Craig Binkley, Enterprise’s beloved property master sent me this just a few moments ago. It came from an airline captain flying these United States, and I wanted to share it with you before this Memorial Day weekend comes to a close -
Archive for May, 2010
Universal studios threw a big Hollywood style bash to celebrate the grand opening of it’s new spectacular New York street sets, and with good reason! Wow!
NBC Universal Production Services put together a world renowned creative team to design the new street, including Steven Spielberg. Spielberg contacted one of his long time production designers, Rick Carter, Academy Award winner for Avatar, to be a part of the design process. Having designed Back to the Future, Carter had a very personal connection and passion for the rebuilding. Headed by art director Beala Neel, this team of award winning production designers and graphic artists would eventually expand to a staff of 25. Carter and Neel collaborated on the initial design concepts and scope of the rebuild. The construction project became known as the Phoenix project.
Please enjoy a cornucopedic assemblage of photographic evidence demonstrating a job done extraordinarily well…
(Above) Embassy Street greets party-goers as they enter the spankin’ new backlot.
(Above) A breathtaking facade recreating Macy’s on Herald Square.
Continue reading ‘Universal Studios Streets Of Fire – The Phoenix Project Pt II – Rebirth’
(Above) Universal New York Street before the fire. I spent a lot of time here during the shooting of Dick Tracy. Our sister production, Back to the Future part I and II, shot right next door simultaneously. Middle left you can see Courthouse Square and the clocktower building. The way upper left of the image is the leading edge of the western town.
(Below) 5am, June 1st 2008. New York Street becomes a blazing inferno. The fire was started by an unattended welders torch, as film history goes up in smoke.
(Above) The burning of Atlanta from “Gone With The Wind”? Nope… the view from Back to the Future Square.
I remember rolling out of bed, rubbing the sleep from my eyes, and drawing the blinds. Less than two miles away a huge column of black smoke bisected the horizon. Holy mackerel! That looks like Universal!
(Above right) That’s pretty much the view from my front yard. (Above left) The other side of the smoke column and the view from just above the War of the Worlds attraction. The blue rectangle is the Universal blue sky backdrop and tank.
Flipping on the TV I yell to Dorth, hey baby! Check it out! Work is on fire! -
(Below) Construction pictorial - It took months to clear out the charred debris and twisted girders. Miraculously you can see Back to the Future Square is the one untouched section of New York Street. I guess the Gods of Hellfire are BTTF fans.
The fire kicked off one of the largest construction projects in the history of Hollywood. While toiling on Battlestar Galactica, this guy (you’re lookin’at ‘em) who never takes a lunch break, made a point of getting out and snapping a shot every few days or so of the reconstruction.
Last Thursday night, Universal threw a big Hollywood style bash to inaugurate the re-opening of the best New York Street in Hollywood. Gary, me, and Mike Gibson were there. So, while you peruse these shots of the reconstruction, I’ll assemble pictorial evidence that proves Universal’s design team outdid themselves in spades! Back in a few! Continue reading ‘Universal Studios Streets Of Fire – The Phoenix Project Pt I – Destruction\Reconstruction’
“It’s a hell of a town, the Bronx is up, and the Battery’s down! The people ride in a hole in the ground! New York, New York! It’s a hell of a town!” Universal’s new New York City backlot wows ‘em at last night’s Grand Opening.
Two years ago they burned to the ground in a fire that could be seen for miles.
Last night, Universal studios threw a big Hollywood style bash to celebrate the grand opening of it’s new spectacular New York street sets. Gary, Mike Gibson (our VFX producer), and I were there. The art director of this fantastic rebirth deserves a hearty round of applause! Drex Files will cover the festivities this Memorial Day weekend in a pictorial documenting the reconstruction, from level ground to big night!
27
May
10
Zero Hour!
Simply wow!
27
May
10
IRON BABY
Simply wow!
24
May
10
See You June 27th
Hope you guys enjoyed this months offerings as much as I enjoyed delivering them!
Tomorrow it’s back into combat over at the Universal ranch! Everyone carry on, have fun, stay safe, and remember to tune back on June 27th! Drex out!
“Enterprise XCV – The Great Experiment” – Mark Rademaker
2011 Ships of The Line Calendar from Pocket Books – On Sale August!
Mark Rademaker knocks it out of the ballpark with this fully realized render of the Matt Jefferies ring ship!
One of the most radical experiments in early Earth starship design was the Enterprise XCV. Unlike the traditional nacelle-and-saucer configuration, the XCV uses an annular propulsion system, based on Vulcan vehicle designs. This ship however, employed cyclotron accelerators to create a high-energy proton flux. The protons circled through the massive outer rings of verterium gallenide segments, generating a symmetrical subspace field. Each of the two coleopter ring structures contained two counter-rotating cyclotrons. The cyclotrons in each ring operated slightly out of phase with each other, generating the propulsive field imbalance that carried the ship through subspace at warp speeds. – Mike Okuda
My all time favorite Master Systems cutaway. I originally created this as a foldout for the DS9 Tech Manual, but it was too fun to not swap out all of the earlier versions seen on the bridge and engineering. Doesn’t look like much here, postage stamp size, but give it a click, and have fun!
BSG VFX supervisor Gary Hutzel submitted the BSG series finale for Emmy consideration for the 2008 – 2009 season. It was just this side of epic . We missed it by that much! No gold for us that year!
In an upcoming blog I’ll do closeups on our incredible crew, and put the spotlight on their particular brand of madness. In the meantime, here for your enjoyment is the Emmy submission book that Gary asked me to put together for the series finale, “Daybreak”. Bon Apetit!
Continue reading ‘BSG VFX 2008 -2009 Primetime Emmy Presentation Book II’
23
May
10
My Zimbabwe
You’ve heard me say many times that my experiences on the TNG set where some of my most cherished memories. The cast of that show was special, and they had a genuine affection for one another. They also had a wonderful sense of humor, and there is nothing better than funny. Some of you may have seen this recent video of Jonathan and Marina, but it is a perfect example of why I loved them, and I loved being on set.
23
May
10
So Long Frank – 1928-2010
(Above) Frazetta’s obit in the LA Times.
There isn’t an illustrator alive today who hadn’t been influenced by him, and if they say they weren’t, they are probably lying. With his passing, Frank Frazetta leaves a gigantic vacuum. He is quite simply the greatest fantasy artist who ever lived, and will probably never be equaled. His talent was supernatural. He never worked at. It sprang from god knows where. Nick Meglin, one of the legendary editors at Mad Magazine wrote of him back in 1965 while recalling growing up with Frank -
He loved to draw, but not only or always. In the neighborhood, where many followed his younger baseball career in the Parade Grounds League (he was considered a sure fire bet for the Majors) , few knew he was an artist at all. Fritz was never a “money artist”. He would work to the point of meeting his bills, then take off for weeks at a time until the bills got to that point again. He was offered strips, deals, contracts – - stuff that art students dream of – - and turn it down for no other reason than it would cramp his style, which wasn’t high living, but free living. Fritz liked to play each day as it came. deadlines got in the way, but he would meet them the last minute and everyone would be happy. If his work is now held in such esteem, try and imagine what it could have been like had he really worked at it! Perhaps better… but, in thinking it over, maybe worse! His work was an extension of his personality, and his imaginative approach to everything he handles has got to stem from a free roaming spirit, and not a caged one…
With the passing of Ellie, Frank’s wife and childhood sweetheart, it seemed only a matter of time before he would follow her - http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/08/07/rest-in-peace-ellie-frazetta/
(Below) With his movie star good looks he could have easily leapt from one of his own canvases. (Bottom) One of Fritz’s masterpieces.
GM tagline for the Futurama – “If you’ve only seen it once, you haven’t seen it all”. I went a hundred times, and never saw it all!
While trolling through the General Motors image archive, I came across shot of the architectural model of the GM Futurama. I just about wet my pants. I’m a huge ’64-’65 N.Y. World’s Fair fan, and a student of it’s design impact on Star Trek. We used the Futurama as inspiration for Starfleet HQ in San Francisco. “Venture Brothers” fans will also recognize it as the Venture Industries building. What a sleek work of genius! For more on the NYWF and it’s influence on Star Trek check out these drex files links -
http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/05/03/starfleet-command-building-san-francisco/
http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/01/29/days-of-future-past-the-treknywf-connection/
http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/05/03/starfleet-command-building-san-francisco/
23
May
10
Propworx Trek Auction Unveiled
Almost three years in the organizing, Alec Peters and his Propworx team have released the auction book for their upcoming Star Trek Prop and Costume auction.
Regular readers of the drex files know that I turned my collection, acquired after nearly two decades of working on Star Trek, over to Alec to be made available to fans of the show. That’s a lot of dumpster diving folks! The auction also includes amazing memorabilia from the collections of Mike and Denise Okuda, Rick Sternbach and Marc Zicree. As usual, the Propworx auction book is a collectors item in its own right, and is now available for free download at their site http://startrekauction.blogspot.com/. The book will also be available as an impressive high quality hard copy collectors edition. In the meantime, go to the Propworx site and download your free copy! It’s a fantastic document that all Trek fans will want to add to their archive of Star Trek data! Congrats to Alec and his team (a shout out to graphic designer Damaris Degan) for another great job!
23
May
10
Nimoy Sunset Pie
A big hit in the department this week was “Nimoy Sunset Pie”. What the hell does it mean? Where does it come from? What’s the deal? What’s the diff! It’s hilariously mind-bending… and delicious! Seriously, NSP is one of the coolest and most off beat Trek themed sites I’ve been to. Go and enjoy a slice with Spock while computing its value!
http://nimoysunsetpie.tumblr.com/
This Retellian/Tarkalean/Tellarite freighter is a space-going tractor trailer. It’s six cargo modules can be off loaded in place, or disengaged from the tractor and dropped off at their destination.
Let’s kick things off with a workhorse freighter seen regularly on “Enterprise”. This no-nonsense design is an Alpha Quadrant-wide favorite, and is used by numerous races to transport goods and equipment. Let’s join Jörg with the low down…
The Jörg Report -
The ship first appeared as a Retellian freighter in “Precious cargo”. It was then slightly modified and appeared as a partially borgified Tarkalean freighter in “Regeneration”. Some of the parts of the Retellian freighter that were removed when the model was turned into the Tarkalean freighter are part of the final stage of the borgified Arctic transport, so it’s likely, that the transport got those hull parts from the Tarkalean freighter.
In “Bounty”, two freighters of the Retellian/Tellarite type are seen orbiting a Tellarite station, so it’s entirely possible this is the first appearance of the Tellarite freighter before it was seen two years later in Season 4.
Thus, the original configuration appeared again in Season 4 as a holographic Tellarite freighter in “The Aenar”.
23
May
10
Standby to Receive Signal!
A concept sketch of that set that I did for Enterprise that was never realized. A script called for us to visit the bridge of a Xindi insectoid starship. I especially like the multiple insect eyes on the overhead, and the hive-like feeling of the MVS
We’re back! It’s been a tumultuous month working with Gary Hutzel and the rest of the talented VFX gang on season 1.2 of Caprica. Things begin to pick up steam in the second half of the season, and the series finale resets the entire playing field with the kind of action you’ve come to expect from our dept. We’ve also been pumping up other fun stuff at work, including our capacity to create pretty amazing 3D VFX. There’s that upper right corner of the envelope again… and there’s Gary livin’ in it! Can you imagine one of those rip roaring BSG battle scenes in three dimensions? That’s GOOD soup!
Today at the drex files we’ll be doling out a heaping helping of nutritious vitamin packed goodness. Propworx has completed their latest and most snazzy catalog for their upcoming Star Trek prop auction, including most of my collection that you guys have come to know, cool stuff from rousing Rick Sternbach, and a selection of exotic Okudian offerings from the outer edges of the Galaxy! I’ll be posting my interview from the catalog later, including a link where you can go and down the auction book!
We’ll also get another sneek peak at the 2011 SOTL calendar, and another post featuring one of our ever popular BSG VFX Emmy presentation books!
So in the immortal word of Elwood Blues… Our lady of blessed acceleration, don’t fail us now!
In the 60′s when spaceflight was in its infancy, there was one constant — Guenter Wendt. He was the last guy to pat young astronauts on the bottom, close the hatch, and watch them fly into the history books.
- Paul Haney, NASA PAO, “The Voice of Apollo”
Guenter Wendt, 85, ‘Pad Leader’ for NASA’s moon missions, dies
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