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| Sunken treasures await your re-discovery: Blog 2016 / Blog 2017 / Blog 2018 | |||||
| "Only the mad know, the impossible is possible!" |
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| November 2019 |
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This Blog is offering a colorful kaleidoscope of movie magic for cinema aficionados. Crispy peanuts, thin-skinned baloons and thrilling sensations on celluloid. See offbeat goodies and magic crumbs ...weekly! The Reality behind the Fantasy! - The Story behind the Spectacle! No inflated endlessly long stories, but short and crisp. 'This is Helmet time!' Photos beat content! Welcome to the manege of madness! - Have a pleasant trip! |
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Every big Studio is offering its styled and fashionable 'Studio Tour'. A plastic world for tourists! We at moon-city-garbage have developed a completely new concept - Wow! And we are very proud to present it for the first time today ...or was it the third time? This body is long dead! Join our thrilling 'STORAGE TOUR'! What? Yeaaahhhh ...and your ticket includes a free time travel in our supersonic golf cart! Oh noooo....please. On top of that we dive deep into the cold water to visit 'The City Beneath the Sea'. Does it really have to be that way? Absolutely! - So you better open your umbrella, buckle up and press the little red button: Journey 1, Year 1982 - The 'Lost in Space' Storage of model maker Greg Jein Only every third person comes back! |
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Soon more on the legendary model maker Gregory 'Greg' Jein and his work. Greg was the Chief model maker on famous science fiction shows like 'Dark Star', 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' and on a bunch of 'Star Trek' projects. On 'The Hunt for Red October' he was hired by BOSS (Richard Edlund) to fabricate the giant submarine models. The sub model miniatures are all of outstanding quality, but when the BOSS crew got in trouble with the filming of the models the assignment was given to the ILM effects shop. Everything that BOSS had already produced by then went to ILM (all models, test shots,...). We have to look at that. |
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| The upcoming story will deal with the fabulous model subs and the great visual effects show ILM performed with them. |
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ILM effects DOP Pat Sweeney filming a shot for the breathtaking 'Thor's Twins' sequence. The models were filmed using motion control, but not with standard bluescreen, but in-camera against a matching 'underwater' model miniature set. Really great scenes! This and so much more soon on your favorite 'Jacques Cousteau Adventure World' channel. |
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Your comments are always welcome! Trust me, I know what I'm doing. Sometimes. |
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'The Devil-Ship Pirates' has nothing to do with the colorful caribbean flair of the Hollywood Pirates. This Hammer flick is a dirty little swashbuckler with a rough atmosphere. No palm beaches and blue, crystal clear water. These guys are not stranded in paradise but in a misty, muddy swamp. Christopher Lee is great in this one, well directed by Don Sharp, with Michael Reed behind the 'Hammerscope' lens. The effects work was handled by the great British master Les Bowie and his boys (Kit West, Ian Scoones). After a land based Pirate movie, Hammer decided to built a full-size galleon for their next box office adventure, 'The Devil Ship Pirates'. The hull of the ship 'Diablo' was built on the Bray Studios backlot and transported to the location, an old gravel pit (flooded) near the Studio, on a truck. The ship was finished there and lifted on some kind of raft with a bunch of old oil drums used as ballast tanks for the swaying construction. The whole 'Diablo' operation costed up to 20.000 pounds, which was a lot of money back in the early 60s and a big chunk of the budget cake of the 'Devil-Ship Pirates'. One day the call 'Tea Time' not only got the crew moving but also the ship... |
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The 'Diablo', drafted by Production Designer Bernard Robinson, floats on the gravel pit. Trimmed with the shaky oil drum ballast tanks. In order to bring more stability into the whole thing, some platforms/pontoons were attached to the sides of the ship. Some 'scaffolding platforms' were also installed for the cameras and spotlights to get some good shots of the action on the 'Diablo'. Look at the big scaffolding construction next to the ship with many people on it ...and may be one cup of tea too much. The 'Diablo awakens, starts to shake and .... |
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The 'Diablo' is leaning dangerously to the side, it threatens to capsize. The platform collapsed completely, many crew members fell into the water. Expensive Camera equipment and many more stuff floats in the water or has gone down. The tilting ship pushes the wooden platform on the right upwards. What happened there? Well, from the beginning the whole raft construction, with too high bodies above the water, was in trouble. A shaky, unstable construction that had to be supported additionally. When suddenly many people rushed to one side of the 'Diablo' (in anticipation of a hot cup of tea), ballast shifted, the acting forces were too big and the construction collapsed. In a kind of chain reaction, the heavy wooden hull of the ship squeezed the scaffolding construction and the whole thing crumbled. A pretty dangerous situation, luckily nobody was seriously injured. No one was hit hard by parts of the scaffolding. However, the accident caused considerable damage and delayed further filming. The ship was from then on for safety reasons (and due to the damage to the ship) attached to the shore. |
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The devilish little galleon 'Diablo' rolls aside. Even Les Bowie would not have been able to stage this unintended effect any better. But he has done much to obscure the fact that the ship is bobbing in a gravel pit and not sailing across the oceans. The fog machines were running at peak performance. |
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At the end of the movie the unfortunate ship was torched down by the Bowie crew, captured by several cameras. The ship was prepared with pyrotechnics, gas jets and small metal boxes full of fuel for a nice little fire. The flames shooting through the deck were created with a gas jet. |
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Pyro action. For the final moments of the 'Diablo', the ship was rigged by the Sp/Fx boys to capsize on cue. With a little imagination you can recognize parts of the substructure (oil drum raft) on this screenshot. |
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The end of the 'Diablo', a costly fire. The Art Dep, Production Designer Bernard Robinson and especially the Suits responsible for the financing, they all had tears in their eyes ...though for different reasons. |
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Stories in magazines like 'Fangoria' about the start of the filming of George Romero's 'Day of the Dead' electrified or should I say infected the horror fans. Zombie-Mania! More than a few fans made a pilgrimage to the filming locations, powered by the hope to get a role as a Background-Zombie. The HC fans were attracted by the filming like flies of rotten meat. Almost all those who came got their role, including some real Rock'n'Roll Zombies. The Most Famous Unknown Band, 'NRBQ' (New Rhythm and Blues Quartet), founded sometime in the late 60s, took a long ride to the 'Wampum Mine Set' of 'Day of the Dead', for the vague chance to be in Romero's new Zombie masterpiece. A tour bus full of tired and ragged music mummies, it could not be any better, all were cast as Background-Zombies! 'NRBQ', revered by a cult following of connoisseurs of great music, are known for their brilliant live performances, containing a high degree of spontaneity and levity, and blending rock, pop, jazz, blues and other styles. Terry Adams (piano), Joey Spampinato (bass) and the others are part of the Zombie posse that is chasing after Steel (Gary Howard Klar), in the scene where he fires on a locked door with a machine gun. Another avid horror film freak and noted musician set off to play a Zombie for Romero, Bryan Gregory (1951-2001), ex-guitarist for and founding member of 'The Cramps'. Bryan Gregory ('The Cramps','Beast','The Dials') can be seen on this rare pic (a 35mm Slide), joking around in his 'Day of the Dead' make-up and costume. The tattered costume could easily be his own stuff -lol- next to many other things, Bryan designed horror costumes! Who did his 'Day of the Dead' Zombie make-up? Probably one of the young rebels (Howard Berger, Mike Deak,...) leaded by John Vulich and supervised by 'Old man' Tom Savini. I do not remember recognizing Bryan anywhere in the movie, think he was one of the evil horde Zombies in the Wampum Mine. Playin' the Scum of the Neighbourhood, he certainly liked that. Did you spot him? |
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"At the Zombie Dance Nobody moves They tap their toes Yeah, wiggle their ears to get in the groove Yeah..." Lyrics of the song 'Zombie Dance' from the Cramps album 'Songs The Lord Taught Us' (1980) with Bryan Gregory on guitar. Here we see him in the effects shop with the Special Make-up crew, from left to right: Mike Deak - Bryan Gregory (The Cramps) - John Vulich - Dave Kindlon (Mechanical Make-up fx) - Howard Berger and two barely visible guys in the background having fun with the skeleton. All the young guys from Savinis 'Zombies Are Us' effects shop have become great special make-up wizards over the years. The next 'Day of the Dead' story will be about the enormously talented Make-Up FX crazy loony John Vulich (1961–2016) and his iconic Zombie 'Bub', greatly played and celebrated by actor Sherman Howard. |
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Special make-up effects fans will find many different behind-the-scenes stories on this cheeky channel. Here is a small selection of good vibrations and visual surprises: - See Johnny Chambers and his work on 'Night Gallery' - See Nick Maley and his work on 'Krull' - See Stan Winston and his work on 'Terminator' - See James Cummins and his work on 'House' - See Rob Bottin and his work on 'Total Recall' - See Steve Johnson and his work on 'The Outer Limits' This and so much more exclusively on: |
| www.moon-city-garbage.agency |
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