Naked truth Pt II – Enterprise C

In Naked Truth Pt I, reader Mark Delgado commented on the creative process, and it’s impact on the Enterprise C filming miniature.

 Mike Okuda shares his memories of those challenges…

The Banzai-Trek Connection

One of our readers, L.M. Oliver asked:

Was somebody in casting also a “Blue Blaze Irregular”?  I ask because at least two actors from Banzai appeared in The Next Generation’s first season (Robert Ito and Vincent Schiavelli).

We’ve enlisted Denise Okuda, our resident Banzai expert to comment on this musing.

The Naked Truth – Best Laid Plans Dept

You know how sometimes you scratch your head after an episode of your favorite TV show and say… “WTF?”  Witness this classic, and well travelled piece of backlot wisdom.

The Kings of Kludge

A nice example of a model built from dumpster leavings.

 

When visual effects was out of dough, they knew they could count on us to kludge something together out of found objects and dumpster leavings. Dan Curry approached Mike Okuda about us bashing together a quickie model of a section of Utopia Planitia for the Voyager episode “Lifesigns”. “It’s gonna be tiny, and on the horizon,” explained Dan, “so don’t stress over it too much.” Is he kidding?  Anthony and I put this together in two days, and had a lot of fun along the way.

Dougie? Have You Seen My Bread Machine?

 “… honey, I can explain everything!” -me

Dorth learned to make bread by hand after that.

Space Madness Dept!

Doug after hearing he would be designing the NX. The fetal position was a favorite, often coupled with squeezing into seemingly safe places to hide.  

 

 

 

 

 Let’s face it! At any high stress, deadline driven, creative job, you are going to find new ways of blowing off steam. Especially in a high spirited organization like the Trek art department, where the motto was, “Anything for a Laugh.”  So with your permission, I’m going to post irrefutable evidence of the extreme zaniness which posessed these otherwise ordinary human beings. How could it happen? Why did it happen? … We may never know, Number One… We may never know…

The Last of the Red Hot Starships – Tribble-ations Retrospect

Who was that masked man?

A photo of the original masked marvel, Greg Jein with the Enterprise-A backing him up.

This picture was pinned to the bulletin board in the Star Trek art department for many years, and If I had to bet, I’d say John Eaves, or Fritz Zimmerman drew the superhero mask onto Greg. Either way, it effectively portrays how we all feel about the amazing Mr. Jein. If you are new around here, Greg is one of Hollywood’s all time great model makers. Plus he’s one of us! Gooble Gobble!

For the DS9 high watermark, Trials and Tribble-ations, Greg had to build a fully lit five and a half  footer of the original series Enterprise, the K-7 space station, and Klingon Battlecruiser… all in ten days. As Don Adams might have said… “AND loving it!”

Enjoy a few happy snaps Mike Okuda and I took over at Image G, of the filming of the Trials and Tribble-ations Enterprise.

 

A Christmas Story – Cag n’ Drex Style

It was about 4 weeks out from Christmas, almost 25 years ago, when my partner at the time, makeup artist extraordinaire John Caglione said to me, “Doug, I want to be Santa Claus for my kids this year. I mean the whole nine yards. I’ll sculpt appliances, we’ll get hair from Kelly’s, and I’ll rent a costume!” This was well before anyone had used the word “awesome” to death, so it still meant something when I said to John that it would indeed be just that. 

Romulan Shuttle

Pawing through the Drex Files last night, and hokey smokes! I come across images of the only once seen Romulan shuttle used on DS9. I designed it for Gary Hutzel, it was built by Meinenger. An exquisite job by his Brazil Fabrications.

The Tooth Fairy

                                                                                                                                                                                                

Tom Noonan, as Francis Dollarhyde, in the Michael Mann cult classic “Manhunter.” How I lived through the “sort of” pilot for CSI, and learned to love a disturbed serial killer. 

Assimilate This!

Who would have guessed that this ugly duckling of a starship would have garnered such die hard affection from the fans? Here she is, moments after Mike Okuda and I finished pinstriping, and graffiking her at Brazil Fabrication in the San Fernando Valley. Now go forth, and kick some rightious Borg booty!

Life imitates Okuda

Mike Okuda, the man who is the heart and soul behind all the clean and cool graphics we have come to love and respect on Star Trek, has been enlisted by NASA to design program and mission logos. The concept that Okudagrams really are going out into the depths of space is somewhat mindboggling, and gives me a thrill.
 
Pictured above are Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong and Apollo 17 commander Gene Cernan, who toured one of the Altair mock-ups at NASA’s Johnson Space Center on Dec. 9, 2008. The Altair lunar lander will take human beings to the surface of the moon for the first time since Apollo and is part of NASA’s Constellation Program. In the background is Wayne Ottinger, who worked on the Apollo lunar lander training vehicle, and Jack Schmitt, Apollo 17 lunar module pilot. The veteran astronauts visited Johnson and talked with the Altair lunar lander team about design concepts. These legends are wearing pins emblazoned with Mike’s Altair logo.

U.S.S. Fredrickson

Anthony, maniacally delighted to find he is the namesake of a ship of the line. We loved the visual effects department, and they loved us.

Raiders of the Lost Ships

Jogging between stage 8 and 9, Vanover and I practically trip over the iconic, and long lost gold ships from the early Enterprise D observation lounge. TNG had just wrapped “All Good Things,” and the iconic ships had been unearthed for flashback sequences. Now here they were, helter skelter in the alley, and next to a dumpster. It looks like rain… Ion storms not a problem… precipitation not so good. We lug ‘em up to the art department for safe keeping. Here we are, brandishing our golden wards. From left to right: Anthony Fredrickson, Jimmy Van, me (listening for anyone left inside), and Alan Kabayashi (who looks like a fisherman displaying his catch).

Being there.

Mike and I were crossing stage 10, better known as “Planet Hell,”  when what befalleth my eye… and I can’t resist. “Mike! Snap it!” I do my best “Conan The King.”  Okuda deftly swings the camera, and snares the shot. I’m quite pleased with myself. A grip yells across the stage… “Hey Conan! Wet paint!”

A Job at the Magic Store

Does the man in the picture look happy? I did a lot of really cool things before I came to Star Trek, but let’s face it… like Gregory Hines says in History of the World… “Born to do it!”

Ted Danson is a Very Funny Fellow.

 

Caglione, Danson, and Drexler.

You always hope that when you work with an actor, they have those qualities you love in their characters. Ted is everything you hope for and more. 

When a production hires an actor, it’s a game of Russian roulette,  you never know what’s in the chamber. If you end up with a madman, your life can be hell for the duration of the shoot. The only danger we faced with Ted was splitting a gut. John and I share a raucous sense of humor, add Ted Danson to that and, well… it just shouldn’t be legal to have that much fun at work. More to come…

 

The picture above was taken during the shooting of “Three Men and a Little Lady.” John did a brilliant job sculpting  Ted’s 90 year old priest character.

The Buckeroo Banzai That Never Was.

“Come again, Mike?… it’s called what?” Mike grinned. “… Supersize Those Fries.”  “Ha!” I said, rubbing my chin. “Buckeroo Banzai with a vengeance. I love it… need illustrations?” Mike grinned. “I thought you’d never ask!”  More on the way…

Dorth of the North

Dorothy is only the greatest human being I have ever known. She is a genius woman, and a true Goddess. How did I, the thing from the basement, ever get so lucky as to deserve her attention? Almost twenty years now, and never a fight. Not once, not ever.

105 Heads Are Better Than One

Starman was probably one of the last motion pictures where replacement animation was used to create a morph. I don’t think the term “morph” had even been coined yet. In Starman, Jeff Bridges is grown from a smidge of DNA. He starts as an embryo, which becomes a baby, then a child, and finally a movie star. The shot was split into three sequences, Stan Winston and Rick Baker would take the first two. Dick Smith and his team would take part three. Show a ten year old boy from the shoulders up, change into a full grown man. Back then quite a dilly. Today, we would just show the computer point A and point B, hit render, and it’s Miller Time.  But back then,  three guys worked six months to make 105 frames of film. One head per frame, each one a little more like Jeff Bridges. Hand crafted,  hand painted. It was a real undertaking. Of course the real wonderful thing was working with makeup legend Dick Smith again.

Dick Tracy was a Character Makeup Artist’s Dream Come True.

Me, Al and my brother, John Caglione.

As John said… “Dick Tracy was a character makeup artists dream come true,”  and a real slice of Hollywood. You know how whenever tinseltown portrays backlot, there are stars everywhere you look? That’s what Dick Tracy was like in reality. It was a Fort Knox of famous faces, and they were ours, all ours…

Beaker Hanging Around… 23 Years and Counting.

I found this noodle head 23 years ago in a hobby shop in North Carolina. I was not looking for poultry, I was looking for acrylic paint.     More of this characters adventures later…

Double Bat Dare ‘Ya!

Shel Dorf called us while we were working on Dick Tracy, and asked if it would be alright if he brought Bob Kane by to meet us. Alright? Are you kidding? The guy who created Batman? Yes please! Bring ‘em over! What an honor! Apparently Bob was a big Dick Tracy fan, and drew on it for inspiration when creating Batman.

So there he was, big as life, in our lab, personable, fun, and clearly enjoying his notoriety. Shel invited a few kids over to meet the Batfather, and Bob ate it up, dashing off little sketches of the caped crusader for them. “Bob,” I said, “I’m sure you could draw Batman with your eyes closed!”  That grabbed him. “Let’s see!” he laughed, snatched up his pencil, closed his eyes, and bat-doodled off a damned good little sketch of his masterpiece character. Everyone enjoyed that a lot, and we laughed over it a bunch. Bob went back to hob knobbing with his young fans, while we continued to bask in his presence.

When it was all done, and the lab was empty again, John and I prepared to get back to making Dick Tracy. As I headed to the plaster bench I spied something out of the corner of my eye… there, shoved in a corner and wanted by no one, was Bob Kane’s eyes wide shut sketch of The Batman. I delicately placed it in a plastic page protector, along with the pencil he doodled it with.

When Metal was Made of Wood

Once upon a time, back in the days when metal was made of wood, visual effects were created using miniatures. I consider myself lucky to have gotten started in the business when miniatures were still being used exclusively. VFX supervisors, like the amazing Gary Hutzel, have a distinct advantage over those who have only worked in the digital world. Gary knows how things work in real life. He knows how light really behaves. Speaking of Gary Hutzel, we met on TNG when I was a makeup artist. The first time I met him, I knew I liked him. Aside from being talented, he was funny, and there is nothing better than funny. When I jumped to the art department at the start of DS9, I got to know Gary a whole lot better. The Star Trek Art Department in those days worked hand in glove with VFX. We made it our business to be a resource for them. Gary knew that if his budget didn’t cover a model of Star Fleet Command in San Francisco, we would make one for him out of bird feeders and CD racks.

Under 18

I was at work in the ever-lovin’ Trek art department, perched high atop the Marathon Mill, when the phone rang. “Dougie! It’s Laura! I’m under stage 18. Get down here right away! Can’t explain! Hurry!” There was a click, and she was gone. I looked up at Jim, and Denise. “Sumthin’ weird is going on under 18.”

The narrow concrete stairwell was dank and dark, and at the bottom of it stood a pool of stagnant water. I put my shoulder against the heavy metal door leading to the underground and pushed. It opened with a musty groan, reverberating with bygone Hollywood ages. All around us in the half light, were leftover artifacts from movies and television shows going back seventy five years. It was like the lobby of the Adam’s Family house. A stuffed black bear frozen in an aggressive posture, Admiral Byrd’s dog sled, the Happy Days juke box, six foot filming miniatures of WWII aircraft. “Lauuuuura!” I called. “Dougie! I’m over here! Hurry up!”

When we rounded the corner, it opened up into a football field sized basement. We let out a collective gasp. As far as the eye could see, were racks of costumes from all of the past Star Trek series, and motion pictures. It was like that scene at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. In fact you would need a matte painting to properly describe it. There were the costumes of the Vulcan masters in TMP, engineering suits from TWOK, Ambassador costumes made with fabric left over from The Ten Commandments… and most amazing of all, a huge number of costumes from the original Star Trek, including Ted Cassidy’s “Ruk” costume, environmental suits, and Miranda Jones sensor web gown ( “… my compliments to your dressmaker”). We went a little crazy down there under 18, and ran from one rack to the next, laughing, and giggling in awe at what was there before us. Hollywood history, out of the nowhere, and into the here. We all stopped for a moment and looked at one another for validation. Do we dare? Let this picture stand as mute testimony to our lunacy. On the left is Jimmy V wearing Ruk’s costume, and an amazing costume it is. The architecture of Ruk’s physique is built into it. When Jim put it on, Ruk was in the room. Amazing piece of work by Bill Theiss. Denise donned a first season medical uniform – a dream come true, and I nothing less than a Vulcan high priest, and master of logic.

Yes, we were out of control. Yes, we sounded like kids at recess. Yes, we forgot where we were. “Hey!” I said, looking up. “What’s that noise?” From above, the sound of 50 pair of feet stomping on the stage floor over our heads. It was the DS9 shooting crew, busy on the Defiant bridge shooting a tense scene, when the giddy sound of the world’s biggest geeks laughing and squealing comes drifting up through the command deck. “CUT! CUT! CUT! What the HELL is that noise!?”

Like kids who just put a hardball through Mrs Mc Tavishes living room window, we leapt outta those costumes and ran for home. By the time we got back to the art department, we had transmogrified back into the highly trained and unflappable Hollywood professionals that we are.