An Exercise in Spotting Graphic Props
A Tribute to Annie Atkin’s 2020 Virtual Live Event
With three days to go, it is safe to say the countdown to this season’s medley of Halloween-themed Zoom parties is in full swing. Celebrating this holiday in our 2020 reality is a tad awkward. Perhaps we can embrace the nostalgia in a way that is mindful of social distancing, while still curbing our appetites for a bit of fun. What better way to do this than by cozying up with our quarantine partners of the past 7 months and embarking on a Halloween movie binge. That’s my plan, but with an added design twist.
I recently finished Annie Atkin’s book, Fake Love Letters, Forged Telegrams, and Prison Escape Maps: Designing Graphic Props for Filmmaking. If you haven’t heard of Annie Atkins before and are a graphic design enthusiast like me, I highly suggest you pick up a copy of her new book. Annie is a graphic designer working in the film industry that put simply, designs the graphic props that actors interact with in movies and tv shows. Think, newspapers, ticket stubs, food labels, street signage, and so much more. Some of her most notable works have been for the films The Grand Budapest Hotel, Bridge of Spies, and Isle of Dogs.
Last week, I had the opportunity to attend a live chat hosted by Phaidon and AIGA, where Annie discussed her favorite projects, detailed her design process, and gave advice to aspiring designers in the film industry. To say the least, she and her work are truly remarkable — but don't just take my word for it. If you missed this event, make sure to visit her website to see a record of her past interviews.
What does this have to do with Halloween?
Well, hearing Annie describe her work really got me thinking. As a designer who has yet to venture into the entertainment industry, I recognized one clear difference between designers working in film and designers working in advertising. The simple question being, how much of your work is seen by an audience?
Her response from her website reads:
“I would say hardly any of it. Maybe 90% of what we make for a film belongs firmly in the background […] film sets don’t look like the beautifully composed pictures we see on the cinema screen: the reality is that they’re full of cables, floodlights, and crew members standing around in North Face jackets — so, dressing this weirdly artificial environment with some small authentic details can help create a more fully realised world for the actors to work in.”
Where the majority of design work in advertising, marketing, and branding is created for the sole purpose of capturing views, much of graphic designer's works in film are geared towards transporting the actors into make-believe worlds. The props that do grace the big screen, like the Mendl’s boxes Annie designed for The Grand Budapest Hotel, make up the 10% of graphic design props that are visible in films. And from that 10% that is simply seen by the audience, only a select handful of props are referred to as “hero props.”
“A hero prop being a piece that has to pass the scrutiny of the camera, with a character all of its own.”
— Annie Atkins, Designing Graphic Props for Filmmaking
With how few graphic props we as audience members actually see, I felt a challenge was in due course.
A Hunt for Graphic Props
- Challenge: While binging a set of Halloween classics, identify as many of the film’s graphic props as possible. Of these graphic props, discern which (if applicable) are “hero props” following Annie's criteria. Besides classifying a “hero prop”, identify whether a said prop is an “action graphic” (handled physically by an actor), a “dressing graphic” (decorates the sets), or a “construction graphic” (built into the sets).
- Intentions: celebrate the film’s production design, spot what typically goes unnoticed, get in the holiday spirit, and have a genuine justification for going on another film spree.
Gathering a list of the 49 Best Halloween Movies to Watch this October, I employed the help of a random number generator to whittle down that list to a manageable three. Low and behold, here is my untrained-graphic-prop-analysis of the top three Halloween films to watch this spooky season. Please note, I only feature three graphic props per film, in case you choose to embark on your own search for props in them. I wouldn’t want to spoil your fun! Anyhow, I encourage you to embark on a prop hunt to see for yourself the extent of their prop team's hard work. Happy Halloween & happy hunting!
1. Halloweentown (1998)
- The Flagship novel (action graphic): fictitious book held by Dylan. The cover appears to have a battleship of some sort, communicates his interest in history & academia.
- Spiderweb bus stop sign (construction graphic/hero prop): entry and exit point between Marnie’s mortal world and Halloweentown.
- Halloween town book (action graphic): fictitious book illustrated to convince Marnie that she really is a witch. The prop introduces the world of Halloweentown to the main characters and audience before visiting it.
2. Practical Magic (1998)
- Spell book (action graphic): this hand-lettered grimoire is filled with illustrations of the spell’s ingredients. The pages have been carefully aged (perhaps with coffee?) to reflect its passing down over generations in the Owens family.
- Young Sally's spell notebook (action graphic): from this notebook, Sally reads aloud her true love spell. Written in blue pen ink, the notebook is all the more convincing by the ample amount of childlike stars the designers drew on the pages. Sally also decides in this scene that her imaginary lover's favorite shape will be a star, so drawing on a couple extra for good measure didn't hurt.
- Farmers market sign (construction graphic): this wooden street sign portrays a classic representation of an American small town. Its presence marks the start and end of Sally’s 'normal' life with her husband Michael.
3. Beetlejuice (1988)
- Handbook for the Recently Deceased (action graphic): this fictitious book serves as a wake-up call to inform Adam & Barbara of their misfortune. Its minimalistic front cover reflects the didactic tone of the book's interior that reads more like a manual than a novel.
- The Afterlife newspaper (action graphic): the headline, "Sandworm Incidents Increase 13% from Last Year" suggests a vivid, detailed, & lifelike reality to the afterlife. It makes one wonder, what are sandworms? And are sandworms anything like earthworms? (Spoiler: They're not!) Furthermore, the "Obituary" section confirms Adam and Barbara's hypothesis to the audience.
- Duffy's Cantonese Kitchen takeout (action graphic): the Deetz family discuss their recent uprooting from New York over Cantonese takeout. The packaging design elevates the classic white takeout box we all know and love with gold foiled restaurant labels.
