PROP PERSON
The Prop Master or Prop Person is often a neglected
position, especially on a low budget production. The film maker with
the limited budget says, "Use whatever we got in the scene!"
The art director is horrified. "But the story takes place in the
sixties, this is a seventy-five Ford!" "OK, OK," says the director,
"Where's the writer, can we push the story forward?"
Everything in a scene beside the actors and the buildings,
is the concern of the Prop Person. A half-smoked cigarette has to be
maintained at that point even if the scene is resumed half an hour
later. The Prop Person, with the help of the continuity person,
provides a half smoked cigarette when the scene resumes.
The arrangement and type of knickknacks on a table or desk have to
match or be in accordance with what the script calls for.
Some genres, like science fiction or period pieces, require
a great deal of props. Space ship sets with all the paraphernalia of
space gadgets and monitors have to be painstakingly researched,
selected, rented and oftentimes built.
On low budget productions the amount of money a Prop Person is
authorized to use is a joke.
As a result of this phenomenon the Prop Person is the source of some of
the funniest stories of the movie business.
I don't remember who told this story, but on one Roger Corman picture
the same wooden grenade had to be tossed and retrieved several times,
to get the necessary number of shots. They didn't have the budget to
even make a couple of extra wooden grenades!