• Film Props & Equipment

    In High School and College, I made films with my friends. Often better than the actual films were the props and equipment we made for them.

    a green screen suspended from a self-standing frame

    Green screen suspended from a standing frame

  • The Stargate
    (Spring 2016)

    In High School, my friends and I shot a Stargate fan film. For it, I constructed a 6 foot diameter portal prop.

    I built the underlying structure from ½” EMT, which I bent into an octagon. I adhered this frame to a foamboard backing around which I constructed the cardboard and foamboard shape.

    To strengthen the prop, fill in gaps, and make it water resistant for outdoor scenes, I laid a urethane-paper machée overtop. This process is effectively the same as regular paper machée, but uses polyurethane in place of pva glue.

    Finally, I finished it with a rock-texture spray paint and wrapped copper-color painted string around 5 points of the prop for the banding.

    • cardboard and foamboard being formed around an octagonal metal frame.
    • a portal prop covered in urethane-newspaper mach&eacutee
    • a portal prop painted with gray rock-texture paint
    • a gray portal prop with 5 copper colored bands
    • a portal prop standing upright against a shelf

    Building the stargate

  • Green Screen Frame

    My friend and I made a green screen from construction paper and gaff tape, but we were always having issues finding things to hang it from.

    I built this frame from ½” EMT and scrap plywood. It comes apart in several places with thumb screws, allowing the frame to be more easily stored or even transported in the back seat of my car.

    • a metal frame with a green screen rolled up at one end
    • a metal frame with a green screen laid over it
    • a green screen suspended from a self-standing frame

    Top to Bottom: the frame, the greenscreen laid over the frame, and the greenscreen suspended from the standing frame

  • Fred

    Fred began life as a leg model for my first freshman design project. After our final presentation, I continued building more of him, using my own body for reference. Piece by piece, he took form as a whole man.

    • a cardboard leg form modeling a black pouch
    • a pair of taped-together legs made of cardboard

    Fred's humble beginnings (Left) and Fred finally standing on his own two feet (Right)

    Fred was useful to have around when we needed to film something a normal human could not, like falling from a great height, or even when we just needed another body on set.

    a man and a dummy sitting next to each other on a couch, dressed in similar clothing

    Fred sitting next to an actor he will double for

  • Tunnel in the Wall
    (Summer 2019)

    In one film, a character finds a mysterious door behind his couch that leads to a tunnel. To avoid the highly impractical and costly process of digging an actual tunnel, I used a separate tunnel set and editing to craft the effect.

    • a small door that says enter to play
    • two surprised people look into what appears to be a tunnel

    The door (Top), and what appears to be a shot from inside the tunnel (Bottom).

    I built the tunnel structure out of scrap wood and foamboard. I then lined it with garbage bags to give it a dark, mysterious look.

    I built a second shorter tunnel in the same room as the other door scenes. When the shot is reversed it appears as if we are looking into the room from a tunnel bored in the wall, though in fact the tunnel and camera are both in front of the wall.

    • a platform flanked by foamboard
    • a dark tunnel
    • a person climbing into a dark tunnel

    The structure of the tunnel (Left), and the tunnel, which might as well be pitch black (Right)

    a decorative dingbat