Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1542039
8 PROP CULTURE I WINTER 2026 MEET ALFONSO RAMIREZ Born in Guadalajara, Mexico, Alfonso Ramirez was captivated by movies from a young age. When he was 5 years old, his family saved enough money to take their young son to see Jurassic Park. Alfonso was fascinated. What impressed him most was the complete immersion of the audience in the film. The make-belief world portrayed on the screen became an immediate reality for all, both children and adults. This is what I want to do, Alfonso thought on the way home. At the age of 15, with his family's encouragement, Alfonso moved to California to pursue his dream of a career in film and television. "I love the privilege of having a voice in the industry," Alfonso comments. "The moment when the director asks you to provide a prop, the one that motivates the scene." To accommodate such a task, he spends days educating himself on the period and the characters of the script. Before joining the team of Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 2, Alfonso read 10 books about the Old West. In the scene where the character Juliette (Ella Hunt) walks past the wagons as she leaves behind all her possessions, director Kevin Costner asked for a prop that would have "screen presence," a last-minute addition that he found necessary to make the scene work. Alfonso relied on his complete knowledge and understanding of not just the script, but all the films of the series (Chapter 1 and Chapter 3). He chose to use a prop that belonged not to Juliette herself, but her departed husband—his sketchbook that held the memory of their last intimate moment together. "What an amazing idea," Costner said when he saw the sketchbook, "This will make the audience cry." "I am still starstruck," Alfonso says, but what he is starstruck with is not the fame of the actors he works with, but the magic of filmmaking itself. ASSISTANT PROPERTY MASTER/KEY ON SET Jordan DeVries Alfonso Ramirez By Pola Shreiber