Since we're on the topic of props this week...This is the story of one particular prop needed for our feature film, Under Jakob's Ladder... A phonograph.
Our team searched everywhere to find the right phonograph for the movie. Ebay. Craig's List. We asked around. A friend of a friend had a photograph, but she didn't want to lend it to us. Another friend had one, but it wasn't the kind we were looking for.
We toyed with the idea of buying one without a horn. But we wanted -- needed -- a phonograph with a horn. So, we looked into buying a phonograph horn separately. One that we could attach. (When it all came down to it, this was going to be one of those expensive props.)
But then we found a phonograph that had been put up for auction on ebay... It looked right. We bid. We got it!
But then...
We found it was a dummy. Basically a cover for a modern radio, CD player, etc. But that wasn't the worst of it. The turntable didn't turn! We definitely needed the phonograph to turn. While it didn't matter if the phonograph could play any music -- all music would be added in post-production -- we did need the thing to turn.)
We looked back at the ebay seller's description of this "phonograph". There was definitely no mention of any of this information. So luckily, because of this, we were able to send the "phonograph" back and get our money refunded.
But that left us phonograph-less. Until we got word that a friend of a friend had an old phonograph sitting in a basement somewhere. This phonograph was dug up, and guess what? It turns out that this one was even better looking than the dummy-phonograph.
Did it the turntable turn? Yes.
Did it give us any trouble? Well... That's another story!
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