Why Props Matter

October 31, 2015 2:03 AM

The greatest trick the prop ever pulled was convincing the world it didn't exist. A look at the hidden power of film props and how filmmakers use the everyday (and not so everyday) objects in their scenes to enhance cinematic storytelling. [slVimeo]
posted by ellieBOA (33 comments total)

Full props to that! (Though I think the idea that people aren't aware of props is sort of a straw man; after all, there's a whole lucrative industry out there selling movie tie-ins ... you can get the "Titanic"'s "Heart of the Ocean" necklace or the idol from "Raiders of the Lost Ark" on eBay for a snip as well as any number of light sabers, to name just 3.)
posted by chavenet at 2:31 AM on October 31, 2015

"A prop can even be the title of a film," says the narrator, as we see the title of perhaps the most famous MacGuffin of them all: The Maltese Falcon. Why props matter/don't matter.
posted by kozad at 3:34 AM on October 31, 2015 [1 favorite]

Have we yet achieved peak Nolan?
posted by shakespeherian at 4:16 AM on October 31, 2015

Making and acquiring the props was one of my favorite bits of theater. Sometimes it was a giant pain in the ass (one show called for edible pancakes every night, and I had no access to a kitchen), sometimes I had to pay out the nose (why, oh why, did the director insist on period specific cutlery?), but sometimes I had fun coming up with weird hacks (did you know a puddle of hot glue mixed with just a little paint and then let to harden looks exactly like a raw chicken breast? Or that some rawhide chew treats look like bacon?) and I always had fun with written props, like letters or newspapers, which I would try to make look as authentic and real as possible, even if no one but the actor even ever read them.

They're toys! Toys are fun! Of course I dug that part!
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:31 AM on October 31, 2015 [14 favorites]

Wow! I never before realized how important objects are!
posted by fredludd at 5:11 AM on October 31, 2015 [6 favorites]

Wow! I never before realized how important objects are!

They prefer to be called "actors".
posted by Thorzdad at 5:16 AM on October 31, 2015 [18 favorites]

Little known fact: the introduction of cell phones on soap operas practically made cell phone wrangling a full time job: between phones being stolen and the talent forgetting and leaving for the day with a prop in their pocket (which also tripled as the cell phones of other talent who were rarely in the same scene together) it was a clothing-rending, violent-hair-removing, stress-filled day for whichever hapless stage electrician was assigned that job for the day.

I'm property master for a much less stressful show now, where the talent (for the most part) all use their own phones, thankfully.
posted by nevercalm at 5:28 AM on October 31, 2015 [12 favorites]

This is a fun 10 minute "Hey, I remember that movie! That was a good movie!" bunch of clips that's well-edited with good narration, but yeah... I don't think it's that earth-shattering of a revelation. I'd love to see a documentary that really digs into prop fascination; during my brief stint in prop/costume making I learned that a lot of people in the industry are obsessed with high-profile props. (Missing from this piece was Deckard's gun from Blade Runner - check out asavage's build!) I remember one coworker was also working on recreating an M41A pulse rifle from Aliens.) And speaking of asavage, don't forget the Overlook hedge maze.
posted by usonian at 5:41 AM on October 31, 2015 [5 favorites]

What's the black and white film with the two queen of diamonds around 7:21?
posted by Flaffigan at 5:48 AM on October 31, 2015

I often do props and set dressing for my shows, because it's so fun to source all the stuff that makes the show without anyone really thinking that they're even there.
posted by xingcat at 5:50 AM on October 31, 2015

What's the black and white film with the two queen of diamonds...

The Manchurian Candidate.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 5:54 AM on October 31, 2015 [1 favorite]

My god, they left out the most culturally significant prop of all time. Have some standards, people.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 5:57 AM on October 31, 2015 [15 favorites]

This was nicely put together, but seemed to amount to saying: The world. It's not just people! It's things too! You'll need these things to tell stories! Next in film school common sense: what your characters wear (or don't wear) matters! And: sets and locations, every movie has them, but did you realize how important they are? A set can turn a backlot in England into a Manhattan street, or a backlot in Hollywood into the tomb of King Tut! And have we mentioned scripts? They can turn a bunch of letters into dialogue and a plot. And actors! And so on...
posted by dis_integration at 6:21 AM on October 31, 2015 [4 favorites]

Aha! Thanks Mr. Lincoln.
posted by Flaffigan at 6:23 AM on October 31, 2015

You can't mention Adam Savage without referencing his TED Talk on objects and including the Maltese Falcon.
posted by beowulf573 at 6:40 AM on October 31, 2015 [2 favorites]

This was nicely put together, but seemed to amount to saying: The world. It's not just people! It's things too!

I kept waiting for something insightful, but it never came. Production values: A, Content: D. It should've ended with "In conclusion, props are a land of contrasts."
posted by Pater Aletheias at 7:24 AM on October 31, 2015 [12 favorites]

Let's cut to the chase and get to the real point of this: The Game. Can you identify the movie these props came from?
posted by flug at 7:52 AM on October 31, 2015 [4 favorites]

a puddle of hot glue mixed with just a little paint and then let to harden looks exactly like a raw chicken breast

I will be on the lookout for this scam the next time I go to the supermarket.
posted by cynical pinnacle at 8:01 AM on October 31, 2015 [1 favorite]

There are folks really into Ghostbusters props, too.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:26 AM on October 31, 2015

I do wish that these guys (and it's pretty much always guys) making super-cuts and film analysis videos would watch somebody other than filmmakers like Tarantino, Fincher or Nolan.
posted by octothorpe at 9:55 AM on October 31, 2015 [3 favorites]

I always had fun with written props, like letters or newspapers, which I would try to make look as authentic and real as possible, even if no one but the actor even ever read them.

Oh, man. I'm so glad someone else does this. I've been in Henry V a couple of times, and I did written props for both of them. For instance, for the scene where Henry exposes the traitors in writing, I copied the general text of a 15th-century arrest warrant, adapting it to include the relevant charges and names in a suitably late-medieval font.

It wasn't entirely authentic--for one thing, it should have been a bit more Middle English-y--but I went so far as to sign it with the name of Thomas Marlborough, a government official who was serving in Southampton (where the traitor scene is set) in 1415. I wanted an actual magistrate, but settled for the next best thing.

...I enjoy this sort of thing more than I probably should.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 10:29 AM on October 31, 2015 [4 favorites]

I do wish that these guys (and it's pretty much always guys) making super-cuts and film analysis videos would watch somebody other than filmmakers like Tarantino, Fincher or Nolan.

I mean it's pretty telling just how much time we spent on weapons in this thing.
posted by shakespeherian at 11:29 AM on October 31, 2015 [4 favorites]

I've been in Henry V a couple of times, and I did written props for both of them. For instance, for the scene where Henry exposes the traitors in writing, I copied the general text of a 15th-century arrest warrant, adapting it to include the relevant charges and names in a suitably late-medieval font.

HAIL COMRADE!

I've endeared myself to a few actors because if they were supposed to be reading something specific out of a letter or a book or whatever, I put those exact lines in - and if they were having a day when they were unsteady on their lines, they knew "oh, wait, I can just read it because it's real whew".

The first time I ever did props was in high school for a production of HAIR, and there was one scene when someone had to eat a business card - I spent hours trying to come up with a way to melt white chocolate and spread it into paper-thin sheets that I could cut into a stack of "cards" for the show. It never worked and I forget what we did eventually.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:06 PM on October 31, 2015 [1 favorite]

I do wish that these guys (and it's pretty much always guys) making super-cuts and film analysis videos would watch somebody other than filmmakers like Tarantino, Fincher or Nolan.

Yeah, I mean he starts with Boogie Nights then goes to Sunset Boulevard and then 2001 and then Black Swan and then Close Encounters and then yup, a Nolan movie! Guys.
posted by GriffX at 12:20 PM on October 31, 2015 [1 favorite]

EmpressCallipygos: " I always had fun with written props, like letters or newspapers, which I would try to make look as authentic and real as possible, even if no one but the actor even ever read them."

That's been solved!
posted by chavenet at 1:09 PM on October 31, 2015

chavenet, your link doesn't work.
posted by octothorpe at 1:29 PM on October 31, 2015

Ugh, I turned it off when it became a series of deaths; I really didn't need to see all of that.

I was hoping for more about the oranges = death thing. Anyone got some insight? They touched it and then bam, done.
posted by Deoridhe at 4:03 PM on October 31, 2015 [1 favorite]

urgs. How is this?
posted by chavenet at 4:45 PM on October 31, 2015

It never worked and I forget what we did eventually.

Okay, I'm way late, obviously, and my forte is more written props, but the first thing that comes to mind is multiple layers of rice paper.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 5:16 PM on October 31, 2015

The director actually suggested rice paper too, after i grumbled to him about my difficulty. I don't think I could find any (it was a very small town with no fancy baking supplies shop, I was only 17, and this was pre-internet so I couldn't mail-order). I may have actually managed to finally get some thin-enough white chocolate sheets, or we used crackers, maybe?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:04 AM on November 1, 2015

I always had fun with written props, like letters or newspapers, which I would try to make look as authentic and real as possible, even if no one but the actor even ever read them.

Newspaper props are, for me, some of the worst props made. Generally, the bulk of the prop paper looks convincing, but the top headline almost always look completely wrong. They always look like no one in the composing room came anywhere near the front page. The headline seems to always be uncomfortably floating in this large blank space. It's the rare newspaper prop that looks right, imho.
posted by Thorzdad at 9:36 AM on November 1, 2015

…is there a reason you couldn't just use business cards? I'm pretty sure I could eat a business card if I had to and that no harm would come of it.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 12:07 PM on November 1, 2015

Probably best not to bog this thread down in a hashing out of the Saga Of The Edible Business Cards, to be honest; part of why I don't remember what I did is because this took place in 1987.

...unless this is becoming a hypothetical intellectual exercise for people, in which case carry on. (Today I'd probably find some way to do edible printing on rice paper so it was not only edible, but legible.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:30 PM on November 1, 2015