Courses

Ciara Drinan

As a graduating production design student, I have spent the last four years developing my skills in concept artwork, storyboarding, drafting, and 3D modeling. Combining my passion for storytelling with a long-time love of fine art, I aspire to create immersive worlds that bring narratives to life, with a specific interest in set decoration. Having gained hands-on experience working on various film projects throughout my time on the course, I am eager to further immerse myself in the realm of film and TV. With a keen eye for detail and a strong collaborative mindset, I look forward to applying my skills to crafting visually captivating environments.

**Minor Project - The Island of Doctor Moreau:** Moreau's compound is a sprawling complex hidden on a dense tropical island. Its beautiful central garden, inspired by Bosch's 'Garden of Earthly Delights', sits atop a subterranean complex of laboratories, operating rooms and holding cells for the various hybrid creatures that inhabit the island.

Nestled on a hill overlooking the beach, Doctor Moreau's mansion contains elements of colonial style and reflects the grandeur and eccentricity of its enigmatic owner.

This sequence, which depicts protagonist Edward Prendick as he first wanders through the main house, provides insights into the character of Moreau.

**Major Project - Piranesi:** ‘I have climbed up to the Upper Halls where Clouds move in slow procession and Statues appear suddenly out of the Mists.’ - Concept art for the Upper Halls

'The lower halls are the domain of the tides, their windows are grey-green with the restless waters and white with the spatter of foam. The Lower Halls provide nourishment in the form of fish, crustaceans and sea vegetation.’ - Concept art for the Lower Halls.

‘In all these places I have stood in doorways and looked ahead I have never seen any indication that the World was coming to an end, but only the regular progression of Halls and Passageways into the far distance.’ - Concept Art and drawings for the Middle Halls.

The First Vestibule: This is the central chamber of the house, containing a grand staircase and doorways to the Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western Halls. The First Vestibule contains eight giant minotaur statues – from the myth of Perseus and the minotaur, they symbolise the labyrinth.

The Ninth Vestibule: This room contains large staircases connecting the Upper, Middle, and Lower floors. ‘Its walls are lined with marble statues, hundreds upon hundreds of them, tier upon tier, rising into the distant heights.’ My design for the Ninth Vestibule was inspired by the east and west staircases in Grand Central Station, New York.

‘When the Moon rose in the Third Northern Hall I went to the Ninth Vestibule to witness the joining of three Tides.’

When three separate tides converge in the Vestibule, Piranesi watches from a high point on the wall as the room floods.

'The Island of Dr Moreau' by H.G. Wells & 'Piranesi' by Susanna Clarke

Minor Project: The Island of Doctor Moreau
This classic science fiction novel, which is set on the private island of a mysterious scientist, explores themes of morality, ethics, and the boundaries of scientific experimentation. Inspired by the Hieronymus Bosch triptych 'The Garden of Earthly Delights', in this project I aimed to create a design for a film adaptation of the novel which would strike a balance between the allure of the tropical paradise and the horrors that lie beneath its surface.
Major Project: Piranesi
'Piranesi' follows the eponymous character as he navigates a vast and mysterious house that contains a sea within its labyrinth of endless halls. As Piranesi attempts to unravel the secrets of the house and of his own existence, his perception of reality is called into question. Drawing inspiration from the intricate and otherworldly etchings of Italian architect and artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi, my design aims to capture the labyrinthine grandeur of the novel’s setting and the mysterious and surreal atmosphere that envelops the protagonist’s isolated world.

Ciara Drinan - Extended Thesis 2023 PDF

Postmodern Television for the Gen Z Audience: The Appeal of Euphoria and Stranger Things

In my thesis I discuss the elements of the television shows Stranger Things (2016) and Euphoria (2017) that categorise them as examples of postmodern television: their mixing of genre conventions and filmic styles, their engagement with nostalgia and pastiche, and most of all their heightened use of intertextual referencing in both allusion and explicitly in-text. I examine how both series use these elements to reflect our postmodern culture – they extensively break down the boundaries between film, television, literature, art and music, and explore how closely the culture of mass media intertwines with ‘youth culture’ and impacts those growing up under its influence.

Ciara Drinan - Extended Thesis 2023 PDF