S'wak Props Exclusive: The Complete Silence Dogood Letters Replica

This is my replica of the complete Silence Dogood letters based on the prop used in the movie National Treasure.

Silence Dogood was the pseudonym Benjamin Franklin used when he wrote a series of letters to the New England Courant when he was 16 years of age.

From my research, only 9 letters were made for National Treasure, but it is unknown which 9 they were. So I decided to make all 14 letters using this site as a basis.

The letters are 10" x 16 1/2", originally printed on A3 size paper which were then cut down to size by tearing the sides. Each page has a margin line which was pencil drawn. A realistic handwriting font is used for the text.

The letters were weathered with coffee and tea and I also tried to match the folds as seen in the screencaps.

Each letter varies in number of pages, from 2 to a maximum of 5 pages, and in total there are 46 sheets.

I also noted that the text of the screen version of letter no. 10 were paraphrased compared to that of the original letter, so I made 2 versions, the screen version and the original. So all in all you'll be getting 15 letters.

Letter no. 10; original text on the left, screen text on the right

I'm including some additional paper props with these letters as seen in the pics below:

If you're interested in acquiring this set of letters, send me an email at swakprops@gmail.com.

S'wak Props Exclusive: The Red Book from Labyrinth

I'm proud to offer this replica of the Red Book from "Labyrinth". It is beautifully bound in red buckram and the cover is stamped with gold foil and black designs like the movie book. A red ribbon marker completes the replica.

Contact me at swakprops@gmail.com if you're interested in acquiring this book.

National Treasure Prop Replicas

Apologies for not updating the blog for a long time.

To make up for it, I've got pics of some of my work in progress; paper prop replicas from National Treasure and National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets.

NATIONAL TREASURE



First up is the secret clue given by Charles Carroll to young Thomas Gates:



Then we have the Declaration of Independence:



For this declaration, there are various online stores where you can buy replicas printed on parchment. But the problem is, they look like they're freshly printed. Whereas in the movie, the text of the declaration has faded due to oxidization. So what I did was I took a hi-res scan of the declaration which I found online, tweaked the graphics to make it look faded then print in onto an A1 size paper, then weathered it with coffee and tea. I think the final result looks more screen accurate than those other online replicas.

Then I decided to tackle the Silence Dogood letters. I read that only 9 letters (or fragments thereof) were made for the movie but I didn't know which ones, so I decided to make them all. Yep... all 14.

I got the text from here: Silence Dogood Letters

I took a minor liberty with the size; it's supposed to be 10" x 17" but since my printer could only print up to A3, the letters ended up being 10" x 16 1/2". I used a font called Lamar pen suggested by Kramstaar which looked quite realistic. After printing, the A3 pages were cut down to size by tearing the sides. The margin line was pencil drawn.

The letters were weathered with coffee and tea. I also tried to match the folds as seen in the screencaps (they are letters after all).











The one thing I noticed was that the screen version of the 10th letter had some variation from the actual letter; the screen version had some paragraphs paraphrased while others were omitted. So I made 2 versions; the actual and the screen version.



NATIONAL TREASURE: BOOK OF SECRETS



I haven't had the time to make some of the props from this movie yet but the following are what I've made so far.

First up is the missing page from the diary of John Wilkes Booth.



This page was printed on regular paper, folded to get the screen accurate creases, weathered and then the edges are burned. Lastly, the page was laminated in clear plastic, just as seen in the movie when Ed Harris' character produces it in the auditorium.

The next one was made just for fun. This is the letter Riley Poole (Justin Bartha) found on his Ferrari in the last scene of the movie.



Stay tuned for more updates.

Nine Gates Replica by S'wak Props on Youtube

Here's a video I uploaded that shows my replica of the Nine Gates Balkan version with all the included inserts:

If you're interested in acquiring a copy, drop me an email at swakprops@gmail.com.

Nine Gates and Rorschach's Journals available now!

I'm doing a new run of weathered Nine Gates and Rorschach's Journal and have 4 slots available for each book. Contact me at swakprops@gmail.com if you're interested in acquiring any of these books.

Here are some recent pics:

Nine Gates to the Kingdom of Shadows





Rorschach's Journal

S'wak Props Exclusive #1: The Nine Gates to the Kingdom of Shadows from The Ninth Gate

Just thought I'd highlight the specialty items of S'wak Props. First up is The Nine Gates to the Kingdom of Shadows Prop Replica.









The book has 300 pages with filler text with the 10 engravings (1 title page and 9 woodcuts) interspersed between them. These engravings match with those in the Balkan/Telfer copy. The pages are individually numbered (none of that 666 crap). These pages are laser printed onto A4 sized 80gsm white paper and then cut to the dimensions of the original prop (6.5" x 10"). These pages are then individually weathered by hand with a mixture of tea and coffee.Once this is done, the pages are then sent to the professional binderswho will sew and bound them in dark brown lambskin leather. The boundbook has the five raised ridges on the spine, the embossed fleur de lis frame on the front and back with the gilded pentagram (and fleur de lisdesign inside it) on the front. The cover is also mildly weathered, i.e. the edges, the spine ridges as well as the discoloration on the back which is afeature of the Balkan/Tefler copy.

The following items are included:

(a) nine LCF woodcuts
(b) the fake ninth woodcut with "CENIZA BROS" written across it
(c) the two page spread with the genuine ninth woodcut
(d) the comparison chart made by Corso to distinguish the three copies ofthe Nine Gates
(e) Corso's business card
(f) Balkan's postcard to Baroness Kessler
(g) the weathered yellow fabric to wrap the book in.

If you're interested in this, please email swakprops@gmail.com for details on how to purchase this item.

S'wak Props Exclusive #2: Rorschach's Journal

Secondly we have Rorschach's Journal Prop Replica from Watchmen.








Cover is weathered cowhide. The journal is 200 pages thick with the entries from October 12th 1985 to November 1st 1985 repeated several times to make up the pages. Both comic and movie entries are included. Movie entry dates have ordinal suffixes (12th, 21st etc), comic entry dates do not (12, 21 etc). The pages are also weathered and are professionally bound.

Comes with:

(a) Rorschach FBI Wanted Poster;
(b) Gunga Diner flyer;
(c) Rorschach's calling card;
(d) Pyramid Transnational envelope addressed to Roy Chess;
(e) Roy Chess ID badge.

If you're interested, please emal swakprops@gmail.com for details on how to purchase this.