preface to the first edition
This book is meant to arm you with the basic knowledge you may need to build all sorts of props. Making props is a lot about experience and hands-on training combined with personal guidance and critique, but a fair amount of information is still needed, which is what this book aims to provide. A prop builder’s knowledge comes from thousands of sources, coworkers, and experiences, and all these little snippets of information form a foundation to help discover new techniques and more efficient processes. What I have attempted to do is collect and collate all these snippets in one place so that you can quickly learn what has already been learned and not waste time reinventing the wheel for what should be basic techniques. Instead, you can spend your time building cool props and perhaps inventing new techniques and uses for materials that you can pass on to others.
Prop builders have supplied theatre with its necessary objects and facsimiles of objects for thousands of years. The film and television worlds have taken advantage of the creativity of talented props artisans. In recent decades, prop building has even become quite a burgeoning hobby, with talented amateurs recreating noteworthy props from cinema down to exacting detail. Likewise, Halloween displays, props for costumed characters at comic book conventions, and even home displays are opportunities for a props artisan to show off his or her skills.
The path to a career in prop building is extremely individual. You can take classes, undergo internships, find a mentor, or just jump straight in, but you will not find another prop builder who has followed the same trajectory. No matter how many objects you learn how to build, you will always come across an item you’ve never built before. Is there a way to distill the idea of prop building into a unified theory? Can we find a scientific method to approaching the construction of any prop?
I think so, though there’s no such thing as the perfect method. Any method you come up with is sure to have exceptions and caveats. And the method I prescribe in this book is only for static three-dimensional props. This is not the book to turn to for trick props, whether mechanical, electrical, or otherwise. This book will show you how to look at an object you wish to create, break it apart into its component parts, and put it all together. Whether you wish to create the deer half from Lie of the Mind, a phaser from Star Trek, or the Medal of Courage from The Wizard of Oz, the thinking process I describe in the following pages will help you.
No book about props can be comprehensive. It is impossible to compress the collective knowledge of all prop builders into a single volume. I have tried to limit this book to the basics of what most prop builders know and the techniques that are generally agreed upon to be standard in our industry. I have done my best to question my own assumptions as I went along and research materials and methods to make sure what I have written is accurate. Nonetheless, my approach will be colored by my own experiences and preferences; this would be true for anyone who attempts a book of this kind. My hope is that even if you disagree with my opinions, at least the facts will all be undisputed, and that if you want to delve deeper into any material or technique I describe here, this book will arm you with enough information that you will know what questions to ask.
Knowing what questions to ask or what information to look up puts you leaps and bounds ahead in your process. Otherwise, you will be grasping around for information, unsure of the terminology to use or what words to search for online, looking at information about sawmills when you really want to learn about cabinetry.
I could not fit everything I wanted into this book, and text and images can only convey so much. You can visit the companion website for this book at www.propbuildingguidebook.com. You will find additional information as well as videos detailing many of the techniques described in this book.