After completing the design of both the Cee Pod manual and the Tokstun Arms rifle manual, we were given the opportunity to create the props themselves. We set to gathering the materials we needed, trying to keep them as unconventional as possible. The challenge was to make these look like they could be produced somewhere other than Earth. After a few trips to Kinko's and Blick, we were ready to print and bind both books. The Pod manual needed a mechanical looking binding that would allow it to open and lay flat. We picked these pipe fasteners up at a hardware store, but ended up going with something a little less bulky that would allow the book to open all the way.
The book was divided into sections, and tabs were printed and weathered. The covers were printed on chip board to give it an aged and cracked look.
For the rifle manual, we needed to cover the staples used in the binding as they would be too recognizable as something you would see on earth, so we bought some spray paint and book binding tape to cover up the saddle stitch.
Then it was just a matter of aging the book. Luckily, we were able to get into the dismantled publishing arts building at school, and using greasy machine parts and weathering techniques gave the rifle manual a beating.
Here we are taking our beloved creations out for a celebratory drink.
And of course we had to take our props into the Pod and act out the scene for ourselves!
The folks at SHEP shop really loved the finished product, and we've been asked to make some more props for the film.
