Life in Hollywood, below-the-line

Life in Hollywood, below-the-line
Work gloves at the end of the 2006/2007 television season (photo by Richard Blair)

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

The Wednesday Photo















One very small compartment of one very large prop box...

Every prop master has a big prop box on wheels, full of whatever odds and ends he (or she, in this case) might possibly need for the show. Directors are known to have "brilliant" ideas at the worst possible moment -- like thirty seconds before the cameras roll -- so a good prop master is always prepared to make the magic happen. Since a medical drama requires very different props than a police procedural or family sit-com (where this box lived), that takes some doing.

1 comment:

Nathan said...

I think this tradition has fallen by the wayside, but once upon a time, the Prop Master was expected to always have the right brand of cigarettes in his/her box for the stars, director, etc. On one show, when the Prop Master ran out of a specific actor's brand, he apologized and sent a PA to a store to buy a new carton.

Within about 10 minutes, he had a new pack in the star's hands and when he went to put the rest of the carton in his box, he found that
said actor had kindly left him a gift of some dog shit!

Actors can be real assholes when they work at it.