#3 Props Hunt

Today we met in the warehouse to source out props and furniture. We found a big desk that will function perfectly as our bar. The desk has three sections, which means we can angle it in any way, possibly differently for each show. It has a really nice wooden top, however the bottom is plane pine and has holes cut into it, I thought covering the front with rusty corrugated iron would work really well with the Mexican theme. Sourcing corrugated iron would be difficult. The warehouse has some bamboo blinds that would work nicely in front of the bar, if we could cut it to size and paint it.

There are no shelves in the warehouse suitable for our alcohol bottles for behind the bar. It was mentioned to use the ‘robot’ pillars from Kids Show, and put planks of wood in between them to serve as shelves. We need to cover the back of them with either a lightweight fabric or translucent paper. Translucent tracing paper was decided. If we wanted to still film action through the bottles on the shelves, a section of the paper couls be fashioned so it is easily removed and replaced.

We went for a drive to Campbells and Vinnies Furniture to source props, ‘random stuff’ and shelves. We found a few old ‘German’ style port bottles going cheap and other nick knacks such as candelabra, pictures in frames and vases. It is hard to start purchasing objects for the dress setting as we don’t have a full idea of the set yet and don’t know where objects will actually fit aesthetically.

We need to draw up a full-scale design for our bar and make a prototype with proper dimensions and flat sizes. There may be an issue with the number of flats to share between groups A and B, although we may actually claim money from TV club to purchase some.

Costumes wise I need to do a proper script analysis and work out characters before deciding on any wardrobes. It would be good to use clothes that the actors already own to keep the budget mainly for the set.