Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1533885
28 PROP CULTURE I SPRING 2025 every role from the makeup artists with their brushes to the booth operators' headsets were exactly what they needed to sell their roles. Seeing these people morphing into New York stagehands was quite impressive, and Jason constantly praised them for all their dedication and hard work. It was not an easy task to pull off and look believable, and I'm quite proud of what we accomplished. Saturday Night builds its world through a 90-minute window into a madhouse of controlled chaos. Our intense work with the background supplied that chaos, and it paid off in spades. At the end of the day, a Property Master is only as good as its crew, and I had an incredible crew who were absolutely instrumental to getting all the important details correct: Eliot Levin, Kemper Harris, Michael Heath, Chance Satterfield, and my secret weapon, Matt Feresten. Matt was Wally Feresten's son and helped so much with the cue card props. Wally helped me obtain period-correct Marsh M99 markers, inks, and original cue cards used on SNL. Matt wrote all the dialogue and kept them looking correct. He helped train the background cue card artist on how to space the words correctly, and how they are held above camera and pulled as the dialogue was read. Minor prop but major impact to authenticity. Same with the paper. The scripts and pages were how to work and function as New York stagehands. We trained them for a month before shooting in a background boot camp, showing them how to move walls swiftly and safely, work the booms and cameras, how to paint and hang wallpaper, rig lighting and, most importantly, lay bricks. The bricks were all custom made, real and foam, as we had so much action with them, and that could be dangerous if not properly considered. Of course, that made it ironic to me when the movie several times pointed out the show used real bricks as a part of their set being essential to their stage design. Putting the finishing touch to the background was adding all the layers of their period-accurate tools of the trade onto their costume so so important to Jason as the actors used them throughout. We had to have our original, which was given to me as a digital document, retyped with a period-correct IBM typewriter that we purchased online. The layout and fonts were also important to Jason, and he was extremely pleased with the time and effort we took for the execution of the pages and schedules. Even the paper we used was from the '70s as the paper of today is very bleached and white. Jason really wanted that muted beige color of the time. With a lot of effort, we found stock from many sources throughout the state to deliver on this important layer that helped the actors connect with the film's time period. The layered nature of Saturday Night meant that interdepartment collaboration and coordination of vision was so important. Production designer Jess Gonchor was such a delight and just so nice—very involved and supportive of the Property Department in all that was needed. Graphics, manufacturing, rentals, instruments … anything in front of the camera, Jess took the time to look over and approve. He had a lot of trust in my abilities, so it was nice to have the creative freedom to go after many of my own ideas. "Keep it fun" was Jason's motto, so Jess and I followed that with open arms. Our set decorator, Claudia Bonfe, was so helpful with all the details. She had an amazing crew led by Susan Tanner—a pleasure to work with. Claudia and I worked together to bring elements from