A simple prop to occupy my time

For once, it looks as if a paper in the movies will actually look like a real newspaper. (It's for Peter Jackson's "King Kong." The papers were printed by The Dominion Post in New Zealand.)

Six months ago The Dominion Post's design centre -- which creates many of the advertisements in the newspaper -- was approached by a King Kong calligrapher to help design and print the props.

"They chose the headlines, searched through the library and found exact copies of the banners and then asked the designers to lay them out," design centre production manager Stephen Dodds said.

The layout reflected the style of the period and was an example of Jackson's determination to recreate 1930s New York accurately -- to the smallest detail. The printers were allowed to use modern technology, however.

(Thanks to Paul Wiggins and Testy Copy Editors for the link.)