My new book about building props

[erichart]

My book, "The Prop Building Guidebook: For Theatre, Film, and TV", published by Focal Press, is now available!

The Prop Building Guidebook: for Theatre, Film and TV

A couple of things of note:
1. This is the first book about building props in a decade.
2. No book dedicated to building props has had color photographs. This one has over 500 photos and illustrations in full-color.
3. The book covers wood, metal, plastics, fabric, paint, textures, graphics, sculpting, molding/casting, as well as safety, budgeting and planning.
4. The props used as examples in the book are from actual films and theatre. Everything from Broadway to regional appears in here.
5. It's a hardback book, but spiral-bound inside. This way, you can lay it flat on the table and refer to it while working.

As an added bonus, if you get the book, you will notice I give a little shout-out to ControlBooth in the Acknowledgements section. After all, this is one of the most active and most helpful forums for technical theatre out there.

 

[gafftaper]

Congratulations! It's definitely time for a new book on props and one that at last embraces the modern technology of color photography too! I look forward to reading it.

Also, there's a great contest attached to the release of the book with all kinds of cool prizes for the person who sends in a picture of the coolest prop. Here's the contest info.

 

[erichart]

Thanks, gafftaper! And thanks for mentioning the contest too; it's pretty exciting. The publishers originally just wanted to give away a copy of my book, but I thought it would be more fun to give away some prop-making materials and supplies, so I started contacting companies I've dealt with before and got them to donate some pretty cool things.

I also wanted to mention I'll be doing a book signing at USITT (Friday at 12:30 at Stage Directions' booth on the Expo Floor). There is also an Australian company (StageBitz) that will be giving away a few copies of my book during the Swag and Brag, so anyone who wants a free copy can try to grab one then.

 

[Van]

I'll be ordering my copy this week!

 

[gafftapegreenia]

Ah, and here I wasn't thinking of buying any books this year at USITT. Looks like I was wrong

 

[Van]

Brought this up with my Props Master and my Boss yesterday. I'll be ordering a copy today !

 

[oldrusty9]

I Preordered this on amazon, it keeps getting pushed back. Is it released on amazon yet?

 

[erichart]

I don't really know what's going on with Amazon. The book has been officially released, but they seem to be having issues with their stock. I'd like to think it's because the book is selling so quickly, but there is probably a much more mundane reason for it. At the moment, Amazon says it is in stock, but that it takes a few extra days to process. Some of my colleagues who also pre-ordered have been saying their shipments have been pushed back to April 4th or even later.

I'm hoping it all gets sorted out soon, since I have no control over it and it is frustrating to hear about people not getting their books on the date the publisher promised. There's a preview sample of the book on the website, The Prop Building Guidebook: for Theatre, Film and TV, if you wanted to get a sneak peek in the meantime.