Dead bird

[MarshallPope]

Well, here's a rare CB prop thread.

I'm currently working on a dead black swan that has to be dragged onstage by its neck for an upcoming show. I've finished the interior structure and form, carved the head, built the webbed feet, and made a convincing neck. Now, I'm thinking through the feathers and wanted to see if anyone has done similar projects and has any suggestions. I'm hoping not to have to individually glue tons of feathers to the bird. The route that I'm planning on taking is to cover the thing with fake fur treated with hair spray or diluted Flexbond to squosh the fur down into something more resembling feathers. I figure that I'll still need to glue in some real feathers in key spots, but the fur will be a good start. I haven't tested this yet, though, so we'll see if I can even make it do what I'm imagining.
A propmaster friend suggested checking Halloween stores for angel wings or something else that could be cannibalized, so I'll be looking into that tomorrow. Ideally, I would find some sort of feathered fabric, but I haven't had any luck sourcing that.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!
Marshall

 

[Dover]

Have you tried feather boas?

 

[MarshallPope]

Have you tried feather boas?

I actually spent some time playing with them at the fabric store today and it seems like they would end up looking more like an electrocuted Big Bird than a swan. That is, using them as-is. I have no idea if they deconstruct into something more usable. I may grab one from costume storage tomorrow and see what happens.

 

[jwolfkill]

Well, here's a rare CB prop thread.

I'm currently working on a dead black swan that has to be dragged onstage by its neck for an upcoming show. I've finished the interior structure and form, carved the head, built the webbed feet, and made a convincing neck. Now, I'm thinking through the feathers and wanted to see if anyone has done similar projects and has any suggestions. I'm hoping not to have to individually glue tons of feathers to the bird. The route that I'm planning on taking is to cover the thing with fake fur treated with hair spray or diluted Flexbond to squosh the fur down into something more resembling feathers. I figure that I'll still need to glue in some real feathers in key spots, but the fur will be a good start. I haven't tested this yet, though, so we'll see if I can even make it do what I'm imagining.
A propmaster friend suggested checking Halloween stores for angel wings or something else that could be cannibalized, so I'll be looking into that tomorrow. Ideally, I would find some sort of feathered fabric, but I haven't had any luck sourcing that.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!
Marshall

Typically the only place that individual feathers on waterfowl are distinguishable at any distance are the trailing edges of the wings and sometimes the tail. Given that a dead swan's wings would probably splay out as it is dragged by its feet and the tail would probably be noticeable, too, you could probably get away with the fur (maybe soaked in the diluted Flexbond and brushed in one direction) on the body, neck, head, and the front edge, top, and bottom of the wings and glue a row of feathers along the trailing edge of the wing and around the tail.

Remember, in theatre, scenery and props often have to convey only the *idea* of the thing to be effective. Movie special effects have so accustomed us to seek 100% realism that we often forget that extra effort to make a prop or set look "just like the real thing" may not actually add much to the show while consuming time and resources that could be used to greater effect elsewhere. Theatre audiences willingly allow their imaginations to fill in the gaps when the set and the props provide a solid framework for the scene without necessarily being life-like depictions.

 

[MarshallPope]

Typically the only place that individual feathers on waterfowl are distinguishable at any distance are the trailing edges of the wings and sometimes the tail. Given that a dead swan's wings would probably splay out as it is dragged by its feet and the tail would probably be noticeable, too, you could probably get away with the fur (maybe soaked in the diluted Flexbond and brushed in one direction) on the body, neck, head, and the front edge, top, and bottom of the wings and glue a row of feathers along the trailing edge of the wing and around the tail.

Remember, in theatre, scenery and props often have to convey only the *idea* of the thing to be effective. Movie special effects have so accustomed us to seek 100% realism that we often forget that extra effort to make a prop or set look "just like the real thing" may not actually add much to the show while consuming time and resources that could be used to greater effect elsewhere. Theatre audiences willingly allow their imaginations to fill in the gaps when the set and the props provide a solid framework for the scene without necessarily being life-like depictions.

That's kind of where I'm headed now - the fur idea on a good bit of the body and then feathers on a decent bit of the wings and down the back. Luckily(?), the bird is being dragged by its neck, so I was able to sculpt simpler wings folded close to the body. Unfortunately, I found out today that it is entering through an aisle, so it will be within 3 feet of audience members and it will have to withstand being dragged down steps (stadium seating). Thankfully, that should nix the leaving-a-trail-of-blood idea. There will be so much blood in this show...

 

[MarshallPope]

I realized that I never posted a post-mortem on this project. I think that it turned out fairly well. I ended up using fur on the head, neck, and underbelly as well as the perimeters and undersides of the wings. I feathered the rest with goose feathers (and numerous hot glue burns). I textured the fur and distressed the feathers with diluted flexbond, spray lacquer, and hairspray and then hit the whole thing with spray paint, EPS beads, and spray flocking for the frozen effect.

Structure-wise, the neck was built out of a piece of coated 1/4" GAC wrapped in pipe insulation and then packing foam strips. The head was carved out of pink insulation foam then dipped in foamcoat and then coated with paint-soaked gauze. This was sanded again before its final paint job. I also dropped a couple of black marbles in for eyes.
The spine of the body was built from two layers of 1/2" ply sandwiching the termination of the neck GAC. This was built up on both sides with layers of upholstery polyurethane foam carved on a band saw. I added a 1x4 cross piece on the bottom on which to mount the legs. The body was coated in more paint-soaked gauze. The wings were carved from more polyurethane foam coated in and attached to the body with the gauze.
For the legs, I began with a wire armature. I sandwiched the wire toes with paint-soaked muslin for webbing and slid PVC tubing over the legs, softening the transitions with gaff.
All of the fur and feathers were affixed with high-temp hot glue. For many of the more complex fur pieces, such as the head pieces, the neck-body transition, and the notching on the sides of the breast, I first pinned muslin to the bird and marked my cuts in sharpie. I pulled this off, pinned it to the fur, and then used it as a pattern for some very precise cuts. The fur on the head got a haircut to soften the beak-fur/feather transition and make the shape more apparent and the eyes more visible.
During tech, I kept getting the "more blood drips and smears" note. After the first scene, though, the bird had to stop dripping so that the blood wasn't pouring out onto the costumes of actors who had to hold the bird in their lap for lengths of time. My first solution was to pin a blood-soaked piece of fur to the belly. This worked a bit, but ran dry after being dragged for 3 feet. I finally added 4 blood cartridges consisting of a piece of PVC tubing with a sealed end into the bird. The open ends were treated differently so that the blood was somewhat time-released. One cartridge was open at the end so that it would immediately start pouring blood when the swan was set down. Two cartridges were closed with custom-dyed pierced cotton gauze and the other was sealed with a pierced sheer nylon fabric. When all was said and done, the combination of cartridges and the smear pad gave us a visible blood trail across usually 25' of the stage.