51 Years Later, A Treasure Trove of Sci-Fi History is Going Up for Sale

www.inverse.com: But Phil Tippett is more than just a punchline. He’s also a special effects legend, pioneering the use of stop motion and other classic techniques in the foundational sci-fi and fantasy movies in the ‘80s and ‘90s. But now, he’s hanging up his sculpting tools and retiring, but not before selling off his vast collection for fans to enjoy.

Experience: I was stabbed in the back with a real knife while performing Julius Caesar

Life and style | The Guardian: As someone committed to my craft, I’ve always believed that the show must go on. An accident in my second year of university took it to new extremes. It was the Exeter University theatre society’s annual play at the Edinburgh fringe and I’d landed the part of Cassius in Julius Caesar.

How Can a Gun Loaded With Blanks Still Be Deadly?

gizmodo.com: The phrase “shooting blanks” has passed into colloquialism. But, literally speaking, what does it mean to shoot blanks? And why can people who get shot with blank ammunition still die? We’ll explain what blanks are, why they’re used, and why they can still kill you.

How live ammo got on set still a mystery in Baldwin shooting

Las Vegas Sun Newspaper: Light from a high afternoon sun slanted through the tall windows of the weathered wooden church, catching on the plank floorboards and illuminating the stained glass. Outside, the arid ground of the northern New Mexico foothills stretched for miles — a picturesque setting for an Old West gun battle.

Potential legal woes mount after ‘Rust’ shooting tragedy

PBS NewsHour: Alec Baldwin the actor, who pulled the trigger on a prop gun while filming “Rust” in New Mexico and unwittingly killed a cinematographer and injured a director, likely won’t be held criminally or civilly liable for the tragedy.

Monster Hunter Props Master Brings Video Game Weapons To Real Life

Cosplay Central: If you want to hunt some serious monsters, you’re going to need some serious weapons. Serious enough to dispatch fearsome beasts like mega-spiders, burrowing horned worms, or fire-breathing dragons. Sometimes, only a flaming sword (or two) will do. Or maybe a weapon made from dead monster parts. (Don’t waste the bones!)

Variety celebrates the talents of its Artisans Elite list

Variety: Meet the artisans behind the best looks, VFX, lenses and designs in film and TV in the last year, from sci-fi to contemporary productions, these behind the scenes craftspeople add dimensions and layers to the directors’ vision.

Tips And Tricks: Sculpting Ram’s Horns From EVA Foam

makezine.com: A good pair of horns is, quite frankly, a year round accessory in my mind. However, with Halloween on the horizon I couldn’t think of a better time to share the process of sculpting these. Follow along and learn how you can make a pair of your own.

Inside the Broadway Community Project: What Does a Prop Master and Set Decorator Do?

Playbill: The arts and culture industries remain largely at a standstill in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, affecting millions of workers in an already delicate ecosystem. The Broadway Community Project, from industry veterans Greg Schaffert, Tiffani Gavin, Situation Interactive, and Playbill, was developed to shed light on the myriad fields and roles that go into making the curtain rise.

#93 Quarantine Happy Hour

in 1: the podcast: In times of need and uncertainty, we turn to our friends for comfort, so it only made sense that we gathered a slew of friends of the pod to come together for a Quarantine episode of the podcast. Joining Cory for a Friday night drink is Buist Bickley, Darron West, Caite Hevner, Beowulf Boritt, Jason Lyons, Jen Caprio, Jen Schriever, Jason Lyons and Bradley King. Everyone shared how they are coping with the new normal caused by Covid-19 and how it’s taking its toll on everyone’s personal and professional lives

Props Drive Plots: Introduction to Theatre Props

Dramatics Magazine: PROPS DRIVE PLOTS. Whether it’s a plate of sardines in Noises Off or a sword in Romeo and Juliet, props give characters choices, movements, and consequences. It’s hard to believe such crucial pieces often get last billing in theatre. A great prop cannot save a mediocre scene, but a bad prop can ruin a great one.

The Hardest Props I Ever Made

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.

Emmys: How the 'Catch-22' Foley Team Brought a 1940's Air Force Squadron to Life with WWII-Era Props

Sound & Picture: Catch-22 – a paradoxical situation in which one gets stuck due to the contrary/conflicting parameters of said situation. It’s a term coined by author Joseph Heller for the no-win position in which fictional WWII bombardier John Yossarian and those in his Army Air Force squadron find themselves.

Shop Tips: Learning Injection Moldmaking

Tested: Sean's latest shop tip is a path to learning some of the nuances of injection molding for manufacturing using Protolabs' design aids. These parts samples help you learn about materials, surface finishes, and other design elements that go into injection molding--they're great learning tools!

This Prop Master’s Work Is Hidden in Plain Sight

YouTube: Ross MacDonald makes his paper by making paper. For the last 25 years, he’s created tens of thousands of paper props for movies and television shows like “Baby’s Day Out,” “Silver Linings Playbook,” “Boardwalk Empire” and “Parks and Recreation.” From handwritten letters to driver’s licenses, each piece is custom made and thoughtfully imbued with backstory.

A Look at the Masks and the Puppets in The Lion King's Puppet Shop

Stage Directions: It was this week 21 years ago, Oct. 15, 1997 to be precise, that The Lion King played its first preview and audiences first saw the beautiful and intricate costumes, masks and puppetry so central to the narrative and to the unique experience of the production. Adam Savage and the team at Tested went backstage at The Lion King during its run in San Francisco in this video visit to the musical's puppet shop, where puppet supervisor Michael Reilly walked them through the numerous intricate and varied puppets and masks used in the performance and showed how they're maintained in their traveling workshop.

Where to Buy Dry Ice for Halloween

lifehacker.com: Halloween is definitely the reason we’re showing you WhereToBuyDryIce.net! It’s definitely not that we just find this single-serving website charming and quaint! It’s not at all because we love that in 2018 there’s still a simple, regularly updated website that does one job and does it well. No, we’re posting this so you can add spooky ambience to your haunted house with dry ice!

Art Deco Liquor Cabinet

Prop Agenda: The set for Triad Stage’s And Then There Were None called for a posh, but stark, Art Deco design. One of the key furniture pieces is a liquor cabinet, since each of the ten characters has at least three drinks through the course of the play.

Art Deco Sconces

Prop Agenda: We recently opened “And Then There Were None” at Triad Stage in Greensboro, NC. Agatha Christie’s classic murder mystery takes place in 1930’s England in a sleek, unique seaside home. Robin Vest’s scenic design gave us a sparse, Art Deco-inspired interior populated with a few trappings of a world traveler.

Making a Lantern Prop in EVA Foam in Four Hours

makezine.com: Bill Doran of Punished Props Academy has posted a project and video for making an EVA foam lantern prop with flickering (programmable) LED light strips inside. Bill had one day before DragonCon to complete the build and accomplished it in four hours.