Using InDesign and Illustrator to Create Movie Props

Are you curious about who makes the fake newspapers, passports and product labels that appear in the movies and on TV? See how it's done when we take a field trip to the graphics department of one of Hollywood's biggest movie prop houses. Learn about the design and creation of graphic props for television and movies, from print-based items such as magazines, newspapers, books, and paper work, to custom product packaging and fabrication. The presentation will highlight product design and creation using various methods from standard printing to silk-screening to specialized vinyl production using the Mimaki CJV30-60 and Gerber EdgeFX vinyl printers.

About HPR Graphics

HPR Graphics is a division of the Hand Prop Room. Founded in the 70s by a former prop master, the Hand Prop Room consists of a rental house with over 1,000,000 props on hand, a graphics department, and a custom manufacturing facility serving film productions of all sizes across the country.

Meeting Notes

By Alvin Takamori

I often think of the Los Angeles InDesign User Group meeting locations as a bit of a treasure hunt. Even if you find the larger facility on a Google Map, it can still be a challenge to find the specific room. That was the case at the most recent meeting, on May 21 at Hand Prop Room (HPR) Graphics. HPR has a fairly large facility, so it’s easy to spot from the road. However, most of it is dedicated to 3-dimensional prop fabrication and storage. The graphics department is crammed into a small space and their entry is a backdoor.

Those who succeeded in their search were rewarded with an inside look at a unique niche of graphic design: graphics for Hollywood props. Our guides into this world were Anieshka Jane, who is the manager of the HPR Graphics Department and two of their graphic designers, Katie Wood and Dallas Kennedy. Yep, that's her name.

With the exception of reality shows and documentaries, the majority of movies and television shows create imaginary environments for their characters to inhabit. These environments are filled with objects and many of them need graphics. As Anieshka described some of these, it was striking how many things that you’d never think of have fake graphics. The driver’s licenses and passports of characters, the magazines or newspapers that they read, the tickets to events they attend, the legal papers in a courtroom drama, or the medical files in a hospital scene, not to mention the numerous packages, bottles, or cans of products a character consumes or uses. These things all require graphics that have the look and feel of real products in the brief moments that they appear on screen.

If you’re wondering about copyrights for all this fakery, that is the responsibility of the client. In this industry that is usually a production company. HPR doesn’t concern themselves with these matters. If someone complains, a simple request to stop using the offending prop is usually all that’s needed. One exception is money, which needs to be obviously fake. It’s required to be 25% larger or smaller than real currency and printed on only one side.

To create these various objects, they typically use Illustrator even when they know that InDesign would be a better choice. Why? Because most of the designers are more familiar with Illustrator than they are with InDesign. But at the same time Anieshka chuckles remembering the time a client, trying to be helpful, provided a text-heavy newspaper page done in—are you ready—Photoshop.

Metallic and clear materials are the most challenging to replicate. At HPR they layer thin sheets of vinyl foil to create metal. It was fascinating to watch the Gerber Edge FX vinyl printer create foil die-cut labels, ready to place on bottles. Their recently acquired Mimaki CJV 30-60 printer allows them to print on a transparent substrate to create the wrapping for foods like bread.

We separated into two groups to tour the production side of the office. They have a rotary engraver, a silk-screening setup and a vacuum-forming machine, which is great for creating phony license plates out of styrene. They have a library of forms to simulate the licenses of different states, countries and time periods. After touring the shop we had a question and answer session. Among other things, we learned that: turn-around times can be impossible. Also, the food preferences of actors had to be addressed when filling a fake package with real food. It was an interesting meeting and I’ll definitely be paying closer attention to all the products in the background the next time I watch a television show or movie.

Farthest Attendee

The person who travels the farthest to attend the meeting will receive a one-year subscription to InDesign Magazine. This prize has a $69 value. If everyone is kinda sorta in the area, then this prize will go the person who just had or is about to have a birthday. Winner — Deniese Cuda

Raffles

6-MONTH SUBSCRIPTION: eDocker CREATE! Value $774.00 Winner — Tom Luth

3-MONTH SUBSCRIPTION: Full access to the entire Stock Layout template library for three months. Value $299.00 Winner — Jeffrey Schimsky

1-YEAR SUBSCRIPTION: Any single product from Markzware. Value $199.00 Winner — Norine Lukaczyk (PDF2DTP)

3-MONTH SUBSCRIPTION: Fotolia. 5 images per month for three months. Value $50.00 Winner — Nancy Anne Fox

EBOOK from O'Reilly Media. Value to $50.00 Winner — Alvin Takamori

SOFTWARE: TypeDNA. Value $49.00 Winner — Deniese Cuda

1-MONTH SUBSCRIPTION: Digital-Tutors. Value $29.00 (two raffles) Winners — Deniese Cuda and Norina Lukaczyk

TICKETS: LA Web Professionals Meeting. Value $7.99 Winner — Deniese Cuda

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