Category Archives: Useful Sites

Useful Sites

End of the Week Link-o-Rama

StarWars.com has a great interview with Bill Hargreaves, one of the prop makers on the original Star Wars trilogy. He talks about how he got the job, how he built many of the props, and what it was like working on the set. His most famous creation was the bounty hunter droid, IG-88, and he has gone on to build props for the Indiana Jones films and many others.

Speaking of interviews with cool people, the Greensboro News & Record talked with me about my work on Deathtrap, which begins performances this Sunday at Triad Stage. “Eric Hart won’t be on stage when “Deathtrap” opens Sunday, but his talents will be seen in every thrill delivered and every goosebump raised.” Aw, shucks.

CineFX has a cool (though very gross) look at the creatures and special effects in The Strain, a TV series based on the novels by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan. Don’t read this right after you’ve eaten.

So, this is something I really want to try someday: hydro-dipping. I first started coming across videos of it a few months ago. Now, Make Magazine has collected 12 tutorials on how to hydro-dip. I can try to explain it, but once you see the videos, you’ll know what it’s all about.

Useful Sites

End of the Week Prop Roundup

The New Antiquarian has a lovely article on the small bookshop that helped the Mad Men props master find all the vintage books used in the show. The characters on the show read voraciously, so the team was constantly hunting down pristine first editions of the books most popular during the time period.

A gallery in LA put on a Guillermo Del Toro tribute show, and Cinema Fantasma made this amazing wooden automata inspired by Pan’s Labyrinth. Check out the video where they transform logs into an intricate moving sculpture.

The Hustle has an interesting article about the women who make a living doing cosplay. It delves into just how someone makes money by dressing up in costumes, and shows how constructing the costumes is just the first step. It reminds me a lot of the new generation of internet “superstar prop makers”, who have fan bases built around watching them work; the actual props are almost secondary, and are never really used in film, theatre or television.

Finally, The Roadbox has a humorous look at how Bosch is marketing their new battery-powered hot glue gun.  I mean, the tool itself looks eminently useful, but hot gluing a chair together is the last thing you want to do.

Useful Sites

Four Findings for Friday

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Ok, this isn’t props, it’s models, but still pretty cool. Tested has a long profile on Greg Jein, one of the main model makers on Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 1941, and Star Trek. Despite advances in CGI, he is still going strong, working on new films such as Interstellar.

Propnomicon has a great history of adhesive plaster, the fix-it-all tape used before duct tape was invented. Besides the history lesson, he has some great photos of vintage packaging for the plaster.

Korwin Briggs has put together this fun and educational infographic on the gross and deadly history of color. He reveals the origins of many popular coloring agents, such as mummy brown (made from ground-up mummies) and ultramarine (crushed-up gemstones).

Make has a great round-up of five wood gluing tips. I’ve done the ol’ “nail the boards together before gluing them trick” but always thought I was somehow cheating. It’s good to know it’s an actual technique used by others. Not that you can actually “cheat” in props. If it lasts until the show closes, then it’s a good technique.

Useful Sites

Friday Night Links

Here is a special Friday night blog post. I couldn’t write it earlier, because I am in tech for one show, starting rehearsals for another, and oh yeah, my baby just came home after 14 months in the hospital. But here are some fun prop things to read and watch:

I don’t know anything about this, but Comikaze Expo 2015 in LA is having a prop making contest. It looks like you may need to be there in person to show off your prop if you’re selected.

Tested has a very cool article on making a Furiosa Cosplay Prosthetic Arm. What makes it extra special is that it was made for a woman who is actually missing her arm.

TOTL Podcast has a quick interview with Evil Ted. If you’ve never seen his work and how-to videos, check them out!

This is from a few months ago, but has a ton of great photographs of vintage soda bottles from throughout the twentieth century.

Useful Sites

Friday Fun with Props

This is from a few years ago, but it has everything you need to know about Blood for Film. Okay, maybe not everything, but it has a ton of information, a break-down of helpful ingredients, and a couple sample recipes for different types of fake blood.

Here’s something everyone will like: a history of masking tape. I’m sure all of you have looked at masking tape and wondered who invented it, and why. It was Richard Drew, and he wanted a tape to mask paint.

Tested stops by Frank Ippolito’s shop to see how he made sci-fi armor based off of a video game. This eight-and-a-half minute video shows how he took the 3D models in the game and turned them into patterns to cut out of foam sheets, followed by lots of gluing and painting.

Do you like making your own tools for your shop? Because Homemade Tools is filled with instructions and plans for a whole assortment of tools and jugs you can make yourself.