Category Archives: Showcases

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

Showcases

HBO Intro Sequence, 1983

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If you have ten minutes, you should check out this video showing the creation of HBO’s intro sequence from the early 1980s. The video is from 1983 as well, and has a great vintage feel. It is fascinating to see the creation of one of the largest scale model cityscapes at the time. Props people are sure to recognize many of the techniques used by these model makers (though the three-month time frame they had to build it seems luxurious for most of us). The creation of the rest of the effects are interesting as well. While this occurred in the heyday of motion-controlled cameras, those were the only systems using computers. Everything else was created by hand, and every effect was achieved with an analog solution.

Showcases

Magically-Appearing Flags

This past summer, our production of The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein at the Santa Fe Opera had a lot of tricks. Like… a lot of them. One trick I worked on was a set of magically-appearing flags. The set had seven flag poles along one wall, and during one big moment of pomp and circumstance, the design team wanted flags to suddenly appear on them. The idea is kind of like those “bang” flags that pop out of guns in the cartoons.

Flag tubes
Flag tubes

The basic mechanism behind the trick is that each flagpole has a second pole which sleeves inside. The two poles have slightly less than half of their surface notched out, as you can see in the photo above. The outer pole is fixed in place on the set, while the inner pole can spin around inside. So you can spin the inner pole to a position where the whole flag pole looks like a solid rod, and the flag is trapped inside. Then when you spin the inner pole around so the notches line up, the flag is free to drop down.

You can watch it all in action in the video below. The video also shows how I rigged the tubes so they could be activated by pulling a string off-stage, since there was no room on set to activate them directly.

 

Showcases

History for Hire’s Prop Making Workshop

Here is a look at History for Hire, a large prop rental and fabrication shop in LA. The video below takes us through part of their fabrication shop, with the added bonus of showing some of the pieces they were working on for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

They have a number of other episodes showing more of History for Hire’s warehouse; I’ve arranged them into a playlist so you can watch them all in order if you like.

Showcases

My Summer at Santa Fe

I have finished my 13-week contract at the Santa Fe Opera and head back to North Carolina starting tomorrow. In case you missed it, I’ve been keeping an (almost) daily record of what I have done over on Twitter:

Besides being fun, it acts like a bit of a journal; I can look back to see how long certain projects took. It gives me some reference for when I have to estimate how long future projects will take.

You can look at my whole summer in Tweets (follow the link and then click to view “All” tweets).

That link may not show every update I made, so you may wish to check out my whole Twitter stream. Of course, you can follow me there so you don’t miss any future shenanigans or experiments that I try.

Showcases

Prop Shopping at CTG

The Center Theatre Group (CTG) out in Los Angeles has posted a video of an interview with their prop shopper, Sarah Steinman. It’s rare to see such an in-depth look at what a prop shopper does. Many people outside the industry think prop shopping is an easy job, but I can tell you from experience that the abilities of an expert shopper go far above just walking into a store and buying things. Enjoy the video!