As those in the biz will vehemently attest, supplying props for film and television involves much more than ransacking the toy and houseware sections of the local dollar store. In fact, according to Creative Props’ Marcia Naiman, much care and detailed attention is put into the construction of just about every item seen on the screen. From guns to vases to fake food, Naiman says every prop coming out of her small Vancouver prop shop is constructed from scratch.

Currently consisting of three staffers (with the exception of freelancers brought in for bigger jobs), Creative Props was founded in the mid-1980s by Naiman and partner Ty Schultz. Despite remaining small, Creative Props has churned out props for a large number of television and film projects.

‘We stayed fairly specialized, so we can do the best job we can by doing fewer things,’ says Naiman. ‘We haven’t tried to take on everything.’

The custom prop-makers have constructed everything from rubber knives and guns, to replica food (hamburgers, steaks and sushi), to vases and stemware and break-away glass. Naiman says her break-away expertise proved handy for the Wayans brothers while they shot the hit feature Scary Movie.

‘We did all of their break-away,’ says Naiman. ‘There are huge scenes where they just crash and bash everything and we did all the break-away lamps and all of the vases for that. We also did a lot of rubber weapons, rubber guns, rubber knives, rubber hatchets and cleavers.’

Similarly, Creative Props contributed a number of different rubber swords and assorted weapons to The 13th Warrior.

For television, Creative Props did a lot of work for Fox’s The X-Files and the Millennium series. One of Naiman’s and Schultz’s more challenging projects was constructing the infamous alien in the ice block for The X-Files. But asked what would be the single most bizarre prop they have ever built, Naiman says there is a clear-cut answer.

‘It was the giant fly we had to do for Wes Craven on Nightmare Cafe,’ admits Naiman. ‘He [the fly] was about three-and-a-half feet long and had plastic wings, and I sculpted the body. He had to hang and fly into frame. It was a very short-lived series, but it was heavy on props, so it was fun.’

Opportunities in horror

Currently, Creative Props is designing and creating props for a number of films shooting in Vancouver, including Saving Silverman and a slasher film called Valentine. Naiman says slasher and horror films are often favorites of the folks at Creative Props.

‘I don’t know if they are that much fun, but they are fine for us because we are always behind the scenes, and they are great prop movies,’ says Naiman. ‘They always need protection and they always need rubber things to make sure the actors and stunt guys are safe. They are very lucrative for us.’

She adds there is a similar kinship between prop makers and comedy films.

‘Comedies are great too because of the gags,’ she says. ‘When we were doing Wrongfully Accused and Mr. Magoo [both starring Canadian actor Leslie Nielsen], there were a lot of things we had to do to protect Nielsen and protect the other actors. That is our main job: to make sure the things we make are safe so that the people are safe. Gag movies and comedies are great.’

Naiman says one of the biggest challenges she finds in her business is the ever-present turnaround factor.

‘The most challenging thing about our part of the business is the fact that there is not much time,’ says Naiman. ‘If they don’t have it when they need it, you just can’t disrupt shooting schedules costing $100,000 a minute. Therefore it is challenging to make very complex things in the time frame we have. We are not given that much time.’ *