Movie Prop Design Advice (Industrial Design Student)

[Jonathan82389]

I am a 4th year senior industrial design student at New Jersey's Institute of Technology. For my thesis project, I am looking to focus on movie prop design. I am researching what I can, but I feel as though it is more of something that I need to do first hand rather than look up on the computer. However I am still looking for design studios that do this field of design. I am most interested in the sci-fi category because of its futuristic qualities and conceptual thinking that takes place to create such wild designs. Do you have any advice on possible project ideas I could work on? I've been reading movie scripts, but the movie has already been done, along with the movie props. Any of your input would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

 

[OzDean]

There was a book called Roofworld where gangs had moved to the rooftops to live. They had these cool guns that fired coins. Silent but very deadly. I reckon it would be pretty cool to see that.

 

[jackdoud]

As you say, any movie based item has already been made as a prop. I'd suggest picking something from a novel that only has a description of the item and it's function. Something like a computer deck from "Snow Crash" or Ray Gun from "The Cat Who Walked Through Walls".

 

[TheDoctor]

You could always "reimagine" a prop. So many props, especially scifi props, look dated 5 - 10 years later. Even many Trek props look dated (look at how Abrams updated Trek, yet still the props look dated according to current tech).

There are movies where the tech is obviously outdated, but somehow fits (example: Bladerunner... It wouldn't feel right to remake Bladerunner with people walking around with iPads and other sleek gadgets).

One word of advice, though, uniformity looks just as mis-placed as forced futurism. Not every piece of technology is at the same stage of development, or developed by the same company/country. This is probably okay for something like Trek where it's standard-issue made by Starfleet, but would make less sense in a movie like Minority Report, where every surface sparkled. MiB also made little sense, from this perspective, because they had tech from all over the Galexy, but everybody, apparently, manufactures in chrome across the stars.

 

[GuntahKela]

As an Industrial design major, myself, I've always been fascinated over Iron Man, (Comics, Cartoons, movies) and Terminator. Iron man because an exo armored suit that enhances your physical qualities isn't impossible, and very likely to be used as a weapon, like all inventions.

Before Iron Man, these used to be the reasons why I liked Robocop so much, although Iron Man is a more realistic scenario.

Terminator because, opposite to Iron Man, it has an Endo Skeleton with superior qualities than human. These, someday, will be the future of medical science and high-tech prosthesis, if not weapons, too.

When it comes to Industrial design, we study the subject the product we are designing for will use. People, most of the time. Then, we design the product to aid and enrich the subject's life. When you end up deciding which movie or book's tech you will focus on, make sure it is one that affects real people, directly. Something like designing Superman's unbreakable toothbrush could be an interesting "what if" project, but not something useful in real life, with everyday people.

This is the main reason why I like Nolan's Batman better than any of the other Batman films: Bruce Wayne, a human with not super-powers, is a high-tech urban soldier suited-up with arsenal developed for the US army. Everything in his suit has a function. I'm not too crazy over gliding with a cape, although it seems they are, indeed, developing this product, but his armor is something soldiers could benefit from.

There is a TV show that studies Super-Heroes powers and gear with realistic analysis. They have a few of these on youtube. Here's one: Batman Tech:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BXPOENATC8