Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1542039
PROPERTYMASTERSGUILD.ORG 21 C o n t e m p o r a r y F e a t u r e F i l m E x c e l l e n c e i n O n e H o u r P e r i o d T e l e v i s i o n S e r i e s 2 0 2 5 Shōgun, Season 1 Dean Eilertson, PMG do you approach the material in a way that both honors and respects its source material. DEAN EILERTSON: With a show like this, it was so important to listen to our historians. My show & tells dealt with what I had to offer after having done my prep work, everyone had to agree before anything left our lockup for set. PROP CULTURE: Did you always want to work in the industry as a Property Master? DEAN EILERTSON: At first, it was a way to make a living in Montreal as I embarked on my fine arts career. I set out to become a sculptor but very quickly got into doing more and more film work which I was feeling very drawn toward. In Montreal, I ran my own scenic shop for a number of years. In 1986, a friend was the producer on the fifth season of Airwolf to be filmed in Vancouver. He called me asking if I would consider coming out west to be the Property Master. Naively, I agreed to give it a try. It took many years of working in props before I could comfortably call myself a Property Master. I really feel that life experience is a key ingredient to becoming a good Property Master, since our work is more about using what knowledge we have: the more we have, the better. CREW: 3 boat builders, 4 Prop Builders, 4 First Assistants, 4 Buyers (3 in Japan & 1 local), 1 calligrapher, 1 head chef with 2 food stylists, 4 First Assistants, 1 truck person, 4 COVID cleaners. PREP: 26 weeks PROP CULTURE: Shōgun is such a visually rich and historically layered production. How did you approach the project from the very beginning both creatively and logistically? Can you walk us through your preparation process, from research and collaboration to sourcing or creating props that captured the world of 17th-century Japan? DEAN EILERTSON: My challenge was to very quickly grasp a knowledge of the cultural world of Japan during our period. I needed to understand the scale our showrunner was expecting before I could decide on what labor and workspace I needed. With 10 episodes, we got to explore and discover many different aspects of Japanese life and culture. Thankfully, this took place over several months of production. For historical continuity, all departments had to go through a Dutch historian living in Japan. His primary area of expertise was the Dutch influence on EDO Japan. I had 22 full-time crew, 3 boat builders, 4 Prop Builders, 4 First Assistants, 4 Buyers (3 in Japan & 1 here with us), 1 calligrapher, 1 head chef with two local food stylists, 4 First Assistants, 1 truck person and 4 COVID cleaners to handle on-set props. PROP CULTURE: Given the incredible scale of Shōgun with its emphasis on historical authenticity and the sheer volume of intricate period detail, how long was your prep period? DEAN EILERTSON: One month head start on setting up the shop and getting the boat building started, then 22 weeks to shop, restore and prep before we went to camera. That 22 weeks included training camps for samurai and boat oarsmen, camera tests, and rehearsals for the first two blocks. PROP CULTURE: Cultural realism is so important in this project. How