By Steve Fronczek
20 January 2008

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No, not very often at all. We did have one actor, Colonel Tigh, I can't remember what his real name is. [ed note: Colonel Tigh is played by actor Michael Hogan] We're so removed from the actors really. He came here, we took a mold of his eye when he had that eye patch.

Back to that question of what my favorite prop was. You know what it was... Remember when Kara was in the bathroom and tries to commit suicide? That was a prop, that toilet. That was a Galactiguised prop. All those parts she knocked apart were all different kinds of things that we put together that made it appear that it would work as a toilet. It was completely made up out of electrical parts and all kinds of stuff. I have to say, when I was making that one and it was finished, I thought "You know, that's a prop." It was a very successful prop cause nobody knew it was a prop.

Exactly, and that's the thing with Battlestar, everything is so real that you don't even realize that it's been propped. So there's lots going on here that nobody is even aware is a prop, like the toilet for instance. It wasn't just a toilet it was actually a whole bunch of spare parts made to come apart and have certain functions once they were taken apart. Because, a real toilet wouldn't have those parts and wouldn't be able to do those things that you wanted it to do, like block the door and so on and so forth. I just thought of that, Oh yeah I liked that one. I even went on about it. About what a pure prop it was. It was just a silly bunch of electrical parts, conduit and weird stuff. But that scene really does make the prop look real. Unless it's a science fictioney kind of a thing with the Cylons.

Just about every other one is like that. One of the hardest things we had to make work was a see through unicorn for "Black Christmas." We called it the devil donkey. The horn on it had to be retractable because this person gets stabbed with it but it's crystal clear. So how do you do that, you know? So that one was difficult. For that same show we also did an awesome set of rubber ice skates that turned out just beautiful.

Run away! (laughter) Be prepared for very long hours and lots and lots of stress. Especially if you're just starting out and you don't have your legs yet. It can be very, very stressful. The film industry destroys lives. Really. But you also get hooked on the excitement.

Oh yeah, all my life. As a matter of fact it's a real hoot too, you know. I never did watch Battlestar Galactica when I was a kid, I never did watch it. I think when it came out I was a teenager and I wasn't watching TV or anything so I missed it. But definitely I love this Battlestar... it's fantastic. When all of a sudden you're in the industry and what you are doing for a living is making "Fantastic Four" cars. After being a comic book fan that's very rewarding. All of a sudden you are building the restraints for the "Silver Surfer". That is rewarding. Oh yeah making the Alien things for "AVP" -- the face hugger containers -- and the sacrificial bed for the Predators. That was rewarding.

It doesn't matter. A lot of the time we'll help independent films or small films, even student films a lot of the time. I'll allow them to come in and use my props or any excess stuff I've got around. As a matter of fact I've got someone coming that's putting a small pilot together that I'm just going to help them pro-bono. That's what you’ve got to do, I can't rely on American money coming in all the time, paying for things. We have to develop our own stuff as well. There's all that. The whole Canadian film thing. For instance, we did the largest independent film, I think made in Canada, called "FIDO." It's a zombie movie. That was good for the industry putting out a really good quality, independent film that was done with Canadian money. It's a good thing.

We've got to work within the episode. On "Eureka" for instance, what will happen is we'll get a script Wednesday or Thursday but they start "first day shooting" Monday. So that tells you how many hours we've got to work within that period of time. It's really gauged in man-hours, not in days. Any given day there's going to be so many man-hours, depending on how many people are actually working on the prop. So, I'd say that we've got probably three days mostly, with X-number of man-hours, depending on the complexity of the prop.

It's rewarding, it really is, and you're always surprised by how good it looks. And terribly disappointed if it shakes or something. We did a chair for "Flash Gordon" and for some reason they shot it with it jiggling all over the place. I was pretty disappointed about it. It looked great but I don't know how they let that get past them.

Well we've been doing it for about twenty years. You know, you are only as good as your crew. So the people I'd like to thank publicly are the people who have worked for me over the years and helped me build all of these props. They're the core of the whole thing making it happen. At this point I coordinate and without these people working hard and putting up with me... it just wouldn't happen. I'd also like to do a special thanks to Derek Young if you could. He's the one that engineered and made Baltar's chair happen. He's a very good programmer.

Oh hey, no problem! Thanks for calling. If you're up this way, drop by.

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