Xena Continuity Photos

Truly a "holy grail" item for anyone collecting authentic production material! I was fortunate enough to be able to buy some of these genuine, one of a kind collectibles from New Zealand. A set carpenter took them home after filming as a keepsake and fortunately, decided to sell them just recently. You can't see me, but trust me when I tell you I'm doing the happy dance right now. I have always hoped to be able to find some of these for my collection!

For those of you not familiar with this medium, a continuity photo is almost always a POLAROID photo, taken onset after filming has wrapped for the day. The pictures are taken by the prop, wardrobe, special effects, or makeup departments so that when filming resumes the following day, scene continuity is maintained. Usually the photos are of hair, makeup, wounds, or certain placement of items on an actor's person. These photos are exceptionally rare, because most were tossed or kept by crew members. They are also sought after because there is no negative and they cannot be reproduced. So each one is a one-off, so to speak. The actors often clown around for these pictures as well. In addition, most of them have writing in the white margins, to indicate episode, or other information such as material used for wounds or accessory placement.

Of the ten photos pictured, eight are of Lucy and two are of Rebecca, from the Amazon horse department. The picture in the upper right corner, side view of Xena with a wound on her arm, is no longer in my collection. The other nine are. My favorite is the one of Lucy smiling, wearing her set robe and holding a script.

Xena Main Unit Hard Hat

Technically, I suppose that Crew items aren't necessarily considered props or wardrobe, but they are items that were acquired onset and they tend to be very difficult items to find. I am on a mission to collect as many as I can locate. So far I have a decent collection of them going. This is one of my favorites. It's an actual hard hat from the Xena Main Unit crew. You may have seen some jackets and hats advertised on ebay as "crew" items, but genuine crew items are things given to the cast and crew while they worked on the production, not items that can be purchased from any retail store. Some items given out were t-shirts, pullovers, jackets, hats commemorating the 50th and then 100th episodes, invitations to wrap or end of season parties, a poster, Lucy gave out a plastic snowglobe to the crew one year, etc. If you have any actual crew items for sale, or behind the scenes photos taken onset, I am interested in purchasing anything I don't already have.