Category Archives: Showcases

Showing off the prop portfolios of people, prop shop spaces, and props for shows.

Showcases

Interviews at Collectors Weekly

The folks over at Collectors Weekly have some interviews of props people up on their site, and there are two that they sent my way that I wanted to share with you.

An Interview with Scott Buckwald, Prop Master for Mad Men

Scott Buckwald gives a very in-depth discussion about the trials and tribulations of propping such an accurately detailed show as Mad Men. He gives a lot of examples about specific problems he’s had to solve, but one of my favorites concerns a Sara Lee frozen cheesecake box:

Getting the Sara Lee logo from 1960 was easy, but finding an actual cheesecake box was hard. Again, that’s not very collectible. Pretty much the second after the cake was taken out, the box would have been thrown away, so I looked through pictures of kitchen scenes, hoping to find a cherry cheesecake box sitting there. After looking through 3,000 pictures, I was able to capture every angle of the box and I was able to redraw it on Illustrator and tweak it on Photoshop and then print it out and rebuild the box.

He also discusses some of his sources for finding and creating props (in Hollywood), as well as research resources for the 1960s.

An Interview with ‘History for Hire’ Movie Prop Supplier Jim Elyea

The second interview is with Jim Elyea, one of the proprietors of History for Hire, a Hollywood prop rental house that has been around since 1985. He has a lot of great tidbits on making a production historically accurate:

Our motto with our clients is, “We’ll tell you what’s right, and then we’ll rent you anything you want,” because a lot of times, even though we know better and they know better, their boss wants something different. The director wants it different or the actor wants it different, and ultimately, they’re the ones calling the shots and paying the bill.

He also discusses their large research library, and how they use it:

We also have a series of Montgomery Ward catalogs from virtually every year of the 20th century up until they stopped producing them. We use those all the time.

Say you’re doing a 1928 movie. We’ll look in the 1928 Montgomery Ward catalog to see the most up-to-date stuff that an average person would have. Say you want a picnic cooler. You can see what picnic coolers looked like in 1928. Or you might go back to 1921 because you’re story is about people who weren’t necessarily as cutting edge, so they bought their cooler eight years before.

The complete interview covers a lot more ground, and I highly recommend you check them both out when you have the time.

Showcases

Slave Shack set props

Slave Shack, at the Algonquin Theatre, opened this past Monday. It is my first off-off-Broadway Props Master credit, as well as the first off-off-Broadway scenic design credit for Natalie Taylor Hart (my lovely wife). It is directed by Debra Whitfield and stage managed by Elizabeth Salisch, with lighting designed by Deborah Constantine. Today, I’ll be looking at some of the set props and dressing and what went into this show. Once the show closes, I’ll examine the hand props; as of now, just showing them will give away too much of the story line.

Scenery for Slave Shack
Scenery for Slave Shack

As you can see, the stage is tiny – around twelve feet by fifteen feet. The setting is the corporate office of a senior executive vice president in Manhattan. Natalie did an amazing job capturing that grandeur in such a small space. My advice to her was that since the furniture pieces couldn’t be grand in scale, they would need to exquisite in construction and appearance. Everything in this photograph was built, found, modified, and painted by the two of us.

Jack Blake's desk in Slave Shack
Jack Blake's desk in Slave Shack

I originally built the desk so it could be taken apart for easier transport up to the theatre, but we were able to get a large enough vehicle from Zipcar. I built the structure out of 3/4″ plywood that was left over from the Public Theatre’s Bacchae and was headed for the dumpster. I covered it all in Masonite which was literally being carried out to the trash; the smooth surface saved me a lot of time in sanding and filling. The metal surface is from an off-cut piece of sheet metal I’ve saved for a few months. I worked over it with a wire wheel brush hooked up to a drill to give it that pattern.

The bar and decanter in Slave Shack
The bar and decanter in Slave Shack

I built the bar the same way I constructed the desk. The Masonite already gives you a fairly smooth and neutral surface. For added smoothness, I put on two coats of primer, sanding in between each coat.

The decanter on top was a tricky find; all the scotch decanters we could find were either too expensive, too ornate, or had the word “scotch” engraved on them, which we didn’t want. Natalie finally found the perfect one on Etsy. I knew Etsy sold handmade objects, but I was surprised (and pleased) to discover they also sell vintage items.

Ethnic artifacts in Slave Shack
Ethnic artifacts in Slave Shack

We needed a number of artifacts to dress the set. Natalie did not want to limit the artifacts to Africa, and asked for artifacts from other places where Jack Blake, the lead character, mentions he has traveled. In addition, she did not want any of the objects to be functional, so all of them (save for the jar on the left, which was needed for a bit of stage business) were figures or instruments. The large woman statue is from the Harlem Market, while the foo dog and other creature is from Pearl River. The drum is from the director, while the jar is from Natalie.

Fertility Goddess in Slave Shack
Fertility Goddess in Slave Shack

Debra, the director, wanted a fertility goddess statue placed apart from the rest of the artifacts. We could not find an appropriate one within our budget. Natalie collected photographs of a number of fertility statues, and working with the director, developed her own design which she then sculpted out of foam.

Stay tuned for next month when I can discuss the hand props. Until then, keep coming back  for your normal dose of prop news and stuff you can use!

Showcases

Mad Men Props

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I love Mad Men. If you watch the show, you know it is just jam-packed with period details and an almost obsessive attention to detail. The show takes place in and around New York City in the early 1960s. For some people, this would be a prop master’s dream; for others, a nightmare.

For Gay Perello, it’s her job. Luckily for us, AMC has been posting regular featurettes on their website about the props on Mad Men:

They seem to be making one for every episode. You can see more at the AMC Video site for Mad Men.

The AMC Blog also had a Q&A with Ms. Perello last year during the second season. Also be sure to check out the Mad Men scrapbook for up-close photographs of some of the props.

Showcases

Quay Brothers

photograph by Joanna Ebenstein
photograph by Joanna Ebenstein

Currently at the  Parson’s School Gallery in New York City is an exhibition of the Quay Brother’s work. From the description:

The Brothers have built a cult following with their dark, moody films, which are heavily influenced by Eastern European film, literature, and music and often feature disassembled dolls and no spoken dialogue. The exhibition combines rarely seen, collaboratively designed miniature décors from some of their most prominent works, as well as continuous screenings of excerpts from several of the films.

It’s a fascinating-looking exhibition, which I’m hoping to find time to get to. It runs until October 4th.

What really whet my appetite was a post over at Morbid Anatomy. Joanna Ebenstein wrote about her experience at the Brothers Quay exhibition:

These “décors” (in the exhibition’s parlance) are presented as static silent narrative worlds; it is as if you had peeked into each tiny space mid-shoot, characters and props all in their place, just waiting to be brought to life by the film-maker’s art.

She also took a number of fascinating photos, such as the one at the beginning of this post.

It’s fascinating to see this type of work as a props artisan, as the entire world of these story is created through objects made and manipulated. It is not just that every element seen is a handcrafted item, but in the Quay Brothers’ case, they are meticulously-detailed items as well.

You can see some films and interviews of the Quay Brothers at YouTube. If you’re in the New York City area and get a chance to see this exhibition, let me know!