I was the cameraman on all those sets, and I must say the work that Stetson’s team made them lots of fun to shoot on! Many more tales to be told….

@imagesh1

Жыл бұрын

Alex Funke, you're a legend with your miniature and moco shooting! Would love to see a documentary about your career and work...

@Daveyboy100880

Жыл бұрын

Some of the camera moves on those models were astonishing! Fully deserved Oscar, Mr Funke!

@piercefilm

Жыл бұрын

Yeah, Alex I tried to contact you to see if you had any photos from the miniatures shoot at Dream Quest. Great work!

@krono5el

Жыл бұрын

you lucky bastard : D

@ianucci

Жыл бұрын

Great VFK and great movie.

Love the practical effects n stories behind how they were made. Excellent work.

I've always been a fan of practical effects and spfx modelmaking and hearing the behind-the-scenes from all these productions makes me love the ingenuity of the pre-cgi "good old days" even more.

Wonderfully fascinating.

@jamesabernethy7896

Жыл бұрын

What made me start following them was that these stories are always from a human perspective and not a technical one. This is the kind of thing missing from modern movies, and even when you get a Blu-ray, there are barely any behind-the-scenes stuff or even commentaries.

I bet Paul Verhoeven would've been amused by the soda can thing if he found out.

I’ve been waiting for this one. 😁 TR is one of my favorite memories of being young and watching films in the theater. This particular movie is one of the reasons I became a filmmaker. The effects are still mindblowing today.

very exciting pictures, it matched perfectly with Jerry's score to bring an amazing travel to Mars...!

I wonder if we'll have interviews with the CG guys in twenty years time. Loads of interesting stories about rendering issues.

@ChrisGeden

Жыл бұрын

“We projected a total of 2,000 core hours but we forgot to account for RAM. This was before AWS was a thing.” Or something.

@edh615

Жыл бұрын

This was filmed a decade ago, so we probably have those stories ready by now.

@themadplotter

Жыл бұрын

Honestly this is the same decade for funny rendering and cgi stories. For instance when they swapped out the gorgeous models in the cult show red dwarf for cgi, it was done by 1 kid, with 2 rendering computers in his mums spare room, and it looks like it.

@HonkeyKong54

Жыл бұрын

@@gocsa lmao true

@HonkeyKong54

Жыл бұрын

Sounds like the most boring documentary ever made. "Here's some footage of people sitting at computers and here's some footage of some cg models on a screen the end"

These are really cool to watch, thanks for posting them like this.

The Coke (Dr. Pepper) can is a hilarious trademark I can’t unsee. I must find them all 😂.

Very cool and interesting. Thanks for posting.

That’s a wild volume of work to deliver in three weeks!

@piercefilm

Жыл бұрын

They had more than 3 weeks to make all the miniatures for this film.

Also I thought the spacecraft design was fantastic and VERY unique for the time. It begged for longer/more screen time which is really the hallmark of a great concept.

@piercefilm

Жыл бұрын

Ron Cobb was a great designer. The miniature made by Ian Hunter was also fantastic. Sad that it was stolen from the studio...

@miniaredeluxe8444

Жыл бұрын

@@piercefilm that sounds like an interesting story. Can you elaborate?

@lampadophoros

Жыл бұрын

@@miniaredeluxe8444 I had a chance on that one shot of the ship landing, to try to imply what any flying machine does…it does not settle down as if on a track; it has to vector on its jets to stabilise as it settles down. I thought the effect was much more convincing than just flying in and landing with no “effort”

@imagesh1

Жыл бұрын

@@lampadophoros Mission accomplished! In truth, with all the wonderful work in the film, those two shots are what I remember most about the movie.

Coke cans, R2D2s, random Millennium Falcons… if you’re working on something for long enough, you end up throwing in a little something just to amuse yourself, and if it doesn’t get spotted, it becomes a signature in-joke (I hide a velociraptor in every illustration I do now, for that reason!)! Does anyone know of any other model-maker signatures??

Still great looking stuff

Still have this dvd!

Another great video with these human stories. If you have time you should make a small number of playlists, not everything will fit neatly into a bracket but it may help new viewers. Though your videos are nice and short, there is so many of them and some people are attracted to genres. 90's Sci fi, 80's horror, Spoof, Cult collection. I love Total Recall, it's a great movie from a great era and has a lot of nostalgia. In my head I group these with other movies of the same era, clicking on a list and recognising most of the list instantly would get me hooked.

0:41 " This being a non-union shop, this was my green light.." I always find it interesting how these guys talk about working with hazardous material, long hours, gruelling deadlines etc. While at the same time kind of looking down on unions 🤔 idk it's just odd

@piercefilm

Жыл бұрын

It's just to get started and get your foot in the door. It's a catch-22 to try and get into a union model shop. Almost impossible. So, you have to start somewhere by sweeping floors as a PA. I've heard about both good and bad experiences with unions. I never worked union. If the jobs paid too little I turned them down. If they were interesting I did them to learn, and be a part of something cool even if the money wasn't great. I don't think there are any more union model shops these days... so if you are union, you can't work on small low budget stuff that might be fun. Most people have moved on to become CGI artists. Unions might be better for that.

@hugoverdeguer6891

Жыл бұрын

Unions are elitist.

@HonkeyKong54

Жыл бұрын

@@piercefilm do you think model makers would make more money having a home shop and building models for home collectors?

@HonkeyKong54

Жыл бұрын

@@piercefilm I remember a few years ago when I had alot of extra money I wanted someone to build me a studio scale or close to miniature of the blade runner spinner but it was impossible to find someone trustworthy enough for the quality or someone willing to do it in general.

@piercefilm

Жыл бұрын

@@HonkeyKong54 A lot of model makers are doing that now.

Well done on responsibly not mentioning the 'household chemicals'. Can't help wondering what they were, though.

Even in medieval times stone masons put little "personal touches" on buildings, like churches or cathedrals like the little mouse in the Marienkirche in Lübeck, northern germany, that's a pretty famous one, but there are many, even back in egypt they did it in the temples, it's a fundamental human thing to leave a personal touch in something bigger and longer lasting. +1 for the cans, now I'm searching for them when I rewatch these movies :)

Would love to own the entire documentary but it is nowhere to be found

@piercefilm

Жыл бұрын

It's all here on my channel. It's like a TV show. I post new segments whenever I can. Hopefully more coming up soon. Since there must be around 20 hours of segments it would never fit into one film.

@rugrid146

Жыл бұрын

@@piercefilm thx for awesome work, each pice its gold for movie enthusiasts!

@CheapCheerful

Жыл бұрын

@@piercefilm this HAS to be made available on bluray one day, and or on Netflix as a regular spot, it's all so good.

@cyberwoozle777

Жыл бұрын

@@piercefilm this is such amazing content, super appreciated!! Have you considered captioning the people so we know who they are?

I knew it. Everyone said i was lied about you coming out to Ventura was total recall filming location .

Lol I remember I was a production office PA on total recall and Juan Prosper the UPM sent me to go get some paperwork completed by this dude. I used to smoke a lot of weed back then, and I forgot my pipe. So I saw one of those cans on the model set and I turned it into a pipe. I thought it was weird because it had little ladders and things sticking out of it. It was a good marijuana pipe tho!

@piercefilm

Жыл бұрын

Interesting. Some miniatures were stolen from the set during production and listed shortly on Ebay a few years back. Would you know anything about that?

Where can one find a digital copy of this movie/documentary?

@piercefilm

Жыл бұрын

It's only here on my channel! Free!

What type of paint use on the minitures

In the recent ones of these I've noticed a sound mixing issue, it all seems to be in one channel? Not sure if it's something on my end or your end.

@piercefilm

Жыл бұрын

These are all older interviews from 2010-2012. Just simple setups mostly by myself. No budget. No studio. It is what it is. You can scroll through all the videos. There are hundreds!

@CinematicComposer

Жыл бұрын

The audio for the dialog is stereo for some reason. When ever they turn their heads, you can hear it move in the stereo spectrum. You could just mono all these. I’m watching on an iPad with headphones so to fix the distracting spacial orientation of the dialog I just set the audio to mono in the iOS settings.

@piercefilm

Жыл бұрын

@@CinematicComposer I used stereo on purpose. If it distracts you then don't watch. Make your own videos the way you want.

@CinematicComposer

Жыл бұрын

@@piercefilm it’s a weird choice. I would recommend using mono for any human voice in such context (just like in films). Vocals in music however can benefit from stereo effects. By commenting on this audio issue, I am not taking away from the content itself, which is great. The interviews are great work!

Derek Meddings miniatures were also insane from Goldeneye and older Bond movies.

@piercefilm

Жыл бұрын

I have a Goldeneye segment here on my channel.

A coke can is a pretty good shape/ geeble for any industrial model in my opinion.

I will now be looking for coke cans 😄.

cool idea with the coke can in every movie he modelled for, just like South Park, there is an alien somewhere in the background of every episode or an Observer in Fringe!

Shared 2023 AD 4 Mars ❤😮😊

I think that F-18 sitting on the guys desk is from Independence Day?

@piercefilm

Жыл бұрын

Yes.

@lear60man

Жыл бұрын

@@piercefilm We ended up with the molds for that at Icons back in 94(?) along with a crate of other smaller, and not so small items from ID4. I painted another F-18 from that mold that was hung at our booth at SDCC in 95. Now being a commercial pilot, I wish I would have kept that F-18 hahah. Thanks for the reply, 'A mother know her own.'

Really wish they showed how they got the train and canyon actor projections to change perspective on the pull backs - something that was a problem in movies like the (original) Empire Strikes Back ending.

@lampadophoros

Жыл бұрын

Regarding the train shot (was shot number DA43, and you notice the train car is “43”). The teeny projector was inside the car, and the RP screen was flush with the inside of the window. And you notice that in the live shot inside, the guys were standing close to the window. So the apparent plane in which they appear in the projection is, in effect, locked to the window frame. No real need for a parallax shift. I think that the viewer (hopefully) is so taken in by the effect that there seems to be a parallax shift. Thanks

@johnwatson3948

Жыл бұрын

I looked at it again and I think you’re right - they’re close to the window and another apparent trick creating the look of perspective change is Arnold shifts himself to the left as the pullback starts and the man he was talking to then does the same.

Hey, doesn't matter if it's a Coke can or a Pepsi can, a shape is a shape, and if it works, it works.

I disagree with filming miniatures in sound stages. Why? Interior soundstage shots, can have the artifact of artificial lighting which immediately informs the human brain and eye that they are in fact viewing FX--hence, you are always aware of the fact that you are looking at miniatures as opposed to a real landscape...and edifices. I would be interested in knowing what lenses were used. They should have shot the miniatures in 65mm to 70mm...as it would have given the miniatures an epic scope. That said, and however..."Dick Tracy", which was shot by the same team...looked great--likely because it was supposed to appear hyper real--having depended on contrasting colors, shadows, and night shots. Apparently, although shot in 35mm...Dick Tracy had some prints in 70mm.

@piercefilm

Жыл бұрын

If you shoot the miniatures outside it can be too windy or rainy. It will often look very real due to real sunlight etc, but a film crew costs money every day. Especially a motion control camera and crew! Motion control requires multiple passes that can't look different because a cloud a covered the sun. No one can guarantee the weather will be perfect on the day of the shoot. California was chosen for it's good weather, but if you need hours to set up a shot and then you need to take it back down due to wind etc.... going over budget might cost you your job not to mention blow the budget.

@mattperson7293

Жыл бұрын

@@piercefilm Didn't Georges Méliès have glass ceilings and walls at his Paris studio to solve the weather issue?

@lampadophoros

Жыл бұрын

Well…..Dick Tracy was not shot by DreamQuest. But most certainly the minis in TR were, exclusively. The shooting of miniatures has nothing to do with sound stages. Usually we start with some giant empty warehouse and divide it, by black plastic curtains, into smaller stages. At DQ we actually had purpose built stages, but still endless plastic curtains. Of course, one begins with darkness. Then we add light as appropriate to the shot and the miniature. If you are aware that you are looking at a miniature, then the minis crew has not done their job well. As for lenses, DQ used exclusively Nikkor stills lenses, mostly in the 24mm to 35mm focal length. We shot on the Vistavision format, same size as a slide frame, 24mm by 36mm. Indeed, shooting on 65mm is interesting, but it is very impractical, for the slight increase in resolution….and since you are going to see the movie in the theatre in a dupe quite far from the original, the extra cost and practical limitations do not necessarily favour 65.

@johnnhoj6749

Жыл бұрын

@@mattperson7293 Glass ceilings don't solve the changing light problem.

@johnnhoj6749

Жыл бұрын

@@lampadophoros Plus, as I am sure you know, not all films by any means are going for a totally naturalistic look. Controlling the lighting to fit in with the tone of the rest of the film would often be pretty impossible on an exterior set.

$20 3P suits?? I have been doing this wrong.

🙄 Great. Now I have been given a new mission in life: To search for Coke cans in miniature effect sets. I have a daunting task ahead of me, but I shall persevere, whatever the cost. …Wish me luck…

@piercefilm

Жыл бұрын

Easier to look for R2D2's.

@BoHolbo

Жыл бұрын

@@piercefilm Have you fellas ever considered trying to get in contact with Adam Savage and pick his brain for golden nuggets? The resulting (3 hour🤞) video will have the potential to blow up a couple of Google’s servers and triple the subscriber count of your already awesome channel, in the same amount of time it took to shoot the high speed footage of the White House miniature model being blown up for the “Independence Day” movie! 🍿

I drink Dr pepper cause you know. It's the most original flavor cause you know, I'm a pepper, she's a pepper yadda, yadda, yadda👍😛

really enjoy the behind the scenes look, but constantly distracted in most of your videos by the hideous clothing rustling sounds from bad lav mic placement... please keep this in mind for future creations...

@piercefilm

Жыл бұрын

These interviews are mostly 10 to 12 years old and done with no money. It is what it is... Remember, you are watching them for FREE(!) No one is forcing you to watch them.

wow,where was the coke can in waterworld ????

Hahahahahahahaha, you think this is a real soda can? It is.

Thumbs up this comment if you stopped and looked for the Coke...I mean Dr. Pepper can in each of the stills!

LOVED THE MODELS BAR THE TRANSPORT SHIP. THOUGHT IT WAS AMATEUR AS, SEEING AS JUST HOW GOOD THE REST LOOKED THEN TIED INTO THE MEXICAN LIVE SETS .... JUST ONE LITTLE IRK !!!

@piercefilm

Жыл бұрын

The transport spaceship was a cool Ron Cobb design. Beautiful model that, unfortunately was stolen during filming... I wish there were more shots of it approaching.