On screen and on stage, the props and sets that provide the magic of cinema and the thrill of theatre transform what is happening before our eyes.
But once the curtain falls and the credits roll very few of these creations survive for a second screening.
A single film set can produce 347 tonnes of waste per production, three times what someone will create in their entire lifetime.
Working on Hollywood blockbusters such as Planet of the Apes and major festivals such as Vivid, Luke Brooks saw many of his creations have their moment of glory, before being discarded, to decompose in landfill over decades.
After nearly a decade in the industry and having moved to the Illawarra, Mr Brooks decided enough was enough, and instead of producing waste, resolved to re-use discarded materials.
For the past 18 months, Mr Brooks has been running his own business, LB The Maker, turning discarded hardwood into statement furniture pieces out of a shed in Corrimal.
Making custom furniture and unique shelves, Mr Brooks said the creativity that once drew him to the fantastic constructions of film and television sets but was tempered by the vast amount of waste he was involved in producing was flowing once again.
"You put a lot of time and effort into jobs and working with and respecting the materials," he said. "For them to be used for two days, and put on a film is great, it's all glory, but then to just chuck them, it's a bit heartbreaking."
Turning to making shelves and coffee tables might not seem like the most creative outlet, but walking into Mr Brooks' workshop at the back of a block in a Corrimal backstreet, it's clear this is a creative outlet.
"A lot of the stuff I was doing with my job, I was making things, but I definitely didn't have an eye in the design, the artistic side of it," he said.
With roots and reggae playing in the background, and watched over by large canvases that Mr Brooks has painted himself, including a striking recreation of Lucien Freud's 'Eli and David' that accentuates the original piece's expressionism with strong brushstrokes of bold colours, Mr Brooks is denailing, milling and dressing hardwood that would have otherwise gone to the tip, ready to be a signature piece in a client's home.
Starting with the wood itself, Mr Brooks began sourcing large pieces of hardwood after a client asked him to rework timber rafters that were being taken out of a home renovation and extension. These slabs of timber were then turned into shelves in the new section of the home, creating a link between the house's past and future.
"That was the light bulb moment, using old timbers and giving them a new life."
In other instances, the wood is found via Facebook Marketplace and demolition firms, and can range from trusses in old halls to former railway sleepers that were later turned into a series of letter boxes for a block of townhouses.
But it's where hints of the timber's original source that draws Mr Brooks in most, working on what is called the "live edge", where the form of the tree remains in the slab of wood.
Charging by the square metre, a steady amount of orders means Mr Brooks is turning out a piece a week, and can be working on three jobs simultaneously. While a little bit more work - enough to hire an employee - wouldn't go astray, there are no plans to turn the workshop into a mass production line.
Instead, Mr Brooks is hoping to fill a niche, not quite a carpenter and not quite a joiner, but something different than what you'll find in Bunnings and big box homewares stores.
"I'd like to do some different jobs, and keep it in this recycled and custom realm."
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