Creating truly convincing fake IDs for film and TV requires an obsessive attention to detail — and things can get thorny with the law.

We visited Ross MacDonald, a graphic prop artist in Connecticut, and The Hand Prop Room, a prop house in Los Angeles, to find out what it takes to forge realistic ID cards and documents for fictional characters. They break down the ins and outs of creating authentic-looking IDs for movies and TV shows set in every era. Plus, they walk us through some of the legal issues that this work brings up and explain how they avoid running into trouble with the law.

The artists at The Hand Prop Room demo their process for creating convincing on-screen IDs for movies like “Black Widow” and shows like “Bones.” They demo how they replicate specific security features of contemporary IDs, from the embossed numbers on a California driver’s license to the holographics found on many modern passports.

Ross shows us how he meticulously recreates historical passports, driver’s licenses, and government agency IDs for shows like HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire,” laboring over details as tiny as the perforated edges on a historical stamp.

The Hand Prop Room was behind the McLovin fake ID in “Superbad” — a prop that was supposed to look unconvincing — but most of the studio’s work focuses on making IDs look as authentic as possible on screen. It has created prop IDs for “Sex and the City,” “The Hangover Part II,” “Zodiac,” “The Departed,” “Mare of Easttown,” “Black-ish,” “Ted,” and “Two and a Half Men,” and other kinds of props for “Mank,” “Little Women,” “The Mandalorian,” “The Hunger Games,” “Pirates of the Caribbean,” and “Grey’s Anatomy.”

Ross has created graphic props for over 100 movies and shows, including “The Hateful Eight,” “John Wick,” “Silver Linings Playbook,” “National Treasure: Book of Secrets,” “The Report,” “The Adjustment Bureau,” “Parks and Recreation,” “The Assassination of Gianni Versace,” “The Book of Eli,” and “The Legend of Zorro.” One of Ross’ specialties is creating painstakingly accurate historical documentation for period settings. His upcoming book, “Prop Man,” is out in May.

For more from The Hand Prop Room:

For more from Ross:

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How Fake IDs Are Made For Movie And TV Characters | Movies Insider

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