Waldegrave School Autumn Magazine 2023

We are incredibly grateful to have welcomed into school Jim McKeown, one of our parents, who delivered an insightful talk to our Design and Technology students in Year 9 and 10.

For the last 20 years, Jim McKeown has been making and creating a wide selection of props for Film and TV. From a history of being a model maker, prop maker, Special Effects technician to working as a Supervising propmaker, his work is very varied. We learnt that a great deal of McKeown’s work has been in feature films, and in the course of his career he has been fortunate enough to have worked with such great directors as Ridley Scott, Chris Cunningham, Andrew Stanton, Joe Johnson, Danny Boyle and Sam Mendes! During his visit, students were allowed to select one of Jim’s projects that they were particularly interested in to learn more about the world of creating models and props. Students learned how designers need to understand the properties of different materials to produce props that meet varied filming requirements. They were fascinated to learn about the variations of Captain America's shield, which is made from anodised aluminium for close up shots and rubber for fight scenes!

This proved to be a great opportunity for all the students who attended as they were keen to learn all about the industry, gaining insight into the world of creative career choices!

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