Features

The Condensed History of Specter Studios

Congratulations to te winner of my very first contest, Shane Dreher! Though all the comments offered plenty of comic potential, his provided the most unexpected types of laughs.

I think it would be great if the two old ladies in Arsenic and Old Lace had bats to beat people with the entire play between their witty banter.

I also have some more information on Specter Studios, the company that makes the foam baseball bats which Shane just won. Eanna Holton, the Business and Operations Manager over there, sent me the (condensed) history of Specter Studios:

The current incarnation of the company began in 2004 when it was purchased by Scott Tyson And Mark Marsen. Orginally, they were looking to purchase a building to transistion from being home haunters into official devotees of all things creepy. At the time, Specter (then Spector) had both building and business. Long story short, they passed on the building and bought the company instead! There were a lot of early obstacles, not the least of which were falsified financial documents from the previous owners and though Mark and Scott had already built another strong company, it was not in either the haunt or manufacturing arenas.
There was a lot of trial and error, but Specter kept learning and growing with regard to its reach and its efficiency. In 2010, we began a new era at Specter Studios and have been hard at work with 11 of Pittsburgh’s most talented artists creating some really unique, high quality masks, costumes, and props. We have 2 full time designers who create the majority of our designs, but the floor is open for anyone within the studio to suggest ideas or even try their hand at the sculpting. A good example of that is our Opera Clown Mask. It was sculpted by Mike Pezzulo AKA GYPZY who says he hadn’t touched clay since high school! This mask quickly became, and still is, one of our most popular products! As mentioned, the 11 people who work at our studio are all artists in their own. Ranging from graphic design,music, fashion desgin, painting and drawing, to special makeup effects and circuit bending! We all feel very lucky to belong to such a motley crew.

So there you have it!  Have a happy Memorial Day weekend!

Showcases

Specter Studios making a Foam Axe

There are only two more days to enter my contest to win a foam baseball bat. The bat is made by a Pittsburgh company called Specter Studios; they use local artists to create and fabricate all the props and costumes they sell. They happily shared some photographs showing the work they do.

Demolding an axe
Demolding an axe

They were not making any bats at the time, but they were building some fireman axes, which are made with a similar process.

Foam axes
Foam axes

The axes have a rigid rod buried within them. After they have the foam cast around them, they are sent off to have the colors airbrushed on.

Airbrushing the base coat
Airbrushing the base coat

So there you have it: making foam axes in the Steel City.

Airbrushing some red
Airbrushing some red
Safety

The Well Ventilated Shop

I am back in New York City for a few weeks; between packing and traveling, I have not had much time to write. I did want to share the following quote, however. It comes from an article titled “The Construction of Theatres”, and it is written by Warrington Taylor.

Then the property and armoury rooms must be near the stage, and a very well ventilated property shop, for the making of green leaves and other necessaries is a most unhealthy employment.

The article was written in 1865. Most of our prop shops have been built well after that, yet so many still suffer from bad or no ventilation. How can there be any excuse for this? No one should be able to run a shop or a theatre without being aware of this simple fact. We like to imagine that we know much more about safety and chemicals these days; while it is true that you can find old timers who used Celastic without gloves and worked with asbestos without a mask, the simple fact is that people were well aware of the fact that prop shops require good ventilation almost 150 years ago.

Useful Sites

Mixed Links

Next week I will be back in New York City building props for Shakespeare in the Park.

It’s been quite the week for props in the news. The first three stories all came from mainstream newspapers, and all four have been published in the last week!

Weapons Specialists are back in the news, and it looks like they have officially finished their name change to The Specialists Ltd. The New York Times just published an in-depth story on the history and future of this company, one of the premier weapons suppliers and fabricators for film, television and theatre on the East Coast.

The Guardian ran an excellent story this past week called “Time to give props to theatre props“. It talks about the vital role props play in many productions, and how most plays cannot be done without them. Of course, if you read this blog regularly, you already know all that; it’s nice to see a mainstream outlet acknowledge it, though.

The Huffington Post, meanwhile, has an interview with Ellen Freund, prop master for such shows as Mad Men. Are there a lot of props in that show?

Finally, DirecTV (?) interviews Jill Alexander, prop master on the show Damages. The interview gives a good sense of the hectic pace of working on a TV shoot.

Making and finding props for theatre, film, and hobbies