Booth Milton has designed props and set pieces for movies for decades, and you’ve probably seen his work in some of the most popular TV and movie franchises of the last few decades.
Now you have a chance to own one of the unique pieces, as Booth puts most of his collection — his life’s work — up for auction.
“I’ll cherry pick one or two things that I like,” Milton told Global’s This is BC.
The Emily Carr University of Art and Design graduate took his art talent to the TV and film industry where he designed props and set pieces, specializing in Sci-Fi.
“You’ve got guns from Battlestar Galactica. You’ve got stuff from X-Men. You’ve got stuff from Men In Black,” said Jeff Schwarz of Direct Liquidation who will be calling the live online auction Sunday, March 26.
Milton’s career dates back over three-and-a-half decades, when he started collecting trashed pieces from the junkyard and turning them into works of art, finding just the right fit for all kinds of scrap material.
“These are flashlight holders. This is glass hardware. This piece here, nobody would know,” Milton said as he showed off a few of his creations. “This is off-cut from Kodak Labs.”
In one case, he even turned a pizza oven into a rocket ship. Milton has always had free reign to design these props his way.
“I didn’t want to be told what looked good because I thought I had a better idea. And oh I did,” he said with a laugh.
Computer-generated imagery has replaced the need for a lot this work, so these are very much collector item pieces.
“It’s like the handmade tires from the old days. Now it’s all machines,” Schwarz said. “You’re not going to see this kind of art anymore.”
Milton’s prop career may be shelved, but there will still be different creations to come. It’s impossible to completely shut off this type of creativity.
“It consumes you. Because I wake up at four or five in the morning and what am I thinking of? My next design,” Milton said.
“I can look around the room and every time I see something I know when I made it and I know when I designed it. And this is only a fraction.”
To contact Jay Durant with a story idea for This is BC, email him details and contact information at thisisbc@globalnews.ca