I agree completely. In fact, I would go as far as saying that the C-rock is the biggest piece of evidence that the hoaxers have put forward for their theory being absurd and unbelievable.
The sheer presumption and dishonesty that surrounds this particular claim is astounding.
Rene's hypothesis was that it was a label for a prop. Someone had supposedly written a big "C" on the rock, to distinguish it from rocks A, B, and D, and properly locate it on the set. Rene can be forgiven, if not for pretense, then at least for ignorance. He was a construction worker, not a filmmaker. But David Percy cannot be so forgiven. He claims to be a BAFTA-nominated filmmaker, expected therefore to be familiar with the conventions of set and prop handling. And Percy, as the author of the "C on the ground too" claim, should know better than to claim film sets have centerlines, as he claims. Nor is that compatible with the "Put Rock C here" interpretation.
Now I've been building props and sets since I was 11. In the intervening decades my props (or props I've worked on) have appeared on both amateur and professional stages, including in Ford's Theater in Washington DC and Las Vegas production shows. I occasionally work with a local studio here that builds professional "steampunk" type props for film and television. At no time have I seen props marked conspicuously. In fact, I haven't seen them marked at all. A few times I've worked in Hollywood, at Warner Brothers and Paramount, and been on the sets of such illustrious shows as
Star Trek Voyager and
The West Wing. At no point have I seen props marked that way, or at all. And in my conversations with the folks at The Mill and other professional prop builders and handlers, the opinion has been unanimous that no one would mark props with a big, conspicuous letter, or at all.
On film sets, props are most often kept in boxes or tubs, or specially-built racks and shelves (for things like swords). These containers themselves are labeled -- e.g., "MacDuff's fight sword". But the property master is the one responsible for identifying and accounting for the prop. Similarly on theatrical stages, the prop table is sectioned off with a place for each prop, but the location is labeled -- not the prop. Incidentally, at Paramount the prop table for
Star Trek shows had an armed guard; props like phasers have a tendency to walk off otherwise.
The scenario by which the rock allegedly acquired its "C", and why, is so utterly foreign to all of my experience in film and theater, and foreign to the experience of everyone within my circle of acquaintanceship.
Marks on the stage are different. On proscenium stages I sometimes mark the centerline, but only with a small piece of spiking tape. The aim is to help actors find the break in the grand drape for whatever reason. It's often also sometimes useful to the choreographer. On a stage you almost always "spike" set pieces because the lighting design, blocking, and choreography depends on precise repeated positioning of props. I've been on Penn and Teller's stage in Las Vegas, and it's festooned with a baffling array of color-coded spikes. It makes sense to their stage crew.
Film is different. Yes, actors have "marks" to hit, and often those marks are laid down with spiking tape. But that's only when the camera is known not to aim at the ground. If a shot includes the ground, the actor's mark is -- more often than not -- a miniscule chalk tick, or something as innocuous as a pebble. Marking a stage that is to be
photographed, with large spikes or references, is just not done. The standard method for decades to ensure repeated placement of items on a photographable set is the Polaroid, now replaced by the digital camera. The set dresser places items where they belong -- without reference -- and the continuity production assistant photographs it. The photographs then become the reference for resetting the set.
