Alan Skeoch Enterprises Inc.

It's been a while since the last update and we've been busy!

We have expanded our operation in 2017 into another barn which has easy access for film trucks.

Back right up and load up!

Our new storage barn. Easy access!

Inventory keeps expanding so we have many things that you may not see on our website.
Just ask and we will send pics to help you design and assemble terrific + unusual sets.

Lots of storeroom items and preserves. Take a look under 'RESIDENTIAL' (Don't tell Marjorie).

Some art directors and buyers describe their story plot which allows us to suggest and send pics of objects that might fit.
That may sound a bit presumptuous but the pics have helped many set designers.

As president of Skeoch Enterprises, I would like to say how impressed I am with the creativity of our customers.
It is a sad thing that such magnificent art work is so ephemeral. Work done that the wider world will never see.

My employee, Marjorie (my wife) just loves seeing your creations before the wrecking crews arrive. Sometimes we are able to visit sets before demolition.
Set design is an art form that never gets wide recognition. That is understandable as Secrecy is important lest the impact of a film be comprised.
As a result few people ever see your sets. We do whenever opportunity happens.
Congratulations to all involved.

Alan Skeoch
August 8, 2017

Lots of new items added. Over 150 with this update alone.

We'll even rent our furniture!

Just call in advance and we'll make sure our plates are cleared.

WINTER 2015

Has it really been two years since the last update?

ROBERT FROST wrote a poem titled Fire and Ice...one of those end of the world kind of poems if taken literally. If your mind is more metaphorical the poem could also refer to Love and Hate. But let's keep this simple. Ice! That Ice storm of 2014 made our farm into a tangled mess for a while. Lots of trees shattered. Never counted them all and still doing the clean up a year later.

Those of you who admire our eclectic assortment of set material will be pleased to know that very few of the falling trees destroyed those gems of set design such as rusty and battered corrugated steel roofing or ancient farm implements whose use and origin are lost in the mists of time. Even most our crates came through unscathed. More wondrous still was the fact the crashing timbers did not crush us in either the physical sense...i.e. we still collect odd things...and the spiritual sense...i.e.our enjoyment of the movie industry.

One thing about the movie industry really bothers me however. There is no way set decorators ever get appropriate recognition of their art. They build a marvellous set in one day and then a few days later tear it apart. Publishing photos is a 'no no' lest they ruin the future press releases. So that leaves the two of us, Marjorie and myself, as admirers of soaring imaginations. OK, an overstatement. But my point is that sets department skills are largely unrecognized.

What is our roll? Marjorie and I are at the bottom of the movie industry pyramid. We accept that. Every time we see something that we think a set person would want, we buy it. That is why our barns are so jammed full and spilling out into the fields.

Clean up has been done...sort of. I was down with a bad cold and our son Andrew did a massive reorganization. Also took a great pile of scrap to the scrap yard where he got $100 a ton. Seems to have kept those profits too. Andrew seems to think we can keep things organized so I asked him to help with a recent return. Now I don't know where anything is located. And he got a lesson on the 'dump and leave' psychology of dropping off movie sets.

What's New? Lots of things...take a gander

WINTER 2013

Half full or half empty?

The February wind blew the top off the greenhouse.
Disaster? Right! Silver lining? Right! Everything can be seen as either negative or positive.

I prefer the positive.

With the plastic half gone, I had the chance to frantically sort through the stuff.
Guess What? I am making discoveries that can only help the film industry.

Anyone who has seen the greenhouse knows just how jammed full it once was. Too full.
Only the brave among you has crawled inside.

What has been rediscovered?

Three wood wheeled carts with wicker cribbing.

Two period baby carriages, enough rope to tie up the Titanic...

Scales, anchors, lockers, ancient impact drills.

One quern (ancient stone grain grinder), milk crates with bottles, a stove, blacksmith tools, fanning mills, chairs, tables...

...in other words, lots of stuff that has not seen the light of day for a decade.

And then there are the things that will never be used again. Real junk.
Things that must be burned or sent to the scrapyard.

Ideally, some of you will be able to walk through the greenhouse come springtime.

Any new acquisitions you ask?

How about 18 hospital beds with mattresses (see MISCELLANEOUS),
almost 20 hawkers carts in all shapes and sizes (see VEHICLES),
pristine carpenters benches with wood vices,
new barrels, deep sea fishing nets and floats, ancient sewing machines,
one stuffed porcupine...

By spring the greenhouse may be half full or half empty depending upon the way you look at the world.
Unfortunately the three barns are now filled to the bursting point.

Keep the pickers away.

Alan

WINTER 2012

Winter...

You go to Florida...

...I build Hawker's carts.

What are those you ask?

Used by tinkers, clothiers, ragmen, scrapmen, flower women, fruit and vegetable sellers, hardware merchants, etc...

Hawker's carts can be used for markets and street scenes.
They were present in almost all human group activity. Some were pulled by horses but more were pushed by the hawker's themselves.

Stay warm.

AUTUMN 2011

The collection at the farm is always changing.

My recent clean up of the barns has led to great discoveries akin to the moment Howard Carter peeped into Tutankhamun's tomb.
(perhaps a small overstatement)
Our wilderness behind the barns foams with life... deer, coyote, mink, turtles, frogs, geese, ducks, raccoons, possums...
even a flock of wild turkeys which I have heard but never seen.
A good pair of wellingtons are not required but helpful at the farm. As you may know, it has been a bit of a muddy year.
In fact, on one memorable occasion the bob cat sank to the hubs. Six yards of gravel has helped a bit!

What you see on the web page is not the whole collection... just a few thousand hints!

Here are but a few of my recent aquistions:

expanded fake canned goods
wicker baby carriage
primitive jogging cart (rickshaw?)
stuffed porcupine
barn beams
1975 International tractor (new Paint)
1953 International tractor (no paint)
flax crop bundles
new barrels
wood wheeled farm wagon
45 bar, courtroom, wood and leather chairs
early cash registers
plows, harrows, hand seeders
blacksmith forge, irons, etc.
butcher block
canoes (2)
row boats (2, wood and aluminum)

Everything of course is on the website for your viewing and sourcing pleasure.

SUMMER 2011

My barn was so stuffed with set dec possibles that even i didn't know what was there. And I was the "stuffer!"

For a couple of decades objects big and small, good and bad, new and blemished had been going to and coming from movie sets in the GTA.

Going out was easier than coming back. Usually the returns were fast and chaotic. Often in rain, sleet and snow.

So I stuffed things back fast. Piled them on top of earlier acquisitions. A archeological tornado aftermath.

A slowdown in movies gave me a couple of weeks to rediscover the barn.

And I found among other things:

ox yokes of various kinds
wooden implements
turnip pulpers, fanning mills and seed drills
line shaft pulleys from the Massey Harris factory
tools and tool boxes
a shoemakers shop complete
iron beds, wooden beds...even two perfect feather ticks
a perfectly preserved set of 1957 newspapers
a circus sideshow canvas
harness of all kinds
a canning machine
wagon wheels
a wheelwrights shop
children's wagons
trunks of all description
piles of ice cream chairs and tables
500 feet of lighting in long strings with bulbs-market tables
a raccoon family ( now evicted )

The list goes on.

All this and I have only organized half the building...with two more buildings to go.

SPRING 2011

What a winter! Spring and an update to the site have arrived just in time!

We are closing in on 2000 images so please, take your time and look around.

Also, added some photos to the GALLERY page. Some from productions and some

research and inspirational archival shots. Be sure to take a look while you're here.

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Roll out the barrel!

Lots of matching new and old barrels. Who knows, maybe there's a bit of leftover whiskey as a bonus.

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Matching hospital/ barrack beds x 10. Paint them if you like.

WINTER 2010

Purchased multiples of chairs from an old bar. Have 40 of them. They're in great shape.

Copyright 2024 Alan Skeoch Enterprises Inc.