电影 grad Robby Hawks stands on the deck of a spaceship he built, 解释安全系统是如何工作的. There’s a scanner attached to a mainframe computer system. When someone boards the ship, their packages and bags are checked for contraband and contaminants. When not in use, the scanner arm folds up into a hidden compartment. 罗比走到飞船的一个舷窗前.

“这是一件有趣的作品，”他说. “这实际上是一个野餐磁盘. You take your paper plate and put it in this disk to make it sturdier, 当你完成后, 你可以把它变成飞盘.”

He points to the metal grating that surrounds the deck. “这是架子的底部. I flipped it upside down and on its side because it has a really interesting grid system.”

在这艘船上，一切都不是表面上的样子. That’s because Robby built it as a theatrical set for a local church. 他的公司 海鹰租赁, is a custom prop house and set-building company that provides made-to-order pieces for clients throughout Florida.

Robby grew up in Brussels, Belgium, watching his father build sets for European television shows. 当全家搬回美国时.S., Robby was in high school, obsessed with movies like 大白鲨, 印第安纳琼斯, 《菠菜台子大全》, 星球大战 — films where setting played an integral part in the story. 到了上大学的时候， 满帆的电影项目 给了他想要的东西. He already had plenty of experience building sets, 多亏了他的爸爸, 他想扩大自己的经验.

“In high school, I was always fiddling, always building. 我坐不住了. 我想要一个不需要我做的项目. 满帆 provided that in the form of practical education,” he says.

当时, students in 满帆的电影项目 had the opportunity to work on five short films as part of the standard curriculum. Robby reached out to other cohorts and offered up his services as a set-builder. 到他毕业的时候, he had 12 student films under his belt and the beginnings of a business that would become 海鹰租赁.

多年来, he’s designed sets and props for everything from a children’s television series to corporate trade shows. He’s amassed a huge collection of props and set pieces along the way, 新的机会不断出现. 最近, 罗比和他的妻子兼商业伙伴, 斯蒂芬妮, have expanded Ocean Hawks to include wedding design services — a byproduct of planning their own wedding more than a year ago.

“We wanted to do a vintage Tuscan-themed wedding. We started looking at vintage furniture, it was so expensive,” recalls Robby. “I said to 斯蒂芬妮, ‘It’ll be a lot cheaper if I just build it all.’”

当他们度完蜜月回来时, 斯蒂芬妮 built a website highlighting Robby’s collection of set pieces. 她还附上了他们婚礼的照片.

“I figured we’d do six weddings a year, maybe,” she says. “但在第一年，我们已经办了40场婚礼. And we have another 60 on the books for next year.”

The business has grown so fast that the couple has recently found themselves in need of extra hands. Robby reached out to some of his instructors from 满帆 to find grads to help out. 回到飞船上, he says it feels good to be able to reach back and help out new grads that, 像他这样的, 只是想打造沉浸式体验, whether that’s for a couple on their wedding day or a local theater production. For Robby, it always comes back to using his talents to help tell a story.

“I get to use my simple skills to be a part of people’s lives,” he says. “They're trying to have an experience; they're trying to be happy. And in those moments, there's nothing more rewarding than being able to contribute to that.”