Apex Surplus – A movie industry props and parts source

Full disclosure I'm not a production designer, but have worked in the art department on some smaller film productions.

These individual parts are likely used to build larger props that a production can't otherwise acquire. For example, assembling a cyberpunk plane interior, or the control panel in a time machine.

They can also be scattered around a set where those individual parts would belong (like a mechanic's studio) to make the space feel real and lived-in.

Lastly, they can be used for close-up shots (with just a little bit of production design built up around them). This is a lot cheaper than renting an entire interior.

Stuff like specific terminals and parts can be used for insert shots and close ups (which are often shot by a 2nd Unit crew without the actual stars/main crew). So then you can build a simpler set and just shoot close ups for the fancy electronics.

But for anything larger, what generally happens is some sort of overall deal is worked out, which covers a large swath of props. Like “airplane set pieces” for $X and then the prop house just tracks what from that category is actually used. That also covers replacements or trades on the day of shooting. Much simpler for all involved, and it “feels” like a discount.

For a full cockpit, the production would just buy one and trash it afterwards. Movies are one-shot corporations. Buy a bunch of shit, write it off. Prop rental is insanely expensive on the whole. Sometimes productions make all these fancy props and then sell them afterwards to rental houses to try and recoup some money.

You won't find it so much any longer, but there was a time in the early 2000s when some major Hollywood props were still available for rental at prop houses. You know how art masterpieces go missing and you wonder who has them hung on their walls to show guests? Well, there are a bunch of people who are now highly respected in Hollywood who took advantage of the rental deposits to "borrow" very famous props and then "lose" them during film productions and they can now only be seen if you know the right people ;)

For a plane interior, there's Air Hollywood.[1] They provide aviation props for many major productions that need an aircraft interior or cockpit. Their airline terminal props show up, far too often, in TV shows.

Amusingly, their video showing their aircraft interiors displays "This video is no longer available because the YouTube account associated with this video has been terminated."[1] They probably have full authorization to show clips from some movie, but YouTube doesn't recognize that.

[1] https://airhollywood.com/

[2] https://www.youtube.com/embed/QzzNHoj1UAo

I bought some automotive diodes there to bring down battery voltage so some motors wouldnt auto shutdown when batteries were fully charged for a major entertainment project. There are still major effects houses in LA but most of the old guard has retired not to mention the pandemic, streaming, media consolodation, CG and strike ending tons of hollywood work.

Similarly, in Minneapolis/St. Paul, there's Axman: https://www.ax-man.com/

I remember after the earthquake (94) they just left the massive pile of wire and youd have to ask the guy to go climb up the pile. RIP All Electronics, Electronics City (burbank). Even Frys is closed now. Is Torrance Electronics still there? Los angeles used to have an aerospace industry after ww2 there was so much. TRW swapmeet was insane. I'm a 40 something now so I only saw it fade away. Rocketdyne is a mall, General Motors Van Nuys is a mall. They shipped everything to Japan then to China over the intervening years so now these surplus things are in akihabara and the shenzhen markets now where production is done.

Most prop warehouses have gone out of business lately. It's a shitty business. The prices are sky high because it's so costly to keep all that inventory and you have to keep adding more all the time to keep up with trends, at the same time repairing all the broken and missing shit.

The guy that runs Apex has a brother on the other side of town that I don't think he gets along with. Is that place called Apex Jr? I seem to remember it being an industrial rental unit. I can't remember completely. I know that place does more big piece rentals of cool 60s computer panel blinkenlights etc.

I guess 'If you can't make money based on open-market principles, you probably aren't adding anything of value'.