Where does Hollywood turn for realistic dead bodies or genuine morgue props? Post Mortem Studio Rentals is the entertainment industry source for morgue, mortuary and medical props and set dressings. I recently hooked up with BJ Winslow, formerly a prop artist with this company, and gained some insights into the death-related prop business. What follows is an excerpt of our conversation.  

Frank:  How long has Post Mortem Studio Rentals been in business in its current incarnation?

BJ:  It's hard to pinpoint when our current incarnation began. I've been with the studio nearly a year now, and up until that time, PMSR did not do blood, body parts, corpses, or tombstones. Bruce's collection was more clinical, forensics, and funeral based, I helped bring in the horror and gothic elements. About a year before my arrival PMSR expanded from just a prop house to a prop house with sound stages. We have one permanent hospital hallway and elevator, and several rooms that can be reconfigured in a variety of ways. With all our props, dressings, and facades, we can construct a full morgue, chapel, recovery room, surgery suite, laboratory, and so on.

Frank:  How did you first get the word out to the Hollywood "powers that be" that you
were open for business?

BJ:  Our first client, Disney's Pearl Harbor, came to us looking for caskets. Since then, getting the word out has been a combination of word of mouth and direct promotion. I've been optimizing our web page so we're ranking much higher in our categories than ever before.

Frank:  What are some of the bigger or best known feature films or TV shows for which you have created or provided props?

BJ:  We work with CSI on a nearly weekly basis. We've done stuff for Six Feet Under, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gwen Steffani, Fear Factor. Between Bruce's connections with the morgue and medical businesses, and my custom fabrication studio, really one thing we excel at is getting the weird props that no one else has. CSI especially knows that they don't need to refer to our catalog. Anything they could ask for we deliver.

Frank:  What big name stars, directors or producers have visited your standing sets to shoot a production?

BJ:  We've had Kevin Nealon here from Saturday Night Live, the entire cast of Mad TV, some promotional material for Dawn of the Dead was also shot here.

Frank: Now for some of the darker stuff! How realistic are your props, specifically the corpses and morgue equipment? After all, you would know, right?

BJ:  Everything is real. From the autopsy tables to the bone saws to the caskets. When you rent a prop from us, you're getting the real thing. The only exceptions are the stuff that I make, headstones, corpses, etc. In those instances, my work is as real as you want it to be, from the rotted horror cadavers I did for Scream Play, to the gutted torso and meat bones I did for a commercial where a lion attacks a bicyclist that the director told me were "too real."

Frank: What Product/solution makes the best looking blood on film?

BJ:  Caro Syrup, Food Coloring, and my secret ingredients. Everybody's got their own recipe, and I guard mine quite closely. But I will say this, as well as being the best looking, my blood is also the best tasting!

Frank:  Is your crematory a live working model that might be used in as an actual crematory?

BJ:  The front is, the rest is a facade.

Frank:  Have you ever dropped/knocked over a "full" urn?

BJ:  Real urns actually have a screw top lid. Spilling out your loved ones ashes, or "cremains" as their known, just doesn't happen. There was one month where I was doing that gag every week though, and I happily made fake ashes and filled urns for them. Ashes are harder than most people think to get right. You put in real ash, or a powder like flour or baking soda, and it just doesn't fall right or pile up right. You need a mixture of heavy grains and light grains to pull the gag off correctly. Two of the gags I did were pet urns, one was for an Outback Steakhouse commercial.

Frank:  I'll bet you put on an incredible Halloween party. Any stories?

BJ:  About four years ago I got involved with a haunted house crew in Santa Cruz, Ca. The best looking ones I feel take place outside in the woods, or in old decrepit buildings. My favorite ones however were in active mental institutions. The decorations weren't that over the top, nor were the gags, but man did the patients get into it!

Frank: Knowing what you know about "the business", would you recommend cremation or burial for me? Why?

BJ:  That's your choice. I really feel everything about the funeral service should reflect the personal choices of the deceased and his loved ones. Personally, I want to be buried in a nice old fashioned Toe-pincher style casket, with a standing headstone (not a flat marker) made of polished fossil rock.

And though you didn't ask, I'm going to transcribe for you my strangest phone call this week. The client called and asked "Can you get me human brains?" Sure, I said, I can do latex brains that look very realistic. "No," said the caller, "they have to be real brains." Okay, no problem, I said, I can get you sheep brains, the real deal, nothing better. "No," said the caller again, "they have to be human brains. Can you get me real human brains?" I just said no!

(Article also posted on www.franksreelreviews.com.)