Prop Agenda: I did the props for Elon University’s Wild Party back in February, but I haven’t gotten around to posting pictures of a quick gramophone horn I made. The budget was tight and nothing was available to borrow or rent, so I decided to construct my own.
6 comments:
This article was interesting, although I don't think that I'm ever going to need to build a fake gramophone horn. I like how elegant his solution was for not having the right prop, and how he was able to do it for such a low cost. I also liked how he just attached the horn to the table because he couldn't alter the gramophone itself. It was a cool example of how lots of things in theatre can have a bad side because there will be side that the audience can't see. I thought that this little tutorial was well done, and in the end the piece looked really good. I wonder what Jon Ward is going to do for a gramophone when we do Wild Party.
Wow, the author was right, that way a seriously down and dirty way to make something. I was anticipating an article about making a working gramophone horn which would have been really interesting, and it seems like the theatre world would be more than capable of making one. The one he made was not too bad, but I didn't really understand a lot of his decisions. First of all he could have just drafted what ever shape pieces he wanted, instead of going through the trouble to scale one. I know that can often take quite a few tries to get right. Also if he is the one who was making it from start to finish, then why was the back side too short that he needed to extend it? It seems like he could have just made it the right length in the first place.
I did like how he solved not being able to attach the horn to the record player though.
I really appreciate this article. Prop making is often overlooked and it is especially the case when the budgets are extremely low. Of course, in a perfect world we would be able to find the exactly right object every time, but that is not always the case. And often we can't afford to build it with the correct materials. I have a fair amount of experience of building props, and other objects as well, with found materials and with a bit of creativity anything can be done.
The drafting pattern that the author refers to for the "petal" of the horn was undoubtedly the sheet metal pattern that would have been used to make the horn originally out of tin or brass. When developing patterns for complex shapes, it is common practice for sheet metal workers to first create the shape in paper or card stock, making transfer and replication in sheet metal easy and direct. While discerning the elliptical curves one must cut to emulate the joint between the petals of this horn can be difficult and cerebral, a trial and error method in an easily manipulated medium like paper can produce more meaningful results quicker than hours with pencil and slide rule. Sheet metal work was, and still is for some, something of an art form, not totally dissimilar to draping, where flat patterns stitch together to form seemingly impossible shapes. And as with most of the arcane trades, and as evinced by this article, I think it's a good idea for the theatre technician to have some passing understanding of the skills that comprise this dying art, as one never knows when they will proove themselves useful.
I liked how resourceful the author of this piece was. The reality is that sometimes you won't have a huge props budget and will need to make a great prop with limited resources and time. I also liked that even while facing budget and time restraints he still paid a lot of attention to details and problem solved really well, especially when it came to elongating the horn and maintaining the correct shape.
This is great! First of all, this article goes to show how important documenting your progress on a project is. If you ever have to do something similar, you can look back and see what did or didn't work. Also, you can share what you've invented or discovered with others, as this person did. I love how with props all that matters is the finished, visual product. It doesn't matter if the horn is made of matte board or brass as long as from the angle of the audience it looks like a real gramophone!
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