What Are Breakaway Props?
Breakaway props are props that are designed to break during a performance, such as dishware, picture frames, baseball bats, glass bottles, car windows, vases, pieces of furniture, and more. Breakaway props can be tricky to deal with because they need to break during every take without fail, they must also not be too fragile to where they break under the slightest bit of pressure before being used in a shot, and they must also break safely and without causing harm or injury to the cast, crew or any other person nearby.
How Does Breakaway Glass Work?
Breakaway glass is just one category of many different kinds of breakaway props that offer exciting special effects. Whenever you see a dramatic scene in a movie where an actor is flying through a glass window or breaking a glass bottle over someone’s head, breakaway glass is what you see being shattered, not real glass.
Traditionally, breakaway glass is made from sugar glass, a transparent form of sugar that looks just like real glass but is brittle enough to easily be cracked or shattered. Sugar glass uses inexpensive ingredients, can even be made at home, is much less likely to cause injuries than real glass, and is a convincing replacement for real glass.
However, sugar is a hygroscopic substance, which means that it attracts water molecules from its environment. As the sugar glass absorbs moisture from the air, it becomes softer and less brittle, so sugar glass should be used soon after it is prepared, before it loses its breakaway quality.
Another modern alternative to sugar glass is a mixture of two hydrocarbon resins, Piccotex and Piccolastic, which creates an inedible synthetic blend that is much more stable than sugar glass while still retaining a breakaway property.
If you are looking for special effects crew or prop masters and prop assistants in Nevada to help you source breakaway glass for your next production, check out our online Nevada Production Directory to find experienced Nevada production crew and support services or drop by our office and pick up a free printed directory!
If you offer production and film-related services in Nevada and are not yet listed in our Production Directory, you can learn more about how to sign up for the NPD here.