UK - After a year of development, UK-based company Automated Film Props is offering new automation solutions designed to be utilised with film, television and stage props.
“We do this by delivering enterprise-class prop automation software and components that turn narrative events into actions from your props. We use industrial design to build PCBs, modules and subassemblies that you can use in your props during the build process, and the 'grip-equipment' to drive BTS kit like lighting and movement,” the company says. “Your props can display real values and respond to stimuli in a believable fashion.”
Extensive (and costly) production time is taken up between takes and rehearsals in order to reset props for the next one. By creating the infrastructure that allows props to be instantly set/reset, this can help ensure a more efficient, less stressful process.
When describing the company’s solutions for the automation of physical props, founder Andrew Harris says: “We initially concentrated on clocks and counters, as they are a common storytelling staple”. An example use-case is a classic bomb-defusing scene, which could feature a counter and a background clock. The director shouts “cut”, and within milliseconds the counter and clock return to scene time – even if it’s a single-camera drama, all angles and takes can be cut together with perfect prop continuity.
In terms of virtual props, the inspiration comes from an office scene or control room with multiple computer monitors or wall-mounted displays. The system allows an art department to deliver motivated and animated content onto those screens, which will have event and sequence control so that they can respond to the action. This solution is centred around the company’s ‘Screebleys’, which are based on simple HTML pages that use the company’s JavaScript library to deliver animation events. The company says: “For more artist control, we've allowed for animation into SVG, which means your art department can leave conventional web pages behind to deliver a look for any period or genre”. These devices are so simple to use that they Velcro to computer monitors and connect to their HDMI ports, meaning that a room full of computers can be realised without the cost of hiring actual PCs and the effort involved in their setup.
