Plan / Dolls-House Creator
Build the explorable model-scale world of Three Doors — the physical or digital miniature environment that becomes the backdrop for everything we then photograph, film, and capture in 360.
Read this first — this is part of a linked pair of consultant briefs.
This brief sits alongside the Video Creator (Inside the Dolls-House World). We're commissioning (a) the creation of an explorable physical or digital model of the Three Doors world, and (b) the photography / video / 360 capture inside it. The two halves are tightly coupled: the model has to be shootable; the shots have to do justice to the model.
We're genuinely unsure whether this is one role or two. Some people we'd hire are strong on both — production designers who shoot their own work, art directors with a tabletop-photography practice, miniature filmmakers. Others are world-class on one half and would want a specialist on the other. Both models could work for us.
What we're doing now is talking to a few people for each half. If you'd do both halves credibly, please also read the Video Creator brief and tell us in your application how you'd structure a combined engagement. If you're a specialist in just this half, respond to this brief on its own — that's equally welcome.
About Three Doors
Three Doors is a pre-launch immersive entertainment company. We're building a 90-minute live experience for teams of 3–6 where every player walks out with a behavioural profile derived from how they actually moved through pressure — not from a questionnaire. Two audiences, one product: consumer tickets for friends, couples and groups; corporate team-development packages on weekdays.
The founder is Tom Ball, who built DeskLodge (48,000 sq ft, £4m turnover, Sunday Times Top 10 Best Places to Work 2023, B-Corp) and has played 121 escape rooms in service of this.
We are pre-seed. Small team, AI-leveraged: a couple of full-time hires (Game Master, Operations Manager) plus a consultant pool. This is the world-building seat in that pool — half of a linked creative pair.
The role
You create the world Three Doors gets photographed, filmed, and 360-captured inside. That world might be a real physical miniature — a dolls-house-scale build, lit and surfaced like a finished thing, where every set the player will walk through in the real venue has a smaller version that can be picked up and turned. Or it might be a digital 3D environment — Skybox-style spatial scenes, Unreal/Unity-grade worlds, photogrammetry-scanned hybrids. Or both: physical model first, scanned to digital twin.
The brief is deliberately not specifying which approach. We want to talk to people who have strong views on which is right for our scale, our budget, and our intended uses (web hero, social, investor visuals, VR pre-launch teaser, internal design reference).
Deliverables
The initial paid project is 4 days, drawn down over roughly 4 weeks. That's a deliberately low weekly commitment — we want the work to breathe across four weeks rather than be sprinted in a single block. You may well do a lot in those four days, and we don't want to over-specify the shape.
What we're paying for is your initial response — how you think about the problem, what you'd start with, the early visible shape of where you'd take it. We're not expecting a fully agreed, finished world. We're commissioning enough for us to decide whether your direction is the one we want to commission the bigger work against, and whether you're also our shooter (see the Video Creator brief) or someone separate.
The shape of what comes out is up to you. Depending on how you spend the four days, that might include:
- An early visible fragment of the world — physical or digital, your call — that shows where you'd take it
- A read on the right approach — physical vs digital vs hybrid, scale, lighting — emerging from the work, not pre-decided
- An indicative scope and time for the full build that follows, so we can plan the commission
- A read on whether you'd want to be the shooter inside this world too (i.e. also tender for the Video Creator half), or whether a separate specialist serves the work better
These are illustrative. If you'd spend the four days differently, tell us in your application.
Who you are
- You've created an explorable model environment that real photography or film was shot inside — physical miniature, digital 3D world, or both. Portfolio shows it
- You think spatially. You can describe a build in plan, section, and walk-through, and translate "here's the feeling we want" into "here's the floor plan and the materials"
- You hold scale instinctively. You know what reads at 1:12, 1:25, 1:50, and why
- Lighting-aware. You don't build things that can't be shot. You think about reflections, sightlines, key/fill/practical from the start
- Comfortable with the brief uncertainty above — physical vs digital, one role vs two
Bonus
- Background in miniature film, stop-motion, architectural model-making, theme-park or theatre production design
- Existing 3D / Unreal / Skybox / photogrammetry practice
- Workshop access for physical builds (yours or you know where to go)
- You've shot inside your own builds before — even if you'd prefer not to shoot ours, you understand the constraints
- Comfort directing subcontractors (set fabricators, lighting designers) as scope grows
How we work
- AI-leveraged. We use Claude/ChatGPT and creative-AI tooling extensively and expect you do too
- Pre-venue. The world you're modelling will be physically built at full scale later. Mistakes here are cheap; mistakes there are expensive. Use that
- Cockroach, not unicorn. Lean budgets, hard choices, real respect for craft
- Bias to operating discipline over startup-theatre. Tom's background is operational real estate, not VC-circuit
Terms
Linked pair, with view to a lot more. This brief is half of a linked pair (see callout at the top). The initial 4 days is small on purpose — we're talking to several people across both halves to find the right shape. If your initial work points us toward "yes, you build the full world", the follow-on commission is the full Three Doors model build at properly costed scope. If your initial work points us toward "you should partner with X as the shooter", we structure accordingly.
What we're imagining: 4 days total. Day rate and fee structure discussed directly. Fixed-price-per-project also welcome.
What we'd like to see: your proposal. Tell us how you structure work like this, and whether you'd want to also tender for the Video Creator shooting half.
- Mostly remote for design; on-site at Henley HQ (Unit 1 Stuart's Lane, RG9 1RY) for kick-off and walk-throughs
- IP terms — please read carefully. We are commissioning you to create the world of Three Doors. All deliverables, including all prompts, prompt chains, reference libraries, project files, Skybox scenes, set drawings, lighting plots, and physical model components, are assigned to us in full on payment. You retain general methodology and craft — what you do for other clients with different briefs — but the specific creative outputs and the prompts that produced them belong to us. We say this upfront because some senior creatives won't accept it, and that's fair. We'd rather you decline at brief stage than later. If you have an alternative IP structure in mind (e.g. fully-paid-up perpetual licence rather than full assignment), we're open to the conversation — flag it in your proposal
- Small advisory option grant available for the right candidate if the relationship extends (discuss)
How to apply
Send us, in your own words: (1) a portfolio link with two pieces showing explorable model environments you've created, (2) notes on what you'd expect to do in the four weeks — how you'd spend the four days, what you'd start with, where you think you'd get to, (3) your view on physical vs digital vs hybrid for our use case (web/social/investor/VR/internal-reference), (4) whether you'd want to also tender for the Video Creator shooting half, and how you'd structure a combined engagement if so, (5) your honest take on the IP clause above, (6) one question you'd want to ask Tom before deciding.
Three Doors Experience Ltd is an equal-opportunity employer. We hire on judgement, behaviour under pressure, and whether you'll make the team better — not on credentials.