Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1536054
PROPERTYMASTERSGUILD.ORG 13 And Christmas was a prop. So I suggested that we install the show's own prop shop on the lot, where all the various departments could take advantage of the brilliant artisans we would assemble. Once we all got our heads around the Who-y Look and the Grinchy Look (And amassed a room I called the Ort Closet, full of wonderful odds and ends that lay awaiting implementation), the sky was the limit. We still subbed out the Who- Ville band's musical instruments to SAT. I wanted the band to march with authentic, but Who-y, instruments, made out of real brass, and SAT sure came through. PROP CULTURE: Memoirs of a Geisha feels like one of those experiences that comes with high responsibility to the material, as well as its creative opportunities. How did you approach respecting the source material and culture? EMILY FERRY: Geisha was probably the most difficult film I have ever made, and since I spent my entire career searching for difficult projects, that's saying something. The responsibility of honoring and respecting Japanese culture weighed very heavily on me and my Los Angeles crew. The studio had the foresight to send me to Kyoto on a reconnaissance mission, and I don't know how I would have done the film without that journey. Not only was I able to rent and purchase hundreds of one-of-a-kind pieces, props that were completely unavailable in the United States, I was able to learn so much about the customs and lifestyle of the Japanese people. The crew I was assigned in Japan were some of the most talented and kind filmmakers I have ever had the pleasure to collaborate with, and the making of this film, while arduous and stressful, was probably the most engaging experience of my entire career. PROP CULTURE: Many of the films you've worked on have been nominated for Oscars in production design. While that award considers the work of the entire art, construction, and set decoration departments, it does not reward the artistic achievements of Property Masters. Do you feel like your design work influenced the artistic merit of those projects? EMILY FERRY: At the risk of sounding egotistical and self-aggrandizing, my crew and I have made incalculable contributions to every film we worked on. Props often fill the entire screen, 50 feet across. The value that a creative, talented Property Master brings to a project is non-remunerable. Real filmmakers understand this, and so I have tried to make sure that I always hooked up with that sort of collaborator, purposefully choosing projects not based upon salary, but upon the potential quality of the work. I know that sounds a little pissy, but directors and production designers and cinematographers make those calculations—why shouldn't we? PROP CULTURE: You were recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for your contributions to filmmaking. How did that happen? EMILY FERRY: I had always so admired the Motion Picture Academy and felt that Property Masters deserved inclusion in that august body. Over the years, I have worked on five films that were nominated for Best Art Direction, including one that won the Oscar, but I was not recognized, except by some lovely production designers who invited me to the ADG Awards dinner. To my delight, when I expressed my frustration to one of those designers, as well as to a director with whom I had worked several times, they both wrote letters to the Academy asking that I be admitted. There were, as far as I know, no other Property Master in the Academy at that time, and they had at any rate, never been included in the Art Directors Branch, despite many years of various Property Masters petitioning for entrance there. Because of this, despite my pleas, I was placed in the category of Members at Large, disappointed, but obviously honored to be included at all. Today, times have changed, and there are 10 Property Masters in the Art Directors Branch. PROP CULTURE: Is there any advice or wisdom you'd like to share with future generations of Property Masters? EMILY FERRY: I know it's not always possible, but I would say, try to be kind, collaborative, inventive, honest, patient, and always push the point at which you say you have done enough, you can stop now, to the absolute limit. ALIEN MAN ON THE MOON