Happy (Prop) Hunting!

Greetings! We all have our strategies for holiday shopping. But prop shopping is a different sort of hunting. Here's a few tips for the trips that take you to small town antique stores.

1. Bring cash
And your checkbook. I run into a lot of shops that don't take plastic. There might not be an ATM in town when you get there.

2. Bring small bills
Once I was shopping for tools in an antique shop. The bill was under $20 and I tried to pay with a $100 bill. The owner apologized, and explained he didn't have enough change in the register. Even the post office in town couldn't change me on a Saturday morning.

3. Know the schedule
Not just the shop's hours.  Some little towns have fall festivals and Labor Day car shows. There's little parking and lots of out-of-towners. These are terrible times to hunt!


4. Know what you're looking for
Your director wants green glassware from the 30s. Let's say you're doing These Shining Lives. And he mentions something about glassware that glows. Hopefully, the store owner can decipher your description and show you to the Vaseline glass case (if they have one).

Do your homework. Know what you're looking for, and what you should be paying for it.
Speak intelligently about what you need. Last year I learned True Detective magazines not considered 'pulps' in the antiquarian bookseller community.

If you can't find the answer, call Grandma. Seriously.

5. Bring a camera and a tape measure
Take a few pictures if your purchase is going to require approval. Write down the measurements, price, store name, who you spoke with, the store's number, shop's hours, and any other relevant details. On the days I visit multiple shops these details can blur quickly.

Happy hunting!

Prop Cameras 2.0

University of Florida's production of Chicago closes Sunday. I'll be sad to see this one go. The cast, crew, and production team produced an amazing experience. And our prop mistress did a wonderful job on her very first show! I helped her get started on the tricky props like custom newspapers and magazines. So I decided not to post repeat projects. But when we finished the cameras, I thought it would be a nice follow-up.

She'd originally purchased vintage cameras online. But the director wanted something larger and more primitive. Also, he asked for a camera that could flash on command. I showed him a photo of the camera I built for Floyd Collins. (Cameras for Collins) I'd never attempted a flashing camera, but the lighting department had a few ideas. So we set out to build Old Time Camera 2.0.

With only two days to build four cameras, the boxes were identical to speed up construction. We broke apart a few video cameras from the prop room - cameras from the days when 'HD' on the side of the camera stood for 'Heavy Duty'. The parts were spray painted with a silver metallic and attached to the bodies. But the antique cameras proved very useful. The flash reflectors were easy to detach and can be reused on the original units after this show.

Ben, our lighting assistant, and one of the cameras.

At this point the cameras were handed over to the lighting department. An LED was added to the flash reflector. Battery packs were added to the bodies, and switches were placed on the handles. Then the cameras returned to the shop for backs and straps.

Smile!

The cameras were a hit - even the KCACTF adjudicator commented on them. The director was also pleased, and said he's been asking for this kind of camera for 18 years. Just goes to show what a little collaboration across the departments can create!

Roxie and the reporters.

Three Very Useful Websites

Happy October!
This week I'm sharing a few websites. Over the past few weeks I've passed them on to multiple people working on projects. Enjoy!

Vintage Ad Browser
http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/
Perfect for finding period advertisements!


Weapons of Choice
http://www.weaponsofchoicetheatrical.com/
Swords, guns, spears, and much more. I've had wonderful experiences renting from Weapons of Choice. Their catalogue is great for research as well.

The California Perfume Company
http://www.californiaperfumecompany.net/
Trying to figure out if that perfume bottle is period? This site has a lot of photos and information about Avon memorabilia. Amazing how often something like this comes in handy.

...You need what for this show?

On occasion, we enter a prop project knowing it will likely require more than one take. This spring, UF's production of The Grapes of Wrath required a life-size dummy. (I'm trying not to spoil the storyline.)

The shop began with Dummy 1.0. Ann and I tagged teamed this one. We knew the actors would discover the requirements of this prop as they started rehearsing with it. So we found an empty suit in the shop. (No worries, we have more around. I would recommend checking with the TD before you take safety equipment!) We stuffed the suit with styrofoam and rubber mulch. And a bit of tape for shaping.

We 'dressed' the dummy with some clothes from the prop room. 

(Though Twinkie pants are not period, Twinkies were a hit in the Great Depression.)

And so Dummy 1.0 was released to rehearsal. The first realization: the dummy needed to be unloaded from the back of the family truck. There were already 7 people in the back for this scene, so our dummy was going to need to sit and blend in. 

I started Dummy 2.0 Know he needed to be a bit closer to a real boy. I channeled my inner Gepetto.

Dummy 2.0 had hinges joints at the knees and hips. He could sit and be carried comfortably.

The wooden form was covered in fabric from packing blankets. Shoes were also attached. The dummy was wrapped in a quilt for the show, but we had to keep the Twinkie pants.

Dummy 2.0 was not kept after the production. He was scaring people as they walked into prop storage.

Stumped

Once upon a time, Frog and Toad lived at The Green Room Theatre. And I decided they each deserved a chair with a bit of style. So I made a set of tree seats.

1. Modify an existing chair by adding a wood-framed base. Attach chicken wire.

2. Dip muslin in diluted carpenter's glue. The bark texture was created by wringing out the fabric and stapling before smoothing out the crinkles. (The smooth edge on top was achieved by stapling on the back side, then folding the piece over.) Thinner strips were used for the back of the chair.

3. Paint chair, accenting the highlights and shadows with different shades.

4. Find a 6'3" Frog. Toad will probably follow shortly.

Enjoy!

There Will Be (Stage) Blood

Sometimes we like to pretend people on stage are bleeding. Here's a few ideas to get your creativity flowing.

The biggest advice I can offer for stage blood: START NOW. No, really. There's a lot to consider. How much, what type, what costumes/scenic elements/props are involved, what sort of delivery system will be used, how will the actors react to exposure, what the blood will look like under the lights, etc. Don't wait until tech weekend.

For a small amount that doesn't need to be live (like a cut finger in The Clean House) I use a thick application of nail polish on a white rag.

My first experiences with stage blood/makeup came when I assisted with drunk driving reenactments. Those actors were asked to wear old clothes, took their positions in the mangled cars (prosthetic wounds in place), and were promptly drenched in 5 gallons worth of corn syrup and food coloring. Yes, really.

But that's a one-time performance. When you need costumes to be pristine for the next performance, you want a washable recipe.

If you have a healthy budget, Reel Blood is a fantastic option. But it's pricey.

While working on In The Blood I used ERA detergent and Wilton Icing Coloring. (ERA is a bit more difficult to find, but far less abrasive than Tide. The actors will be grateful!) The sample batch was tested on the fabric and washed out well. (I worked on a production of Sweeney Todd that used grapefruit dish soap for the base. Creme de Coco used chocolate syrup. Whatever you choose coordinate with costumes and lights.)

We went through half a dozen delivery methods for the blood packs on that show. My favorite (though not used) was filling small zip-lock bags, chilling the mix, then using a Seal-A-Meal to create a clean seam. The packs broke under hand pressure but not in the actor's pockets prior.

No one gave a second glance to my project in the freezer.

In summary, time and communication are the essentials of this project. Have fun!

I feel like Dirt

The blog is back! And I feel awful about the long break between posts. Like dirt, actually. So what better project to kick-start the adventures with than fake dirt?

To accommodate the fake dirt needs of The Clean House I harvested clean sawdust. Roughly a 5-gallon bucket of it. (Clean sawdust! Sweeping the floor for collection could have resulted in staples/brads in the finished project.) Umber paint was gradually added until the consistency was chunky but saturated. The mix was thinly spread on paper on the loading dock and flipped occasionally until the 'dirt' was completely dry.

I discovered all the materials I needed for the project in the prop room.

1. Coat the base of the plants with Great Stuff. Allow foam to dry.

2. Glue the 'dirt' and 'roots' to the foam. I used hot glue because the plants were going to be taking a nightly beating.

3.  I lightly sprayed the roots with Super 77 (A 3M spray ), then dusted the entire surface with dirt.

4. Hurl the plants across the stage! Feel better about life.

Well, that's all for this week. Look for another update Sunday night!

Paint for Elephants

Pulling another project from the archives for this post. It's downtime for prop projects at the moment.

So with the recent release of Water for Elephants -a film I would have loved to work on- and the upcoming reopening of Spiderman:  Turn off the Dark, reworked by Phil McKinley -a director I loved working with- here's 'Paint for Elephants'. Or, 'How Metallic Paint is Awesome'.

While working on Creme de Coco I faced the oh-so-common problem of needing set dressing that would appear high-end and period, but working on a small budget. Metallic paint helped give a uniform appearance to the objects and mask imperfections.

Step one: Hunt for the object. Clean everything.
By the way - know how the objects are being used. I wouldn't advise spray painting silverware people will be eating from.

Step Two: Paint!
This may also require a layer of Gesso. I like the Bob Ross brand (available at Michael's).

Step Three: Age/Distress
The addition of a thinned black wash layer added character to many of the objects. Design Master's Glossy Wood Tone is also fabulous for a warm glow.

But don't paint the elephant's tusks!
An elephant also found its way onto the set. Originally this little fella was red. Phil also directed for Barnum and Bailey - and I was informed it's very bad luck to re-paint the tusks on an elephant. So the tusks were carefully taped off.

Fabric paint can also do wonders!
The sofa for this show was rescued from a DAV. The pattern on the couch was originally brown/green. Obviously, follow the instructions and consult the costume designer prior to painting.

Before

After

Next post - blood packs!

Shock Me Like an Electric Chair

Greetings!

I'm not sure an electric chair is the most appropriate post for this holiday...but what holiday would be?

Today I'm digging into the archives and sharing the electric chair I created for the 2008 production of Assassins at The Green Room Theatre. If you're not familiar with the show, it's a Sondheim musical that opens with a murderous carnival game played by the men and women who have attempted (and/or succeed) in assassinating a US President. So we weren't going for realism.

I believe I spent $27 on the entire scenic design for the show and remember spending exactly $2 on this chair.

Step one: Find a free chair. This chair was a school desk in a previous life. I added arm rests and extended the head rest. (The actor using the chair was 6'7".)

Step two: Find the cheapest buckles possible. I purchased two belts from the local DAV, then sanded leather and painted the metal to match.

Step three: Paint the chair. This was by far the worst smelling black paint I have ever used. It was undated and in the back corner of the basement. My nose is crinkling as I type.

Admittedly the chair looked a bit funky in the daylight. But it never appeared onstage without the actor, and the lighting was dark. So for 2 hours work and 2 dollars I was pretty happy.

Designing for The Green Room was a fabulous experience. I learned the realities of tight timeframes and minimal budgets that summer. Most of all, I realized that scenic design was my favorite area of the production process.

Happy Hunting.

Hand Castings

Apologies - between helping with a few shows and working on the design for Chicago, the last two weekends have flown by. But this week's post covers an awesome project!

To create the unique furniture pieces for this semester's production of Madwoman, the shop assembled furniture using mannequin body parts. But we soon discovered the mannequin hands are pretty uniform and uninspired. So we decided to cast hands.

Clockwise around the table - Ryan and Emma shave wax, Molly serves as our hand model, and Tim uses an air hose to remove the hand.

First, we attempted to cast  a hand using layers of wax, then fill the negative with plaster. Several problems: (1) We lacked the ability to consistently keep the wax above the melting point but below the 'Oh God that's hot!' temperature range. (2) The castings were reinforced with steel rods but still proved fragile.

 I don't have any photos of the 2nd method attempted. I was the hand model and needed to sit very still. Tony B formed a red clay reservoir around my hand, then created two plaster shells. The negative was filled with wax. This technique had some promise, but the negative cracked when Tony attempted to pry out the fingers.

Wayne donated his hand to the cause.

(Triumphant fanfare) And then we discovered Alginate molding! The powder is readily available online and easy to work with. Simply mix with water and begin casting.

Not a cake.

 The moldings were kept in the container for casting, but this gives you a sense of the consistency. 5 out of 6 shop employees agree it smells like baby aspirin.

We filled the negatives with fiberglass resin and were amazed at the level of detail in the castings. (You could see the scars on our hands!)

After the fiberglass cooled (it's an endothermic reaction) the pieces could be attached to other mannequin parts using fiberglass cloth and resin.

Once painted the details were highly visible.

Happy Casting!

Custom Newspapers

Newspapers frequent many prop lists and can require custom headlines and photos. How can you create them? This was the technique I used for Floyd Collins and Bonnie and Clyde.

Custom newspaper layout for Bonnie and Clyde

1. Research newspapers of the era, and share them with the director. 

(Remember the library and the giant microfilm equipment? Don't limit your research to the internet!)

2. Have the actors rehearse with paper cut to the dimensions of your custom newspaper.

(It might seem strange but it can save hours of revisions.)

3.  Create a Photoshop document to the dimensions of the rehearsal newspaper (front and back).

Switch to grayscale and keep your resolution around 150 pixels/inch. A 30in width by 22.75in height will match the US standard size.

4. Find your fonts and upload them to all the computers you'll be using.

Dafont.com and fontempire.com are excellent resources. If you'll be going between multiple machines install the fonts on all of them!

5. Set your guides in Photoshop.

Click and drag off the ruler, and you'll notice a blue line follows you. This may be my favorite feature in Photoshop. Guidelines! Set up boundaries similar to your research.

6. Add lines, text, and photos.

Add vertical lines over your guides to divide your columns if you like. Or not, look at the research. Either take custom photos of the actors for the headlines, or find public domain images. To help age your shots experiment with the Noise filter options. Don't worry about actually writing authentic stories for the filler. Even the audience member 5 feet away won't be able to read it. And label your layers, or you'll be navigating a layer labyrinth during tech.

7. Import the back page (if you can).

Unless you need a very specific back page to the newspaper, save time by finding a public domain images/advertisement from the era. During Bonnie and Clyde the newspapers were never unfolded, and yours may not be either.

8. Save as a pdf and print!

Save the document as a psd and pdf. (And prior to saving the pdf merge layers. If you can print in-house on your plotter, wonderful! If not, schedule a late night party at your local FedEx Kinko's. Black and white oversize printing will cost around $1 a square foot. 

By the way, odds are you won't find a print shop willing to run newsprint through their equipment. Which is fine - print on the standard white paper. It's more durable anyway!

9. Mist printed pages with gray spray paint and sand edges.

Newspapers aren't printed on high-quality paper. Mist with gray for the 'hot-off-the-press' look, or age the paper with yellows and browns.

10. Stuff the newspaper with misted and sanded paper.

If there's junked light plots/floor plans around first ask if they're really trash, then stuff your newspaper.

If you don't know Photoshop, learn it! Prop work will be easier, your resume will look sharper, and your portfolio will be more professional. (This post was process-heavy for my taste. But newspapers are such a regular occurrence on prop lists.) Next week's project will not use Photoshop, I promise!

Candy Wrappers?

Good Morning! To everyone recovering from the Floyd Collins strike last night - Congratulations on the completion of such an ambitious project!

This week's post will feature another project that came up while working on Floyd's props. Here's some ideas for the creation of period candy wrappers:

1. Call Grandma. Seriously. She'll enjoy reminiscing about childhood candy and the opportunity to help you on a project.

2. More research! Find images online and scale them to the appropriate size. Floyd's were printed on regular typing paper. I selected Squirrel Nut Zippers, Nestles Funnies, and Flying Lindy Sandwiches.

3. Age the typing paper. For this project I used Design Master's Glossy Wood Tone. I followed that layer with a clear gloss (to look a bit more like wax paper). Treat both sides of the paper.

4. Cut out the wrappers, and fold them around a small wood chip.

Finished product.

Cameras for Collins

I'm currently sitting in tech for the upcoming musical Floyd Collins, a production by Florida Players. The musical tells the tale of an explorer trapped in a Kentucky cave, the resulting media-frenzy, and the (literal) carnival that erupts above him.

This production requires two cameras - one for early motion pictures, one for film. The budget for both cameras was $10. The cameras aren't replicas of particular models. The goal was to create pieces that appeared to be primitive film technology, yet shiny and foreign compared to the wooden crates and ropes of the Kentucky camp.

Scrap lumber from the shop was utilized for the boxes (1/2" and 3/4"plywood, as well as 1/8" and 1/4" luan). Two cameras were scraped for lenses and buttons. Goodwill is a great resource. If you have enough lead time you can even request they save any broken cameras. And some similar stores don't sell donated film cameras.

The (implied) flash on the film camera is made from part of a VHS film camera and parts from a broken flashlight. In this case lighting designer will be providing the flash with a strobe.

The crank on the film camera was a bit tricky - it's made from a baton handle, spring, coat hangers, PVS, and a small amount of hardware.

Total cost of cameras = less than 4 hours in the shop, $8.50 in materials.

For more information on the production visit Florida Players.

Welcome

'Insert standard 'First post, whoo-hoo!' greeting here.'

Hiya - I'm Jovon, and welcome to Prop Adventures - my first attempt and blogging about my projects as a Prop Master and Scenic Designer.

As a prop master, I work with the director, actors, and scenic designer to create items that fit into the world of the production. The process starts with research, proceeds to a phase of trial and (not too much) error, and doesn't really finish until strike.

Over the years I've constructed some oddities - whether Mrs. Lovett's meat grinder or Blanche's birthday cake, the process is creative, challenging, and always rewarding.

I hope to share a new project every Sunday, so swing by after you've checked Post Secret's updates!

Thanks!