So, here's some more ancillary set dressing. Things not really important to the movie but just make help make the characters and world they live in feel more "real." These things aren't necessarily going to be seen up-close or really need to pass any scrutinization, so they can be a bit chintzy and dirty.
The false plates are styrene sheets you can pick up in packs at any hobby/craft store. Funny enough, they're all perfectly sized to match real license plates, they just had square corners. Cut them down, slapped on some quick paint, and applied mailbox sticker lettering (in very basic, unimaginative way) from the hardware store onto them---Boom! Done!
The registration stickers are real and come from my old plates from my own car. Iowa has this new ruling in place where plates need to be renewed every 10 years now, and having kept my old plates, they came with a collection of registration stickers I just kept adding over the expired ones. My goal was to build up the sticker collection so that it jutted from the plate like fridge magnet. That new law killed that dream but the collection found other uses. Shows that it sometimes works out hoarding crap!
To anyone not in the US or bad at US geography, Viola isn't a state in the US. It is, however, the village I'm shooting in and they're really doing a lot in helping me make the movie happen. I thought it only be fair to have the name of the place actually in some place in the movie as a nod to them and their generosity.
These next few pieces are some of what the characters carry on them. The collar and key fob belong to one of the robbers. The collar is made from some junk I found; a sensor for garage doors or something, and a cloth strap for a project that never manifested (plus, one WannaWanga D-ring). The key fob is well, a real key remote from the Dodge Ram truck my stepfather had before he passed. It and the key fob are supposed to resemble a dog shock collar and remote and the fact it's made of junk is worked into the script. The bear was a last minute addition. I originally thought about using some small toys I had just laying around but, looking at it, I thought it should be something cute instead. I guess I was inspired by the bear toy on the set of keys at the end of
Resident Evil 4. I made this little trinket quickly out of Apoxie Sculpt.
And because I can't use real brands, or have to hide the logos, in the movie. One of the characters smokes in the film, so I figured I'd make my own pack of cigarettes. Cigarette box templates can readily be found freely online. I did a quick-n-dirty job of the box art. If Tarantino has his Red Apple Cigarettes, I have my Caramel Sweets.
Finally, these are the latest things I've made. I'm only just waiting on belt clips to arrive to finish them. They're obviously police badges for the county sheriff's department that handles the bank heist (the film is set in a very rural place). Quickly did a sculpt in Apoxie Sculpt based on the sketch I did on styrene on the left of them, and then cast a number of them in that crap resin you find at hobby stores (they have their place and I guess it's here), and cut the leather backings from a scrap of leather from, well, a bag of leather scraps also found at hobby stores. They're not going to be seen up-close, they're gonna be worn on the hips of the extras that are playing officers walking around in the back, so I didn't need to bother with refining and making them look flawless.
The leather, Apoxie, paint, and styrene I already had, so a number of the things made here cost me nothing.
At the moment, I'm trying to calibrate a flowrig harness to see if I can't get it to properly stabilize my camera rigs to not bounce when I walk with it. If I can manage that, that gives me a lot of options for shot choices. Otherwise, I'm considering building a quick and dirty rail system for tracking shots.
