# In movies, how do prop departments plan for retakes with destructible props?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-how-do-prop-departments-plan-for-retakes-with-destructible-props/702137
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [October 22, 2014, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-how-do-prop-departments-plan-for-retakes-with-destructible-props/702137 "2014-10-22T11:18:28Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2014, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-how-do-prop-departments-plan-for-retakes-with-destructible-props/702137/1 "2014-10-22T11:18:28Z")
Say you have a scene in a movie where the actor rips open a present, crashes a car, [floods a nuclear power plant](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juFZh92MUOY) or otherwise destroys a prop as part of a scene. For every scene, there’s the possibility that something could go wrong and so you might need to do retakes which means you need multiples of any prop. If you’re the prop department, how is this typically handled?
Is there some rule of thumb about how many duplicates need to be on set for a scene? If you’re an actor, does filming a scene with a destructible plot cause an extra amount of stress since you know you only get a limited number of takes? What’s the contingency plan if you end up not getting the shot & how often does this happen? Do movies ever get rewritten because a certain shot couldn’t be captured?
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### Author:  [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2014, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-how-do-prop-departments-plan-for-retakes-with-destructible-props/702137/2 "2014-10-22T11:22:56Z")
For the huge practical effects, I think they are just planned extremely intricately such that mistakes will be rare. When they do happen, they’ll just have to suck it up and re-do it, or take the existing footage and do what they can with it. Or do it digitally.
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### Author:  [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2014, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-how-do-prop-departments-plan-for-retakes-with-destructible-props/702137/3 "2014-10-22T11:34:38Z")
I recall back around 1983, when Christian Bale and I were both thirteen, seeing a TV program about the making of his then-current film _Empire of the Sun_. There’s a big scene where the Japanese Air Force attacks Shanghai, and the Bale character watches from a rooftop. He lets out a yell of boyish enthusiasm.
We see Spielberg unsatisfied with Bale’s performance – not enthusiastic enough – and they have to re-shoot, but quickly, before the smoke in the air dissipates (from supposedly shot-down planes, and on the “bombed” areas in the distance). I remember feeling sad for the young actor, but to his credit he gathered himself together and pulled off the second take just right.
Anyway, an example of a technically complex scene that did require careful planning and hopes for needing only one take, but where a second take was possible. I suppose the director’s ability to see a “rush” of the scene just after filming was crucial.
Nowadays, with CGI, this whole scenario might have played out differently, but I hope not. Can’t beat authentic planes and real smoke.
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### Author:  [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2014, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-how-do-prop-departments-plan-for-retakes-with-destructible-props/702137/4 "2014-10-22T11:50:05Z")
The [original ending](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Strangelove#Original_ending:_the_pie_fight) of _Dr. Strangelove_ was supposed to involve a pie fight, but the scene didn’t work out the way Kubrick planned (it was supposed to be played straight but the actors started laughing) and there was no way to do a retake, so it didn’t make the final cut.
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### Author:  [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2014, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-how-do-prop-departments-plan-for-retakes-with-destructible-props/702137/5 "2014-10-22T11:50:11Z")
I guess I’m interested in more mundane, low key props. Like, if the scene calls for someone to smash a watermelon, how many watermelons are on set? What happens to all of the unsmashed ones? What if it’s smashing a piano instead of a watermelon?
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2014, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-how-do-prop-departments-plan-for-retakes-with-destructible-props/702137/6 "2014-10-22T12:34:34Z")
There are always multiple small props ready to go for scenes that require damaging them. But for big scenes like explosions and crashes it’s usually just a one-time deal, and so they rely on experience, research, practising on test versions, simulations, and crossing their fingers. They set up multiple cameras to get most, if not all, of the scene giving them multiple options to edit it together and cut around any part that may fail.
Digital compositing helps with exaggerating an effect, and covering up parts that go wrong, or piecing together something from disparate parts, but a lot of them do try to avoid having to do that even now, if they can.
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### Author:  [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2014, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-how-do-prop-departments-plan-for-retakes-with-destructible-props/702137/7 "2014-10-22T13:38:04Z")
> [@Shoeless](#):
>
> The [original ending](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Strangelove#Original_ending:_the_pie_fight) of _Dr. Strangelove_ was supposed to involve a pie fight, but the scene didn’t work out the way Kubrick planned (it was supposed to be played straight but the actors started laughing) and there was no way to do a retake, so it didn’t make the final cut.
Given how many takes he wants when he shoots, it was probably for the best.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2014, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-how-do-prop-departments-plan-for-retakes-with-destructible-props/702137/8 "2014-10-22T13:54:10Z")
I know in theater work you have extra props based on their ease of fabrication. A present to be ripped open, for example, is easily replicated, so you might have an extra one behind the camera for retakes, or just re-wrap the the first prop. If cars are used/destroyed there are usually several different ones used (shooting cars with no windshield, distance car for driving, rigged car for the crash, etc.) If they screw up the crash, they re-rig one of the other cars and do it again. Flood a nuclear plant wrong and they either fix it with CGI or re-write the script.
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### Author:  [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2014, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-how-do-prop-departments-plan-for-retakes-with-destructible-props/702137/9 "2014-10-22T14:07:29Z")
The props you’re talking about (at least the smallish ones) are called “practicals” (or at least they were when I was doing stage theatre) and I imagine that experienced tv/movie props techs get pretty savvy about how many of something they might need after a few years of work experience.
Edible practicals are easy - Most “food” on set now isn’t actually food unless a main character interacts with it, and even then it might not be real food unless they eat it onscreen. Actors are trained to only take the minimum number and size of bites or to pantomime realistically, and the plates and glasses get re-plated and re-filled for each take.
Leftovers (say a giant banquet scene, or a scene at dinner) are usually gifted to a local food bank for the additional tax write-off and local goodwill.
If something is really easy or cheap to have/make, or if it is part of a tricky scene, I can imagine there would be several prepared and waiting. A good example of this would be a birthday-candle-blowing-out scene. There’s lots of ways for that to screw up, and you don’t want to pay your talent to mess with their smartphones while the techs fix frosting and replace candles - just bring the next whole cake out and get on with it.
I think that fast or clever cutting can help with this also, in addition to straight CG after-effects. If you have a scene where a character is reacting to something in their hand, and the something in their hand doesn’t work right, just keep the cut of their facial expression, and then later go back and insert a shot of an extra or a tech (or even the actor themselves if you have time) with the correct or repaired thingie that they’re reacting to.
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### Author:  [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2014, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-how-do-prop-departments-plan-for-retakes-with-destructible-props/702137/10 "2014-10-22T14:38:25Z")
Incidentally, some guy on Reddit just posted about some [Lego towers he built for a recent episode of Brooklyn Nine Nine](https://imgur.com/a/khn83). Terry Crews smashed them in a scene. He built a few prototypes and once the director signed off, he built three of them. Then he did an [AMA thread](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2jxrbs/iama_guy_who_built_the_lego_tower_that_was/).
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### Author:  [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2014, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-how-do-prop-departments-plan-for-retakes-with-destructible-props/702137/11 "2014-10-22T14:41:24Z")
I also suspect that there’s a pretty big element of working around what actually happens, as long as it’s not critical to the plot.
I mean, if the actor’s opening a present, and he fumbles a bit with the ribbon, that’s not necessarily unrealistic or a reason to reshoot the scene. Same thing with car wrecks- unless the wrecked car blocks the chase scene, I bet they just roll with however it ends up.
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### Author:  [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2014, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-how-do-prop-departments-plan-for-retakes-with-destructible-props/702137/12 "2014-10-22T15:09:10Z")
The other thing you can do with big effects shots is to use lots of cameras. If you use a wide angle, a tracking shot, an in car camera, a shot from a crane, aerial shot etc., you can edit something something good together even if it’s only one non perfect take.
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### Author:  [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2014, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-how-do-prop-departments-plan-for-retakes-with-destructible-props/702137/13 "2014-10-22T15:32:54Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#):
>
> I guess I’m interested in more mundane, low key props. Like, if the scene calls for someone to smash a watermelon, how many watermelons are on set? What happens to all of the unsmashed ones? What if it’s smashing a piano instead of a watermelon?
In regards to watermelons, I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately too. Because you don’t just have to re-smash the watermelon you also need actors in clean clothes and set pieces to be watermelon-free.
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### Author:  [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2014, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-how-do-prop-departments-plan-for-retakes-with-destructible-props/702137/14 "2014-10-22T17:04:48Z")
> [@Lasciel](#):
>
> . . . Edible practicals are easy - Most “food” on set now isn’t actually food unless a main character interacts with it, and even then it might not be real food unless they eat it onscreen. Actors are trained to only take the minimum number and size of bites or to pantomime realistically, and the plates and glasses get re-plated and re-filled for each take. . . .
Reminds me of a factoid from a tour at Universal. Apparently the hot lights make ice cream melt almost immediately, so they usually use something else. For Columbo, it was mashed potatoes in that ice cream cone.
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### Author:  [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2014, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-how-do-prop-departments-plan-for-retakes-with-destructible-props/702137/15 "2014-10-22T17:31:52Z")
For presents, ever notice how on TV everyone wraps the boxtop separately from the box, instead of wrapping the whole box? That way if they need to redo they just tie the ribbon back on instead of rewrapping the whole present.
It’s as irritating to me as hearing a 555 number.
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### Author:  [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2014, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-how-do-prop-departments-plan-for-retakes-with-destructible-props/702137/16 "2014-10-22T17:35:33Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#):
>
> In regards to watermelons, I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately too. Because you don’t just have to re-smash the watermelon you also need actors in clean clothes and set pieces to be watermelon-free.
I would bet they do a couple of dry runs and then smash the watermelon.
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### Author:  [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2014, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-how-do-prop-departments-plan-for-retakes-with-destructible-props/702137/17 "2014-10-22T17:59:05Z")
Cecil B. DeMille had an experience with “only one chance” shots.
> [@From IMDB](#):
>
> DeMille is the subject of many Hollywood legends. According to one famous story, DeMille once directed a film that required a huge, expensive battle scene. Filming on location in a California valley, the director set up multiple cameras to capture the action from every angle. It was a sequence that could only be done once. When DeMille yelled “Action!,” thousands of extras playing soldiers stormed across the field, firing their guns. Riders on horseback galloped over the hills. Cannons fired, pyrotechnic explosives were blown up, and battle towers loaded with soldiers came toppling down. The whole sequence went off perfectly. At the end of the scene, DeMille yelled “Cut!” He was then informed, to his horror, that three of the four cameras recording the battle sequence had failed. In Camera #1, the film had broken. Camera #2 had missed shooting the sequence when a dirt clod was kicked into the lens by a horse’s hoof. Camera #3 had been destroyed when a battle tower had fallen on it. DeMille was at his wit’s end when he suddenly remembered that he still had Camera #4, which he had had placed along with a cameraman on a nearby hill to get a long shot of the battle sequence. DeMille grabbed his megaphone and called up to the cameraman, “Did you get all that?” The cameraman on the hill waved and shouted back, “Ready when you are, C.B.!”
> **[Cecil B. DeMille - Biography - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001124/bio/)**
>
> Cecil B. DeMille. Producer: The Ten Commandments. His parents Henry C. DeMille and Beatrice DeMille were playwrights. His father died when he was 12, and his mother supported the family by opening a school for girls and a theatrical company. Too...
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### Author:  [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2014, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-how-do-prop-departments-plan-for-retakes-with-destructible-props/702137/18 "2014-10-22T18:16:14Z")
OK Go often posts behind the scenes videos for the music videos. For “The Writing’s On The Wall”, one band member gets paint dribbled onto him. For the behind the scenes, you can see him getting cleaned up between takes, and the crew reclaiming the paint to load back into the hopped and re-use.
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### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2014, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-how-do-prop-departments-plan-for-retakes-with-destructible-props/702137/19 "2014-10-22T18:36:34Z")
> [@Lemur866](#):
>
> For presents, ever notice how on TV everyone wraps the boxtop separately from the box, instead of wrapping the whole box? That way if they need to redo they just tie the ribbon back on instead of rewrapping the whole present.
>
> It’s as irritating to me as hearing a 555 number.
There is never any coffee in any cup, ever.
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### Author:  [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2014, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-how-do-prop-departments-plan-for-retakes-with-destructible-props/702137/20 "2014-10-22T19:42:46Z")
> [@Lasciel](#):
>
> Actors are trained to only take the minimum number and size of bites or to pantomime realistically, and the plates and glasses get re-plated and re-filled for each take.
Poor [Bill Murray](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIsNwzgXTXY).
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