www.vulture.com: “I’ve always felt that if you’re noticing the props, you’re doing your job wrong,” says Robin L. Miller, a veteran prop master. It’s a funny thing for the guy behind Cast Away’s Wilson and Ocean’s Thirteen’s Chunnel drill to say, but there you have it. He, like many of his peers, understands that most of his work occurs behind the scenes, in the locating, purchasing, building, and supervising of all the props required for a film or TV production.
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I loved reading all the stories from the various productions these prop masters have worked on. The thought and detail that goes in to researching, purchasing, and creating props is a much much deeper rabbit hole than I initially thought, which is saying something, as I’ve helped source props for shows I worked on in high school. I think my favorite story was the breakaway glassware for PeeWee Herman where Levine got called on a Saturday afternoon for the breakaway pieces needed for Monday’s shoot. Levine jumped through so many hoops to get them, working through the weekend, getting the breakaway prop shop to open early on Monday morning, having a driver pick up the props and deliver them to the set by call time. After all he did for the props, he got shat on by the studio for spending so much money, but Levine decided he would rather please Tim Burton and Paul Reubens over the studio anyway. Not to mention the thousands of dollars he spent for those props wasn’t even comparable to the profit made by the film. Who is laughing now, Warner Brothers?
Despite the author’s thoughts on Robin L. Miller’s quote on props in the opening line of this article, I think it embodies an essence that is embodied by the props department. A prop fits seamlessly into the world created into a show or piece. In a lot of cases, if the average audience member notices has their focus pulled to a prop, it means the prop sticks out in a way that distracts them from the story. However, to people that love to look at the details just behind the main focus of the story, the props being beautifully composed within the world makes them smile. I absolutely love the props in Wes Anderson movies, and it is no surprise to me that he would a person on his creative dedicated just to colors and making sure the colors of his props are perfect – it shows the dedication to the creation of the world (plus his particularity about color in his films). Additionally I think that MIller’s experience with making food props for the Addams Family movie echoes something Patrick Stone talked about in his props article on dramatics.org: the fake food still needs to taste like food for the actor to have a positive experience with it. I enjoyed reading about all these different props experiences.
I love props. Without props, a story may not be the same. Of course a prop can be acted out with, but to have a physical interactive prop can pull in the audience to a story so much more. A lot of times, props can be something similar to what our actual world everyday object can be. But in the times a story takes place in a world foreign to ours, prop masters have to create unique interactive items that can still be very detailed and believable to an audience. Prop master, Robin L. Miller stated perfectly that "if you’re noticing the props, you’re doing your job wrong." It is almost hilarious what Miller does for his job. Having to create the strangest objects for the strangest reasons. From working on Cast Away's "Wilson" to creating a prop dog for The Blacklist. It is such a interesting job, and one very difficult to do.
This article sums up what I think is true about many aspects of theatre design/theatre in general. I think many things are done poorly if the audience is paying attention to them. If a set is not masked properly, then my eye goes straight to the lack of masking; if there is a wrong seam, then my eye goes straight to that; if a crew member makes a misstep in their transition track, my eye goes straight to that; if a mic isn’t EQed properly; my ear hears something off immediately. A show is a machine that works seamlessly and when one aspect is off then the audience notices it immediately - not just when a prop is off. This most shocking part of this article is when Gallaher Glen talks about how props budgets have shrunk. I found this shocking because it seems as those general budgets for theatrical and film/television have grown. I wonder if this means that different allocations are happening and what this means for budgets in general in the future. Is more money going to start going to technology over props, costumes, or even set-pieces? I wonder if thirty years down the road the media department is going to have the 16,000 dollars while the costume department has the five hundred dollar to zero dollar budget.
Props is so much fun. When I used to pull props in my high school, it was like a fun escape from doing every other job. Picking or making props is fun because, as Miller says in the article, “if you’re noticing the props, you’re doing your job wrong.” It allows you to get into the details of the show. And it’s so specific that if you do something slightly wrong, the whole scene or show can be messed up. I found the whole list super interesting! Not only does it delve deeper into a job that we don’t hear about much, but it shows the difficulties that are found within this job. I feel like highlighting jobs like this is important for so many reasons. First, not many young people who may be interested in going into props know about these jobs! Also, I think it’s great to recognize designers when they do their job well! Because I feel like the only reason we’re talked about is when we’re doing something wrong. So to me, features like this are so important. It was super cool to hear behind-the-scenes conflicts from some really good movies! I love Airplane! and it was so fun to hear that they paid $150 for the fish carcass! It’s so interesting to think about how different some amazing movies could be if just these tiny details were different.
I really liked the specific stories in here. The line at the beginning that if the props are noticed, you’re doing something wrong is so true for most aspects of technical theater. It’s also interesting how the further back the movie takes place, the more difficult it is to find props, because if the movie happens now, it could have anything from history in it, whereas the inverse is not true. The story from Airplane! is also quite funny with the fish bones. That moment in the movie was an excellent gag and I remember it well. I think it was worth the $340. I think it’s interesting how a misplaced prop will totally upend the realism of a scene and that’s all anyone will be able to focus on. All it takes is one person to know that the model of radio depicted in a movie came out two years after the movie takes place and suddenly the magic is ruined.
I absolutely adore props. Sometimes they are so important to a story that they become an inanimate character themselves, and I think that is fascinating. It’s really interesting that in films and TV (like theatre, I guess but it just seems to be on a larger scale) that props is really its own special department, because it has so much work to do. To agree with the opening quote from Robin Miller. “I’ve always felt that if you’re noticing the props, you’re doing your job wrong,”, the props people have to put in so much detailed research and spend time to fit their necessary attention to detail. I have so much respect for props departments. I love how the article discusses the relationship between a performer and the props-master— they have a close relationship because often the actor is handling something they don’t know how to use. I love how this article included stories from particular props masters about their particular props for particular films. I think the Cast Away story is really interesting, how Miller ended up being told by a sales rep that he was only allowed to get 20 balls (when he wanted more because there was a high chance of them getting messed up) but that he had to make do since she stood by her offer. The note about the Social Network, how it was hard to find 2007 technology because people don’t collect it like they do vintage typewriters was something I’ve experienced while working as a props assistant—finding old cellphones is HARD! I’m so glad this article gave some love to the hardworking props people!
Props are one of the most under appreciated aspects of theatre design, because they're something that is kinda just expected to exist. Prop design for the screen seems much more involved and hard than for the stage, only because in each episode there is a new giant list of things that are needed. I respect this man for being so diligent in his work, and making these shows happen. I think it is important that prop masters exist, instead of just replacing things with CGI. Technology is great, but I fear that film is going in the direction where we will forget the magic of a real object that exists. Like, a lot of props are in museums. If we stop having them, we will take a way the joy of seeing the real lightsaber from the Star Wards movie in person. I love thinking about this mans prop truck full of hoarded vintage items.
I disagree with the notion that if you notice the props, you are doing it wrong. Sure if people are being taken away from the action or looking at a particularly poor prop, then it is an issue, but I think there is no reason for props to be seen and appreciated for how they themselves can drive stories forward. There are plenty of shows that depend on the props and revolve around them entirely. One of my favorite parts about prop working is teaching actors how to use them properly and being ready to answer their questions when it comes up. It does not matter how good you are at working with the prop you built, because if an actor can not handle it the right way, it is going to kind of suck on stage. I like to be able to pass off my work to someone else and see how they interact with it and make it come to life in ways I could never pull off.
I love these articles from industry professionals hearing about their hardest or most interesting challenges. To me the most interesting part of this article was probably that about all the trouble that went into finding “common” items. Not necessarily the complicated props builds but the search. Like the fish in airplane having to contact a museum in order to get preserved bones in the correct way rather then I guess being a fish and recreating it. It makes sense in hind site the accuracy and the time saved I just found it interesting how the assistant director took it. The other thing that stood out to me was all the trouble that they talked about in finding props from the early to late 2010s like cellphones and laptops. It’s just things I wouldn’t have thought of being a serious problem but with the current climate towards recycling products and throwing things away it makes a lot of sense in the grand scheme of things.
I think this was such a cool article to read. I find props very interesting, because they are one of those things that if you do it right then no one will notice but if you do it wrong everyone will notice. But that is how a lot of technical and design aspects are in theatre and film. I love reading the varied experiences of the different property masters and what they consider to be some of the hardest props they had to find or make. One other thing I was intrigued by was what the property masters were saying about the directors and other people that they had to work with for the films they were on. Especially when in reference to how they either asked for props or how picky they were when it came to the props that were made for the films. Overall, I very much enjoyed this article.
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