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Jane Murphy: I'm Jane Murphy and I'm in my mid sixties and I have a long career

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doing many things, but the main one of which is working in a career in film.

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Nat Grant: Welcome to season six of the prima Donna podcast, Sonic

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portraits of Australian artists. This audio was recorded and produced on Wurundjeri country.

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I pay respects to elders past and present.

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The third episode in this series, features props master

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and art director Jane Murphy. To find out more about the project and to hear more episodes like this

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one, visit prima Donna podcast.com.

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Jane Murphy: My career in film started absolutely accidentally.

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And I've felt that , I actually should call my title, the accidental

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prop master, because I actually had no aspiration to work in film.

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I worked in the arts. I trained as a graphic artist.

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Swinburn in the seventies, pre computers.

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And then I swapped over to fine art and majored in

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printmaking, mainly because I was quite disenchanted with commercial advertising and the world that

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I was gonna be pushed into through my graphic arts degree.

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Part of that meant that I also came into contact with community art.

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And when I finished my printmaking degree, I actually went to Sydney and

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worked in community arts in Sydney.

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And I lived in Sydney for 20 years or so.

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but for payment, I basically mainly worked within social issue employment.

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I worked within a women's refuge. I worked within a domestic abuse refuge in Melbourne, and then I in

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Sydney, I also worked in a refuge for women with drug and alcohol problems.

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So, you know, while I was, was still working within my community

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arts practice, I was actually working in a completely different

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field for money because community arts does not really pay the rent

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But one night, I just happened to be at a dinner party with a friend.

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And I was sitting next to a woman who I'd never met.

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And, you know, we did the old, what do you do?

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What do you do? And she said to me, well, what do you do?

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And I said, well, I trained as a graphic artist.

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And I was about to launch into the fact that I did nothing like graphic art.

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She immediately said, oh, I need a graphic artist.

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Can you start on Monday? So I, I sort of said, well, what doing?

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And she said, oh, I'm making a film about Nellie Melba.

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And I need someone to recreate all the graphic props.

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So the theater programs, the theater posters, the newspapers, and I don't

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know what possessed me, but I was just, I just was in a yes mood.

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And so I just said, sure, I'll give it a crack.

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And I rocked up at the, um, Sydney showgrounds, which was a place

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where a lot of films used when the show, the Royal show wasn't on.

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And sat at a desk with my sheets of letraset and paint brushes, and

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basically fake being a graphic artist in film for the next three months.

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And everyone was completely fooled. Some of the most enjoyable jobs for me don't necessarily end up being

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the most successful finished project.

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But I would say a career highlight in terms of really,

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really having such a fun process.

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Very, very high on my list would be a kid's TV series called round the twist.

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I've never met anyone who saw it as a kid and didn't love it.

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And it was just as much fun to work on a really, really intelligent, funny

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scripts, a very cohesive creative team, the director, the actors.

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The production team, which was the Australian children's TV foundation.

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And of course, Paul Jennings the writer of the first two series, really.

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I mean, it was like everything just came together in the perfect storm.

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The designer, a woman called Peta Lawson, who has just retired from 10

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years at Neighbours, the absolute joy of going to work every day and working

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on those scripts with that team, it was just a really, really fun project.

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And. I think I always put it at top the top of my list.

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Probably the second one in terms of fun.

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And when I talk about this, it always comes back to the script.

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If the script is good, the project's good.

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And so probably number two on my list would be Muriel's wedding,

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which was a feature film, not a series, but PJ Hogan's first feature.

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Very unknown director and writer, but just the most brilliant, brilliant

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script, very kind of shaky start.

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It wasn't smooth sailing from day one, but it was just an absolute joy to

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work on because of the intelligence and the humor in the script.

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So that would probably be number two.

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And if I'm gonna go on to number three, I'll do three.

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Probably the most recent one would have to be the dress maker,

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which again, an adaptation of a book, but a very good script.

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The director who co-wrote the screenplay with the the writer of the, um, novel

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really took on the job of reframing or framing the whole story as a Western.

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And it was such a, an honor really to work on that film because.

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It really pulled together the cream of a lot of film talent because of

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the director and the cinematographer and the designer, people really,

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really wanted to work on the project and it was such a great script and

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a great story and didn't have very much money, but people just wanted

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to go that extra, extra yard to make it the absolute best that they could.

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And I think it, you know, it looks like it.

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It had a lot more money and funding than it actually did.

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Props usually are something that people don't notice and in a way

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that means we've done our job. The process for me, for working on a project would be.

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I would be contacted by the production designer.

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Who's in charge of the overall look of the film, or maybe the art director.

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And I would go in for an interview and meet the production designer.

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The first thing I always do is I ask if I can read the script because for

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me, I can't just work on anything.

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I have to be able to relate to the story in some way, I it's such a passion job.

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That you can't just kind of rock up to work and do whatever's

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handed to you that day. So I read the script and when I read the script, I'm

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reading it first for the story.

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And I, I don't know what it is, but there's something about the way

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that my head or, and I think this is the same for any props person.

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There's something about the way we read the script.

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When you are reading it, you are actually putting yourself right

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into the middle of the story and you are almost kind of acting

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it out as you're reading it. I read the script first for the story, and then I will approach it

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depending on what type of story it is.

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If it's historical or is something that needs a lot of research.

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Of course, I'm always in the back of my mind while I'm reading it.

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Where can I dig deeper to research the main themes of this story?

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So if something's historical, of course, over the years, I've kind

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of, I mean, it's not like a black book, but I have a file of resources

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that I can tap on to get more information about that era or specific

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things that might need attention.

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You just can't use another film to research.

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You actually have to go to the people who are the experts in the field.

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So, for example, this is a really basic one, but a film, like a period

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film that's set, maybe I don't know, 40 years ago, part of what

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I have to do is I have to organize to make all the graphic props.

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So if things are on paper letters or newspapers or whatever that is.

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I need to get someone, a film graphic artist to recreate these props.

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Now, what people don't realize is that, you know, 40 years ago, or I

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think, I think it was sort of around the time we had decimal currency.

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So 1966, we also changed to, to metric paper sizes from Imperial.

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So any film set before that?

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foolscap and quarter paper, not A4.

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And the proportion of a sheet of paper is such a subtle thing, but

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it's something that if I see a piece of A4 paper in a period film

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or TV show, it's the first thing that jumps out at me because it's

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visually not right. So it's all of those little details that you have to get your head into.

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I'm a big lover of books. I go to libraries.

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I don't just research everything through Google.

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I actually will go into R M I T library or the state library of

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Victoria, and actually talk to the librarians, go into the archives,

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go into the graphic archive. Stuff like that and actually really research the visual period so that I

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at least have a benchmark in my body for that project so that I can kind

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of make sure that all of these visual clues are as accurate as possible.

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And that that's kind of the stuff that you won't, you won't notice unless you

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know it and you can see that it's wrong.

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I don't sort of store film facts in my head.

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because, you know, my head's full enough and I, and I can't . Recall

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that sort of stuff very often. Now that people can stream content there are a group of

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people who will freeze frames and pick the eyes out of something.

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You know, there are whole websites dedicated to film faux pas, and

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of course, props are often one of them that people pick on a

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lot because they're so obvious. One thing I can say is I can go to the movies and watch a film and even

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though I know how something is done, and I, I remember one instance going

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to the cinema to watch chopper, which was such a brilliant film and feeling.

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So I. At the violence scenes, even though I know exactly technically how

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that's done for film, I nearly fainted with the horror of it.

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Like I still get really, really affected, even though I know the

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technology and the techniques I can suspend my disbelief

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when I'm an audience member. And look, I have to say, even though, you know, you strive

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always to make something accurate. You may be working on something.

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It's not a documentary, it's a drama.

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So of course there's always license to bend the truth or, you know,

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change the reality of it or whatever.

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And at the end of the day, you are there for the director and the,

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um, and the designer and the actor.

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I mean, part of my job, you never ever see, there's a

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lot of props that, that you. That you never end up seeing on screen because the shot may

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just be head and shoulders. But the fact of the matter is you are making the prop

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for the actor to help them portray their character.

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And so, you know, one of the things that I do when we go back to talking

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about the process is after I've read the script and assuming I've then

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been chosen for the job, once I've done my research and everything.

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One thing that you always do is make contact with the actors and talk to them

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about props that they're gonna have to handle within the story and help them

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to become familiar so that they're, they're just appearing effortless

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with their props, if they have a specialty tool or something that

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they're supposed to be really familiar with an example, being for, you

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know, obvious ones, Kate Winslet, with her singer sewing machine.

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When, on the dress maker we organized through the produce or the producers

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organized cuz she was still in England for her to have sewing

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lessons on the machine that she,

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which was purchased in, in England.

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And she then brought out with her when she came out and is the hero

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machine all the way through the film.

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In fact, she became so, so adept at that machine that when it

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broke down, she would be the one who would, um, fix it on set.

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we'd all be standing around. She'd go, oh, I know what's wrong with this and changes the tension.

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And. All that sort of stuff on, on this ancient singer sewing machine.

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So, you know, you, part of my job is, is to just make sure that the

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actors are completely familiar and comfortable with their own props.

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And that often will involve organizing lessons or training with something long

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before they ever get to shoot the scene.

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I mean, one thing about working in film is that you actually very rarely get

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time to go to films or see films so I actually do a lot of catch up, but.

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One of the most recent films I saw, I saw probably one of the most beautiful

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props I've ever seen, which was in nomad land, the love interest guy.

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They had a close up of his mobile phone in one scene and

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stuck to the front of the phone.

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It was just an old Nokia or something like Americans always

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seem to have these ancient phones. Stuck to the front screen on a little bit of paper with sticky.

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was the pin number for the phone.

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And to me, that was the most informative thing I saw about

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that character in the whole film.

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So I don't know that I could really say that props have changed a lot

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other than I know now when I work with a lot of younger props, people.

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I find that their referencing is probably more likely to be

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other films than deeper research.

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And that's what worries me, but then, you know, that's life, isn't it.

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You know, your references. Your reference.

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I just, you know, make sure that I, when I'm giving classes at the VCA or

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whatever, that I really warn people not to just sort of do a navel gazing

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to actually go a bit further and deeper and to try and understand like

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one thing as I was growing up, I was always really interested in how things

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you know, I used to take my, my, uh, bike gears apart and put

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them back together again for fun. I don't know if that's something about my personality, but I really

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like to drill down on how and why things work the way they do.

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And I think that's one skill that's been really useful for me as a prop

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master is actually understanding the how and why of things.

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And why people would choose one thing over another to.

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With them as their personal possessions.

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You know, I just find that really interesting. I remember traveling a few years ago and coming across a museum

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in Berlin that has become my most, one of my favorite museums.

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It's called the museum Der Dinge, which is called the museum of things.

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And it is a museum of objects. And I really recommend anyone going to Berlin.

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Go to this museum, cuz it's absolutely fascinating.

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You can tell a lot about people by their stuff.

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And that is what really interests me and what I think about a lot

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and what informs me when I'm thinking about propping a character.

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An art department is made up of many, many people.

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So you have your production designer, who's in charge of the overall look.

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And then you have your art director. Who's in charge of translating that, you know, getting the

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people on to actually make that happen and managing the budget.

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And then you have your set decorator, which is a person who's in charge

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of creating the environment. Informed by the production designer.

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And then you have the props team, which are in charge of the personal props.

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And some of that can just be things they keep in their handbag.

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There's no hard and fast rule about how things are divided up amongst

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this team in a way there are some jobs where the props person might

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say, get a piano for a character.

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If it, if they're a pianist, though, you would say, well, that's a

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really large piece of furniture. So why isn't the set decorator doing that?

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But if it's a piano, that is something that is so specific to that character.

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Sometimes it gets given to the props master because it is

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something that really portrays that character in terms of their things.

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Every job is different and every job you have to negotiate

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where the demarcation lines. So say with Muriel's wedding that was made back in the days where the art

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department was not as, uh, extensive as it is now in a lot of ways.

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So. In fact in mural's wedding, there wasn't a dedicated props person.

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There was basically only three of us in the art department.

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And so we divided up the sets according to how it was gonna be shot so

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that we would sort of tag team each other in the order that it was shot.

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So. Say for example, I did the opening wedding sequence and then Glen, my

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colleague did the scene, the locations that were came up in the story after

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that, the way we did it then was that we would do what's called the set dressing.

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So the furniture and also the props for that scene.

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So we did a bit of both. in terms of the house, in terms of the Heslop house,

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we actually did it together. Cuz there were so many rooms inside that house.

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But what would happen is you would have a location person who would go

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out and find the locations required.

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There were no sets built for Muriel's wedding.

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It was all basically shot on location.

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And in actual fact, a lot of the film was supposed to be on a cruise ship.

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And we had a company lined up a well known cruise ship company

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lined up who actually pulled out a week before we started shooting.

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And so the whole island sequence was originally set on a cruise ship.

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So we had to actually create that at the very last minute.

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I mean, it was a huge spanner in the works, in the making of that

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film for such a main location to drop out at the last minute.

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So basically your, your location manager goes out, finds a few locations.

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The production designer will go and have a look at them and

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see how they can make it work, what they can do to it, to service the story.

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And then once one's picked the set dressers or set decorators,

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go in and furnish the scene, you might have a bit of construction

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go to maybe put in a wall or hide something or something like that.

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And then, basically that, you know, if there's food, if it's like say,

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um, the banquet scene on the, in the island, you know, where the Mama

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Mia scene is shot, there was a big banquet table with huge tropical

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fruit displays and stuff like that. So you organized someone.

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And we actually got a fantastic artist. We employed a lot of artists on Muriel's wedding, not film people.

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And so we got this fantastic artist called Pip Playford from the Mardi

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GRA workshop to come in and do that whole fabulous over the top.

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Carmen Miranda fruit display, and then you shoot the scene.

23:03

Nat Grant: You've been listening to the prima Donna podcast.

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To find out more about this project and to hear more episodes like this

23:09

one, visit prima Donna podcast.com.