Happy May, everyone! It’s a busy month for many of us as seasons wind down and summer seasons wind up, and for those of you in the educational world, classes are ending and graduations approach. But at least it’s getting warmer outside! And I have some links for you!
CBS Denver has an article about Bill Slezak, the prop master on the touring production of Mary Poppins. The show has some 4,000 props, and Bill is in charge of repairing and placing all of them in whatever city they go to. Be sure to watch the video since the article itself is just a brief transcription of said video.
Kasterborous has an article about Nick Robatto, one of the chief prop makers on Dr. Who. Not only does he make the props for the show, but he also makes the licensed replicas of the props to sell to fans. How’s that for carving out a niche in the market?
Have you heard about the giant head found in the Hudson River? A New Orleans prop maker guesses it’s over 10 years old (he says the pink foam inside hasn’t been used since the eighties), while a Mardi Gras float maker says it’s a Mardi Gras float. What do you think?
Finally, a lot of film props are made by piecing together found objects. Cracked has put together five Sci-Fi gadgets that are really just everyday objects.
My cousin’s father is John M. Dwyer, set decorator to the last two seasons of Star Trek TOS and several of the movies. He used deco-style salt and pepper shakers for the small medical scanners used by McCoy and Chapel. A large number of the blinking colored button and such on the bridge panels as well as the core phaser units are plastic ‘jewels’ found at the five-and-dime toy section.
My cousin was gifted several original props from his dad that he and I played with as kids. That sounds cooler than it really is as we were too young to imagine story lines as good as the episodes. And, I suspect, most have them have disappeared over time in trades for other things, but I hope he still has a few.