Avengers: Infinity War
Prop master Russell Bobbitt is a Hollywood mainstay . He ’s done war film ( Navy Seals ) , horror film ( Bram Stoker ’s Dracula ) , clowning ( The Flintstones ) and muckle of action projects , admit a dozen with Marvel Studios . Screen Rant caught up with Bobbitt , who has been on the line of work for over 30 years to see what makes a property professional check and get some insight into his late work with Marvel Studios onAvengers : Infinity Warand its currently untitled follow - up .
Having work out on nearly every writing style of film , Bobbitt ’s experience has made him a legend and one of the most sought after airplane propeller master in the game . Bobbitt was capable to expound on how the job of a prop overlord is a trivial more than just picking out a good - looking prop and what it is about a Zippo light that make itTHE lighter of Hollywood ’s schoolmaster prop headmaster .
Related : Infinity War Set Visit Interview With The Russo Brothers
Bobbitt teamed with Zippo to aid contrive a serial of movie testimonial igniter which are breathe in by some of the most famous designs that have been featured in Hollywood over the eld . ThinkDie Hard , Constantine , Ocean ’s 13 , and more ! The Walk of Flame video features some of these iconic design as Bobbitt walks us through an LA prop house loaded with over a million props .
Screen claptrap : One thing that I regain very interesting when I was reading up on you was your relationship between props and characters . speak to me a little spot about that kinship , about how an detail can make it character or break a fictional character .
Russell Bobbitt : Sure . Part of my chore as a airscrew master is that I ’ll read a script and I ’ll foot out all the obvious props , which is really easy to do . Anyone can be a airscrew master in that sense . What you have to do is sort of think of of what ’s not in the script and what will substantiate a report and what will support a character reference . So I ’ll scan my script and I ’ll make a list and then I ’ll go talk to the director and he looks at it and get , “ Oh yeah , enceinte . check that the pencil ’s green and the Zippo unaccented ’s huge . ” And then I take it to the actor and I ’ll go , okay , you take a watch . You need a light , you require a pair of glasses . And they will say to me , “ Oh , well , I only calculate good in Ray - forbiddance ” , because all actors think they only look sound and Ray - Bans . And I ’ll say , “ Okay , well there ’s a hot Modern Ray - Ban line and I need to show it to you and I ’ll sort of get into it . And if I know the guy is gon na , you bed , rob a depository financial institution , I ’m giving him Ray - Bans with really dark lens system and if I know that he ’s having a romanticist scene , I ’m locomote to give him Ray - Bans with special Lens so that we see his eyes . So I require to render all that living for the character , conniption by conniption , you know , and it may be that he call for 10 pair of Ray - Bans because he ’s gazump lots of depository financial institution and sleeping with lots of people .
So in essence , you ’re just as important in creating the character as the words on the varlet , obviously … at least the esthetic .
Russell Bobbitt : I think moving picture would n’t be made without property guy or prop gals , and it is important . It does livelihood floor , theatrical role and the look of the film . So we ’re sort of tortuous in every facet of it now . Do n’t intend that the Ray - Ban conversation stops there . Then the costume graphic designer gets involved and they ’re make their own movie . And the production graphic designer who ’s in bursting charge of the palate of the whole film … the colour and the style and if it ’s a of period pieces if it ’s a modern-day piece . So that the one twain of Ray - Bans will have months and months of encounter before we terminate up putting a pair of Ray - Bans on Bradley Cooper for The Hangover picture show . And , and so everything is thought out , well think out . Uh , we bestow single handedly bring in blue blocker back into romp with the picture show on Zach Galifianakis .
I commemorate blue blocking agent , I call back the infomercials .
Bobbitt : And so there you go . So , you know , I also act as a part in a trending a small snatch and figuring out what , what ’s break to be red-hot five geezerhood from now because you want to have all the cool stuff in the film .
So speaking of that , I know that obviously there ’s the costume intriguer and stylists . How tight do you lick with them ?
Bobbitt : I have to mold closely with everybody . motion picture are poorly made when one person tries to make them . And I feel powerfully that a collaborative squad , a very gifted collaborative team , makes a honest film . I do n’t call up you may do it without it . And so if , if there ’s a cog in the wheel , you sort of have to massage that a little second . You have to oil that sprocket and make everybody feel good about the design process , so that if I have to show a pair of methamphetamine , or a watch or a artillery to a director , and an actor and the costume designer , production designer … I got ta pitch it . I get ta betray it all so that they all find good about that property going onto a hombre , or a window or however it ’s going to be used .
Now I have a question about Zippos , in particular . Every movie you see if there ’s a clear that ’s on screen , it ’s never like a normal light . It ’s usually a Zippo . Why is that ?
Bobbitt : There ’s one dependable solution to that : it ’s the most reliable lighter on the market , no doubt . you could be in the malarkey , you could be in the frigidity , you could be in front of a fire . The Zippo of is going to light . The mechanics of the Zippo lighter are so old schooling and great , that they do n’t neglect . And now the only reason they would break is if you fail to drive fluid in the lighter and then you have a very sticky moment in front of a music director or an actor . So it ’s , it ’s a go to lighter . When a director calls for a lighter and he does n’t say any trade name or any style of lighter , I show up with my Zippo collection because I screw that I ’m safe . I ’ll back up a little snatch . It costs on a big motion picture , $ 250,000 a sidereal day to shoot and Marvel movie or a pic of that height . And if a lighter holds up a tantrum , it could be upwards of $ 25,000 - 30,000 while we ’re waiting to situate a lighter or go corrupt a new one . So I ’ve never hold up a scene using a Zippo lighter . That ’s why I go to the Zippo .
As the conversation turn to Marvel Studios photographic film , Bobbitt , who was on board at the beginning with 2008’sIron Manand has been back clip after time since then , had nothing but glowing remarks about his working relationship with the studio apartment and some insight on how he brought some of the more iconic accessories to life .
Bobbitt detail how while bringing authoritative comic Word of God props to life sentence , there ’s more to it than just make them look the part . Form and purpose seem to be a bit of a prop lord ’s yin and yang and , as Bobbitt details , there are several looping of each prop ( such as Thor ’s hammer , Mjolnir , and Cap ’s Vibranium shield ) , each with their own reasonableness for existing .
Speaking of Marvel , you ’ve said you ’ve worked on plenty of those films andInfinity Waris almost out , in like a few hr , I think . How challenging are those projects and do they ever get easier ? Because it just seems like they just keep growing .
Bobbitt : The Marvel task have been really neat for me . I ’m part of the Ten Year Anniversary because I started on Iron Man 1 and I ’ve been there ever since . I started on Iron Man 1 and I have now , I think up to my 11th and 12th film with Avengers 3 and 4 , which we shoot consecutive , so it ’s really , it ’s insanely challenge in that if you have a catamenia piece , there are rules . 1940 , looks like 1940 and you ca n’t really sway from that . We ’re making picture in kayoed blank space , and so there are no rules … so your imaging come into play … your projection of what could happen in outer quad . You have to play with and play by some of the rules like gravity or no gravity . And you have to still sell the audience on man being superheroes . So we ’re addressing a guy called Thor and he ’s got a big pound , you know , and that ’s like the secular the lowest common denominator . Now I got ta intend about Mjolnir . What ’s Mjolnir made of ? Uru metal ? Why is it made out of Uru metal ? Because I have to satisfy the lore , proper ? So I ’m challenged in that , a comical book , which is awesome and people , you know , we would n’t be here without comic books , but the Marvel team are brilliant and Jack Kirby and Stan Lee , and it ’s our life . But you look at a comic book and if I copy that airplane propeller from the mirthful Quran in real life , I have a lot … I now have an interview of non - comic book people that are looking at it going , that ’s kind of looks like a toy or you do it , it ’s like kind of goofy . So I have to see out where to draw the melodic line between appeasing a fan and appeasing non - fan . And so we go through 100 of drawings before we come up with Mjolnir . I imagine I drew 200 Mjolnirs before we hail down to what it was on the films and rightfully so , we have to cipher out the size and the scale and what did she wait like and how does it look like ? It ’s really heavy for everyone else but Thor , right ? So there are scenes where , we ’ve all see the iconic scenes where everyone tries to raise up the hammer and nobody can . And then Thor can . I literally bolt the pound into the ground to betray that it ’s overweight . Like we really go as far as I , I provide the actor everything I can to make us successful shoot like that .
And in some caseful , that have in mind taking it easy on the doer , even for some of Marvel Studios ’ more physically impressive thespian such as Chris Hemsworth and Chris Evans .
So how many hammers are usually on set ? You see them pitch it around and obviously it seemed lighter and then you see the real one and it ’s still fairly obtuse . It ’s pretty operose .
Bobbitt : So all the unlike materials I habituate for Mjolnir . I have a alloy one which is about 60 pound and then we do a fiberglass one . We do a hard rubber and a soft rubber . The soft rubber is for stunts , if he ’s throwing it or catching it or hitting somebody or it hits somebody , we practice a very soft rubber . The softer the cloth , the harder it is for me to sell as alloy because it ’s more poriferous and it ’s hard to paint . The metal one attend beautiful because it ’s metal . The next one down is fibreglass . I can put a really beautiful paint job on a fiberglass hammer . That ’s the one he ’ll carry around a lot , you know , if he has , if I see that he ’s going to have a 12 - 14 60 minutes Clarence Day , I ’m giving them something light because it ’s , eventide if you ’re the perfect specimen that Chris Hemsworth is , and I ’m trusted pot of people will concord with me when I say that , it still catch heavy after 12 minute , no matter how stiff you are . So I allow for lightweight unity and rubber depend on the stunt and whatnot . And I will , just a little trivial fact the paint for that fibreglass hammer to make it look like the real metallic element hammer and make it look like Uru metal , is $ 1,000 a congius . That ’s a gaga long physical process , that takes two to three days , and that does n’t count the labor . If there ’s anything expensive out there , I retrieve it .
While many of us have our own idea about what it is that makes one suitable of lift Mjolnir , Bobbit ’s insight into what goes into making it look the part can sure as shooting force us to reassess those mentation . It ’s also good to know that even Chris Hemsworth ca n’t heft around 60 British pound sterling power hammer all mean solar day .
Earlier in the interview , Bobbitt spoke about his employment on full stop pieces ; we essay to toil in on how the theorized time traveling in the untitled quaternary Avengers ’ motion picture might grapple with that theme … but Bobbitt was n’t peach . He was , however , more than willing to portion out how important the attention to detail on something as childlike as the handgrip on Cap ’s shield is to his craftiness .
You speak a picayune bit about work onAvengersand I know that they were shoot back to back . Can you talk a lilliputian snatch about the period pieces - I know that there ’s clock time travel that ’s involved - specifically about the 1940s because that ’s the World War II era where a lot ca n’t be alter really . It ’s 1940 . What were some of the challenges in doing a 1940 look , because that stuff does n’t , I do n’t feel like you’re able to find that stuff everywhere . Some of that poppycock involve to be made . ripe ?
Bobbitt : Right . If I ’m doing something 40s , it does have to be made . And good endeavour , by the way . I do n’t know that there ’s time travel in Avengers 4 , I do n’t know that . You ’d be surprised , actually a while we were filming both movies , the crew did not get a script . It ’s lawful . And uh , and so there ’s a lot of thing that I do n’t even jazz . There are a lot of matter I do know .
Maybe I bungle that for you .
Bobbitt : Maybe you may have spoiled for me , but when do a period art object , It is and is n’t challenge . It ’s kind of fun . Like my favourite era is the 40s . I sleep together what went on in the 40s . I know that about rations and I know that they ran out of blade or copper rather , and went to brand for for a while . And so I have sex the formula . That ’s why I was say earlier , there are linguistic rule to doing a period opus and if you go to the 40s , like let ’s talk about Captain America , the first Captain America movie . menses musical composition , right ? And a lot of ground forces and , and , and cars and weapons that we be intimate what they are because we have Google , right ? you could , anyone can explore a what travel down . So the challenge there is to , to receive what you need that applies to your playscript and , and dial in our craftsman are painters and our welders and , you know , to build thing like they would work up them in the 40 and Cap ’s cuticle is one of the , you know , a top contender there . Like how do you add up up with Captain America ’s shield ? The front of the shell is a no brainer . The comic books is all , it ’s all there , it ’s what you gestate to see out of Cap ’s shell . But if you look at the back of a buckler , you ’ll see that I hand crafted a lot of leather strapping and materials that be back in the 40s so that when the very few times that we see the back of the shell , and we do because when I ’m watching the movie , I watched for the back of the buckler , not the front , I see that he ’s wearing leather straps and not some , you cognise , more modern fabric . So , so that , that ’s really where our mind go is like every single detail , if it ’s ever revealed , we desire it to be bona fide .
Funny enough , you worked onIron Mantoo ?
Bobbitt : I did .
I work onIron Man . I was a researcher . My job was to read every Iron Man comic and make notes of when there was a costume modification . So I know how extensive a part of the cognitive process is . Can you talk to me a trivial bit about the research that you have to do for a task when something like that occurs ? A small exemplar is , you were just talking about Captain America ’s shield and in aCaptain America : The First Avenger , they show you unlike epitome of the buckler . What fit into those designs and were there any authorisation from Marvel at the time that said , you make out , we kind of require this design and this intention is homages to the yesteryear ?
Bobbitt : So , we all as a team posture there and endeavor to image all that out and what , what ’s where I go is to my illustrators . Again , it ’s , it ’s the whole squad effort kind of thing . I have illustrator drawing 20 different mind of a prototype and 18 of them are o.k. and two of them are really majuscule and so what I ’ll do is I ’ll take the two really great ones and two really bad 1 and show the director … because directors love to say no to things … and we ’ll descend up with what ’s the best for the scenario . One keen representative in the shield world is that ILM did a prototype , broken up shield like as if it would be in layers like what ’s inside the shell , right . And the team knew about that and they see it . It was a pitch . It was actually just a pitching that ILM threw out there and it was never going to be used for anything . Well , as it turns out , I saw the lazy Susan of it , which is like a 3D draft and I fell in love with it . I thought it was keen and I literally built that prop from that drawing and it ’s the one that Coulson hands him when he wedges up his arc nuclear reactor and slices his workshop in half . That ’s the one . So that design came out of ILM and we just , I go through it and loved it as a prop and there and that was a swell picayune Easter bollock , that one who was just like crazy , like , you be intimate , he pull it out of Howard Stark ’s instance and he was like , “ Oh , you bang what this is ? ” And he used as a wedge and it ’s , it was just like epically democratic .
As the interview came to a close , we ask Bobbitt about his work onAvengers : Infinity War , his most recent Marvel Studios celluloid . As you might await , the prop original had his hand on the maturation of the most important property in the 10 year history of Marvel Studios : the Infinity Gauntlet ! Bobbitt devote us a little history lesson on the Gauntlet and how it evolved since its first on - CRT screen appearance .
ObviouslyInfinity Warwas a big undertaking that Marvel has come out . Uh , what prop are you most proud of in that film ?
Bobbitt : With Infinity War , my most lofty prop has to be the Infinity Gauntlet .
I wear out that thing the other day .
Bobbitt : You jade the bighearted one or the little one ?
The small one . It barely gibe in my hand , the one that Josh Brolin put on and it scarce fit me .
Bobbitt : Yeah , so the , the Josh Brolin one was a complete courtesy prop for Brolin .
Oh , was it ?
Bobbitt : Yeah , it , it ’s never really used in the film because it was so big and the one that he uses is 35 Cypriot pound and so we have it there for every shot and we mock up it now off of my prop , which was great . It was at the premiere the other night and sitting in a case and I walked by to go into the company and I see masses just digest there take photograph of my gauntlet . I stood back and I usually do stand back because I do n’t take the air up to anyone and go , I made that right . But I had that import , that moment of like , wow , people care about a affair I did .
Here ’s our own Rob Keyes holding the actual full - sizing Infinity Gauntlet prop that Bobbitt bring out while we visited the readiness of Avengers : Infinity War in June 2017 .
It ’s iconic now .
Bobbitt : It ’s very iconic and it ’s a outstanding . There ’s a great quick story about it in Thor 1 , Kevin came up to me , he move , hey , I take a Gauntlet spouse and it ’s just buy the farm to be in the background and it ’s not a big quite a little . Maybe it ’s brass and put some colorful stones in it . And that ’s all I got now . I did n’t read the comical books , okay . So I ’m admittedly saying that this is a thing . And Kevin tell to me , make a commentary , and I made a Gauntlet and at that meter I did n’t bonk that the Gauntlet would have its own movie . So there ’s a plenty of props and things and actors that we see that are a little Easter Eggs that we do n’t even know about . severely . I made the Gauntlet , and through the years that basic designing cohere . So for Infinity War I demote up the design a little bit . We ’ve remade them in . I really craft the stones because there were so important . So now they ’re like every aspect and every cutting is exact and plan . And those Stone are like , again , month of meetings to issue forth up with the coloring material , the size , where they go . It ’s a pretty brainy airscrew , uh , in terms of like what it aver to that movie , like what it does for that movie and so that , that hands down has to be the Infinity Gauntlet and the stones .
MCU sports fan will agree that Bobbitt has no rationality to feel anything other than superbia for the grand intent of not only the Infinity Gauntlet , but many of the most iconic looking props associated with the films . While he ’s not work onCaptain Marvel , his enthusiasm for working with Kevin Feige and gang means we could potentially see him again on 2020’sGuardians of the Galaxy Vol . 3 , which will film early next year in Atlanta , and on future attribute such asBlack WidowandEternals .
