From March of 2019 to February of 2020, I had the amazing opportunity to work as an assistant prop master at the LDS Motion Picture Studio in Provo, Utah. I worked under the watchful eye of head prop master, Bruce Wing, who has worked on many films and tv shows such as John Carter (2012), Halloween 4 (1988), Halloween 5 (1989), Little Women (2018), Studio C (2010-2013), and many more.
During my time at the LDS Motion Picture Studio, I learned a lot about prop production for film as well as other aspects of art in the film industry. The props I worked on are featured throughout seasons 2 and 3 of the Book of Mormon Video Library produced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints. The videos have accumulated millions of views worldwide on YouTube as well as on thechurchofjesuschrist.org.
When the prop department was asked to make a prop or something, we would be asked to do research to make sure that our designs would be "period", meaning that it was era appropriate and would actually look like something used by ancient Native Americans. We would consult other artists and combine our research with theirs to come up with different concepts, color schemes, textures, etc. we ended up with a binder full of research conducted by myself and a few other prop makers and artists in the studio. The binder was about 300 pages thick, but these are just a few of the pages/art/designs that we came up with.
When it came to building props, I would kind of hop around and do it all. It just depended on what Bruce Wing, the head prop master wanted. But mostly, I was tasked with creating weapons that looked like they might be used by ancient Native Americans.
While I did create a lot of the weapons are featured on-screen, I also created things like the brass plates that are featured in the opening sequence of every Book of Mormon video. I also created other "Scripture-like" books that would be used by actors on-screen.
Here are a few photos of the actors wearing and using some of the props that I and the other Prop artists made. It was fun to see our stuff be put into action! Being on-set and seeing all of our hard work come to fruition was so rewarding and such a great experience.
I also got to make some of the non-prop set stuff, too. This is where I first learned how to sculpt with foam.
I am responsible for designing, modeling, and 3D printing the jaguar mug that is featured in the scene with King Noah in the episode where Abinadi testifies of Jesus Christ.
Other various props I helped make.
We were a tight-knit group and I would have lots of fun with my coworkers. This is a video of one of my coworkers testing out one of the leather sling shots we made that day.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints built and owns a Jerusalem set that is located in Goshen, Utah. It's a very private, closed-off set that not very many people are able to see it, so it was an honor to be able to work on it.
Once we finished building our props, we transported them over to the set and delegated them to the actors when filming began. I would include whole videos, but I don't want to violate any of the church's copywrites. The prop department also helped the set designers convert many areas of the Jerusalem set into what would be called the "Zarahemla set."
Here are a few photos that were taken on set with all of the actors, crew, and everything ready for filming. Seeing everything come together was so cool. It was so rewarding to see the actors in costume, holding and using the props that I helped to make.
