All posts by Eric Hart

Resources

Kevin Caron’s Welding Videos

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Welding is a great skill for a prop master or prop maker to have, though it can be a hard one to begin learning. The best way to learn is to have someone teach and guide you as you practice on your own. Whether that’s possible or not, it is also a good idea to watch some videos on welding to pick up background information and to get a different perspective on some of the techniques.

I discovered Kevin Caron’s videos on welding; he has dozens of videos covering all sorts of welding styles and techniques. His background is in metal art and fabrication, so the way he demonstrates welding is close to how a props artisan approaches welding. We rarely have to deal with all the technical information one might get with a traditional welding course, and it can be easy to get overwhelmed with all of that when you are just starting out and simply want to join a few pieces of steel together for a static prop.

So check out everything he has to offer, or just start with the one below. Whether you’re just starting or you’ve been doing it for awhile, you’re sure to pick up something new.

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First Links of Spring

We start off today with this look at making a mold of a Zoidberg mask. These techniques are way above my pay-grade, but it is interesting to see such expert work done on a mold. This is actually the 9th installment of an ongoing series dedicated to creating a mask of the eponymous Futurama character, so check out the other parts if you want to see how it was sculpted and designed.

Set designer Anna Louizos has grown tired of seeing set models, set decoration and props ending up in the dumpster after a show closes, so she has begun a website selling them off to collectors. Check out this news story on how she got started, then head on over to the web site itself. Collecting theatre memorabilia is not nearly as wide-spread as collecting movie memorabilia, but hopefully this site makes it more common.

This sounds like it could be a nightmare: your theatre company wants to use the scene/prop shop as a performing space for one of their shows. Check out this video as Paddy Duggin, a carpenter and prop maker at the State Theatre Company in Australia, explains how they did exactly that for an upcoming production of The Seagull.

And finally, we have the movies, where if you need a plane, you just build a plane. Find out why the production designer for Non-Stop needed to build a plane from scratch rather than re-purposing an existing one.

News

Happy Book-iversary

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Can you believe my book has been out for a year now? The Prop Building Guidebook: for Theatre, Film and TV was published last February with some heavy anticipation, and it has only gotten more popular since. I have two book-related items I’d like to share.

First up, if you are attending USITT in Fort Worth this year, check out my book signing on Thursday, March 27 at 4:30pm at the USITT Booth on the Stage Expo floor. That’s during “Stage Expo only” hours, so you won’t be missing anything else. You can bring your own book or buy it there; last year, we sold out in two days, but this year, there should be plenty to go around.

Second, I want to hear from you! The response to the book has been overwhelming. The past year has seen reviews in Make Magazine, Theatre Design & Technology, Lighting & Sound America and Choice, as well as reviews online from Geek Insider, StageBitz and Debbies Book (check them all out at my reviews page). You may have seen my book at the various KCACTF conferences, World Stage Design in Wales or the North Carolina Maker Faire.

But while you can read the reviews and see my book, I don’t get to see your reaction to it. I’d like to know more about how my book is being used and where. Are you a teacher or student using it in class? Do you work in a shop and have it near by? Or does it live on your workbench? What’s your favorite part? What’s your least favorite part? Is there anything you were hoping to see in my book that it didn’t have?

Go ahead, shoot an email to eric@props.eric-hart.com. I don’t mind getting emails from people I’ve never met. I try to answer all of them, even if it takes awhile. If you like, you can even send a photo of where my book has ended up (and post it to the book’s Facebook page if you want).

The Prop Building Guidebook
The Prop Building Guidebook
Useful Sites

Friday Prop Link Roundup

You may have noticed I missed last week’s Friday blog post; we were in the midst of a big ice storm here in North Carolina, and I didn’t have any power or Internet and trees were falling all around me and it was crazy. Anyway, a lot of cool stuff has shown up in the world of props since then:

Wes Anderson’s latest film, The Grand Budapest Hotel, came out last week, and fans of his work know that he loves his props. Here is a great article giving the back-story of 10 of the most memorable props from the film. It shows the obsessive devotion Anderson has to every object in his movies, and his recognition of how a prop’s details can help tell the story.

Continuing on the Grand Budapest Hotel train, we have two articles on Annie Atkins, the film’s graphic designer and paper prop maker. First, is a short piece and slideshow in the Independent, and second is an interview and collection of the paper props themselves.

A tip of the hat to Tim Shrum for pointing me to this blog on movie miniatures. If you like tiny cars and buildings as much as I do, you’ll love this website.

3D Printing Industry checks in with Owen Collins, who has been busy over the past few years looking at how 3D printing technology pertains to theatre.

Finally, large-scale prop maker Shawn Thorsson is working on a full-scale ED-209 from the original Robocop film. This is a massive seven-and-a-half foot tall fighting machine, and he’s trying to get it complete for the Maker Faire Bay Area in May. The link has some photos and a video showing the beginning of his process; it will be interesting to see how this progresses.