Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1544153
12 PROP CULTURE I SPRING 2026 are doing an episode set in a void where everyone is on wires, floating in the air. A second version of the prop was built out of foam because he is flying and has to hold it one-handed. The practical version is significantly heavier. And if it is used in a fight, as my earlier story shows, you want something that no one can get hurt with. During filming, I kept hearing visual effects say, I can take care of that. I can remove it. You do not even have to put it in if you do not want to. And I started wondering, where are we going with this? Is it good? Is it helpful? Does it save time? It goes back to what you were saying earlier. An actor holding a prop is different from an actor pretending to hold a prop. PROP CULTURE: Is what we used to call CGI now simply being labeled AI? I would argue that CGI still required direct human craftsmanship. With AI, I can say, write me a Star Trek episode, include these characters, make it 110 pages, and in 30 seconds, it delivers a complete script. That feels like a very different shift in how the work gets created. JONATHAN: That's where it's terrifying. I was on Star Trek when we were using models still. Rob Legato, our visual effects supervisor, would shoot a model against black duvetyne with pieces of mirror. That was just how it was done. Then everything shifted to visual effects. The ships were drawn, and the lighting kept getting better with 30,000 LED panels creating an atmosphere around you, whether that is the city of Paris, outer space, another planet, or a period setting in the 1700s. It is extraordinary. All of what the volume can do now used to require green screen. PROP CULTURE: So, then is that, AI? JONATHAN: In a weird way, it's not, because this is real. We have a set, and this set extension is now visible to everybody, so the actors can react in the room and see what's around them. It affects how you shoot, obviously. But it's a different animal. Well, the interesting one with the Screen Actors Guild is that AI alleged actress that was created. PROP CULTURE: Tilly Norwood. JONATHAN: That was the biggest flag that went up. It's a work in progress and it's a very, very important theoretical question. PROP CULTURE: We have been talking about AI and digital environments, but more often it is still an old-fashioned physical object that moves the story. The watch in Clockstoppers is a great example. It drives the whole story. JONATHAN: Clockstoppers was a film I had a ball on. We used array cameras on that. Remember when you used to have 25 or 30 or 40 cameras mounted on a pole in a kind of spherical nautilus shape, and you would trigger it to capture a data set? It was all the rage during Clockstoppers. The thing that triggered that in Clockstoppers was a time travel element, where time was frozen and we froze with it, but via camera. The watch that you mentioned was product placement. It was a yellow Suunto Vector watch that clearly Paramount or Nickelodeon had made a deal with and it looked great and it seemed appropriate. PROP CULTURE: Even when the technology is cutting edge, whether those array camera rigs or today's LED volumes, it still comes back to something tactile that the audience can track. That yellow Suunto Vector is not just product placement; it becomes a storytelling anchor. As a director, how conscious are you of giving the audience a physical prop to hold onto in a high-concept story? JONATHAN: I would like to give you one little prop moment that I'll never forget that happened every day on Next Generation. LeVar Burton, Geordi LaForge, wore a visor. And before we rolled, Charlie Russo, who CLOCKSTOPPERS JONATHAN FRAKES as COMMANDER WILLIAM RIKER