Final Prop Photoshoot.

Images above showcase all the props I had a hand in completing.

Team Credits:
1) Wooden prop trunk: Made by Leigh, Louise and I.

2) Firework: Majority made by Louise.

3) Medusa Head: I took the pins out and re-arranged the hair, ready to be stuck down. Majority made by Charlotte.

4) Chalkboards and Axe: Started and completed by me.

Prop Box: TV Production Prop

This 'wooden chest' designed prop box was made with the purpose of transporting all of the props (both the school themed scaled up ones and the historic ones) efficiently. from between the two UCA locations,  as well as moving the props from off camera to on set whilst shooting.

This was just a cardboard box that was painted up by me, Leigh and Louise. The rivets and beams down the side where wooden, as was the lock, but the rest was card that was reinforced with layers of glaze after painting. Having a specifically designed prop box meant that it matched the rest of the style of the props and blended in with the environment, rather than making do with a simple plastic tub.

Chalkboards Final: Oversized TV Production Prop

Final chalk board props 'over-sized school items' game round of 'Teach Em' a Lesson'; Produced by the Television Production students at UCA.

- Made entirely of of MDF, therefore cheap to assemble
- Wood grain made with scenic painting techniques: A rocker comb and layers of paint and washes
- Drawn on with chalk afterwards for authentic writing style
- Rounded corners: Much safer than the sharp, square corners of the MDF before being rounded off.

I'm really pleased with how these turned out in the end, as they look quite authentic. The grain-effect came out well, and these are one of the props I'm most proud of. The only criticism I would have is that they were a little heavy; maybe a lighter wood could have been a better choice? I don't think foam would have had the right consistency, and wood was already the right shapes I needed in order to form the base and the borders for the chalkboards, so in this case a kind of flat, light wood was the ideal material.

Credit: This was a prop I completed on my own, as similarly to the axe prop, not a lot of work was needed to get these from a start point to completion.

Rocket Final: TV Production Prop

Final firework prop for the history round of 'Teach Em' a Lesson' produced by the TV Production students at UCA.

Credit: This was a prop I only helped to finish by sourcing the fabric for the flames and cutting them to shape. Louise did all the making and painting of this prop to the extent of my knowledge.
I then took the final portfolio photos as seen above.

Axe Final: TV Production Prop

Final axe prop for the history round of 'Teach Em' a Lesson'; Produced by the Television Production students at UCA.

- Wooden handle shaped on a lathe.
- Foam blade, hand shaped.
- Silver metal effect obtained through buffing with graphite powder.

Overall I'm happy with the general scale of the prop, but there are a few improvements I would make in retrospect.
Creating the handle out of MDF would have made the 'blade' thinner and a lot less chunky looking. It would have also been easier to create symmetry through a thinner base material.
Carving designs or text relevant to the historic period also could have improved this prop, but with the available time and medium that the prop would have been seen in, I don't think it would've been worth this small detail.

Credit: I completed this from start to finish. This was a fairly easy prop to get done quickly so it only needed one person working on it.

Further prop work; Teach Em' A Lesson

Further props that I worked on collaboratively are pictured above. These are historic props that people either started and didn't have time to finish or were simultaneously working on other projects at the time.

(Top two images) The chest was a box made to contain all of the historic props so they could be brought onto set easily and quickly during a quick break. To go with the historic theme, we decided on an old chest or trunk design, and used the technique of base coating, then a rocker to create a grain in a darker colour.

(Bottom left) The Medusa head was left painted and with hair pinned in. With the prop being handled on the show, glueing the ribbons down to the head would be a safer alternative to sharp pins. Someone had already tried this using the wrong adhesive, therefore beginning to melt through the polystyrene.

(Bottom right) The rocket needed 'fire' coming out of it as a finishing touch, so I made a paper template before finding off-cuts of light lilac and sparkly red fabrics.

Oversized chalkboard props.

 Chalkboards x2 were requested as part of the school themed oversized props for a game planned to be in the 'Teach Em' A Lesson' gameshow.
As these are props I knew I could get done in a day and to a good standard, I opted to the this mini-project on solo, especially at this point the deadline was quite close. Getting props done efficiently without lacking in quality or safety was priority.
To the left shows the measurements on a piece of MDF for the chalkboard and the borders.

 Once cut out on a bandsaw, the separate pieces were painted. For the grey chalkboard base I made sure to use the same paint that was being used for the set itself, so the colours would match up. These were then left to dry, but as MDF is quite porous this didn't take long.

Once all dry, washes were brushed over the borders and then a rocker was used to create a 'grain' through them, emulating real wood planks. The pieces were stuck together with wood glue and left to dry, then the corners were rounded by eye on a belt sander.

 

 The finishing touches included making the chalkboards look used by drawing on them in actual chalk. A glaze could then have been brushed over to stop the chalk from rubbing off but I went without in case the Production students would prefer them to be blank or have a different image on them, in which case the chalk can simply be rubbed off. The backs and sides were also painted as I realised these props would be getting picked up and moved, so the front wouldn't be the only angle getting seen, so every angle was covered and patterns just incase.

Henry VIII's axe; Teach Em' a Lesson.

 For the history quiz round of 'Teach Em' a Lesson' several specified props were commissioned, one of these was a props to represent Henry VIII. As a group we decided that a small axe to symbolise the execution of his wives and his ruthless attitude would work well. I decided to make this out of foam and wood, as opposed to MDF alone, as this way it would look slightly more cartoonish and match the rest of the set and props style. I feel if it looked very realistic it could have looked out of place.

Marking out the width of the handle and the shape of the blade was the first stage. The diagonal lines in the image above represent where there would be an angle carved into the foam to begin creating shape.
To the left shows the final measured lines and the arrows indicated to me which lines to follow.

 Once carved and hand sanded I also hollowed out a hole in the base for the handle to stick into later on. To get the axe symmetrical was the hardest part of this process. Once I was happy with the shape a few layers of white paint were applied as a base coat.

 After a few failed attempts of trying to carve out a shape for the top of the handle, a technician introduced me to the lathe. This fixed up my errors and produced a channel to use as guidance for shaping the handle further.

After buffing with graphite powder, glossing and staining the handle, the axe prop is finished! I'm pleased with the coloration of the 'metal' and the introduction to the lathe machine. However, if I do something similar to this again, reference pictures of every angle would be something I bring with me rather than just ones from the side, as these would have been very useful. Further research into blade shapes and widths would also have been handy, but for a small prop seen on a TV screen for a few seconds, this amount of detail wasn't necessary with a project so fast paced.

Guildhall: Prop casting

To create the axe head for the top of the log a fast cast resin was used in a silicone mould that Alex has previously made. Using a two part resin of polyol and isocyanate, the ratio used was 1:1. After measuring out and combining the two parts, this was then poured into the mould, allowing it around 15-20 minutes to go off.
Left: The resin type used, (for my own future reference)
Right: A silicone mould with resin inside, waiting for it to go off. A previously made hammer head is on the table next to it.

Multiple hammer heads had to be made as air bubbles kept forming, and those wouldn't have been a good enough quality for this commission. Therefore casts were made until one went off without forming any air bubbles.

Before and After: Axe Head

Demonstrative images showing the before and after effects of buffing the axe head with wire wool and bronze powder.

Photoshoot 1

Four final images, taken myself in the first of two photo shoots. At this point, the chest plate had no back piece so only photos from the front were available when it was being worn. The helmet was already sourced and painted, but the colour was a little too light, and the shoulder plate had yet to be finished or attached to the chest piece. This photo shoot was organised to ensure I had professional photos for portfolio, but was carried out while I was still applying finishing touches to the costume! So overall I made time for two separate shoots, one that now shows progression and one with the final completed outfit.

Props; Titanic Sign.

Process from beginning to end of a 'Titanic Sign' made at university; Part of our props term that focusses on a different project each week.



- Designed to suit one of the Titanic's life boats.




- Made to look like rusting bronze and iron. 




- Originally made in MDF, then cast in rubber silicone.




- Final prop made of fast cast resin, then painted. 





 - Painting techniques used where dry brushing, sponging, and using wire wool to wear through different layers of colour.



- The images show, (in order:) 1. Body filler being applied to the MDF base to fill in the gaps between lettering and back board. 
2. Resin cast after just being removed from silicone mould.
3. Bronze spray paint and black emulsion paint dried and weathered.
4. Final painted piece. 



- Overall I'm really happy with this sample. I wanted to make a piece that looked as it if was made of metal that had been naturally weathered by salt water, and I feel I achieved this.