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In the Details: Peter Wyborn
December 04, 2001
Dressing the Star Wars galaxy is a challenging task for the prop department; you can’t just buy Naboo or Tatooine artifacts off-the-shelf. While some of the props decorating Episode II are cobbled together from real-world gadgets and gizmos, many are machined from scratch by Peter Wyborn, modelmaking supervisor, and his crew.
“The [prop] guys next door built all sorts of weird things out of odd bits and pieces, whereas we tended to get more specific, engineered things,” says Wyborn of his department. “You’ve probably got a bigger variety of craftsmen working here — pattern makers, industrial designers with model-making backgrounds, and engineers. We’ve got three lathes in this department and a couple of milling machines.”
Wyborn was in contact with the different departments to ensure that the modeled props delivered were consistent with the look of their surroundings. “There’s three art directors that we dealt with,” he explains. “The line between departments and sets and props is a little bit blurry, and we found that we were doing things that the Construction Department had been too busy to do. For instance, we made some light fittings about eight feet in diameter. They were all engineered out of aluminum. That’s not really modelmaking. We did the same thing with some of the tables and furniture in one of the apartments. There is quite a crossover.”
For example, while different crews built full-size speeder props or starship interiors, much of the detail within was delivered by Wyborn’s team. “One of the first jobs we had was building chairs for the Naboo craft,” explains Wyborn. “We put pre-built pieces in there. For the speeders, we had to put in the steering column.”
Even Ivo Coveney’s costume props received an additional layer of detail from Wyborn’s crew. “They sent us some arm bands — beautiful arm bands that they’ve made — and they come to us for us to put our darts and grappling hooks and things like that into them.”
For most of the props, Wyborn and his crew were working from design sketches provided by other departments. Other times, they would have much more of a creative role. “They also come along and say, ‘okay, make us a dozen guns.’ So, somebody will sketch it in our department, and we just make them up. When George Lucas came in, there were about 50 guns for him to look at. He came along and picked about a dozen. So, it’s nice that we all get our own input. Not every nut and bolt has been designed by the art director or the designer.”
Early on, Wyborn decides what’s the best method of tackling a design — whether crafting something from scratch or adapting existing pieces. “Sometimes you think you’ve seen something like what you need somewhere, but by the time you actually go out and try and find it, you’re quicker off just making it in the first place. We do go and raid the props department buckets-of-bits from time to time. Sometimes, when the deadlines get a bit tight and you need something shiny or round, you go sift through their boxes.”
Wyborn, a veteran of 20 years in the industry, has been producing props and models for feature films, television and commercials. Though he doesn’t count himself a fan of Star Wars more than any other movie, he has a huge amount of respect for the imagery and craftsmanship of the saga.
“I really enjoyed Episode I,” says Wyborn. “I loved the look of it. I just thought the design was absolutely wonderful. It’s the same on this. The thing that’s so wonderful for us all is that all these things we get to make are so beautifully designed.”
His department inherited a few of those props from The Phantom Menace, but for the most part he was starting from scratch. “They shipped over a few things. Lots of the original lightsabers came over, with their molds. Some of the guns from Episode I came over with their molds, too. We used them, but over three years, the molds start to break down. We do our own molds of those, and clean them up as best as we can. We don’t spend a lot of hours cleaning them up to be absolutely perfect if they’re never going to be seen close up.”
Of all the props fabricated for Episode II, Wyborn notes that his crew — which at its height numbered around 45 — enjoyed developing an arsenal of blaster weaponry the most. “One of the chaps made a beautiful rifle that George rejected because it was probably just too high tech. Most people would design and make stuff that was too Flash Gordon. All the approved designs were spot on because most of the guns are actually just copies of guns already in existence that you add bits and pieces to. I think it took a few people a little while to get the hang of the style.”
A key visual ingredient in the design recipe is the “used universe” look. Items that would be fantastic in our world — blasters, comlinks, armor and droids – are dog-eared, scratched and dinged up from years of use and abuse in the Star Wars galaxy. As Wyborn explains, this isn’t part of the initial prop design. “We actually try to make it perfect, and if it needs to be knocked back, we knock it back,” he says. “Because if you actually make something that’s a bit rough around the edges, well you can’t go anywhere further with it, so we usually try and make it as perfect as we possibly can. We then scuff it up if need be, which is sometimes a little bit of a waste; you spend so much time making a beautiful piece and then they’ll just come along and slap grime all over it.”
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