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Eva Bernadette Kelly 

BA [Hons] Design for Stage + Screen Production Design

I am a graduating Design for Stage and Screen student with a unique and optimistic outlook on life. I am half German and half Irish and have lived around the world in places such as London, UK, Singapore and now Wicklow, Ireland. I have always been a creative spirit and have a love for art and design. One of my hobbies is photography, I enjoy coming up with different concepts and taking photos and editing them to make my visions come to life. Another one of my biggest passions is graphic design and digital illustration. I hope to go on to develop my digital art skills in the future and continue letting my creative juices flow! Check out my website to see more from me!

My fourth year minor project was an interpretation of Shakespeare's iconic play, designed for screen. I set it in a post-war 1940s London as I wanted to work on a period of time I hadn't designed for before and I felt the story translated well into this era. I was especially inspired by the photographs by Cecil Beaton of the 'Bright Young Things'. I wanted to portray this atmosphere of magic and surrealism into the set design, especially the forest which is where most of the supernatural events take place. I really enjoyed transforming a renaissance play into a post-war cinematic narrative. This is one of my original storyboards showing my interpretation of a couple of different scenes from the text.
This storyboard is specifically from a scene between the fairy queen Titania and Bottom, who has been magically given the head of a donkey. They are fawning over each other in Titania's fairy borrow as King Oberon and Puck spy on them. This was the first storyboard where I added colour and tone to portray the magical, mystical essence of the scene.
These drawings are some examples of my concept art for the forest and the weddings scene at the close of the text. I used inspiration from Cecil Beaton's iconic photography to try and create a magical, somewhat surreal atmosphere.
This is a storyboard I made using renders from my 3D AutoCAD model. This is from one of the opening scenes of the text where King Theseus greats his soon to be wife Hippolyta in his office in the palace.
This is the mastershot of Theseus' office in the palace taken from a render of my 3D AutoCAD model. I wanted the office to look very masculine and somewhat harsh and cold in order to contrast with the organic, magical look of the forest. I used inspiration and references from 1930s Nazi establishments and offices in terms of the harsh architecture and dull colours.
I wanted the wedding scene to be held in the courtyard of the palace so I could tie in aspects of the forest into the decor. In the first few scenes the courtyard would look decrepit, dirty and unappealing, however by the end of the film I wanted the courtyard to be completely transformed with typical 1940s decor, balloons, streamers and handing flowers such as wisteria to tie in elements of the magical forest. I also wanted to have a 'love temple' to act as the stage for the mechanic's play at the end of the text.
For my major project I designed Arthur Miller's iconic play A View From The Bridge. For more information on my process please read the project description below. These are my character concepts for the main 6 characters. I wanted to include character drawings because I used them to try and create an overall atmosphere for the film rather than just focusing on the look of the set.
These are my concept drawings for each of the rooms in the apartment along with Alfieri's law office and the phone booth outside of the building. My main focus with this project was to try and develop my concept art to show the atmosphere and vibe I was trying to portray in the film. To try and achieve this I focused a lot on the lighting and weather within the scene.
These are my final renders made using AutoCAD. I used my concept art to mold these models and add textures and materials to make each room look lived in and realistic.
This is a display of some examples of storyboards I made using renders from my 3D CAD model. in each scene I focused a lot on composition and lighting in order to achieve the atmosphere created within the scene.
These are my technical drawings for the Carbone apartment. I wanted to make sure my technical drawings for this project were up to par and professional so that I could include them in my portfolio.
Major Project - A View From The Bridge

For my fourth year major project I designed Arthur Miller's iconic play for screen. I was inspired to choose this text because I had previously studied it in school and the narrative had stuck with me ever since. I was also drawn to it because the themes of immigration, prejudice and difficult familial relationships are still incredibly prevalent in today's society. In my designs I wanted to show that the apartment of the Carbone family is a typical Brooklyn tenement apartment that is lived in, crowded and a little run down however it is still well decorated and looked after by Beatrice. I felt each room should also display the emotions of the scenes that take place there.
For more information on these projects and others that I have worked on please check out my website!

Click here to see my CV:


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Carnal Alien: An Exploration into the Unconscious Sexual Imagery of the Alien Franchise from 1979 to 2017

My thesis serves as an exploration into the Alien franchise, created in 1979, and how all the films from the original to the most recent release in 2017 contain sexual imagery in their design. It investigates the psychology behind the decision to create a horror film that includes such graphic, carnal metaphors of gender and sex. It also delves into the root causes as to why these images trigger unconscious and subliminal fears in both original audiences from the Seventies and present-day audiences.
In the first chapter the thesis dives into theories by Sigmund Freud and his student Carl Jung. They discuss the unconscious and how it connects to one’s sexual awakening from childhood. It also investigates findings from more modern, feminist psychologists and film critics, and compares their theories on the subliminal use of sexual imagery in horror to those of Freud and Jung. It also takes a look at the original creators’ aims when designing the first Alien, and how they used these theories of psychology to add to the horror of their film. The second chapter focuses more on the symbolism of motherhood in the Alien franchise. It uses each film as a case study and explores how the creators use the theme of motherhood to increase the horror of the franchise. Finally, the third chapter is a study of the character design, done mostly by Swiss artist H.R. Giger. It dives into the world of Giger and how he was fascinated with using biological, sexually graphic aspects in his work, and how the creators of Alien knew that including his explicit, carnal designs would add to the overall revulsion and horror of the films.
In summary, this thesis is an investigation into the decisions to include themes and images of sex, gender and biology in the original Alien film, which then sparked a legendary franchise that has continued to intrigue and terrify audiences for over forty years. It is an exploration into why these subliminal, primal fears affect audiences so deeply, and truly make the Alien films successfully horrific.


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