Props Class

One of the requirements of the MFA sound program was to take the props class. The thought process is that there will be a time in which a Sound Designer will need to hide a speaker in a spot when the Props people in house are either unable to or not careful enough to put the speaker in. For better or worse, I have experience in wood working and found myself a bit ahead on projects. The first project was to build a small wooden stool. Due to budget cuts, we created a mini-stool, but I think it turned out well. The Second project was to create a Dr. Seuss inspired object. I knew that if I took the project as given, it would have taken me two weeks instead of the four to six we had. I made the goal to build an instrument and make it functional enough to make a “good” sound. Still haven't quite figured out how to play it due to its string configuration, but it does have a cool natural “reverb” sound. The third project was to make a cake, which needed to just be a single layer round cake with some decorative icing. Again, I took a few extra steps and made this six layer rainbow cake with a slice taken out of it. The main challenge with this cake was to get the texture of the “cake” right as it was a trick to get the spray pain to eat the foam just the right way to get the correct texture.

Couple tracks of me messing around with the instrument: top is using my H2’s internal microphones, bottom is using a cheap Acoustic pick-up: