Useful Sites

Props a’Plenty

Hi everyone. I am doing a Reddit AMA this Monday on the Tech Theatre subreddit. So head on over and ask me anything you want about working in props or writing books and such. You’ll be able to post questions all day, and then from 7-9pm (EST) I’ll actually be answering them.

The BBC shows us how the Old Vic used to make thunder back in the eighteenth century. It’s very good, isn’t it?

NY1 heads north of New York City to see how Hudson Scenic Studio builds sets for Broadway. I went up there a few years back, and it really is an impressive facility.

Everybody’s talking about that bread in Star Wars: The Force Awakens; it turns out, it wasn’t CGI. In a new video, Neal Scanlan reveals how they made the trick work. They don’t have any behind-the-scenes video of the setup, but he gives a good enough description that you may be able to make one yourself.

Reprints

Property Plot from 1893

I came across an article titled “How a Play is Produced” in the 1893 collection of Popular Monthly magazines. It has some wonderful illustrations and useful information that I might post at some point in the future, but I first wanted to share a few of the prop-related items from the article.

First up is a facsimile of a property plot sent out to theaters from a traveling production of Blue Jeans.

Property Plot, 1892
Property Plot, 1892

The article also has a fine description of the props master at the time (almost exclusively men at this time):

The “property” man is another important individual, and has several assistants. His work consists in taking charge of and providing all the movable articles used in the play, such as furniture, carpets, clocks, costumes, guns, umbrellas, books, newspapers, plates, glasses and eatables. These last are usually of the customary property quality, i.e., papier-maché, and the “property man” is the culinary artist who manufactures them. It is no uncommon thing, on inquiring for the “property man” in a theatre, to be told that he is upstairs “making a chicken.”

Finally, we have this wonderful illustration of a property room:

A property room, 1893
A property room, 1893

Source: Hornblow, Arthur. “How a Play Is Produced.” Popular Monthly 1893: 614-22. Google Books. Web. 6 Jan. 2016.

Useful Sites

Welcome, Links of 2016

The New York Times’ Vocations column interviewed James Blumenfeld, the props master at the Met Opera. He runs a staff of 35(!) and has been there since 1983.

The Algoma Mop Manufacturers were pressed into service to make the 500 mops needed for David O. Russell’s latest film, Joy. They had one of the few machines needed to recreate the Miracle Mops from the 1990s that figure so prominently in the film.

And since we’re talking about Joy, how about this article on creating the vintage singles’ ads from the movie? Ross MacDonald also made the children’s book that appears in the film.

Sticking with Ross, he has a whole lot of information on his latest props; he made tons of vintage packaging and paper props for The Hateful Eight, Tarantino’s latest film. He also designed the vintage packaging for Red Apple Tobacco, Tarantino’s signature brand that appears in all of his films. You can read more about that in my interview with him last year.

The Rosco Blog shows how Techland Houston made a foam model of the Starship Enterprise. Just in time for The Force Awakens!

Fox 12 in Portland catches up with Portland prop master Greg McMickle. McMickle is currently the props master for The Librarians, but his work has also been seen in the Twilight franchise, Wild, and Twin Peaks.

 

Education

Video History of IATSE

If you have a spare half hour, check out this video history of IATSE. It was made by members of IATSE themselves. I’m not entirely sure when it was actually produced, but it had to have been somewhere around the late 40s.

The video features then-President of IATSE, Richard Walsh, as he is visited by the ghost of John Williams, the first President of the union in 1893. The history of IATSE is more than just about the union though; it is also a history of changing theatrical technology from the days of gaslight to our modern world.

News

2015 in Review

Since 2015 is almost at an end and 2016 is just around the corner, I thought I would look back at some of the more important news stories in the world of props.

Industrial Light and Magic, the effects company which pioneered modern practical and digital effects, turned 40 this year, and this feature in Wired on their history is nothing short of spectacular.

The Society of Properties Artisan Managers (S*P*A*M) held their yearly conference at the University of Maryland and it was spectacular. The New York City Props Summit also held its annual conference this year, and it had one of its highest attendances ever.

Speaking of S*P*A*M, they also launched a new Facebook Group open to one and all. This replaces any of the previous message boards that were attempted, and hopefully will serve as a bridge between established professionals and newcomers. S*P*A*M also handed out its first grants this year, to Jeffery Bazemore and Lucy Briggs.

The Broadway Bullet Podcast returned this year, thanks to props master Jay Duckworth, who is also the first interview. He props Shakespeare in the Park, and was the prop master on the Off-Broadway incarnation of a little show called Hamilton.

20th Century Props reopened this year after closing down in 2009. It was one of LA’s largest prop rental houses, and its return shows how Hollywood is coming back after so many productions fled town for greener pastures elsewhere.

Wild West reenactors were in the news when one of their actors accidentally used real bullets during a show at Tombstone’s Helldorado Days. That’s gonna leave a mark.

Mythbusters filmed their last episode this year after 14 years on the air. Adam Savage shared images from the final day. The episodes air in the coming months, but production is now wrapped on this groundbreaking show.

After dropping them earlier in the year, the New York Times has restored designer credits to its reviews after overwhelming outcry from our industry.

USITT has begun a monthly spotlight of its members, and the December Member Spotlight was a props master named me.

See you next year! The End.

Making and finding props for theatre, film, and hobbies