inside infromatiion about how the artwork was created for the series. I am glad to see you onboard to this site  I hope you will be able to provide more information as to how the series was created.

Dark Bunny-
What you said is interesting and I would like to see some specific examples of that small town in Mass  uploaded to this great  site. You can upload file less than 500k.  There are some street scapes as well as Arthur's house that I know are based on photos of Hingham Mass. Do you have these designs or the photos to post on this site?

I love those Mass. locations as the architecture is so distinct and lovely. However I am very interested in the designs and references that are based on Montreal and Canadian ferences. 
I know that the  exterior of Lakewood Elementary school is based on the school St Hubert Elemntary in  Windsor Ontario crossed with a school in Montreal near the old Cinar Sudio. Do you  have any information on that?

I also heard that the Montreal City Hall was used as the Elwood City  mueum in The Trouble With Trophies and a later show,

I heard that Lakewood was based off of a school somewhere in Ontario. Me and everyone on the wiki were never able to verify it though until now I guess.

Dark Bunny

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Re: The Read House
« Reply #13 on: January 19, 2013, 01:35:57 am »
In the tenth season of the serie, the design team were asked to include the number ten in various places. For instance , in the episode "Happy Anniversary" the characters said the word ten at least 18 times.

MCCJ

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Re: The Read House
« Reply #14 on: January 19, 2013, 04:07:50 am »
In the tenth season of the serie, the design team were asked to include the number ten in various places. For instance , in the episode "Happy Anniversary" the characters said the word ten at least 18 times.

I liked Season 10. It was a good season. I personally liked D.W., Bossy Boots, Operation D.W., and World Girls.