What happens to the stuff from a movie once the movie wraps?
I think there’s a prop warehouse somewhere, but it can’t all be the same stuff reused over and over.
For example- we’re SCAdians studying North Africa and Andalusia. How do we get hold of the tents from Gladiator, or from The Thirteenth Warrior for that matter? Where is the necklace that Sean Connery’s character gace Roxann in The Man Who Would Be King?
For that matter, where does all the spiff architecture go that got built for The Two Towers? I mean, the stuff in Rohan just rocked and it was incredibly intricate. It should be reused. Same with all the intricate embroidery on some of the clothing. And all that chain and scale mail. And the blades. Gorgeous.
Some of this is bound to be actual collector’s items, like Theoden’s sword would drive collectors mad trying to buy it, but what about the stuff nobody (but us!!!) wants?
It varies. Cecil B. DeMille buried a set in the desert. (The Ten Commandments (1923)?)
Studios have huge costume warehouses. After a shoot, the costumes are stored. Of course, some costumes can be used over and over again; WWII uniforms, for example.
Sets are torn down (I can’t imagine that the New Zealanders would want movie sets all over their beautiful country), or if they are on studio property they may be used again. Props may also be stored for later use. Often, the people responsible for making the props, the director, actors, etc. may snag a prop for their own collections.
Remember Damnation Alley, the 1977 post-apocalyptic film that featured an articulated RV? The RV was parked (and may still be parked – I haven’t driven by recently) off of the 101 freeway in Burbank. If it’s stil there (and it probably is), then it’s been there for a couple of decades.
Sometimes studios sell things off. With the introduction of eBay, I think I’ve heard about studio sales of props and costumes from popular films.
There is at least one shop in Hollywood that sells surplus costumes they get from studios.
Most of the background sets you saw in Two Towers are incredibly flimsy, made of plywood with details molded from plaster or latex. They wouldn’t survive the dismantling and shipping, and they certainly wouldn’t stand up to the weather if they weren’t demolished. The fact that you believe the illusion is a testament to the skill of the craftsmen.
:smack: I knew I forgot to put something! Yes, this is true. Sets are usually pretty insubstantial, as Fear Itself said. They don’t have to be stone, for example, but only look like stone when they’re on film and last long enough to finish shooting. I think the special features on the Harry Potter DVD has some good shots of the “stone” Hogwarts set under construction.
As Johnny L.A. said, many props end up on ebay and are snapped up by collectors. Here are the ebay auctions for props that have closed in the past two weeks. Some are reproductions though, you have to be careful.
Elijah Wood has The Ring.
Having been part of a small theatrical group, I can tell you that much of what you see is junk. Literally.
Now, of course short-run, small-town theatrical stuff is a far cry from a $200 million budget blockbuster, but I can tell you it was a lot of work just keeping a small set together long enough for a two-week run.
Rock formations are often blown from spray urethane- once the shoot’s over, the foam is simply sawed up and discarded. Prior to CGI, entire towns might have been mere paintings on glass, and typically the glass was washed clean to reuse for the next movie.
In the X-Men, some of the “claws” used for Wolverine’s scenes were painted balsa wood, so they wouldn’t inflict accidental injury.
The movie The Rocketeer had a significant problem with stage hands swiping the lead character’s leather jackets, even though many of them had large cutaways, slots and gaps for the “flying wire” support harnesses.
Things like blasters, crossbows and other such goodies are often reduced to junk by the end of filming- I recall an article about the “Sandman” pistols used in the movie Logan’s Run. They had to be heavily rebuilt and constantly maintained during filming, and even then, the stagewrights had to build new ones for the TV version, since the old ones simply wouldn’t hold up.
Cars, trucks, motorcyles, boats and such are typically handled on a rental basis by companies who specialize in providing them to movies. Some, like the T-Bird in the latest Bond flick, were provided by Ford, and were returned- partially waterlogged I’m sure- afterward.
Some set pieces are “real”- the temple at the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is a real, prebiblical-era edfidice (though I forget the exact location.) However, such props like the large Anubis statue he toppled in the first movie, was in fact a huge plaster creation which fell over and was crushed. The remnants were, I’m sure, hauled off and dumped.
And as mentioned, some bits are painted latex- often the latex is degraded by it’s own paint, the actor’s sweat, the heat from the massive stage lights, and is damaged by the SFX pyrotechnics. These parts literally only have to last a few days, and then are tossed.
Large studios like Lucasarts can warehouse things like 2,300 Stormtrooper uniforms and two dozen C-3PO costumes, but you can bet that most of the one-off costumes for, say, The Goonies have been long since thrown away.
Thanks! I know most background stuff is faked, and of coyurse some stuff is just destroyed, but some of it must be available still, and now I know at least one place to look.
A freind of mine used to have most of the Hudsucker building prop from Hudsucker Proxy in his basement. It was not in good shape, as it had basically been cut up and thrown in the trash. I believe he ended up throwing it out eventually when he moved.
There are also a number of companies that specialize in renting/selling stuff to different studios and independent production companies for films. That’s why you might see the same blaster, jewelry, costume and six shooter in very different films by very different studios.
In addition the studios will occasionally let actors keep pieces of costumes that they became attached to. Back when I was doing bit work (almost exclusively Westerns) it was occasionally a great deal more practical for them to just give me one or two of the costumes I had worn for six to twenty weeks rather than trying to get the sweat, cow and horse smell out of the stupid things. This is a great deal more common for featured players since their costumes are usually tailored for them rather than bits and virtually never done for extras. If I were only needed for a week or so, I would often show up in my old clothes and the lady in charge of costumes would generally say, “You look fine TV.”
Finally, some sets are more permenent than others. Once again speaking about Westerns. There are a few towns that were literally built as sets of “Old West” films. Old Tucson is a wonderful example. You will see that same set time and time again shot from different angles. There is a place in New Mexico that is coming along too. But my favorite example is Ridgeway, CO. They shot “True Grit” there, and they took a small village in the mountains of Colorado (not that far from Teluride Ski Area although there was no ski area there at the time) and physically converted it to a “Western town” with a western hotel, saloon, eating establishment, funeral home et.al. But the deal was that they do a good enough job that changes would last and they have. That sleepy little village is now a thriving town mostly populated by easterners or Californians who have come though and found the “real” old west nature of the town charming.