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By Steve Fronczek
06 May 2008
Future-Past.com recently got the chance to interview Derek Young who worked as Lead Mechanical Designer for White Monkey Design inc., who supplies a large portion of the physical props for Battlestar Galactica. Derek designed and produced hundreds of custom props and objects for high profile productions like i,Robot, Battlestar Galactica, Fantastic Four and X-Men 3. Before working for White Monkey, Derek was one of the only Canadian builders to appear on the Comedy Network's Battlebots show. This exclusive interview was made possible by the great folks from Intersun Luxury Liners, Caprica City, Caprica.
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Can you explain briefly for my readers what a Lead Mechanical Designer does?
I took the concepts and ideas from the prop master and Booth Milton, my former employer, and figured out how to bring them into the real world. Usually this would involve 3D modeling on a computer and CNC machining, creating something from scratch; or in the case of Battlestar, modifying off-the-shelf consumer goods with custom parts, pieces and fabrication.
What inspired you to pursue a career in this field?
I kind of fell into the film industry during a co-op work term during my undergraduate studies at Simon Fraser University, and continued to work there after I had graduated.
Did you go to school to learn these skills?
School offered me a basis for a lot of what I did at work (I started programming micro-controllers to control prop special effects), but most of it was on-the-job personal development and expanding my design and fabricating experience over the years.
You have worked on some of my favorites like i,Robot and X-men. Both of them are pretty detail intense, tell me a bit about your experience working on those projects and how that compared with working on Battlestar?
It is hard to generalize, but the work I did on feature films were much more focused on complete scratch building of props than the average Battlestar build, which entailed modifying consumer products to look Galactiguised. A lot of what we build depends on what the prop master decides to bring us, and much, but not all, of the elaborate scratch built props were being sent to other shops. Also, TV budgets tend to be smaller and the work is a little faster paced, which can be more fun at times.
Did you watch the original Battlestar Galactica?
No. I was a little too young. I did watch an episode out of interest but couldn't get through it.
What was it like to be part of creating the top Sci-fi drama?
It's funny, I had been working on mediocre productions for so long that to work on something that was actually good television was quite a revelation. During the filming of the first season, I had no idea what the show was about, I even recall asking "What's a Battlestar?." After watching it though I was excited to build for the next seasons.
Did you have a style you adhere to when creating props for the show?
I usually didn't have much of a say about it, but I tried to keep it consistent. "Retro-future" for humans, "future-future" for Cylons.
What did you do with the moulds after you create a prop? Are they stored or just thrown away?
We keep the moulds. They don't last forever though. I don't recall many moulded props we did for Battlestar. Ken was getting replica guns and stuff elsewhere.
What is your adhesive of choice to glue stuff together to make props?
I like double sided tape better than glue. If I have to glue something I use J-B Weld or cyanoacrylate. Mostly everything was attached using tapped holes and machine screws.
You created the sleek torture chair that Diana and Six used to extract information form Gaius Baltar while he was on the Cylon Basestar. How long did it take you to design and build that Chair?
The chair was provided for us; it was pre-existing. We were responsible for the restraints on the chair. All told it took three people a week to build the restraint system, I did all the design and machining of the components. The restraints were also remotely releasable via springs and electromagnets, but the shot of Baltar being released didn't make it out of the editing room.
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