ATOMIC DONKEY#0

Polish CE3K Poster

2012-01-29T16:37:00.002Z

A bizarre Polish poster for Close Encounters of the Third Kind !!!

War Horse Animatronic Joey Test Footage

2012-01-17T03:39:00.000Z

Pingu's THE THING

2012-01-05T00:32:00.001Z

More Paranormal Activity rip off's...

2012-01-02T17:11:00.001Z

...than you could shake a stick at !! Well alright, 2 of them !!! :)

My Only Boro: A Walk Through Red & White

2012-01-02T17:04:00.002Z

A friend of mine has just had his first book published My Only Boro: A Walk Through Red & White

Do you LOVE football, history, war and politics? Then this is the book for you.
Do you HATE football, history, war and politics? Then this is the book for you.

After more than a century of immaculate footballing underachievement Middlesbrough Football Club enjoyed its most successful period beginning with victory in the 2004 League Cup Final and ending on a disastrous night in Eindhoven.
How did we get there? Not just the extraordinary run in that tournament, and not just in sport, but historically, as a town, and as a community.

My Only Boro is not just about Middlesbrough Football Club, it’s not just a history book about the town and it’s not just a social commentary on a town once described as the worst place to live in Britain – it’s all this and more.

I bought my copy last week from a signing Will was doing in the local Waterstones in which he shifted 114 copies in 2 hours, I believe the first print run of around 500 has almost sold out but new ones are getting printed very soon.

Click the above piccy for the link to the book on Amazon.co.uk

ATOMIC DONKEY #0...

2011-12-31T00:11:00.000Z

...has returned !!!!

New Poll

2010-07-14T22:00:00.002+01:00

With the news that Edward Norton isn't playing the Hulk in the Avengers movie 4 names have been mentioned for the role, who would you like to see from the list, one of the new 4 or Edward Norton or Eric Bana who have already played the role ?

Happy Birthday Anna Friel

2010-07-12T12:58:00.002+01:00

34 today !!

New Poll

2010-07-10T17:39:00.003+01:00

With the release of Inception this week I was wondering which film of Christopher Nolan's has been peoples favourite so far ?

This weeks watching and reading has been...

2010-06-07T21:56:00.006+01:00

Ratatouille (2007) - Directed by Brad Bird & Jan Pinkava
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004) - Directed by Kerry Conran
Alice in Wonderland (2010) - Directed by Tim Burton
Deep Rising (1998) Directed by Stephen Sommers
El Borbah (1999) by Charles Burns
3D Artist#16 (2010) Published by Image Publishing

Descendants of Order 66

2010-05-23T13:49:00.003+01:00

A Star Wars fan film, the crew visited and filmed at several locations that the actual films were shot at, including Tunisia, the Mos Espa set and Norway !!

Click above image

R.I.P Ronnie James Dio

2010-05-17T00:17:00.003+01:00

A sad day for Rock !! Ronnie James Dio has died aged 67. Loved his work with Rainbow, Black Sabbath and his own band Dio.

Frank Frazetta, Fantasy Illustrator, Dies at 82

2010-05-10T22:23:00.004+01:00

The guy is the GOD of fantasy art, so sad that he's gone !!! R.I.P Frank Frazetta !!! :(

Happy Birthday - Rosario Dawson

2010-05-09T20:33:00.001+01:00

31 today !!

Happy Birthday Lance Henriksen

2010-05-05T18:16:00.003+01:00

70 today !

Seen in Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Damien: Omen II but it wasn't until The Terminator and Aliens that people started to really notice this guy, great in Near Dark, Pumpkinhead, The Quick and the Dead amongst others, he's been in a shed load of stuff over the years !

Logo's

2010-05-03T13:42:00.003+01:00

Here are some logo's that I put together in Photoshop a while ago, the top one is based on Silent Running

This one is from the film Saturn 3 with Kirk Douglas and Farrah Fawcett-Majors.

This is from The IT Crowd, the Channel 4 comedy series with Richard Ayoade, Chris O'Dowd and Katherine Parkinson.

And the last one is from Aliens, the logo on the Power Loader's leg.

I've did these as large size PSD's for putting onto T-Shirt's, the only one I've done so far is the Saturn 3 one, and that's looking a bit faded now as it's a few years old.

25mm Miniatures

2010-05-02T14:50:00.003+01:00

It's a long time since I painted these 25mm Cyberpunk and Aliens miniatures, I used to take them to work with me at the Odeon and paint them on the projection box bench between running the movies !! I glossed all the figures with Polyurethane Varnish to help protect them. I used fuse wire that we had in the projection box spares drawer to add details like cigarette end and bullet casings to the bases.

Splinter of the Minds Eye - comes to TV

2010-04-01T09:54:00.003+01:00

As and 11 year old back in 1978 and a huge fan of Star Wars I remember the day I went to the local newsagent with my mother, and up there on the book shelf was a Star Wars book, amazed by this find I went pocket money in hand to snap up this find. The book was Splinter of the Minds eye written by Alan Dean Foster, who had also written the novelization of Star Wars, even though George Lucas gets the final credit. I read this new book in a single day, and loved it, after all it was Star Wars, and this was back when they hadn't even announced what the sequel to the first film was even going to be called. My only disappointment was the fact that it didn't feature Han or Chewbacca. Later in the mid 90's this novel was turned into a comic by by Terry Austin and Chris Sprouse for Dark Horse Comics. Now there's news that this tale will be turned into an animated TV film by the same team behind the popular CGI Clone Wars animated series. How this will work is a bit puzzling, as it really throws the continuity of the series by having Luke fight Vader before their duel on Cloud City in The Empire Strikes Back. The novel itself had a strange inconsistency, this being that during the lightsaber fight between Luke and Darth Vader, Vader states that he knows Luke is the pilot that shot him out of the way during the Death Star trench run, when it was Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon who fired the shots that disrupted the course of Vader's fighter.
I look forward to seeing what they do with this, I know Anthony Daniels will no doubt be up for doing C3-PO's voice as he voices the character in the Clone Wars, and Mark Hamill has a track record of doing cartoon voice overs, it just makes me wonder if they can get Carrie Fisher interested in voicing Leia ?!

Mind you Lucas hasn't been strong on series continuity recently, in an episode of Clone Wars from series one, Anankin travels to the Lava planet of Mustafar, later to be seen in Revenge of the Sith, in this episode we see the the base there fall into the Lava and the bad guy Separatists flee this planet, so why would they later go back ?!

Diamond - Graphic Novel

2010-03-24T14:59:00.003Z

A while back I built a CG Sno-Cat model for artist Dylan Teague for him to use as reference for a graphic novel he was illustrating. see my posts about it HERE
Recently Dylan sent me a signed copy of the finished Graphic Novel, and some of the original artwork. Sadly the novel is in French, but still the pictures are great !!! Cheers Dylan !!!

Happy Birthday R. Lee Ermey

2010-03-24T14:38:00.003Z

66 today !!

What is this Mickey Mouse shit? What are you two animals doing in my beloved head? Why is Private Pyle out of his bunk after lights out? Why is Private Pyle holding that weapon? Why are you not stomping Private Pyle's guts out?

Happy Birthday Alyson Hannigan

2010-03-24T14:35:00.003Z

36 today !!

When I make my all girl Sci-Fi movie Alyson is definitely part of the ships crew ! :)

Blue hippy cats my avatar review

2010-02-26T00:42:00.000Z

This is really well done !!! Quite creepy in it's realism !!!

Moon - Duncan Jones BAFTA win

2010-02-22T18:25:00.002Z

Great to see Duncan Jones awarded the 'Outstanding Debut' prize for his science fiction film Moon at the BAFTA's !!!

Lionel Jeffries - Rest in Peace

2010-02-19T15:52:00.003Z

Grew up watching Lionel Jeffries in such films as Two Way Stretch, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, First Men in the Moon he also provided the voice for Fred Bassett in the TV animation and directed and wrote the screenplay for The Railway Children with Jenny Agutter in 1970.

The Rada-trained star, who was associated with a number of children’s classics, was 83.Jeffries was an instantly recognisable figure and became a familiar face in film and TV for decades.A spokeswoman for his agent, the Liz Hobbs Group, said: “We can confirm he did pass away this morning. It was following a long illness.”

From Online

War of the Worlds ????

2010-02-18T21:49:00.003Z

Awesome cover art for Spanish edition of War of the Worlds !! :)

The Asphyx: Digitally Remastered Special Edition

2010-02-17T21:31:00.003Z

I always liked this early 70's Horror film since I seen it on TV many years ago, now I'm pleased to see there's a special DVD version coming out soon.

The Asphyx

The Making of The Empire Strikes Back

2010-02-15T13:40:00.002Z

If this is half as good as the Star Wars one they released then it's still going to be great !! According to Amazon.co.uk it get released July 20th and is 372 pages.

Happy Birthday Michael Ironside

2010-02-12T19:45:00.003Z

60 today ! "See you at the party Richter !"

Blake's 7 Visual FX : Part 3 - Worst Android effect ?

2010-02-09T18:39:00.002Z

Quite possibly the worst attempt at an android head ever, from the episode Project Avalon. It's naff because it's literally chroma-keyed in and it seems to float about as the head and camera aren't still, plus if they've removed some sort of panel from the side of here head then how come her hair goes behind the supposed hole ?!

Viper Pilot's Helmet

2010-02-09T18:15:00.001Z

There's something still very cool about lots of the designs in the original Battlestar Galactica show, here's a great replica of the Viper Pilot's helmet's with that great Egyptian feel to them.

www.efxcollectibles.com

New Poll

2010-01-09T20:53:00.002Z

2010 Costumes - Oscar Nomination

2010-01-07T18:54:00.003Z

As a follow up to my post about 2010:The Year We Make Contact I thought I'd mention something that really disturbed me about the Oscar's for 1984, amongst the five films nominated that year for 'Academy Award for Best Costume Design' was Patricia Norris for 2010. They brought on some extras dressed in costumes from the film, to some funky Sci-Fi music and had a few of them doing robotic dancing, pretty crummy. My surprise was that it was even nominated, after all 3 of the costumes the extras were wearing came straight from 2001:A Space Odyssey, those been the red spacesuit, the dark coloured smoking jacket and a white bed robe Bowman wears as an old man, the rest of the films costumes are made up of stock overalls covered in patches, seen already in better films like 2001,Dark Star, Silent Running and Alien, T-Shirts and men in suits, and the NASA looking spacesuits I mentioned in my 2010 critique. This and the fact that Bob Ringwood who designed the wonderfully original costumes for David Lynch's Dune that same year didn't even get a nomination. Look at the photos and judge for yourself, but I know which one I would have nominated out of the two.

The eventual winner that year was Theodor Pistek for Amadeus

New Poll

2010-01-07T13:58:00.001Z

Which do you prefer as a short term for Science Fiction ?

2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984)

2010-01-01T00:05:00.001Z

Hey it's 2010, so I figured I'd critique the movie of the same name ! :)

I remember seeing 2010 the day it opened with a couple of mates. From the off it was leaving a bad taste in my mouth, the film started with a recap of the events of 2001:A Space Odyssey , and it really bugged me that they'd used actual frame grabs from that film to overlay their graphics. So after the opening to get anybody who hasn't seen 2001 up to speed we get the credits,the 'Year We Make Contact' title is nowhere to be seen, it simply says 2010.

The film based on Arthur C.Clarke's 1982 novel 2010: Odyssey Two was offered to Stanley Kubrick by MGM who refused to direct, it was then reportedly offered to a who's who of directors including Steven Spielberg who also turned it down, the common consensus is you can't make a film that could possibly follow 2001:A Space Odyssey and you'd be a fool to try, one of the directors who also turned it down was Peter Hyams, director of Capricorn One, Outland.
From what I remember reading at the time Hyams opinion was pretty much the same, then at some point, maybe MGM offered a bigger pay cheque, Hyams signed up to direct, stating he figured this was a story worth telling etc... etc...
The only real hold over character, besides David Bowman entity/spirit and HAL 9000, from 2001 was Dr. Heywood Floyd played originally by William Sylvester but recast in 2010 as Roy Scheider (Jaws, Blue Thunder), Sylvester was in his mid 60's and all but retired from acting. Bob Balaban (Close Encounters of the Third Kind,Altered States) played Dr. R. Chandra, who is mention in the novel of 2001 as the scientist who instructed HAL 9000, even though in the movie of 2001HAL says it was Mr Langley who'd instructed him,Dr. Chandra was also Indian in the novel of 2010. John Lithgow (The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension,Shrek,Cliffhanger) plays Dr. Walter Curnow,the American engineer who designed 'Discovery' and was helping to build 'Discovery 2''. These 3 Americans are part of the crew of the Russian spaceship the 'Alexei Leonov', you see Discovery is in a decaying orbit around Jupiter and the Russians will get there a year earlier than the Americans as 'Discovery 2' is still getting built, but it will take them longer to re start HAL and get the ship up and running, so even though this is still very much a cold war story, they agree that it's in everybody's best interests if the Americans come along for the ride. In the novel the conflict is with the Chinese, who's spaceship the Tsien already has a head start. Helen Mirren (Excalibur, Prime Suspect, The Queen) plays the captain of the 'Leonov', Tanya Kirbuk.
The trouble is with 2010 is that 2001:A Space Odyssey as a film is either a love it or hate it type of movie, it was hardly what you would call a mainstream popular movie or a blockbuster, but 2010 takes a much more Hollywood approach in terms of the characters and story, a film like 2001 only really works once, Hyams would have been a fool to try and stick to the pacing and style of Kubrick's film, but once you go a different direction then it doesn't feel like 2001 anymore. Costing $28 million, a fairly big budget back in the early 80's, 2010 has nice look, but on the whole feels somewhat cheaper than 2001. The centrifuge set seen in 2001 was 2010's first casualty, it was reported that the set was too expensive to recreate for such a small number of scenes, an estimate budgeted the set at around the $10 million mark, the same as 2001's full budget. So the set was scrapped and any scenes planned for it rewritten to other parts of the ship. It's been reported over the years that Kubrick, or MGM, depending on what story you read, had various sets, props and plans from 2001 destroyed, so production designer Albert Brenner and his art team had to use available stills and frame blow up's from a 70mm print of the film to recreate the 'Discovery' interior and exterior, and the spacesuit worn by David Bowman. Now on one level these sets look pretty authentic, but under closer scrutiny there are some differences, some that make 2010's sets seem a little more rushed and cheaper than those in the 1968 film. I've put some comparison frame grabs below

The bridge of the 'Discovery' has a number of details missing, and not just things like the odd light a different colour, the door behind the chairs being a major one, it's easy enough to see on any reference pic and they had frame blow up's, so why is the door simply left blank ? And where did the seat belts pop up from ?

The pod bay has quite a few, the floor of the ships in 2001 were meant to have a velcro type lining, so that when crew members weren't in the gravity of the centrifuge section they would stick to the floor and not simply float around, 2010's floor in the pod bay is just black and shiny, and the crew walk around like there's full gravity in all of the ship. Also Hyams who did the cinematography makes Discovery's interior looks foggier than Geoffrey Unsworth's crisp and clean 2001 photography, a stylistic choice by Hyams who also directed the rather Alien looking Outland with all it's smoky dark sets, obviously going for a much moodier look.

The corridor that leads to and from the pod bay has some cosmetic differences, and also some bright red and blue numbers (Below) that are nowhere to be seen on 2001's original sets, so who decided and why they decided to add these is anybody's guess ?!

Though in one scene ( 2 pics up) were David Bowman is entering the pod bay and Roy Scheider is following the door area around the pod bay has lost it's number altogether.

Also all of HAL's monitors in 2001 were square and flat, the images projected from the rear by 16mm projectors, I believe Kubrick did try some early version of small size TV monitors but opted for this approach instead. So the final film almost shows us what we have now, flat screen TV's with little reflection, 2010 simply replaces all of these screens with standard Sony monitors, that give Discovery's displays a whole different and naffer look.

In one scene back on earth we see an advertisement, this features stock footage of the station from 2001, which was under construction in the first film, are we meant to believe that 9 years later it's in the same stages of being built.

The film's concept work for the Soviet ship exterior and interior were handled by Syd Mead (Blade Runner,Tron, Aliens) The 'Leonov' is a superb looking ship, so good Babylon 5 ripped it off for it's Omega-class destroyers. The trouble with it is we never really get any sense that the spinning section does anything, like the crew are meant to be in there. People just walk around again like the whole ship has artificial gravity, yet in one scene in the ships pod bay we see a Russian Cosmonaut walking down the wall while other crew members stand on the floor, like it's Zero G in there. And in another Heywood Floyd pics up two pens and places them in the air to explain his plan for linking the two ships to make an escape, the pens just float, yet when Heywood Floyd and Tanya Kirbuk walk onto the bridge at the start of the scene there's no sign of low gravity !? The 'Leonov' has much more of a military feel to it's bridge, probably more suited to a SF action film such as Starship Troopers or Aliens. The ship has a seating area for the crew that is very reminiscent of the police headquarters in Outland with the TV monitors over the table area, this itself probably based on the table area in Alien.
Also the spacesuits in the film worn by both the Americans and Russians have that big and bulky old NASA feel to them, a far cray from the slimmer suits the team wore on the moon when at the monolith site in 2001, or those worn by Dave Bowman and Frank Poole for the Jupiter mission, it just seems like a giant step backwards design wise. Hyams also opts for the use of sound in his space scenes, something Kubrick didn't do in his film.
On the whole the film would have been better if it hadn't been a sequel to 2001, it's not a dreadful film, it's just it's not a great one either, there's some great Visual FX shots by Richard Edlund and his team, some early use of CG for the scenes of Jupiter. Also there are some very nice character moments.
Arthur C.Clarke has two cameos in the film, once feeding pigeons on a park bench outside the White House, and on the cover of Time Magazine in a painting as the US President, Kubrick also appears on this cover as the Soviet President.
Also in one scene we see a poster in Heywood Floyds son's bedroom for the Olympics Beijing 08, as this was made in 1983 this was a pretty good prediction on their part seeing as though they didn't announce the location of the 2008 Olympics until around 2001.

Watch This: 70-Minute Video Review of...

2009-12-18T20:54:00.002Z

...Star Wars: The Phantom Menace

Click on the poster !! :)

Rest on Peace - Dan O'Bannon

2009-12-18T12:40:00.003Z

A very sad day to hear that Dan O'Bannon has passed away aged 63. O'Bannon was involved with some of my Favourite movies, he wrote the story and screenplay for Alien, he wrote and starred in John Carpenter's Dark Star as Sgt Pinback, he directed one of my favourite Zombie films The Return of the Living Dead, as well as being involved in writing Total Recall, Lifeforce, Blue Thunder, Dead & Buried and Screamers. He also worked on the computer animation and graphic displays for Star Wars. Such a pity that he only ever directed 2 films himself, the other being The Resurrected based on a H.P Lovecraft story.

Such a shame, rest in peace Dan !!!

BE STILL MY BLOG OF WAR is no more !!!

2009-12-15T12:48:00.002Z

I've decided to have a change, from today BE STILL MY BLOG OF WAR is changing to ATOMIC DONKEY#0

Why that title, well an artist called Tim Gula who I met many years ago through my mate Richard Dolan drew this cartoon that featured me, my wife and our only kid at the time, always thought it was funny and often wondered just what why Atomic Donkey#0 was such a collectible !!

Blake's 7 Visual FX : Part 2 - Worst Matte Painting ?

2009-12-03T14:20:00.004Z

Could this be the worst attempt at a Matte Painting ever ? It's from the Blake's 7 series 3 story 'Moloch' and looks like it was drawn by one of the producers kids 10 minutes before they needed it !! It's pretty bad in the long shot but then they zoom in on it !!

Competition Winner

2009-11-21T19:02:00.003Z

The winner of the most recent competition judged to be the funniest by Mark a member of staff from Forbidden Planet who supplied the prize was

'Moments later, Jimmy found himself in an identicle pod on the other side of the lab. He also discovered that he had gained the power to keep hot things hot and cold things cold. He had become - The Thermos !'

by Crookymike

Congratulations, so if you can leave me a posting with your contact details I'll send off your Prize ASAP, this address will go unpublished in the comments so don't worry about leaving it there.

Caption Competition

2009-11-12T15:48:00.005Z

While the 'Competition' is running I'm going to keep bumping it back up to the top post so people get to see it, so look for any newer posts below if you're visiting here.

For this competition all you have to do is supply a suitably humorous caption to the picture above in the comments page of this post, and the one judged to be the funniest wins.

THE PRIZE

Thor: Balder the Brave by Walter Simonson and Sal Buscema

Format: hardcover - 176 Pages

THE STORY:
War in Hel! Odin the All-Father is gone, and death goddess Hela is stockpiling souls for the fight to take his place! The mighty Thor leads Asgard's finest to rescue the dead from a fate WORSE than death, while Thor's brother-in-arms Balder battles giants to rescue his beloved Queen Karnilla! The God of Thunder and the God of Light — which one will lead Asgard into the face of coming dooms? Plus: a longtime Marvel villain makes the ultimate sacrifice, but for whom? Collecting BALDER THE BRAVE #1-4 and THOR #360-362.

Prize very kindly donated by Forbidden Planet Middlesbrough

Only 1 entry per person and the closing date will be Friday the 20th of November 2009 12.00AM GMT and the winners will be announced sometime soon after that date.

Bounty Hunter IG-88 in Blake's 7

2009-11-11T13:55:00.003Z

Watching the Blake's 7 episode 'Dawn of the Gods' the other day I noticed in a pile of scrap that Villa was looking through the head of IG-88, one of the Bounty Hunters from The Empire Strikes Back. The prop was originally seen in the cantina in Star Wars behind the bar, and was made from a Derwent Flame-tube from an aircraft engine.
An IG-88 body can also be seen on Bespin in the scene where Chewbacca is recovering the parts of C-3PO from the Ugnaughts in The Empire Strikes Back.
In the first series of Blake's 7, the control panel of the spaceship The London was salvaged from Scaramanga's laser gun from the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun and was amongst many props that the BBC did buy from Pinewood studios, so there's a fair chance that the Blake's 7 prop could have come from the cantina set when scrapped if the BBC did a similar deal with either Elstree or Shepperton Studios. I remember reading an interview in which the BBC guys would go through the skips at the studios were Space 1999 was being shot looking for stuff they could salvage for the likes of Doctor Who.

Blake's 7 Visual FX : Part 1 - The Liberator

2009-11-09T18:39:00.015Z

What struck me a long time ago while watching Blake's 7 as a kid was how the FX were no were near as good as those from Space 1999 or any of the other Gerry Anderson shows, it was only from reading magazines such as Starburst with interviews with people who helped create the FX work like Mat Irvine, Ian Scoones, Martin Bower, Jim Francis that I found out that the BBC Visual Effects Dept had a fraction of the money to work their wonders than the likes of Derek Meddings and Brian Johnson had over at Gerry Anderson's production studios.

The main problem with the Liberator for many people is it's scale, how big it's meant to be in the show. Martin Bower has recounted in several interviews how he was handed an already built 3 foot white spaceship model with a green ball stuck on one end, a ball which Bower originally assumed was the ships cockpit, which Ian Scoones Blake's 7 FX supervisor told him was actually the engine.With any lack of surface detail the ship looked like it could be maybe around 10 foot in length, not a huge spacecraft like it was meant to be.
Bower's main problem while adding detail was due to the small nature of the actual miniature, but the fact it was meant to be such a large ship, was every time he added a kit part as detail it looked completely out of scale, thus most of the surface detail was painted on with panel lines added in ballpoint pen, Bower also added the lines onto the green ball to break up it plainness.
The first appearance of the Liberator in Episode 2 of series 1 (Pic A) was an impressive shot, a photographic cut out used to nice effect. After this initial shot we were given a very inconsistent array of shots, the quality of lighting, scale, focus altered from shot to shot. Shots such as A,D and G work really nice, on the other end of the scale B,E and F are either blurry or look like the Corgi die-cast miniature hung on a wire. (Pic I) also uses the photographic cut out technique, but due to the background it gives the shot a more stylised almost cartoon appearance. There are also a number of very wobbly fly-by's were the ship can be seen to sway as the starfield goes by.
As I said at the top, the BBC were doing their FX work on a much smaller budget than a show like Star Trek or Space 1999, and to many including myself the Liberator became the British USS Enterprise, a really iconic ship design.

One thing I think gives the ship it's lack of scale is the fact it doesn't have any windows or running lights, though in some episodes the crew are in rooms that have small windows, ships such as the Enterprise, the Battlestar Galactica and the Star Destroyer from Star Wars, all big ships, have one thing in common, they have visible windows, and a window gives us a point of reference for the scale. Now I did mention above that the studio miniature for the Liberator was 3 feet in length, not a huge model, but when we take into consideration that the Imperial Star Destroyer that races over our heads in the opening moments of Star Wars was only a 3 foot model, it shows what can be done with superior equipment to what the BBC could afford, many Blake's 7 shots have problems with Depth of Field, and in any miniature shot this can really destroy the scale of an object and make it look nothing more than what it is, a model. See picture below.

ILM had lenses that could handle the depth of field even on a miniature as small as the Star Destroyer, though for The Empire Strikes Back a larger 9 foot miniature was built to replace the original, as it appeared in more shots. I always wondered what studio miniature of Liberator would have looked like had they being able to shoot it with the motion control technology they had back when they made Star Wars, it would have probably looked spectacular. As it is despite it's shaky FX there's something very endearing about the BBC Visual FX departments work, and it's efforts to overcome lack of budget and high tech.

Regarding the scale of the Liberator, I've talked about this over at Niel Bushnell's Small Spaceships blog, now using a plan of the prison ship the London, I worked out using it's scale chart that it was 180 feet in length, approx 54 metres, which would make the Liberator, scaling the London to the size it's seen next to the Liberator in Episode 2, 2005 feet in length, approx 611 metres, this does put it up there in the USS Enterprise C type of size from Star Trek: The Next Generation, though not quite as big as Picard's ship. Although the London in picture F at the top looks huge, it is meant to be in the foreground, though the shot doesn't really sell that idea too well.

Something else that really throws the scale of the Liberator is the close ups of various Airlocks, Escape Pod hatches and Docking Ports that have a very high level of detail and don't appear to have any curve to them, like they're a flat wall, but seeing as though the Liberator is mainly curved surfaces it's hard to tell just exactly where these areas are meant to be on the ship.
I'll be looking into some of the other craft and miniatures used in Blake's 7 in other posts soon.

Poll Result

2009-11-04T14:01:00.001Z

The winner of the poll for Favourite John Carpenter film was The Thing with 21 votes, as for Les Burnett who voted for Ghosts of Mars 4 times, well you should hang your head in shame !!!

Romanesco

2009-10-24T20:00:00.002+01:00

Romanesco - My wife, Joanna, bought one of these today from the Fruit and Veg shop, and not as I thought from the Alien Market on Regula IV, a very bizarre looking oblect it is too, called a Romanesco it has fabulous fractal panterns on it, it's... a cross between a Broccoli and cauliflower, sometimes known as a Broccoflower, we've not cooked it yet, if it hasn't taken over our bodies by Monday and replaced us with exact duplicates then we may cook it then !!

This weeks watching and reading has been...

2009-10-21T14:21:00.005+01:00

The Space Vampires (1976) - by Colin Wilson
East is East (1999) - Directed by Damien O'Donnell
The Outcasts: 12 Issues (1987) by John Wagner, Alan Grant and Cam Kennedy
Contact (1997) - Directed by Robert Zemeckis
I, Madman (1989) - Directed by Tibor Takács
The Gate II (1990) - Directed by Tibor Takács

Competition Winner

2009-10-21T12:56:00.003+01:00

The winner of the competition judged to be the funniest by artist Richard Dolan was

"You've never heard of the Millennium Falcon?"
"Should I have?"

by Niel Bushnell, which was described as being concise and really funny.

Congratulations

A new competition will be up soon, thanks to all who entered, hope you'll all try in the next one !!

Star Size Comparison

2009-10-15T17:27:00.000+01:00

Click picture

Caption Competition

2009-10-09T16:09:00.006+01:00

While the 'Competition' is running I'm going to keep bumping it back up to the top post so people get to see it, so look for any newer posts below if you're visiting here.

For this competition all you have to do is supply a suitably humorous caption to the picture above in the comments page of this post, and the one judged to be the funniest wins.

THE PRIZE

Juan "Johnnie" Rico signed up with the Federal Service on a lark, but despite the hardships and rigorous training, he finds himself determined to make it as a trooper. In boot camp he will learn how to become a soldier, but when he graduates and war comes (as it always does for soldiers), he will learn why he is a soldier. Many consider this Hugo Award winner to be Robert Heinlein's finest work, and with good reason. Forget the battle scenes and high-tech weapons (though this novel has them)--this is Heinlein at the top of his game talking people and politics.

Only 1 entry per person and the closing date will be Tuesday the 20th of October 2009 12.00AM GMT and the winners will be announced sometime soon after that date.

Cult - News - New 'Doctor Who' logo revealed - Digital Spy

2009-10-06T12:44:00.001+01:00

Cult - News - New 'Doctor Who' logo revealed - Digital Spy

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Poll

2009-10-06T01:41:00.004+01:00

I've left his TV stuff off this list such as Elvis:The Movie

Poll Results

2009-09-28T15:44:00.003+01:00

Well it would seem the newest Star Wars Clone Wars series has proven to be very popular with the voters winning with 16 votes, with the, with the 2003 cartoon coming in with 14 votes. And those 2 people who voted for the Star Wars Holiday Special should hang their heads in shame !!

As for Zombies, it would seem that 26 out of 31 votes like their Zombies slow !!!

Countdown - Rachel Riley

2009-09-23T16:58:00.003+01:00

After watching Countdown yesterday, I've come to the conclusion that heterosexual men and lesbian contestants are at a distinct disadvantage trying to solve word puzzles and add up sums whilst Rachel Riley is stood there in outfits like this ! My wife came into the room while it was on and said do you actually know what you're watching ? I said "Is it some show where a lady shows you random letters" ? Needless to say I've been banned for watching Countdown for the rest of the week ! :(
Also the Countdown clock only counts down 30 seconds of a minute, so which way does the clock go back up to the top, does it finish the other 30 seconds or simply go back the way it came ? This has been keeping me awake for years !

Mute Concept Art

2009-09-17T12:48:00.003+01:00

Here's the first piece of concept art from Moon director's next film Mute, set in a futuristic Berlin this concept art is very,very Syd Mead Blade Runner inspired, lets hope after the wonderful Moon, Jones can bring us some more cool SF, still on a reasonably low £35m budget.

Star Wars Poll

2009-09-08T16:16:00.002+01:00

Zombie Poll

2009-09-07T03:13:00.003+01:00

Watching a bit of Charlie Brooker's Dead Set tonight on E4, noticed they'd gone for the fast zombie's like those from the remake of Dawn of the Dead or the infected from 28Days Later, as opposed to the slower lumbering zombie's from George A.Romero Zombie films such as Night, Dawn, Day and Land of the Dead movies or the spoof Shaun of the Dead.
Do you prefer the slower zombie's, which in my opinion make more sense, as the muscles that drive their bodies is rotting the older they get, or the faster zombie's ?
I do prefer the slower, but in greater numbers threat of a zombie army, saying that, one of my favourite undead movies is Dan O'Bannon's Return of the Living Dead, in which some zombie's do move pretty sharpish !! :)

This weeks watching and reading has been...

2009-09-06T23:44:00.003+01:00

City of Ember (2008) - Directed by Gil Kenan
Battle Beyond the Stars (1980) - Directed by Jimmy T. Murakami
10 Rillington Place (1971) Directed by Richard Fleischer
Sci-Fi and Fantasy Modeller : Issue 14 (2009)
3D Artist#5 (2009) Published by Image Publishing
3D Artist#6 (2009) Published by Image Publishing

Art Blog Update

2009-09-06T14:22:00.001+01:00

Being doing some updates on my art blog this last week, as it hadn't been updated properly for quite a good while, see the new stuff here AG - MY MAIN BLOG

Gingerbreed

2009-08-31T10:46:00.003+01:00

Gingerbreed is an independent SF Comedy feature directed by Jonathan Dorfman and Szymon Weglarski, with live action filmed in New York in 2006. This low budget film is relying heavily on the use of virtual sets to boost it's look, hence the film being shot against green screen, with production of the large amount of Visual FX shots has been progressing steadily over the last few years. I was contacted to build the main Russian ship for this film a while back, and I
documented the making of part of the ship here on my main art blog. The whole ship design will be unveiled closer to the films release, as Jonathan and Szymon want to keep the full design of the craft under wraps. I'm really looking forward to seeing the final film and what the ship looks like rendered.

The Gingerbreed Blog can be followed here

Poll Results !

2009-08-20T01:47:00.002+01:00

Well it seems pretty obvious that most people wou;d rather put up with the Ewoks anytime and watch Return of the Jedi rather than the Star Wars prequels !!

As for the Alan Moore poll, it was close between Watchmen and V for Vendetta, with Watchmen winning by two votes.

These polls are still open so anyone who hasn't can still vote !

New Poll

2009-08-12T15:25:00.000+01:00

New Poll

2009-08-12T00:28:00.001+01:00

Caroline Munro signing session

2009-08-08T20:26:00.005+01:00

Went with my mate Paul Atkinson up to the Wow Factor in Darlington this morning to meet someone I've adored since I was a kid. Caroline Munro, Bond Girl and Actress in many films of the 70's I grew up on such as Golden Voyage of Sinbad, At the Earth's Core, Starcrash amongst others.

Got a picture signed and my Starcrash DVD, and another pic for a mate. She was lovely to meet, a very warm and friendly person, and still a looker at 59 !!
Remember first seeing her in At the Earth's Core when I was 10 at School for our Christmas film in the hall.

Great to meet her !!!

Happy Birthday Anna Friel

2009-07-12T19:23:00.002+01:00

33 today !

Albert Whitlock - Visual Effects Society’s tribute

2009-07-08T15:58:00.002+01:00

A great tribute to one of the master's of Visual FX/ Matte Painting's who died in 1999. Pity the video on this site isn't any bigger quality.

Click the above image for link !

Ailments the Dr can't seem to diagnose...

2009-07-06T20:31:00.003+01:00

At the moment I have this thing where I feel the need to inhale a deep breath or take a deep yawn to relieve a sort of breathless feeling I get, now I have slight Asthma and take my inhalers when needed, but this seems unrelated. Over the years this is about the 3rd time this has occurred, and I told the Dr about it on one Asthma check up and he just give me a 'haven't got a clue what you're going on about' type of look, at the time when I told him it wasn't affecting me but I thought I'd mention it anyway.

So it's started up in the last few days again, and I've done a search online, and found numerous people, young to old, smokers and non smokers, athlete's and non athlete's who are all taking about similar symptoms, and who've been told by Dr's it's anxiety related, it's Asthma related amongst various other things, and these people are from all around the world.

Now I'm not too worried about it this time as I'm sure it will just cease like it has before. And the bizarre thing is my son had a similar thing around 3 years ago were he kept feeling the need to take deep breaths too. I have my own theories on what the cause might be, I think it might be allergy based, possibly spores, pollen etc... so I've been taking Benadryl to see if that helps.

But I know of a few people who talk about bizarre medical conditions that they just can't seem to get diagnosed at a GP, they fob them off with stress, anxiety etc... Yet they've read about other people will the self same problem online, now I'm sure most Dr's aren't too pleased with people saying hey I've Googled what's wrong with me, but I do believe that there are things out there that the average GP doesn't have a clue about or how to treat it !

This weeks watching and reading has been...

2009-07-03T02:34:00.002+01:00

Hardware (1990) - Directed by Richard Stanley
Mutant Chronicles (2008) - Directed by Simon Hunter
The Caves of Androzani (1984) Directed by Graeme Harper
3D Artist#4 (2009) Published by Image Publishing
A Century of Model Animation (2008) by Ray Harryhausen & Tony Dalton
Cinefex#118 (2009) by Published by Don Shay

Happy Birthday Ray Harryhausen

2009-06-29T15:25:00.000+01:00

89 Today !!

Farrah Fawcett R.I.P

2009-06-25T17:52:00.005+01:00

As a 10 year old I had this poster (above) of Farrah Fawcett (Majors) on my wall, and loved Charlie's Angels in that sort of pre teen, I know these women are hot, but I can't quite work out why I feel this way, sort of way.
I also watched Farrah in Logan's Run, The Cannonball Run and Saturn 3. Very sad to hear she's passed away at only 62 years of age.

Alien Makers

2009-06-19T20:05:00.003+01:00

Very nice 80 minute documentary interviewing lots of model crew who worked on Alien. Rone Hone, Roger Nichols, Neil Swan, Brian Eke, John Hatt, Martin Bower, Simon Deering, Jon Sorensen, Bill Pearson all contribute.

Click the above pic for the link !

Remakes

2009-06-14T00:55:00.001+01:00

With Hollywood keen on remakes, here's a list of films that are public domain, so it wouldn't cost them a penny to buy the rights...mind you saying that I'm not sure if anyone in their right mind would want to remake Attack of the Giant Leeches.

List of films in the public domain in the US

Screamers (1996) - Matte Paintings

2009-06-14T00:26:00.002+01:00

Caught the end of Screamers the other night on TV, quite a fun SF movie based on the Philip K. Dick short story Second Variety. In the original story the film is set on Earth, not Siruis 6B like in the movie, and it's a story about the Americans and Russians. The film stars Peter Weller and was directed by Canadian filmaker Christian Duguay.
I was always impressed with the Matte Paintings which were created by Deak Ferrand , they really do a superb job of expanding the filming locations shot around Québec in Canada.

Tie Fighter Model

2009-06-12T17:03:00.002+01:00

I posted this picture on my Art Blog here in Jan o8' I got a lot of feedback on this, though I didn't let on it was a model as I think some people thought it was a CG render.

Anyway, the model has been minus it's wing and top hatch for a while, so during a clear out I've fixed it and decided to take some pics to prove it is really a kit and not a CG render.

The Tie-Fighter has always been one of my favourite Star Wars ships, I like this much better than the later Tie-Interceptor from Return of the Jedi.

Terminal Force (1995)

2009-06-10T14:14:00.000+01:00

I'm wondering why I haven't seen this Sci-Fi gem ? Not only does it have Brigitte Nielsen,Craig Fairbrass and Richard Moll, the sign of quality in any direct to DVD flick, but it has Sam Raimi acting in it !! Craig Fairbrass plays a character called Lord Tarkin ! :) Pity Music Zone closed down, this would certainly have been on there £1.97 shelf !! Better than the 3 Star Wars prequels ? Me thinks so !!! George Lucas take note !

Aliens Art - Circa 1987

2009-06-09T21:57:00.002+01:00

I did this around 22 years ago, I've been doing a lot of clearing up and found it amongst some other old pictures. Never got around to adding on any text though, think I realised I'd never make a comic book artist and gave up ! :)

This weeks watching and reading has been...

2009-06-09T03:27:00.001+01:00

Rambo (2008) - Directed by Sylvester Stallone
The Gate (1987) - Directed by Tibor Takács
Doctor Who: Regeneration (2001) Directed by Philip Segal and Gary Russell
Cinemagic#16 (1982) Published by Norman Jacobs & Kerry O'Quinn
Cinemagic#18 (1983) Published by Norman Jacobs & Kerry O'Quinn
If Chins could Kill (2002) by Bruce Campbell

Star Wars: The Old Republic - Cinematic

2009-06-02T18:09:00.002+01:00

This cinematic is for the new Star Wars game Star Wars: The Old Republic, very slick animation, but according to the site for the game, this is set 3500 years before the rise of Darth Vader, looking at this it would seem technological advances move at an infinitesimal level in the Star Wars universe, we've got spaceships, attack craft, lasers, rocket packs, holographic displays etc... and in 3500+ years nothing seems to have changed, even Coruscant looks the same, didn't they have any different architects in that city for all that time ?! :)

Click to see the video here

Doctor Who unveils new companion

2009-05-29T13:37:00.001+01:00

The BBC today revealed that the companion for the forthcoming series of Doctor Who will be Karen Gillan.
Twenty-one-year-old Gillan will star alongside new Time Lord, Matt Smith, when the smash hit drama returns to BBC One in spring 2010.

All I have to say on the matter is Toot Toot !!!!

Alien remake ?

2009-05-28T11:13:00.001+01:00

Well it is 30 years old and they're already re-making films from the 80's and early 90's, if this is the best that Hollywood can come up with though I'd rather the Alien franchise just be remembered for what it was, or at least the first 2 films. Because there's no way a remake of Alien would or could work compared to the original, the Alien is an iconic monster, so do they keep the H.R Giger Alien design and then remake the movie around that, or do they come up with a new Alien too, which will no doubt not be a patch on the original creature ?

And as for a prequel, well that sounds shite too, back to explaining origins just for the sake of it, I'd rather speculate where the Alien came from and the Derelict ship and it's crew than being shown and having it spoilt !

Click the above picture for the full story !

BBC Confirm Doctor Who Movie

2009-05-27T19:37:00.001+01:00

I think it would be great to see a few Doctor's in this movie if it goes ahead, including the regeneration of Paul McGann's Doctor to Christopher Eccleston's, something we never got to see ! Click the pic for full story !

Tennant to appear in Sarah Jane Adventures

2009-05-27T19:33:00.003+01:00

I quite like the Sarah Jane Adventures show on CBBC, and it would be great to see the Doctor in one of the stories, click the above pic for the full story.

Happy Birthday ALIEN

2009-05-25T19:43:00.003+01:00

Ridley Scott's SF Classic 30 year old today. I was too young to see it on it's release so the first time I seen it was on VHS in Pan and Scan, and I loved it from the moment I saw it. Ridley Scott's direction, Ron Cobb, Moebius and H.R Giger's design's, Derek Vanlint's cinematography, Jerry Goldsmith's music, everything worked. And who can forget Sigourney Weaver stripping down to her panties ?
Like many SF films of old, it isn't all fast camera moves, action and wall to wall CG FX, it's the slow pacing and attention to detail that makes this seem like we're really on board the Nostromo with it's fated crew as they're stalked by Giger's nightmarish creature. It's what we don't see of the Alien that makes it terrifying, we forget that this is a man in a suit. Also the facehugger and the chestburster are by far the most realistic versions of those creatures that have appeared in any of the Alien films, the shot were the tail tightens around Kane's neck as they try to remove it is very creepy indeed, and later when Ash has it laid out to examine it the underside, made of shellfish amongst other things, it really has a truly organic look to it. And for all the flashy FX that have come since in various Alien sequels, the original chestburster will always be the best.
It's hard to believe it's 30 years old, like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Wars, so many films have tried to copy the style of Alien, and most have been lame imitations, if you've never seen it I'd recommend the documentary's that are on the Alien Quadrilogy DVD set, for a great insight into how this classic was made.

Surrogates trailer

2009-05-22T15:57:00.000+01:00

Looks like this could be a fun movie !!

This weeks watching and reading has been....

2009-05-19T18:49:00.003+01:00

Star Fleet - The Complete Series (1982) - Created by Go Nagai
Dark Star (1974) - Directed by John Carpenter
Silent Running (1972) Directed by Douglas Trumbull
Cinemagic#2 (1979) Published by Norman Jacobs & Kerry O'Quinn
Amazing Cinema#1 (1981) by Don Dohler
Roadside Picnic (1972) by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky

Making of the Gremlins fan film

2009-05-18T14:27:00.001+01:00

I posted this Gremlins fan film here last September, here's a short film of the making of. Rick Baker, Joe Dante and Michael Finnell want it included in the Blu Ray extras! They are still in talks with Warner Bros about it. Joe Dante even said in an interview that this guy would be the right person to make a Gremlins 3 if it ever happens.

Martin Scorcese American Express commercial

2009-05-14T18:48:00.000+01:00

Cliffhanger remake

2009-05-14T18:27:00.003+01:00

Producer Neal Moritz (I Am Legend & Fast & Furious) is remaking Renny Harlin's 1993 Stallone action thriller Cliffhanger. Now it may not have been brilliant but I actually thought it was a pretty fun movie, and certainly not in need of any kind of revamp, remake or reboot, only a few years back there was talk that Stallone was to do a sequel to the original movie, which I assume is now defunct !

My Birthday today !!

2009-05-11T00:22:00.003+01:00

I'm as old as the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything !!

Happy Birthday - Rosario Dawson

2009-05-09T19:41:00.001+01:00

30 years old today, ah... if I was 10 years younger...I'd still be in with no chance !!

Ron Cobb Interviews

2009-05-08T21:50:00.000+01:00

Great Ron Cobb interviews and pics, just click the piccy of Ron !!

The Namos Chronicles - Pt 2

2009-05-06T17:07:00.003+01:00

Angela Reith who created the music for The Namos Chronicles has very kindly sent me a few words about her involvement in the production.

As part of my work as a AV and Video Producer at Scripture Union’s Sound and Vision Unit (SVU) from 1977-1983, I composed the music for a number of soundtracks, including The Namos Chronicles. Allan Lee was also a staff producer there and we had a lot of fun creating musical jingles together in the 8-track sound studio, and working together on AV productions which were intended as discussion-starters on life and faith issues for children and teenagers.

Allan was very interested in SF and so he commissioned Nigel Forde (actor, novelist, scriptwriter and Radio 4 poet) to write some updated versions of the parables of Jesus, in the SF genre. Nigel was part of York-based Riding Lights Theatre Company who I had worked with as a musician while I was still at Birmingham University studying English & Music. This was in the early 1970s, when the theatre company was amateur, calling itself Breadrock Street Theatre Company, and performing on Welsh beaches, in pub car parks and in the Royal Albert Hall.

So The Namos Chronicles were born, and as resident producer and musician, I was commissioned to compose the music. I am ashamed to say that I cannot remember a single musical theme that I composed for the series, as, since then, much music has flowed onto manuscript paper and Sibelius software, and I don’t have a copy of the soundtrack or the music MS anywhere in my files. But I do remember that we were very new to multi-track recording in 1980/1981, having recorded previous music cues ‘as live’ and in stereo, with musicians crammed into our small SVU studio. We didn’t know about ‘click tracks’ at that stage and so I laid down a piano guide track on our new MCI 8-track recorder and synched all the other tracks to this, using a synthesiser for brass and other orchestral instruments. We soon learnt more about multi-track recording techniques, but I imagine the production aspect of the Namos music would sound very creaky by today’s standards. I’m not sure I want to hear it again for that reason!

Allan Lee will have lots of stories about the production process (which took many weeks longer than planned) but one I particularly remember is the day when he and photographer Gordon Gray were creating and filming a small explosion in the basement photographic studio (which doubled as the sound-proofed recording studio). Unknown to them, the smoke from the explosion drifted into the air-conditioning system and circulated throughout the building. The Scripture Union Board was meeting on the top floor and the Board members were extremely alarmed when smoke emerged into the room. They set off the fire alarm and evacuated immediately. The first Allan and Gordon knew of it was when they saw the red light flashing in the studio indicating a fire.

Those were the days...

Angela Reith

The Namos Chronicles (1981)

2009-05-01T16:54:00.036+01:00

I was recently looking through some old editions of Starburst Magazine, an article that brought back a lot of memories of reading this magazine when I was younger was about a project called The Namos Chronicles.

This project wasn't a film or TV show, it was a Filmstrip, Alan Marques who created designs and miniatures described it as, a multi-media slide show which was a science fiction based retelling of the Christian parables. So basically the show was all shot as 35mm stills and designed to be projected with a synchronous audio track. The Namos Chronicles was produced by the Sound and Vision Unit of Scripture Union, under the guidance of producer Allan Lee. It relates several parables from the New Testament against the backdrop of interstellar war. The Namos Federation is locked in a violent and bloody struggle with it's arch enemies, the Kaprians. Within the Framework of the conflict several incidents parallel the stories told by Christ to illustrate the points of the Christian philosophy. The project was hatched by Allan Lee in an attempt to make religious instruction more palatable and more fun for the space minded schoolchildren of the late 70's early 80's.

As a teenager I wasn't really fussed about the subject matter of this film, but it did have spaceships in it, and I do remember sending off a stamped addressed envelope for the info pack that was available at the time. Anyway all these years later I looked back through the article and one Google search later for the guy who designed and built the spaceships has put me in touch with the man himself Alan Marques. Who didn't scream crazed internet stalker and call his solicitor, but has kindly supplied me with some info and pictures about this project. Alan was only 19 at the time when he made the miniatures, and he'd met the producer Allan Lee in hospital.

In Alan's own words:

It was during the summer of 1979, I was basically stuck in a hospital bed as I had just come out of two weeks in intensive care and a major operation. I had survived being run over by a car on a pedestrian crossing in Portsmouth where I was a student doing a foundation in Art & Design at Portsmouth College of Art. It took me a year to learn to walk again and at nineteen being stuck in a bed with your legs in traction, the then favoured technique, was no fun.
So my art and model making skills, all be it in their infancy, came to the fore and I found my self scratch building spaceships to pass the time and monotony. Allan Lee used to visit the wards as he is/was a Christian and was active with the church and he introduced himself to me. Please keep in mind my memories might be a bit hazy about some of this as I have little memory of the accident as I nearly died and the brain does this thing were it blanks out whole tracts of ones life when it receives extreme trauma. Anyhow he saw one of the models I was building and asked me if I would be interested in letting him use the one I had and possibly building more for a production in which he was involved.

The space ships were photographed on medium format 120mm stills in a black velvet studio set up. Some of the engine lights had to be double exposed in camera using black back lit masks and gels, the long white ship based on Zero-X (Thunderbirds) had three rocket nozzles from a Saturn V kit and therefore could not have practical lights. However the big lander actually had lit engines and although you can't see it in the photos also had Scotchlight windows. Sorry, from what I remember none of these ships had names and I can't remember if the production gave them names or not.

The construction techniques were basic, keep in mind I was nineteen when I built them and had no formal model making training. I therefore had to build them using generally available materials. The underlying construction of both ships was a 1 inch wooden dowel running through 1.5mm mounting board bulkheads. The ships hulls were all made with 1.5mm mounting board as well hence the somewhat blocky appearance. Once the main structure had been completed in card the entire surface was coated by gluing paper thin plasticard. After that is was a case of using 0.5mm, 1mm, and 1.5mm plasticard for the panelling along with what ever kit parts I had to hand within the budget I was allowed. Both ships were sprayed with either matte white car primer and matte grey car primer. Dirtying down was done with a DeVilbiss airbrush.
I kept in touch with Allan Lee in the early eighties while doing my Photo, Film & TV degree at the London College of Printing, but lost contact with him as I was only in my early twenties and a mixture of my not being very religious and having too big an ego for no good reason meant we drifted apart. He was a very nice guy though and into Sci-Fi of course.

Alan Marques

Alan has very kindly dug out these concept drawings that he did for the various ships, Alan says 'Please keep in mind how young I was when I made these they are very basic but I still use a very loose style to this day as I am usually interested in the core form and idea and only embellish later, also you will probably spot the odd very familiar vehicle amongst the images.'

Alan also mentions that the orange ship seen in the photo's are doctored versions of the Buck Rogers Marauder, and that Allan Lee needed some additional models for the story and since he was up to his neck with the two main ships and running behind on the schedule, so Allan Lee took it upon himself to kit bash a marauder together for the shoot.

The colour storyboards by Alan Marques above and below show the Baseship in its original intended use before Allan Lee saw it and asked to use it. The design was influenced by the Nostromo from Alien which had not too recently been released so was in his thoughts. Alan says he built the ship for a stop motion animated short which never went ahead after it was used in the The Namos Chronicles. Alan still has the miniature for the Baseship in long term storage, and said if he ever digs it out he'll send some new stills of what it looks like today.

Alan Marques has gone on to work on Hardware, Space Precinct, GoldenEye, The Wind in the Willows, been digital effects supervisor on The Borrowers, Hackers, Lost in Space and Vertical Limit amongst others and his website can be found HERE

Many others were involved in the production of The Namos Chronicles. The costumes were designed and made by Liz Balmforth, who at the time was a final year student at Croydon College of Art. The music was written and performed by Angela Reith and the cast was provided by the Riding Lights Theatre Company, based in York. The photography for the project was provided by Gordon Gray.

I'm hoping to get a few words from Angela Reith who provided the music soon, about her experiences making The Namos Chronicles, and hopefully a few words from it's director Allan Lee sometime in the future.

Snatch Wars

2009-05-01T15:31:00.004+01:00

My mate Kinnon told me about this the other night down the pub. Darth Vader + Bricktop from Snatch

Click the piccy above

Richard Dolan Blog

2009-04-27T01:03:00.001+01:00

My mate Richard Dolan finally has a Blog/Gallery of his wonderful work which I am running for him, check it out by clicking the above piccy !!

Straw Dogs remake

2009-04-23T16:08:00.003+01:00

News up on Dark Horizons about a remake of Straw Dogs, the 1971 film by Sam Peckinpah. The film based on the novel The Siege of Trencher's Farm by Gordon Williams was banned in the UK from 1984 until 2002. The remake, like all good remakes :) , will move the action from rural England to the American deep south.
The remake of The Wicker Man in 2006, which was considered a resounding failure with the critics and the box office, also moved the action to the U.S.A
You can read the full story over at Dark Horizons here

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad

2009-04-19T16:35:00.001+01:00

One of my first memories of seeing Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion magic was the Cyclops from The 7th Voyage of Sinbad ,the scene where it comes out of the cave and the Genie is summoned to build a wall between the Cyclops and Sinbad and his crew.
Directed by Nathan H. Juran, who also directed 20 Million Miles to Earth for which Ray Harryhausen had created the FX, the film was the first in a trilogy of Sinbad films made by Columbia Pictures. Sinbad, played by Kerwin Mathews, is on his way to Baghdad with his fiancé Princess Parisa (Kathryn Grant) when they stop at the island of Colossa for provisions,
they find evidence of a giant creature when they find footprints on the beach, then they encounter Sokurah the magician (Torin Thatcher) who is being pursued by a giant Cyclops, carrying a magic lamp Sokurah summons a genie who builds a wall of energy between the Cyclops and the men allowing them to escape in a boat, but the lamp is lost overboard and the Cyclops recovers it. On their return to Baghdad the Caliph refuses Sokurah a ship and crew to retrieve the lamp.That night Sokurah secretly shrinks Parisa to a small size. Sokurah then claims that he knows of a potion that can restore her, but it requires ingredients only to be found on the island of Colossa. The Caliph of Baghdad has no choice, so Sinbad enlists loyal men from his previous voyage, they also have to recruit thieves and murderers from the Caliph's prison to help make up the crews numbers.
For me The 7th Voyage of Sinbad is the best of the Sinbad films, once back on the island of Colossa Sinbad and his crew encounter the Cyclops, a two headed bird called a Roc, Sinbad fights a skelton swordsman, 5 years before Harryhausen's groundbreaking skeleton fight in Jason and the Argonauts , Sokurah's castle is protected by a fire breathing dragon, who later fights with a Cyclops. Harryhausen's personal favorite was the Snakewoman, created by Sokurah with a combination of Princess Parisa's maid, and a cobra for a scene in which she dances to entertain the Caliph of Baghdad and the Sultan, Parisa's father.
The music in this film by Bernard Herrmann is very memorable, but sadly although he worked on Jason and the Argonauts he never returned for 1974's The Golden Voyage of Sinbad and had passed away by the time Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger was made in 1977.
Nathan H. Juran also directed Kerwin Mathews and Torin Thatcher in 1962's Jack the Giant Killer, which was a stop-motion feature in the vein of the Sinbad films and an attempt to cash in on 7th Voyage's success.

Happy Birthday - Tim Curry

2009-04-19T16:33:00.003+01:00

63 Today !! Darkness, Frank'n'Furter and Pennywise, 3 of his most iconic characters. I always loved him in LWT's Blue Money when it was shown, here's the intro.

Doctor Who Special pics

2009-04-12T17:40:00.004+01:00

Plenty of pictures here from the Doctor Who Special to air at the end of the year. A lot of familiar faces including Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) and her son Luke (Tommy Knight)Donna Noble's grandfather Wilf Mott (Bernard Cribbins) and mother Sylvia (Jacqueline King) Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) can also be seen on set.
Also some pics of Jessica Hynes, Nurse Redfern in "Human Nature" with whom The Doctor fell in love with, she can be seen in a book store as an author named Verity.

Click logo to see photos

The Red Band Gang - Pt 2

2009-04-11T16:12:00.003+01:00

I made this post back in June of 08 about the amount of red elastic bands the postman was leaving lying around the streets near where I live, now the BBC have posted a story saying that 6% of Britain's streets are littered with bands dropped by the Postal Service.
Click above picture for link.

Moon - Trailer

2009-04-10T03:45:00.000+01:00

I really love this more I see of it, I think this could be a gem of a movie, and with old school FX too ! Click the poster for the trailer.

Wall-E Case mod

2009-04-09T20:02:00.002+01:00

Superb case mod for a PC !! See link here http://englishrussia.com/?p=2487 Lots of pictures so it takes time to load !

Who should play the Hulk in the Avengers movie ?
	David Tennant
	Joaqun Phoenix
	Adrien Brody
	Nathan Fillion
	Edward Norton
	Eric Bana

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Best Christopher Nolan Film ?
	Memento (2000)
	Insomnia (2002)
	Batman Begins (2005)
	The Prestige (2006)
	The Dark Knight (2008)

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Do you say...
	Trekkie
	Trekker

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Favourite John Carpenter film ?
	Dark Star (1974)
	Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)
	Halloween (1978)
	The Fog (1980)
	Escape from New York (1981)
	The Thing (1982)
	Christine (1983)
	Starman (1984)
	Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
	Prince of Darkness (1987)
	They Live (1988)
	Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992)
	In the Mouth of Madness (1994)
	Village of the Damned (1995)
	Escape from L.A. (1996)
	Vampires (1998)
	Ghosts of Mars (2001)

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Not including any of the six films, which is your favourite Star Wars spin-off
	The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978)
	Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure (1984)
	Ewoks: The Battle for Endor (1985)
	Star Wars: Droids (1985)
	Star Wars: Ewoks (1985)
	Star Wars: Clone Wars - cartoon (2003)
	Star Wars: The Clone Wars - feature (2008)
	Star Wars: The Clone Wars - series (2008)

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Do you prefer your movie Zombies to move slow or fast
	Slow
	Fast

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Best film adaptaptation of an Alan Moore comic
	From Hell (2001)
	The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)
	V for Vendetta (2005)
	Watchmen (2009)

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Despite having the Ewoks in it, is Return of the Jedi still better than any of the 3 prequels ?
	Yes
	No

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