Category Archives: Useful Sites

Useful Sites

Talkin’ ’bout Props

What Does a Prop Master Do? A Conversation with Elisa Malona – Elisa Malona is the head of props for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.  In this great interview, she talks about how she got started in props, how her career led her to The Tonight Show, and some of her greatest successes and fails in churning out crazy props on a daily basis. You can’t see it on any of the photos, but my book is sitting on her bookshelf.

The Prop Master Behind ‘Arrested Development’ – Supporting Players - Now the story of a prop master who had everything. In this short episode of “Supporting Players,” we visit Todd Daniels in his prop truck while working on the set of Arrested Development, which recently finished filming its fifth season.

Glossary: Dunsels, Nurnies, Greebles, Gundans, and Fuidgets – Christopher Noessel goes into the history of these terms, used to describe various decorative details on models, sets, and computer screens in sci-fi films. If you delve deeper into the history of design and art, you can see these are all just modern forms of diapering, which is the use of decorative patterns to break up a plain surface.

How Altered Carbon’s costume designer created the fashions for its futuristic world – Sure, it’s clothing, but it is so futuristic it may as well be props. Right? Ann Foley talks about the design and fabrication of the outfits in this new sci-fi series, including the hard armor of the Praetorian Guards.

Useful Sites

Have You Seen These Links Before?

How a Wes Anderson movie prop maker helped develop That’s You! – Annie Atkins is one of Wes Anderson’s go-to prop makers, and has been featured on this blog before. She also designed the “props” for That’s You!, a new video game for the Sony Playstation. This article is an interesting look at how the skills and talents of a prop maker are still vital even in a purely digital environment.

Etching Brass Plaques – “Switch and Lever” produced a short video where they experiment with three different ways of etching graphics onto brass, and compare the results. Brass etching is something I’ve always wanted to try, but I’ve never gotten down to it. I’ve gotten down to brass tacks, but not brass sheets.

Vintage Ad Browser – Two interesting sites came over the S*P*A*M email list this week. The first is Vintage Ad Browser, a collection of over 100,000 print advertisements. They are organized by subject matter and by decade. I’ve always found ads useful for period research, not necessarily for the subject matter (which is often idealized), but for what is going on in the background. For instance, an ad for a stove will also have pictures of pots and pans, and serving bowls and utensils, so you get a quick sense of what was typical for the time period.

Cover Browser – The second site collects over 450,000 covers to books, comic books, magazines, video games, and more.

Useful Sites

First Prop Links of the Year

Master and Apprentice – If you haven’t seen this show yet, you are missing out. Every week, Marcus LaPorte and Adam Ellis build a replica prop from pop culture from scratch. Marcus is a production designer with 17 years experience and Adam is a novice cosplayer. The show is especially compelling because of their interaction as Marcus teaches Adam new skills and tools. It is also a very beautifully shot production.

You want a flamingo? No problem! A rare glimpse inside the RSC’s mind-boggling props HQ – Take a look into the props shop of one of the UK’s finest theaters. This article chats with Alan Fell and others involved in his department, and a multitude of photographs illustrate all the nooks and crannies of their stock.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’s Set Designer Shares the Secrets to Creating That Magical World – Mid-century design will always have a special place in my heart, and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is one of the latest period television shows to bring that era to life. Apartment Therapy talks with Bill Groom, the production design artist behind these sets.

Life in a British Art Department for Film and Television – Graphic designer Matthew Clark gives an interview about his career in a British Art Department. In his eight years, he has worked on productions such as Black Mirror, Doctor Who, Red Dwarf XII, and Loaded.

Useful Sites

May the Props Be With You

NFTS Model Making Course Leader Reveals What it Was Like Working as Prop Maker on Star Wars: The Last Jedi - John Lee was a prop maker on the newest Star Wars film, and he talks with his alma mater about what it was like working on such a large-scale film.

EVA Foam – What it is and Where to Get It – A Prop Maker’s Guide – Bill Doran gives us a rundown of all the different types of flexible closed-cell foam which prop builders use.

Watch Colin Furze build a life-size TIE Silencer from Star Wars: The Last Jedi – Colin Furze and his team build one of the new spaceships from the recent Star Wars film. It certainly looks sturdy.

Building a Studio Scale Model of the Escape Pod from Star Wars: A New Hope – At the other end of the scale, David Goldberg builds a miniature replica of one of the first spaceships we see in the Star Wars franchise, forty years ago.

Wow, look at that; I managed to find one non-Star Wars related link to share this week!

Useful Sites

Prop Stories for You

Artisans Balance Historical Accuracy With Audience Expectations in Awards-Contending Films – Variety talks with the props masters on several recent period films about how they balance the desire for historical accuracy with the needs of the story. Often, an adherence to strict period detail gets in the way of the film, and the choices to veer away from it have very deliberate reasons behind them.

A Touch of Magic (& Monofilament) – Jay Duckworth and his team tackle the problem of a bookshelf that needs to fall during a scene and then be reset within a six-second blackout. Hint: it involved monofilament.

See a 94-Year-Old Sphinx Emerge From Californian Sand Dunes – Archaeologists recently dug up a life-size sphinx that has been buried since 1923. It’s from the set for Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments, one of the most expensive films made at that time.

A Fake-Food Maker on the Art of Creating Inedible Meals – A short article and brief video on everyone’s favorite Japanese fake food maker.

The oldest tech, theater, might be an antidote to the newest – This last article is about theater in general, not props. However, it’s an interesting perspective on how theater can become more important as technology increases, rather than becoming less relevant as many believe.