The red and blue pills in The Matrix. The Rosebud sled in Citizen Kane. Marsellus Wallace\u2019s briefcase in Pulp Fiction, contents unknown. The (real) severed horse head in The Godfather. Every sword, gun, wand and lightsaber that has been brandished by an actor on a screen or stage. What do these items have in common? Nothing, except that they are a tiny sample of the staggering range of objects, from the iconic to the instantly forgotten, known as props \u2013 or, to use their formal name, \u201cproperties\u201d.<\/p>\n
Props are, properly defined, anything used in a performance that is\u00a0not part of the set or costumes. Sourcing or fabricating them is the job of a team overseen by the prop master; the term is gender-neutral, although the prim-sounding \u201cprop mistress\u201d is\u00a0occasionally heard. It\u2019s a massive undertaking, but not one that gets much attention. \u201cIt\u2019s nice that you are asking about props, because they\u2019re not really acknowledged,\u201d says Jode Mann, a TV prop master in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
When Mann worked on the children\u2019s comedy show Pee-wee\u2019s Playhouse in the 1980s, she got a call from its star, Paul Reubens, who said he was nominating her for an Emmy. It\u00a0was only after Mann told her mother \u2013 and promised to thank her if she won \u2013 that Reubens called back to say he couldn\u2019t nominate her \u201cbecause there\u2019s no category for you\u201d. There still isn\u2019t. And while the Oscars has in recent years sought to celebrate behind-the-scenes efforts with new awards for casting and stunt work, prop mastery remains unrewarded.<\/p>\n
Swords and sourcery \u2026 Props masters created weapons for Sh\u014dgun. Photograph: Katie Yu\/AP<\/p>\n
Maybe it\u2019s the sense that the job is overly logistical, or unspecialised. There is a lot of overlap with the set- and costume-design departments. But\u00a0the work of a prop master is deeply creative: it is essential to the creation of a fictional universe. The real world is, after all, full of objects that we interact with (or ignore) constantly; props are what transform a staged set into a lived environment. By its nature, successful prop work will often blend into the background, but when something is wrong \u2013 the notorious obviously fake plastic baby in the 2014 war drama American Sniper, for instance \u2013 viewers take notice. The suspension of disbelief is broken. \u201cIf you take a baseball movie, you have nothing without bats, balls and gloves,\u201d Mann says. \u201cWhat do I do? I bring the life.\u201d<\/p>\n
If the actors can physically see magic happening in front of them, you get a different response<\/p>\n
It helps to have a good imagination. Not everything can be bought or rented from a prop house, which is especially true for genres such as sci-fi and fantasy. This is what attracts Jamie Wilkinson, a prop master whose\u00a0credits include the two Wicked films and recent Star Wars sequels. \u201cI\u2019d much rather be creating crazy new\u00a0world stuff,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
For each job, Wilkinson assembles a\u00a0\u00a0crew of prop-makers \u2013 up to 100 \u2013 as well as specialists, depending on the story\u2019s needs (he called in a chocolatier for Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet\u2019s Wonka). His films often rely heavily on special effects, although he\u2019s found that directors love it when a real prop can be used: \u201cIf the actors can physically see magic happening in front of them, you get a different response.\u201d<\/p>\n
Every witch way \u2026 Jeff Goldblum and Cynthia Erivo, and her custom broomstick, in Wicked. Photograph: Landmark Media\/Alamy<\/p>\n
Particular attention is paid to \u201chero props\u201d: key pieces that get a lot of camera time, such as the broomstick carried by Elphaba, the green-faced antihero of Wicked. \u201cWe probably did 30 different designs,\u201d Wilkinson says. The process took about 20 weeks, beginning with Wilkinson\u2019s sketches, a selection of which were then sculpted in clay; early ideas included a\u00a0plain \u201cbrutalist\u201d chunk of raw wood. The final design, with its gnarled shaft composed of twisted roots, was chosen in close consultation with Cynthia Erivo, who plays Elphaba; actors, Wilkinson tells me, often have a good instinct for the right props for their characters.<\/p>\n
Just as much creative work goes into small-screen projects. Catherine Miller was prop master for Severance, the hit\u00a0dystopian series revolving round a\u00a0cultish corporation called Lumon Industries. All of Lumon\u2019s office equipment was specially fabricated to\u00a0fit the show\u2019s retro-futuristic aesthetic. \u201cWe wanted to harken back to a time when offices were seen as a\u00a0place of pride,\u201d Miller explains \u2013 but with an added \u201ccold, hard edge\u201d.<\/p>\n
For the computers, Miller\u2019s team riffed on the design of the Data General Dasher, a line of terminals from the 1970s. The keyboards are missing an escape key \u2013 a \u201csymbol\u201d for the predicament of Lumon\u2019s workers. Miller was delighted when fans on Reddit spotted this detail. \u201cAnytime that I can endow metaphor on to the object, it\u2019s just helping to reinforce the story that we\u2019re telling,\u201d she says. Cleverly designed props can do more than just decorate a narrative; they can drive it. The hardest part of the job? Getting the fabricated hardware to look as if it works normally on screen, which was sometimes done using remote controls \u2013 one of the many tasks that a props team will oversee during filming.<\/p>\n
Well-drawn character \u2026 Kate Winslet wearing the Heart of the Ocean in Titanic. Photograph: Collection Christophel\/Alamy<\/p>\n
Stories set in the real world pose their own difficulties \u2013 authenticity is\u00a0not as easy to achieve as it looks. Miller tells me that productions set in the recent past are the trickiest: the objects aren\u2019t vintage enough to be collectible, nor modern enough to buy off the shelf. Nitpicking audiences are also particularly likely to notice anachronistic mistakes, such as a phone or computer model released years after the events depicted. For the 2019 thriller Uncut Gems, set in 2012, she struggled to source period-appropriate iPhones and laptops: \u201cSometimes we have to literally recreate the phones or modify a new laptop with an old clunky case.\u201d The film\u2019s most eye-catching prop of all was completely made from scratch: a golden, diamond-encrusted Furby pendant created with the help of a jewellery artist.<\/p>\n
With historical projects, prop masters need to familiarise themselves with the facts. \u201cI like the challenge of research,\u201d says Vancouver-based Dean Eilertson, who thinks of himself as a\u00a0\u201cmethod prop master\u201d. When he joined the drama series Sh\u014dgun, set in\u00a01600s Japan, he worked with a\u00a0historical adviser to learn about the period\u2019s feudal culture. For the high-budget production he recruited three full-time buyers in\u00a0Japan. They\u00a0purchased nearly everything antique, from lacquer boxes to horse saddles for the samurai.<\/p>\n
Born slippy \u2026 the Rosebud sled from Citizen Kane. Photograph: Robert Landau\/Alamy<\/p>\n
Then there were the samurai swords, required not just for the cast but for hundreds of background extras. \u201cWhen you get your hands on a\u00a0real Japanese sword, they\u2019re heavy,\u201d Eilertson explains \u2013 not to mention dangerous. When weapons are involved, the stakes couldn\u2019t be higher, a lesson that was tragically illustrated by the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in\u00a02021, when a live round was discharged from a prop revolver used by Alec Baldwin on the set of the film Rust. (The prop master, a 24-year-old with few industry credits, signed a\u00a0cooperation agreement to avoid prosecution. Charges against Baldwin were dismissed, while the assistant director and armorer received criminal\u00a0convictions.) In Sh\u014dgun, most of the swords we see are painted replicas in bamboo. On screen, you can\u2019t tell the difference.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s another thing about props: they are forever blurring the line between real and fake. There are all sorts of reasons for this: budget, health and safety, availability. For the most part, prop masters have tried-and-true workarounds: synthetic gems, retractable needles, polystyrene-filled cakes, \u201cchocolate\u201d bars made of resin (the real thing would melt too quickly in an actor\u2019s hands).<\/p>\n
Fakery isn\u2019t necessarily cheap. Retired prop master (and Jamie Wilkinson\u2019s father) Barry Wilkinson remembers handling the famous Heart\u00a0of the Ocean necklace worn by\u00a0Kate Winslet in Titanic, designed by\u00a0royal jewellers Asprey & Garrard. Its\u00a0heart-shaped diamonds were actually blue cubic zirconias, but the\u00a0hand-crafted necklace was still very expensive. Wilkinson senior personally transported the prop from Piccadilly to the film set in Canada for director James Cameron\u2019s approval \u2013 though \u201cbecause it cost so much, we couldn\u2019t alter it\u201d. Luckily, Cameron \u201cloved it\u201d.<\/p>\n
Other times, prop masters get creative. Mann once went to a pet shop to buy a dog bone, which she wrapped in fondant and a layer of cheese, to replicate a raw chicken drumstick eaten by a zombie discovering their taste for human flesh. Recently, she worked with an actor who was intolerant to the lactose powder normally used to simulate cocaine. Coconut milk powder turned out to be too oily, so they settled on the sweetener sorbitol, ground with a pepper mill.<\/p>\n
The results can be almost too convincing. One of the strangest incidents in Eilertson\u2019s career took place on the set of the 2014 reboot of Godzilla. To fabricate two realistic replicas of nuclear missiles, he had gone deep in research, even consulting a retired nuclear scientist. In the film, the weapons are put on a train to be used in an attempt to destroy a newly discovered giant parasitic monster.<\/p>\n
Lumon large \u2026 the retro tech of Severance. Photograph: Wilson Webb\/Apple TV+<\/p>\n
Although it was set in California, the transport scene was actually shot on Vancouver Island, with the train heading towards a Canadian military base. It so happened that about that time, news stories were circulating about nuclear threats from North Korea and the US response. And then, Eilertson says, \u201ca Russian satellite takes a picture of our set and sends it to North Korea. Suddenly phones are ringing off the hook, because now apparently there\u2019s proof that the US is moving missiles on Canadian soil. It was like: \u2018Oh my God, that\u2019s not what happened. That\u2019s a movie set.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Onscreen props have a way of making it off set, too. After Titanic\u2019s release, Asprey created an authentic version of their necklace with sapphire and diamonds, which C\u00e9line Dion wore to the Oscars. Elphaba\u2019s broom can be bought online, with handmade versions on Etsy. For prop masters, witnessing their creations take on new lives can be satisfying \u2013 a rare moment of recognition for their work.<\/p>\n
Recently, however, they have come\u00a0up with a more concrete reward. In September 2024, the US-based Property Masters Guild (which was founded three years earlier to offer training and education, partly to help avoid tragedies such as Hutchins\u2019 death) inaugurated its\u00a0annual MacGuffin awards for film and TV. The event is named after the Hitchcockian device of an object \u2013 $40,000 in Psycho, government secrets on microfilm in North By Northwest \u2013 with no other purpose than to drive the plot forward.<\/p>\n
In that first year, Mann, decades after her Emmy disappointment, was delighted to receive a MacGuffin for her work on the historical drama Lessons in Chemistry. \u201cIt touched a\u00a0really deep part of my heart,\u201d she says \u2013 not least because winners are chosen by their peers, who more than anyone understand how much the job involves. Perhaps the rest of the industry will now take notice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The red and blue pills in The Matrix. The Rosebud sled in Citizen Kane. Marsellus Wallace\u2019s briefcase in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[88,206],"class_list":{"0":"post-422616","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-movies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}