Propping It Up
Kate Barker roots around a few workshops on the New Zealand sets of Xena, and finds the men whose job it is to make weapons of war.
Official Xena Magazine: Issue 05
Okay, so you’re an infamous warrior princess who’s just had her chakram broken in two, while you’re left for dead in Rome... What’re ya gonna do? Simple. Just pop around the corner to the Pacific Renaissance Propshop - they’re bound to have one in just your size...
It's funny how life imitates art. At the Xena Propshop, these weapons don’t just have one stunt double; they have 10.
Xena Magazine is led into the armoury (a mere portion of the entire set-up) by Props Coordinator Pip Brophy, who shows me the two halves of Xena's broken chakram, along with the various incarnations and doubles’ of the new and improved model. The first version is made of hard and heavy metal which, as Brophy points out, would definitely hurt if it hit you. Then come the hard foam doubles, which are for more general use. Further down the chain again, there is the softer foam chakram which, explains Brophy, “is what you’d actually get hit with.”
We are joined by Props Designer Roger Murray, who launches straight into explaining the differences between the various doubles that one weapon might have. “[For] everything that gets made, there’s something they establish it with, like aluminium. Then there’ll be all the fighting weapons, all urethane foam. Soft weapons are [made from] yet another soft foam. So one character might have one weapon, but we’ll actually make 10 weapons in total - for the main and Second Unit - and they’ll all have variations.”
The obvious question to a layperson is: why? Wouldn’t it save time and money to stick to the middle ground and just use the semi-soft urethane for everything?
No, says Murray. Well, that just goes to show how much this journalist knows about making props. “If you’ve got a close-up,” explains Murray, holding up a polished aluminium sword, “you’d get this reading [looking] a lot better on film, than you would with a urethane. We have to paint [urethanes] and you just don't ever get them reading as well.” Fair enough. But wait - there's more. “It’s also a weight factor. The weight of aluminium when it's being held up close is a lot better than a foam one, which is only a quarter of the weight.”
Even a stunt person doesn’t want to be on the receiving end of an aluminium sword, coming at them in the middle of a fight. Even when the swords are safely encased in their scabbards, says Murray, the weapons need to be flexible enough to move easily while being worn during action scenes.
In shows like Xena of course, action scenes lend to happen rather a lot, which leads to yet another reason for this variation on the theme. “Things wear out,” Murray explains. “Softer things will wear a lot more on set than something that's in urethane. If we made everything soft, we just wouldn’t get the looks or durability.”
Speaking of looks, let’s go back to that new chakram. Like Xena herself, the chakram has undergone significant changes since the dramatic events at the end of season four. “Xena was getting a new costume for the new series,” explains Murray. “I think basically there was just a new look.
“Initially we wanted to keep [the chakram] in raw base metals like coppers - middle earth metals, you could say. Also, they wanted to be able to have it as two weapons, so Xena could break it apart and use it as [hand-to- hand] fighting weapons.”
It sounds impressive. But there are more mystical reasons for the change as well. “It’s the good and the bad chakram,” says Murray, “it’s a mixture of both of them. It means that in a later story maybe, the bad chakram might do something, and the good half might do something else. It’s just another angle; the dynamics of throwing it and having it split up and do two different things, then come back together. It’s really just opening up the options.”
So every sword and chakram has nearly a dozen doubles - but this huge weapons store is just the tip of the iceberg. The Xena Propshop is housed in a titanic warehouse, run by Murray and a team experienced in art design and chemistry. The place holds everything by way of props from cutlery to catapults.
As his job title might suggest, Murray performs critical tasks, such as ordering materials, employing workers and running the overall process of props design and creation. The Propshop team must also liaise with the stunts department, special effects designers, set production team and art director - and this is for everything, whether it be hand props or house paint. "It’s their interpretation, too,” Murray says of the group design process. “By the time it comes from Rob [Tapert], who has the initial stem of the idea, when it gets to us, sometimes it’s way off and sometimes it’s spot-on. It’s been five years now, so I’ve got a pretty good idea of the way something’s running.”
Murray set up the Propshop initially, and since then he has had to research and source a myriad of different materials and supplies for his team to put together the ‘look’ of the props of Xena and Hercules. Sometimes, that hasn’t been an easy task. “I’ve had to go offshore,” admits Murray, “and get stuff sent from Australia and America; more specialised things. We’ve also had to make up specific products - it’s been a matter of trial and error.”
For Murray and his team, trial and error has been a large part of their roles, as they have been constantly learning and discovering new tricks while on the job. Although everyone currently involved in the props department has had experience in the film industry - or at the very least, art school - they have still had to be trained specifically for their work at Pacific Renaissance.
“There’s no training in New Zealand for prop makers,” explains Murray. “Most people who get that sort of experience are people who end up trying it for themselves, and hence becoming a lot more lateral in their grounding and their approach to products. They’ve had to try a lot more things out, instead of just being told that ‘This is what it is’. That’s happened in our department immensely.”
For the Xena props department, it seems that trying things out has led to the addition of the odd little quirks that add to the fun flavour - and overall success - of the show. For instance, careful study of the emporium set in Punch Lines might reveal the bamboo shopping trolley in the corner of the shop. Likewise, one of Sentacles’ toys in A Solstice Carol just happens to be a doll in the likeness of a certain heroic halfgod - complete with chamois shirt and tiny leather trousers. Yep, looks like there’s no escape from merchandising after all…