FIVE TON MONKEY
Design and Fabrication for Film and the Larger World
At five ton monkey
We convert ideas into things.
Our ideas, yours, or the ones we develop together. We create the big, small, complex, beautiful, and surprising things that make a visual environment succeed.
We love making things and solving puzzles. We love inventing and refining elegant systems to accomplish complex tasks. We love making things you can see, and touch. We are at home thinking about space and composition, materials and textures, scale and proportions, structure and engineering.
There is a lot we can do. In over 11,000 sq ft of shop space, we work in wood, metal, plastics, foam, and many other materials. We do fabrication, foam carving, foam assembly and coating, mold-making and casting, and scenic finishes. We cut wood, foam, other plastics and aluminum on a 60” x 100” x13z” CNC machine. We spray finishes in a commercial spray booth. We provide contract design services.
We also collaborate with other high-level fabricators, artists, technicians and crafts-people. We can incorporate powder-coating, waterjet-cutting, and many other services into our work. While we don’t do everything, we can get it all done.
We are a young company, going out on our own in late 2019, but since then we have weathered COVID (and participated in the response) and provided work to over thirty feature films, television shows, and commercials and over thirty-five other clients including the National Civil Rights Museum (Memphis, TN), the Electric Daisy Carnival, Route 66 Casino, the Center for Contemporary Arts (CCA, SFNM), Desert Aerospace, Meta-Facebook, Nike, and Wunderkind. (See "OUR CLIENTS" below for a longer list)
OUR AIM IS TO
• Be the go-to source of design and fabrication for film and the larger world, in New Mexico and far beyond
• Continue developing a reputation for being creative, hard-working problem-solvers who are fun and easy to work with, who deliver on time, stand by our work, and act with integrity in our industry and the world
• Provide a great work environment for people who make things
• Create and maintain the most highly functional workshop we’ve ever worked in—a safe, organized, well-lit room with the right equipment, work spaces and mojo
• Improve, every single day, our skills, our range, and our operations
And we are well on our way.
our team
Our team is comprised of a full-time crew of four in the shop, a designer/production manager, our office manager, and a number of part-time and project-basis fabricators, artists, and technicians. We have had as many as fourteen people in the shop on a project, but keeping a small, tight core-crew lets us absorb the ups and downs of growing our way forward. It also creates space to try folks out, to assure that there is the right alignment of skills, energy, and chemistry. And our film industry connection opens the door to experienced project-basis help when needed.
our extended team
What People Who Have Worked with Five Ton Monkey Have to Say
Nan Masland
Director, Anderson Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum
Working with 5 Ton Monkey is a dream. Their team of highly skilled designers, fabricators and finishers are top notch. Our project required museum quality work and they delivered. I highly recommend 5 Ton Monkey for your fabrication needs.
Multiple New Exhibitions, Balloon Museum
ABQ, NM (2022)
Karen Zabarsky Blashek
Principal, Ground Up Ideas
Editor in Chief, Austin Home
Working with Adam and the entire FiveTonMonkey team was an absolute joy. We handed them a very unusual design brief, had some unanswered questions, and came with many cooks in the kitchen (between our architects, GC, and landlord) that they would need to collaborate with. Adam not only worked with everyone to execute an impeccable final product for our space, but he also brainstormed with me on my open questions and helped come up with solutions. He and his team were detail-oriented and engaged through and through, and were able to transform our vision into a very special reality. They left my client giving standing ovations for the end product. Cannot wait to work with Adam again!
Roadrunner Venture Studios
ABQ, NM (2023)
Calli Beck
Co-Owner of Stark-Raven Fabrication
Artist, Fabricator and Designer
Adam and his team are easily one of the most competent fabrication shops in Albuquerque. They've beautifully produced every prop and strange design I've brought to them. They're a best combination of practical fabricators and wild dreamers and I love working with them.
Various Far-Flung and Beautiful Projects
(2021, 2022, 2023, 2024)
Thomas Tomlinson
Exhibit Designer, ABQ Biopark Project Manager
Highly recommended! Working with the 5 Ton Monkey team is smooth and inspiring from conception to completion. Factors that really distinguish 5 Ton from others is their responsiveness and flexibility. Having worked with them on a variety of projects including zoo, aquarium and museum exhibits, I don’t hesitate to engage them knowing the final product will be high quality, on budget, and delivered on time. As a designer, I appreciate the sense of teamwork they bring to the table. There’s never a lack of ideas to play with in an effort to solve design and fabrication issues that arise.
ABQ Biopark - Australia (2023)
Balloon Museum - Multiple Exhibits (2022)
Various Projects
Jay Sheets
Wunderkind
Adam and the team at 5 Ton Monkey were an absolute pleasure to work with. When I first reached out I wasn't sure I would be able to find anyone to accommodate my request - but not only did 5 Ton Monkey jump at the opportunity they also took my idea ramblings and random photos of inspiration and turned them into the perfect set. I've never worked with a creative design team that was able to so easily and seamlessly bring a vision of mine to life quite like 5 Ton Monkey did.
In-house Studio Interview Sets
Santa Fe, NM and NYC (2022), Austin, Tx (2023)
RA Arrancio-Parrain
Production Designer, Art Director
Adam is a freethinker, and he’s a professional businessman with a very strong, creative and original thought process. He’s got skills.
Thom Browne Commercial - Las Vegas, NM (2021)
"Dead for a Dollar" Feature Film - Various Locations NM (2021)
Nick Taylor
Owner of Masterminds Studios
Interactive Entertainment, Sound, Light and Programming
We've had the pleasure of working with Five Ton Monkey on a few projects and the experience has been unparalleled. The level of creativity and the understanding of the project aesthetic made it really easy to achieve our goals. Working with Adam through the design and build process was seamless and delightful. We look forward to continuing to work with the team at Five Ton Monkey!
Sky Railway - Lamy, NM (2021)
Anderson Abruzzo International Balloon Museum - ABQ, NM (2022)
OUR CLIENTS
Selected Non-Film Clients
and Project Destinations
The National Civil Rights Museum - Memphis, TN
The New Mexico Museum of Natural History
The National Hispanic Cultural Center - ABQNM
The Anderson-Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum
The Santa Fe Children's Museum
The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta
The Albuquerque River of Lights
The Albuquerque Biopark
The Maxwell Museum, ABQNM
Wunderkind, NYNY
Kerecis, Reykjavik, Iceland
Caesar's Palace, LVNV
Cesium Astro
The UP.Summit, Bentonville, AR
IMC
The Electric Daisy Carnival, LVNV
Nike
Meta-Facebook
Sightworks
Interfusion Gallery - Santa Fe, NM
The Center for Contemporary Arts (CCA) - Santa Fe, NM
The New Mexico Film Expo
New Mexico Film and TV Hall of Fame
Route 66 Casino
Desert Aerospace
Quickbeam
Ideum
Masterminds Studios - ABQ, NM
Calli Beck - Artist, Owner of Stark-Raven Fabrication
Fish Theory Design
Paula Castillo - Artist
Launa Eddy - Artist
Boyd and Allister Furniture Studio
New Mexico Escape Room
Bust Out Escape Room
Blake's Lotaburger
Sagebrush Church
Montgomery Church of Christ
Sky Railway
Power Ford
Thom Browne (Commercial)
Louis Vuitton (Print Ad)
Selected Production Companies to whose shows we have contributed work
Netflix
A24 Films
Disney
Nickelodeon
Paramount
NBC / Universal
Warner Brothers
Disney
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Amazon
Broadway Video
AMC