Category Archives: Useful Sites

Useful Sites

Friday Prop Notes

Ah, Fall, one of the busiest times of the year to be in theatre. Other than Spring. Or Summer if you work in summer theatre, or Winter if you do holiday shows. We start tech next week for our first show of the season, and tech for our second show the week after. I just got back from North Carolina visiting my wife; we made some LED lighters for her production of Hair, and I got to watch her work on some leather masks as well. And of course, work on my book continues full speed ahead.

I posted this to my Twitter, but it’s too cool to let go unnoticed. Ross MacDonald, a prop maker on shows like Boardwalk Empire and films like The Book of Eli, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, and Van Helsing, gives an interview to “The Atlantic”, sharing his stories and techniques.

Also posted to my Twitter about a month ago, Jodi Bobrovsky, the properties manager at Stages Repertory Theatre, is featured on the Houston Press blog.

Mark Cordory was the head of props fabrication for Dr. Who for a few years, and a freelancer on a bunch of other television shows such as Torchwood which I’ve recently begun watching. The galleries on his site have a wealth of photographs sharing the work he’s done.

I like the pie chart David Lang shares about knowing what he doesn’t know. He has been writing a column on his journey to becoming a “maker”.

Fake Believe goes behind the scenes of Purebred Studio’s projects. They include a lot of glimpses at their designs and tutorials on the props they make (lots of monsters and dead things). Also, it’s am awesome name for a blog.

Useful Sites

Link-o-Rama

This is great: Michael Fichtenmayer experimented with a number of available art products to create copper finishes and showed off his results. It’s incredibly helpful to see them all together so you can do a quick comparison.

Here is a tutorial to build a homemade plastic bender. Now, remember to do this only with adequate ventilation; heating plastics can release all sorts of chemicals. No one really knows what we’re breathing. The MSDS for the plastic won’t tell you either, because they only have to disclose what the plastic is made of, not what it turns into with the application of heat.

Haunt Forum has a great thread on making a rusty and crusty texture with sand and oatmeal.

Prop Phone is an app that allows you to trigger an iPhone or iPod Touch to ring over WiFi or Bluetooth. They have a video up showing how to make sure the phone can’t receive calls during a performance; I didn’t realize you could out an iPhone in Airplane mode and then turn WiFi back on; I know, I’m practically Amish.

Check out this documentary about the company that made Scar Stuff, Vampire Blood, and Evil Teeth. Yeah, props people rarely use those drug store blood kits, but it’s a fascinating story nonetheless. I love the part where they discover a store has discounted their product as a loss leader, so they buy it all up and resell it to the stores.

Useful Sites

Monday Link-o-Rama

Welcome to the first full work week of September! I’ve been away all weekend, so enjoy these articles and sites:

The Art of Manliness has a nifty guide on sharpening your edged tools. It deals mainly with knives and axes, but it covers a lot of the basics.

Once you’re finished sharpening your tools, you can find out why your teenager can’t use a hammer. The decline of shop and industrial arts classes are leaving even the most basic of manual jobs with a dearth of skilled young workers.

Air and Space Magazine has a nice little gallery of Vietnam War—era Zippo lighters.

I recently came across The Clubhouse, an online community for model-builders, sculptors, and collectors. It seems to be a good resource for help and information on working with plastics and resins, as well as painting and weathering.

Useful Sites

Last Links of Summer (observed, not actual)

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Well, well, we made it almost a whole week without a hurricane or earthquake here in New York. Here are some links to keep you occupied over the weekend. I would wish you a happy “three-day weekend”, but most of you are in theatre, and we don’t get holidays off.

List of Tools is more than just a list of tools; it breaks down all sorts of tools into different categories, tells you what they are used for, and includes all sorts of other relevant information. It’s great when you want to know the difference between a ball peen and a straight peen hammer, or how to measure the inside diameter of a pipe.

Here is an interview with Clive Lankford of Lancaster’s Armouries, a British sword and armor maker that specializes in stage combat weapons.

The Washington Post did a nice spread on Chris Young, prop master at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, DC. It’s wonderfully photographed, and always great when a larger media outlet pays attention to the work that goes on behind the scenes.

How old is your globe? This site lists various names of now defunct countries, along with when they changed and what their modern equivalent is. So if you find an older name on your globe, you know how old your globe is. Also great in reverse, for when you need to make a globe or a map and want to make sure you aren’t using any anachronistic geography.

Finally, here is a walk through a haunted house. The pictures are all taken with flash, so you really get the details of the construction behind a lot of the pieces and scenes.

 

News, Useful Sites

Props Summit Tonight, and Fun Links for the Weekend

Piles of swag for the gift bags
Piles of swag for the gift bags

Still not sure whether you should come to the 3rd Annual Props Summit in New York City tonight? Even though we will have a guest speaker? What if I told you that you’ll get a gift bag filled with goodies? Jay Duckworth has been making some phone calls and sending some emails to get all sorts of cool prop stuff for everyone who shows up, from companies such as Rosco and Rose Brand.

As for those who can’t make it, here are some links to brighten your day:

Dave Lowe has a well done video showing a quick paint treatment to simulate rust. He uses just three paint colors and an old paintbrush.

Mr. Jalopy has a quick welding primer over at Make: Projects. It’s short and sweet, but has some nice photos.

Collector’s Weekly brings us this tour through a fake vomit factory. Not only do you see how this gag (get it?) is made, but you get the whole back story on its history (via Mark Frauenfelder).

Finally, here’s a brief anecdote about Michelangelo carving the David statue, illustrating one of the many ways to deal with a picky designer.