Dick Smith Update – 01- We Visit Bob and Cathy Burns

(Above) Dick standing in front of the original George Pal’s Time Machine from the 1960 classic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Time_Machine_%281960_film%29

Last weekend, Dick and I dropped in to visit Bob and Cathy Burns at their home\museum in the San Fernando Valley.  I was aghast that Dick had never visited the science fiction\horror and fantasy Mecca, and delighted to be the one to introduce him to it.  It goes without saying that Bob and Cathy were thrilled to have the makeup master visit them. We had a wonderful afternoon hob knobbing and reminiscing.

By the way, you may remember an early entry where I recount Mike Okuda’s 40th birthday bash held at Bob and Cathy’s house. If not, check it out – http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/03/13/mikes-40th-b-day-spectacular/

Story behind The Time Machine – In the early 1970’s, MGM had an auction of their props. Bob attended with $1000 he’s scraped together, with every intention of going home with the Holy Grail, the Time Machine. The price shot up to $4000, way out of his league. Bob was heartsick, and left before the final bid. He later heard it was sold to a traveling show for between 8-10 thousand dollars. In 1975, a friend of Bob’s was in an Orange County thrift shop looking for interesting items when he caught sight of the familiar big dish in the back of the store. The machine was in rough condition, and was missing the chair. Bob made an offer, and finally had the Time Machine. George Pal had given Bob a set of plans of the machine years earlier, and with the help of Dennis Muren, Tom Scherman, Mike Minor, Dorothy Fontana, TV producer Mark Richards, and Lynn Barker, the machine was restored.

(Below) Kindred spirits,  Dick and Bob,  smile for Doug’s drex files roving eye.

Jörg’s LA Away Mission – Part 4

(Above) Bronson caves… hard to believe that this remote looking cave\canyon combo is just a few minutes from the Paramount main gate.  (Above) Bev and Picard egress the Trek side of the cave.

LA trip – day four

My last day in LA. My plane would leave at 2.30 PM so I had until noon to visit one more shooting location. Originally, I had planned to visit the MTA building and the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Monday morning, but as I had squeezed that in on Sunday, I had some spare time for yet another location. But where to go? In comes Larry Nemecek to save the day. He offered to take me to Bronson Canyon to see more than just Batcave. I had always thought Bronson was too far away and that I wouldn’t have enough time to go there, so I never took any screenshots with me. I would have to do this one without any research – this made the experience much more memorable, though.

(Below) This location has literally appeared in hundreds of movies and TV shows.

Jörg’s LA Away Mission – Part 3

The Chronowerx building from “Future’s End.

LA trip – day three

I had a hard time sleeping the second night in LA, I guess I was still suffering from jetlag and a little nervous because of the upcoming day, so I got up really early and changed my plans for the day a little (I’m glad I did in retrospect!). I had originally planned to visit the MTA building (Henry Starling’s Chronowerx building in “Future’s end I+II”) and the square in front of Dorothy Chandler Pavilion (again Future’s end II, the Doctor meets Paris, Tuvok and Rain Robinson here) early Monday morning, before I had to get on the plane at 2.30 PM. I decided to go Sunday morning instead, which left me half a day on Monday to visit another location.

So, I set off at 6.30 AM to visit two locations from “Future’s end” on my own.

Whereas LA had been intimidatingly crowded Friday night at the Walk of Fame, downtown was eerily quiet and deserted Sunday morning shortly after sunrise. I got to see a completely different side of the city that morning. I took the empty Red line subway to Union Station and got off to see my first downtown shooting location: the MTA building. It was funny seeing the building without the Chronowerx signs added in post production but visiting this place before the morning rush was really something. There was nobody except for me on the long plaza, so I took countless photos from all angles. I had forgotten my sheet with screenshots of the building, so I tried to remember the few camera angles that were used. Funny how I expected the Aeon to smash through some upper windows any second! After getting my shots, I went down to Union Station again to cross over (under?) to the other site of the highway. I could have taken the subway to Civic Center to quickly get to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, but I wanted to take the scenic route, past the famous LA City Hall. I had used google Earth to memorize the trip from Union Station past the City Hall to Dorothy Chandler Pavilion so it was easy finding my way around. I passed some interesting sights, especially The Times building seemed really spooky and Hollywood-like.

(Below) The MTA building which doubled as the “Future’s End” landmark.

Arriving at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, I realized that not much had changed since Future’s end was shot in 1996. I was able to recreate many of the shots from my screenshot worksheet and it took several attempts until the fountain on the square was sputtering water in the same formation as it had on my screenshot of the Doctor in front of the fountain (it annoyed me that I had forgotten the screenshots of the MTA building so I had to do this as accurately as possible )

(Below) The good Doctor at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion from “Future’s End”.

(Above) The Chandler pavilion as it appears today, in downtown LA.

After that, I took the still deserted subway back to my hotel and waited for Jeff to pick me up to see the two biggest shooting locations: the Tillman water reclamation plant (actually the Japanese Garden in front of it) and Vasquez Rocks.

Jörg’s LA Away Mission – Part 2

(Above) Otherworldly and wonderfully atmospheric, the “Shangri La-like Vulcan of “The Search For Spock”.

+

Jörg, who on “some sort of Star Trek”, knocks one out of the Quadrant with part 2 of his LA Away Mission…

LA trip – day two

On my second Star Trek shooting location day in LA, a Saturday, the real fun began. To prepare myself, I had rewatched the relevant episodes to get a good grasp of the locations and the various camera angles used and compiled dozens of sheets with 9 screenshots each of the various locations I wanted to visit.

Originally, I had thought I could do this trip all on my own, using LA public transportation to get from a to b. In retrospect, I can say I would never have seen as many locations as I ended up seeing that way, and would probably have died of dehydration on that hot and dry weekend if it weren’t for Jeff Zucker who graciously offered to be my companion on this trip and take me from place to place. I had met Jeff through the Star Trek Prop, Costume & Auction Board, a place for collectors of authentic Star Trek costumes and props to talk about their collections, help identify rarely seen items, have a good time and much more. Reading about my plans for the LA weekend, Jeff offered his help and I couldn’t have done most of it without him (and also wouldn’t have all those pics of a grinning me at those shooting locations gracing this article )

I will only briefly report about the current appearance of the shooting locations today in this sequence of articles, as I plan some larger articles with comparison screenshots of the various locations for Ex Astris Scientia.

Jeff picked me up Saturday morning and we headed to our first location: the Lucille Y. Gilman Memorial Fountain at Occidental College, Eagle Rock.

The fountain was originally not on my list, but buddy Ian aka Therin of Andor suggested this location and as it lay conveniently between Huntington Gardens and Griffith Park, we decided to check it out, too.

Jeff parked his car next to a sports field and we slowly approached the Vulcan fountain near the Bird-of-prey landing spot from Star Trek III. Not much had changed since 1983/4. As can be seen, only the first three flights of chairs are actually really there, the rest was added in post production. After taking a number of photos, trying to match the camera angles from Star Trek III as well as possible, we headed off to our next location: Huntington Library and Gardens.

(Below) Jörg at the planet Vulcan location, the Lucille Y. Gilman Memorial Fountain in Eagle Rock.

Jörg’s LA Away Mission – Part 1

Jörg at the gateway to nearly every Star Trek adventure ever filmed.

Having freshly returned from the land of dreams, Drex Files contributor Jörg takes us along on his trip to Hollywood. Part one of four.

LA trip – day one

On Friday the 25th of September I headed off to LA to spend an amazing Star Trek weekend in the city. My plan was to visit as many Star Trek shooting locations as possible and meet fans and people that worked on the shows, some that I had known for years through the internet but had never met in person. I can certainly say that my expectations were exceeded by far!

Now, I’m sitting here back home in Germany in front of my computer, looking at all the homepages of those shooting locations, all the sites still open on my browser three weeks later. Funny looking at the photos and information again, now that I have seen all of it! A piece of advice for people who want to go on a similar trip: Internet research using google maps, google earth and analyzing Star Trek screenshots certainly pays off, it made finding the right spots quickly much easier. If only I had also written down not only the addresses of the places but also the “how to get theres”, it would have made Jeff’s life (and that of his wife at home on the phone) much easier…
Anyway, you wanna hear about the places I visited and people I met? Here we go!

The first place I saw, actually from the plane, was Griffith Observatory, which was featured in “Future’s end I”. Right, it was just a white blotch in the distance, but as it was located to the east of another white blotch, the Hollywood sign, I realized I had come to the right place.

Universal Studios New York Street – The Phoenix Project

I live just two miles from the studio. I awoke one morning to find the southern sky smeared with an angry pillar of thick black smoke. Universal’s New York Street, with the exception of it’s famed “Back to the Future Square, burned clear to the ground. Over the last year I have been documenting the reconstruction of NY street, taking a shot every week.  It’s fascinating. In the near future I’ll post a selection of consecutive shots. The art direction on this new build is brilliant, with a much wider spectrum of city styles than previous incarnations.

Joltin’ Joe Longo

One of my favorite characters on Star Trek was not a cast member, but the prop master, Joe Longo. Here is Joe holding a bust of Kahless I sculpted for use in Worf’s quarters.

Joe told me an amusing anecdote about his first job at Universal where he started out with craft services in the 60’s. Not sure what to do with the the young Longo on his first day at work, his boss handed him a broom and told to clean up the soundstage. Joe was determined to make a good impression, and cleaned that danged stage from top to bottom. It was very dusty, and literally filled with cobwebs, but Joe made it sparkle. Unfortunately it was the Munster house, and was supposed to be dusty and full of cob webs! 40 years later and we are still laughing about it! Here’s to Joe, one of the most fun guys I got to work with!

More Joe -

http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/tales-of-suspense-the-approval-process/

Edward Carrere – Production Designer

Many of you know that one of my favorite films is “The Fountainhead”. Here is an amazing picture of that movies production designer, Edward Carrere (L), doing a show and tell with Gary Cooper (C), and the films director King Vidor (R). I’m always blown away by this image from 1948. It is as fresh a situation today as it was when this shot was taken. Foam core models will be around for a good long time in spite of CG imaging, because nothing gives the director a more immediate understanding of 3D space.

Production Designer Edward Carrere’s solo career actually began with “The Fountainhead”. His fearless work still amazes: enormous offices, endless expanses of glass, impossible cantilevering, and modernist fantasies reaching high into the sky. Carrere’s long and illustrious career would eventually include brilliant work in every genre, from the gritty realism of “Sweet Smell of Success” and “The Wild Bunch”, to classic fantasies like “Camelot” and “Helen of Troy”.

BSG VFX Gets The Emmy Nom Again!

Congratulations to our team members who are going to the Emmys this year!

Gary Hutzel. Michael Gibson, Jesse Toves, Sean Jackson, Kyle Toucher, Pierre Drolet, Greg Behrens, Heather McAuliff, and Dave Morton.

BSG received a total of five Emmy nom nods. Congrats one and all!

A Certain Location In The San Fernando Valley

I stay pretty far from Star Wars, but this is when it was still grassroots. Go look at this before George Lucas makes them take it down. This is film history right here (takes a bit to load so be patient!).

http://www.vimeo.com/5494280

Thanks to our buddy John Ellis for this. Show your appreciation by ordering his awesome Steve Canyon DVD : ) 

http://stevecanyondvd.blogspot.com/

OMG! Karloff’s Frankenstein’s Monster in COLOR!

 

Doug, Since you’re a make-up guy, this might interest you.  Here’s a link to Sara Karloff’s color home movie footage of her famous father, taken during the filming of “Son of Frankenstein”.  This is the only known color footage of Karloff’s Frankenstein, and features Boris as the monster in full costume, clowning around on the set and pretending to strangle his makeup man, Jack Pierce. – Gary Kerr

 

+ 

James Bama – American Realist – First Trek Publicity Artist

(Above and below) Four posters promoting NBC’s 1966 fall preview. I was in the 7th grade and wow it looked exciting!

Of course the golden age of illustration was still going strong in those days. Photoshop montages simply cannot replace the finely honed beauty and energy that one of these illustrators can conjure. I’ve yet to see one do it. These are pure magic, and they sweep you away with them. Unfortunately, over the years, cheap won out.  

Anyway, NBC was offering these posters as a set for something like a measly two bucks. I especially wanted that one with the different kind of spacehip, and the guy with the pointed ears. The “Get Smart” poster was drawn by everyone’s favorite, Jack Davis from “Mad Magazine”. I’d like to know who made that decision, because they deserve a medal. “I Spy” was Gustav Rehberger. He was my teacher at the Art Student’s League on 57th St. What an amazing man. I saw him give a lecture on dynamic horse drawing where he created a painting of a rearing mustang on a canvas 14 heet high, and did it with such speed, enthusiasm, and energy, that he brought the crowd to it’s feet. “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.”… I still don’t know who the artist is. Is it Bob Peak?  Could be. Maybe someone out there will recognize him for me and end 44 years of mystery. Sure looks like Peak.

Now we come to the very first piece of publicity art ever created for Star Trek. Illustrated by the great James Bama. It was years before I discovered who he was, but I had been seeing his dynamic illustrations at the drugstore paperback rack for years. Bama was the cover artist for over 60 “Doc Savage” novels, and they never failed to grab me by the throat.