Today I spent the morning making a Mindstorms NXT robot for Sean. It's an incredible toy that allows you to build machines and robots and then program them from your computer. The kit is Mac OS and Bluetooth compatible. This means that you can build your robot complete with servos and sensors, create the program on your computer using a drag-and-drop flowchart, and then send the program wirelessly to the robot. This thing is begging to be turned into some kind of prop or maybe some kind of art installation.
I was thinking about the design of our props. Now that I think about it, it surprises me that I made them look so good. My usual sensibility is to take store-bought items and then hack them with tape and cardboard. A good example is our hamster environment. Julia got Sean a hamster for Christmas. He really likes it but I found out that we're both really allergic to it. So after thinking about it awhile, I put the hamster outside in the covered patio next to the plate glass window. I put an interconnecting section of the cage into a blanket-covered cardboard box with a heater next to it. It sort of looks like a zoo exhibit where you can see a cutaway of the hamster's hole. The heater didn't last long--it flipped the circuit breaker on that side of the house so I put a 60 watt light bulb in the box instead, an idea I got from chick hatcheries. So there's a hamster cage in a box with a blanket with a lightbulb. The whole thing is fairly ridiculous, but Sean really likes it and even fell asleep looking at it. If we ever do another film, I think the props ought to be more stupid-looking.
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