The Prop Building Guidebook

[erichart]

I found out yesterday that Focal Press has approved my proposal for a book titled "The Prop Building Guidebook: for Theatre, Film and TV." It's going to cover all aspects of the construction of props, such as carpentry, plastics, fabric, mold-making, etc. I have a bit more info up at my blog: http://www.props.eric-hart.com/news/the-prop-building-guidebook-by-eric-hart/

As I write this book, I'd love to hear from my fellow ControlBoothers. If you are an educator or in charge of interns, what kind of information about prop construction and crafting would you like to see in a book. Likewise, if you are a student or just getting started, what aspects of making props would you want to know more about? Are there materials and techniques that you hear about which are not covered in other books?

Thanks!

 

[mstaylor]

Good stuff. Good luck with your project.

 

[erichart]

Thanks a lot! This will be a lot of fun to write.

 

[Dionysus]

Sounds like an great project! Also sounds like a fun one!

Of course production process would be good (however it is covered in many other books), and how-tos on as many different media and methods as possible would be cool.
I always find reference materials more than handy. Especially for something like props that I don't do very often at all.

Any of my school-books that had handy references I thought I might use later I kept, the rest I sold or gave away.

In my props class we had a lot of handouts for various things from charts for what solvents/adhesives/etc are compatible or not compatible withe different materials, what release agents to use with different molding/casting/etc materials, paints, etc, etc. I wish we had a text with all this various information for reference (besides the handy stuff in THE BACKSTAGE HANDBOOK). Would be very cool indeed.

Safety is also always an important concern in an educational project, especially since "common sence" is not common at all.

 

[gafftaper]

If your goal is to help high school, churches, and small community theater operations then I suggest you focus on cheap and easy tricks to get pro results. There are lots of places that don't have the foggiest idea of how to do a mold or why they would even want to do one in the first place. I suggest you do a little survey work locally and find a church drama program, a high school teacher, someone at a small community theater and interview them about what they most want to know. You also might want to look at some of the other prop construction books out there and decide how your book can be better. Sounds great. CB's got your back if you want to do a questionnaire here about what people want to learn. Best wishes!

 

[dvsDave]

Hey Eric, if you want help, I'm happy to use my resources to do whatever I can. Need a more formal or detailed questionaire? We can do that and email it out to the CB members. If you need stats, just let me know. (stripped of any personal info, of course)

-David

 

[Dionysus]

I also have to agree with Gaff that suggestion for cheap options is a great thing to include no matter the target audience. While my former suggestion of more complicated and costly materials and methods would be great, sometimes the cheapest solution is key.

Perhaps a survey of various people from your target audience to find the more common props and such and have some really good key examples included. Easier methods for various things, cheap solutions are always nice.

 

[Drmafreek]

Eric, I am really looking forward to this. I've done props for many years at summer theatres, and so anything I can pass on to interns I have or have had would be awesome in terms of books. Thanks so much.

 

[erichart]

You're welcome!

 

[bdkdesigns]

Budget friendly suggestions are always great. After all, there is a reason why Focal Press has a great costuming book out there by the name of "Costume Craftswork on a Budget" by my former teacher. Anybody can be given a huge budget and build props with it. But it's more interesting to see how to re-purpose common items into something spectacular for little to no budget what-so-ever.

I think my biggest hurdle when doing props was creating a breakable prop with almost no budget for Three Sisters. I forget offhand what the trinket was but I couldn't have multiples of it due to budgets. I had to figure out how to make this one item last for two weeks and to break every night into several pieces.

Also, I'd stress technology in such a book. We now have the power of the internet to help in the research of period props and to even provide labels for various different items. But what do you do when you need a specific cereal box and you can only find one tiny 1"x1" image of what you need.

For me personally, those would be the two things that I would look for in such a book: how to do things cheaply with great results and how to use technology to our advantage rather than a crutch.