I have been lurking the RPF for a few years and have seen some very impressive work. There are many talented people here. I thought perhaps I should post some stuff on this thread.
I have been making props and costume for Hollywood for over 30 years. I started in the film business in Tucson Ariz. in 1979 doing Make up and working as a stuntman at “Old Tucson”, a movie location just west of the city.
But I didn't really do anything of significance until 1981 when I moved to LA. I had been doing makeup from age 16 but was never a very good sculptor, so I concentrated on mechanics. After interviews with Rick Baker, Stan Winston & Tom Burman, who were all looking for sculptors, it was suggested that I look into prop making. It never occurred to me that props were built custom. (When I was growing up, there were no magazines like: “Famous prop monsters of Filmland” or “StarProps”) My first Job was at "The Hand Prop Room" making props. I worked there in 1981-83 then again in1984-86. There I worked on many films and TV shows, most I don’t remember. On occasion I’ll see some show and realize, “Huh!?, I made that.”. Some titles I do remember are: "Dead Men don't wear Plaid", “The Natural”, “Fantasy Island” ,”T.J. Hooker”, “Mommie Dearest”, “Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins”, “Let’s get Harry”, “Mystic Warrior”, “Amerika”, “Modern Problems”, “Cocoon”, Mr. Mom”, “The color Purple”, “3 Amigo’s” “Hunter” and many more I don’t remember.
In between my stints at HPR, I was hired by Ellis Mercantile, another big prop house in LA (gone now) to design weapons for a film called “Ice Pirates” after doing the designs I was told I was to set up a shop and supervise the building of the laser guns, swords and other props for the film. It was a crazy amount of stuff to build and I had to “set up” a shop, since Ellis only had a small maintenance shop. Luckily, another guy was brought in, Rick Lazzarini, who had been building props for Ellis. We put together a crew and cranked out dozens of guns, swords and Space Herpes eggs.
After this show I worked at a number of shops including Independent studios (ISS) where a funny thing happened. They have big storage lockers for the prop masters to store their gear in. One day I needed some black spray paint for something going out in a rush. Well Craig Raiche, (The prop master of Poltergeist) had a locker there and I asked him if he had any paint I could use. He said, yeah, check my prop box in the back corner of my locker. And he tossed me his keys. I’m in the locker fumbling around in the dark trying to find his locker and I realize I’m stepping on something squishy. Craig hears my mumbling and yells “there is a light on the ceiling with a pull string” I find the string above my head and while I’m looking down to see what I’m standing on, I turn on the light. Craig hears my yelp (manly scream) “Oh, I bet you found the clown!” he says. I had been standing on the clown from Poltergeist. It scared the crap out of me. I come out and give him his keys and he says, Yeah he’s (the clown) has done that to a number of people. I guess I should put him in a box.”
In June of 1986 I quit HPR and started my own company, “Diligent Dwarves Effects Lab”
I had done a job as DDEL a in 1983 making a fake arm to get bitten off by an alligator for the film “Romancing and the Stone”. Starting with my brother in his garage we did “Masters of the Universe”, The Predator”, “Witches of Eastwick”. We eventually moved to a shop in North Hollywood and currently we are next door to our first NH shop. Some other films I have worked on since then are (in no particular order): Hook, Bram Stokers Dracula, Beverly Hills Cop III, The Mask, Star Trek TMG, Escape from LA, Nightmare on Elm Street III, Mars Attacks, Armageddon, Deep Impact, Space Cowboys, The Watchmen, Ghost Rider II, Pirates of the Caribbean, Big Bang Theory, (A more complete list can be found here
Portfolio - Global Effects Inc.)
In 1991 I won an Academy Award for the development of the Actor Climate system, a cooling suit for under heavy costumes. I originally built it in 1986 for my friend Kevin Peter Hall, who was concerned about wearing a full rubber suit in the jungles of Mexico for Predator.
I am currently semi-retired from film work as my attention is now focused on building functional spacesuits for the Commercial space industry. I have been a consultant for NASA, SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, XCOR aerospace, Transformational Space, Hamilton Sunstrand and currently Orbital Outfitters, where I’m their chief designer. We are currently building, a new multimillion dollar facility in Midland Texas.
Global Effects still continues building costumes and props for the film industry and some recent projects include The Purge II, The Signal and Little Boy.
I’ll be happy to answer any questions I can on some of our past projects.
If there is enough interest, Global Effects is considering a series of prop & costume manufacturing technique classes this year. The plan is to cover many of the traditional skills you need in prop building, from mold making, thermo forming, Pattern making and fiberglass. Although classes covering these subjects have been available, they are most often geared for makeup effects. However the prop and costume profession has different requirements and often very different techniques.
Hope this wasn’t too long a post.
Chris Gilman