Here’s a fun look at the work of Muñecos Animados, a puppet workshop that builds puppets for film and TV. The description is all in Spanish, but the video itself has no text or speech (well, the puppets talk, but it’s not integral to the video), so you can enjoy it regardless of what language you speak.
Category Archives: Showcases
Showing off the prop portfolios of people, prop shop spaces, and props for shows.
Props and Set Decoration from “Watchmen”
This is a look at the set decoration and props from the film Watchmen that came out a few years ago. The appearance of some of the scenes was interesting, because it took place in a sort of “alternate history”, and the production team needed to create a world that looked period but was true to the comic books as well.
Props from “Slasher!”
So this is from a few years ago, but I haven’t come across it until now. Doc Manning, one of the former props masters at Actors Theatre of Louisville, talks about some of their trickier props from a new show called Slasher! It’s a show filled with homemade bombs, actresses on meathooks and bathtubs full of blood, so you know it must have been a challenge for the props department.
The Magic of Christmas (Windows)
Back when I lived in New York City, I spent a couple seasons working at Spaeth Designs, building props for the holiday window displays at stores like Macy’s and Saks Fifth Avenue. They’ve produced a few videos this year showing some of the behind-the-scenes work that goes into these mini-productions. These windows are quite intense, with designers and department heads beginning work in February, and dozens of skilled craftspeople starting as early as July to get these ready by Thanksgiving.
First up is Saks Fifth Avenue, which went with a “Yeti” theme:
Next up is Lord and Taylor, who do variations on a Victorian Christmas every year:
Enjoy!
Dragon makes an Elysium Gun
“Kill Phil” continues to be an interesting and informative little series over on the YouTube. The premise is simple; take a well-known prop maker and give them 3 days to recreate a prop from a film. In one of the latest episodes, they turn to Dragon Dronet of Renegade Effects, one of the top prop makers of Star Trek: The Next Generation and other sci-fi shows and movies from the 1990s onward. They task him with recreating Matt Damon’s gun from the film Elysium, which hadn’t come out yet when this was filmed.
He slams together this prop by hacking apart several toy guns and a vacuum cleaner, than refining all the details with pieces of styrene, jelutong wood and Bondo. It is also interesting to see that he works with little more than a band saw, belt and disc sander, Dremel and a drill gun.
On an unfortunate note, he does all this without any protective gear. You see him using Bondo and Zip Kicker without a respirator, sanding and cutting without a dust mask, and applying Bondo without gloves (even using his hands to smear it on!). With that in mind, watch the video for the techniques, but don’t forget about the safety.