NIDA graduand, Ari Gilbert (Props, 2023), recently completed an extraordinary placement with Builders Anonymous, a renowned studio specialising in props, effects and costumes in Toronto, Canada, thanks to the generous support of the Erin and Billy Ostadal Memorial Scholarship. In this interview, Ari expresses their gratitude, detailing the enriching experience of working on various exciting projects, forming invaluable industry connections, and learning from a knowledgeable and passionate team.
How did you first become interested in props and effects? Have you always had an interest in making and creating?
I’ve been interested in making for as long as I can remember, even though I didn’t always recognise it at the time. I enjoyed experimentation and figuring out how things worked, so I always figured I’d end up in a STEM field of some kind. I never really considered art or prop making as a thing I did (or could do). Though looking back, the obsession with fantasy and sci-fi, constant assembly and disassembly of Lego creatures and contraptions, and abundance of duct-taped cardboard swords and armour all should have been early warning signs! I remember just really wanting to be a Mythbuster more than anything else.
I didn’t really question the idea of ending up in STEM, right up until I got into cosplay part-way through high school. I was driven more by a desire to have my own wearable set of cool video game armour rather than any sort of creative actualisation, however, it still led to a very important lightbulb moment – here’s something that lets me combine all the things I enjoy into one perfect hobby. I could make something fantastical, make something functional, solve physical problems, and just generally enjoy the creative DIY atmosphere within the community.
Heading towards the HSC, I realised that costume and prop-making were legitimate career options. Plus, unlike most engineering degrees, prop-making would involve working in a hands-on way through all aspects of the design, testing, and fabrication process, across a wide range of materials and disciplines, and on fun, creative, and diverse projects – all without having to commit to another three to six years of exams, rote memorisation, and paperwork. The Mythbusters were prop-makers and SFX techs first and foremost.
Why did you choose to study Properties and Objects* at NIDA?
The short answer? It’s the only course like it in Australia.
To expand on that a little more, there are other degrees or diplomas that let you study parts of the design or fabrication process, or that touch on prop-making alongside other art department or technical roles, the NIDA Props and Effects BFA is the only one that’s both as focused and as expansive as it is.
Prop-making covers such a broad swath of materials, techniques, and applications that three decades wouldn’t be enough to become an expert on any of them, let alone three years, but the Props course does an excellent job of covering that ground regardless. It’ll ensure you learn all the most important skills you need to be a comfortable, competent maker, and gives a good primer on dozens of other things.
The Course Leader, Marcelo, really supported us all in further exploring whatever areas we were passionate about and made an effort to bring in tutors or otherwise facilitate those interests within the project guidelines.
What are some of your highlights of the course?
Saying ‘all of it’ is probably a bit of a cop-out answer, but there really are too many things to name. I could list off things like the moulding and casting, or the pyrotechnics, or all the different 3D printers, but we’d be here all day and I’d just end up naming everything anyway.
If I had to pick one build, it’d probably be the barber’s chair for the June 2023 Sweeney Todd production. The designer, Cosette Mangas (Design, 2023), had reimagined the world as a gritty, grimy, 1980s London. My fellow third-year Gaia Stein (Props, 2023) was the props supervisor, however I was tasked with designing and building the chair.
The set was built over two levels, the ground floor and mezzanine, with the chair up on the mezz. It needed to be carried on stage, be able to rotate, withstand a fight scene or two, and drop multiple actors safely down a 45°, 2m long chute.
The entire build ended up being a 9-day turnaround, which was a big challenge, but well worth it in the end. Plus my classmates had a lot of fun helping me test it, pretending to get murdered, and being dropped into not-quite-bottomless pits.
Speaking of, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention my classmates at some point, and I reckon they qualify as a highlight. The course hours can get pretty full on at times. It’s equal parts exhausting and rewarding, but either way, I cannot imagine doing it without my classmates’ presence. An important part of the course selection criteria is about finding people who will work well together as makers, but also as people. And Marcelo and the rest of the selection committee really knocked it out of the park with these guys.
The six of us support each other in the technical sense, sharing expertise, but also in the (very cheesy, sorry) metaphorical sense. We squabble incessantly, there’s no one I’d trust more, and they are the core of all my favourite moments of the course.
You received the Erin and Billy Ostadal Memorial Scholarship – what did this scholarship provide and how did it assist your studies?
The scholarship and associated industry placement was definitely the other major highlight of my time at NIDA.
The scholarship provided $5000 in funds to support a Props student in undertaking an industry placement overseas. I had been wanting to do props work in Canada for a while by that point; however, this ended up not being possible due to COVID. Getting the opportunity to finally do so was incredible – it may have barely been possible for me to do so without the scholarship, but receiving it meant that I could focus fully on absorbing as much knowledge and experience as I could from the placement, instead of having to worry about the financial burden.
You travelled to Toronto, Canada and did work experience with Builders Anonymous – (BA) how did this opportunity arise and what was the experience working with BA like?
I originally found them via social media and liked the look of their work. While I very much enjoy doing a little bit of everything, I am particularly keen on special effects, both in the breakaways and pyrotechnics sense, but also in the soft props and stunt costumes sense. A lot of BA’s work falls into that second category – they also do a decent amount of leatherwork, another area I particularly enjoy.
After doing a bit more research, getting in contact via email, and exchanging a good chunk of paperwork, we figured out all the logistics and they welcomed me into their studio starting 3 January.
The whole experience was incredibly enjoyable and fulfilling. I learnt so much, got to contribute to a variety of awesome projects, and developed some great industry connections. The team at Builders Anonymous were kind, insightful, and knowledgeable, in addition to being deeply passionate about passing on that knowledge, and improving the industry landscape as a whole. I’m going to have to be a bit vague about what I worked on, as most of it hasn’t been publicly released yet, but I’ll hopefully be able to talk through the experience regardless!
During some of the quieter days, I got mini-tutorials from individual members in their particular focus or specialty (e.g. using fibreglassing in conjunction with rotocast polyurethane, or a deep dive into costume breakdown).
The BA team also focuses a lot on sustainable and safe work practices – they put a lot of effort into finding materials that are safer to use and dispose of, that produce less waste, or that can be further reused and recycled. Unfortunately, a lot of those specific materials are expensive and/or hard to find in Australia, but just like with their fabrication skills and processes, the team were still able to pass on lots of useful tips and advice.
Even though many of the skills were something that I had been previously taught and/or was already experienced with, learning how others approach their work and their thought process/problem-solving was incredibly valuable, especially as it pertained to working towards various constraints or deadlines. It was interesting to see how these either differed from or were similar to working on both stage and screen productions at NIDA – there were a lot more similarities than I expected!
The final project I worked on there before leaving involved making huge textured silicone sheets, and wrapping/seaming them around acrylic tubes, to be used by the lighting and set dec departments of an upcoming TV show. This involved making a 2.4m long, mould, which was nerve-wracking, but extremely cool. By the time I left, we’d used at least 180kg of silicone across various makes for that production.
My original plan for the trip was to stay in Toronto for two months – arriving just before Christmas, and then working from the beginning of January until midway through February.
I ended up staying for a full month extra, returning to Sydney near the end of March. The team spent what was going to be my final two weeks joking about how they could keep me in Canada (proposed ideas included passport destruction, bribing border officers, and identity theft), and had mentioned it was a shame that I wouldn’t be able to see the current project we were working on through to its end. I also very much wanted to stay, but had been hesitant to raise the possibility, as I didn’t want to impose. But I shouldn’t have worried, because a week out from when I was scheduled to leave, when I (very, very nervously) mentioned that I could reschedule my flight and accommodation, they immediately asked me how long I could stay and how they could help. This really meant a lot, and I cannot understate how much I appreciated their presence as friends and mentors, especially while I was living alone for the first time on the other side of the world.
We’ve stayed in contact since I’ve returned to Sydney, and I’m really hoping to return at some point in the next couple of years, to hopefully work with them longer term.
What advice would you give to anyone interested in studying Props and Effects?
Be excited, make stuff, break stuff, overthink, jump in head first, whatever works best for you! It’s hard to find a career more jack-of-all-trades than prop-making, so the more variety in your skills and knowledge, the better, in my opinion. If you like to work with your hands, are passionate about cosplay or movies or painting or programming or whatever else might be tangentially related to the art of making stuff (that’s the technical term), and are keen to learn new things, then you’re set.
Just give things a go, even if you think you’ll be bad at it, or you aren’t quite sure where to start. When it goes wrong or you don’t meet your expectations, figure out where and why, and what you can do next time to address the issue.
And things will inevitably go wrong, so lean into it. That’s what samples, small-scale tests, and iterations are for. Figure out how you can learn and recover from mistakes without having to write off a whole project, and know how to recognise when you’re past the point of sunk cost and should start fresh.
If you’re interested in and enthusiastic about whatever project you’re doing, then overthinking will probably come naturally, for better or for worse. And what better way to solve the overthinking problem and the things-going-wrong problem than by pitting them against each other? Overthink the hell out of any issues, fix each new one that crops up, and do your best to either find and address the root cause, or pre-emptively prevent and avoid any future problems.
What’s next for you after you graduate from NIDA?
Right now, I’m primarily doing freelance bits and pieces for various productions, prop fabrication, 3D modelling, bump-ins, and the like. Additionally, I’m trying very hard to actually finish more of the projects in my backlog.
I’m also prototyping some polymer joint and spine armour alongside another member of my HEMA (historical fencing) club. Lots of comparing and combining modern material and sport science with similar extant steel pieces. Very interesting, and I am super excited to see where that goes.
I’m wanting to do lots more FX props work whenever the next film productions come to Sydney, and am eagerly awaiting any news to that end. I’ll also be finishing a structural welding certification at the end of this year, and am planning on getting my armorer’s license after that. Hopefully, I can make my way back to Canada sometime in the next couple of years as well!
*This Course has been renamed ‘Props and Effects’.
Applications are now open for NIDA’s BFA Props and Effects.
