He had to find the red legal seal in Europe, since the US doesn't use that kind anymore, then emboss the seal and photo, make, print, and perforate the stick-on stamps, and recreate all the rubber stamps to match those of the time period. Narrator: Ross first had to track down a 1921 passport to use as a model, then digitally clear out the existing info and recreate the background pattern so that he could go in and write the new material on top. That's what Ross did when he made this 1920s passport for Steve Buscemi's character on "Boardwalk Empire." With historical IDs, legality isn't an issue, so prop artists can get a lot more authentic on period shows. To avoid legal troubles, prop houses will sometimes deliberately alter the look, like on this Netherlands passport for "Madam Secretary." The show's legal team asked The Hand Prop Room to make the passport less accurate by reshuffling the layout and changing the color scheme. After sewing the pages together, the prop makers assemble the passport and do a final trim. To make a current US passport, The Hand Prop Room has to print and trim the pages, do a clear overlay on the photo page, and silk-screen the cover to give it that authentic sheen. Things get tricky when it comes to passports, which are generally much harder to forge than ID cards because of all the detail involved across multiple pages. But after some rehearsals, the filmmakers asked him to add space for a badge inside, so the agents would have something to flash. Narrator: Like this 1920s one Ross made for a Prohibition agent in "Boardwalk Empire." He first produced an ID faithful to what agents carried at the time. Narrator: The ID also needs to play well in the scene. The "X-Files" one is one that you see copied a lot. Ross: And a lot of times the frame of reference that viewers have is other shows. Narrator: As a prop artist, you'd maybe spice things up with a flashy gold badge or this type of giant FBI logo you see popping up a lot in shows and movies. But on a TV screen, they might be sort of holding it up, and we're looking at them from eight feet away. Military ID cards, police identification, even the FBI identification, they're meant to be looked at really close up. But specialized IDs pose another problem. For these, prop artists can make fake chips out of vinyl to stick on top of the ID, or they can print it on a card that already has the fake chip built in. And for special forms of ID, like those for the US Army, the prop makers might have to mimic metal chips. For projects that call for close-ups, they use this old-school embossing machine to make sure the lighting reflects off the numbers on the card in the right way. Narrator: Laminating will also give it the weight of an actual driver's license, so that when the actor holds the card, it not only looks, but feels like the real deal. And that's what we're going to get from the lamination process. Jacob: A lot of the driver's licenses you see, especially now, have this kind of matte, but also a bit of a sheen look. Narrator: To nail the aesthetics, prop makers often focus on the sheen of the ID. Ross: The rule of thumb is convincing is better than accurate. Luckily, according to graphic props artists Ross MacDonald, simplifying elements like holograms and shadow images can make the ID look better on screen, since it won't be as jammed with tiny details. Narrator: For a special close-up, they might simulate the hologram physically using a silk screen and iridescent powders mixed with clear ink. Jacob Kubon: There's a lot of tricks that you can use in the graphic itself to make it look like it's catching light and having some shine to it. Like with this New Mexico driver's license, which The Hand Prop Room made for "Black Widow." The photo of Scarlett Johansson has been swapped in for a stock photo, and the hologram, which in real IDs would be 3D, is actually 2D. It's the prop maker's job to make these IDs look as real as possible on screen without crossing into any legal gray areas. When creating fake IDs for production, agencies might limit their customers to major studios. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.
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