It’s January 7th, you know what that means? I just had an epiphany! Get it? Sorry, with Under the Radar in full swing all over the building, Compulsion now in rehearsals, Timon of Athens starting rehearsals next week, plus writing magazine articles and my book on prop-making, I only have a list of links today. But they are very interesting ones that should keep you busy for a long time.
Steve Johnson has spent 30 years designing and building all sorts of monsters for films, such as Ghostbusters, Spiderman 2, The Abyss, and a ton of others. He’s now uploading all the photos and behind-the-scenes video he’s shot during his career (most of which hasn’t been seen before) to the Steve Johnson YouTube Channel. Sweet.
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson closed last night, Merchant of Venice froze last Thursday, and Winter’s Tale freezes tonight. For the first time since January, I’m not working on more than one show at once. Whew, that was a long year. I’ll be making more in-depth articles for this blog now that I have my nights and weekends free again. Until then, here are some great links to keep you busy:
Go Make Something – 160 how-to articles about paper crafts and altered art
Ask a Crafter – Pretty self-explanatory. Lots of questions and answers about adhesives, fabrics, sealants and any other materials related to crafting.
Thistledown Puppets – A lot of studio and process shots of this foam puppet-maker’s projects.
Here are some more proppy prop links I’ve rounded up for the week.
The Dark Power – A blog showing off various rubber monsters, sculpture, models, and special effects. Lots of great process photographs.
Consollection – A massive photo collection of video game consoles from throughout their brief history.
Production Illustration – A blog showcasing production illustrations from various Hollywood films, often comparing them to the final film. It’s great to know there are detailed illustrations for “Hotel for Dogs”.
My Imaginative Own – Though dealing with makeup effects, there is enough crossover with sculpting, carving and materials on this blog.
Antique Telephone History – The site itself is a bit of a throwback to late-nineties web design, but it has a great deal of pictures, dates and descriptions of telephones throughout history.
Lost in Schlock is a blog by Tim Shrum, who creates props, monsters, and costumes for super low-budget films. The site has been around for awhile, and is chock full of tutorials and guides for all manner of objects. It is geared to the DIY crowd, so almost any prop shop can pull off the projects. I found some great tutorials on how to make Monster Mud, low budget fake heads, and molded gelatin prosthetics. I also found this old video with Leonard Nimoy about making spaceship models out of junk, which I swear I saw as a kid.
Making and finding props for theatre, film, and hobbies
