Making movies is a wasteful business.
Back in the day, nothing was thrown out. You’d see the same Greco-Roman pillar in everything from Ben Hur to Caligula. No longer. Everything is either thrown away, or sold to prop houses.
Which makes no sense to me. Why throw out the ten thousand outfits you made for Gladiator, when you’re just going to make Troy a few years later? (Of course, why would you make Troy at all?)
In preparation for a student film (many) years ago, I visited a prop house. The had all kinds of crazy stuff– guns, knives, giant sporting equipment, a painting of Vigo the Carpathian.
The next time Sony (which owns Columbia) wants an old painting of a dude standing on some skulls, they’re going to have to rent it back from the people they sold it to. Does that make any sense?
5 Responses
I hear this. Same story goes for me and I havn’t even worked big budget yet. I’m not hugging trees yet with buddies named whisper, but (like you mentioned in the wasting paper blog) i can’t fathom the waste this “progressively” charged communtiy creates. Leanardo was like Gore’s globalaly warmed fighting sidekick and yet they probably blew up half of africa to make Blood Diamond. Don’t get me wrong, I love movies/wanna make them, but the line has to be drawn somewhere right? Aside from being blacklisted, i think a doc should be made about this.
Why does everybody hate on TROY? I like that movie.
i know, right? Studios complain that they have to spend $$$ on budgets, yet they don’t save those shit you mentioned.
Theatre companies save themselves by recycling props and costumes, so why can’t studios do that, too?
morons.
I want that painting so bad. It would really pull my living room together.
When we finished shooting Iron Will they loaded up three tractor trailers with props, set dressing and wardrobe. A week later, I had to show up at Disney to finish off some of my wrap paperwork and I watched those three tractor trailers being offloaded into dumpsters.
WTF?