Preparation - Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance - page 174

A very different approach to water in Screen Play .
As and When Men - Rick Kent with Jeff Spain and Richard Sykes, set and
prop builders
8.30 am Monday morning, too early, the phone rings. 'Hello, have you got an ovarian cyst?' 'Look I'm a
bloke; I've not even got ovaries. Who is this please?' An explanation follows from a designer. A period
medical drama needs a prop cyst. Have we got one? How much will it cost and when can they have it
(yesterday would be nice)? I don't know the answers and will have to look them up in my Boy's Bumper Topic
of Model Making and Pricing Guide . I'll get back to him when I've found the right page. Back to the day job.
Our bread-and-butter work is making the sets for small woodland creatures or talking machines or
unbearably cheerful tradesmen to inhabit. It must be interesting work, I hear you say. Well the fi rst fi fteen
years are, ho-ho.
The As and When Men in one form or another have been making sets and props for over twenty years
and actually it is quite interesting. Some shows are more rewarding than others, but all have challenges.
Some are beautifully designed, some have challenging building problems and some help to pay the rent,
say no more.
Why does nearly every show have a forest in it? Trees and by extension forests, forests are a real
sod. Trees, we've made literally hundreds of them. Easy, you say. OK, try making one then. I want a
show set in a desert … but with buildings in it, lots of buildings … well I've got to do some
work to earn a living.
A whisper goes round that a new show is in the offi ng; we ignore it - this happens all the time. When it
becomes more than a whisper we prick up our ears and believe we might stay in business. This year at
least we might have Christmas with dinner and presents for the little children.