Independent Studio Services

What an amazingly well run prop house! The ISS staff are unbelievably kind, understanding, helpful and patient. They have an incredible stock of any hand prop that you could possibly want. They also have an extensive Expendables department which is wonderful.
Andrew has been helping our team out for the duration of a show I’m working on and he has always been more than willing to search for items that we need. What a huge time saver to have someone like Andrew help us out.
It’s times like visiting ISS that make me LOVE my job.

Awesome and very large prop house.

It was easier for the US to get in and out of Iraq than it is to get a prop order in and out at ISS. Everytime I think of going here I decide to spend the money and purchase my props to save myself the hassle of their grossly inefficient order, pull, and accounting process. It makes the DMW look like a Swiss watch factory.
Lucky for them they are the biggest game in town for now…

You won’t come across any prop house with a guy as great, helpful, or friendly as Tony. He made my first prop house experience as a Production Designer A DREAM! And at the same time he was helping 3 other people, and I STILL felt my hand being held!
We had one specific prop that was tricky to find, but he made it a priority to track it down for me, and he even left notes for his colleagues to look for it when he wasn’t in the office. It turned out to be different then we expected so we went with another prop, but I was so impressed with how helpful he (and the other workers) was (were).
Because I was working on a USC student production, I was half expecting to be looked over and not taken seriously –but even though they were swamped (pilot season and all) with major production companies coming in and grabbing up props for Mad Men (cool!!!) and other shows, Tony made it a point to be there for me. And unlike the other prop houses (*cough* Universal assholes *cough*), ISS will find anything for you and return each prop themselves, instead of leaving you to get lost in the maze of aisles and most likely putting the prop in the wrong place.
Also, during the pilot chaos, all of carts were being used so I had to use a hotel luggage cart to throw my 5 props onto. Tony reassured me that no matter what, if I came back and my cart was gone, he would find it for me and keep an eye on it so my props didn’t get put back or moved. It may not seem like much, but to me (who is someone still fairly fresh in «the business») when someone looks you in the eye and tells you that your props are important to them and will be kept safe –that speaks VOLUMES after dealing with the jerks at Universal –who wouldn’t lift a FINGER to help me, and charged me for props that I didn’t take.
I may get a student discount at Universal, but that is the only reason I went over there. ISS is WORTH the extra change –we pay people all the time to treat us like royalty (massages, valet, restaurants, etc), and you ACTUALLY get treated like you are worth your weight in diamonds at ISS –because they realize the value in a good service. They know that the more they pamper the student filmmakers, the more likely the students will return when they graduate and are making the big green.
I know where I’ll be getting my props from now on. :) Thanks Tony!