Black Hole USS Cygnus (photos and such)

Ixtore, any chance you took some pictures of the beast? That would truly be spectacular.

Sorry for the VERY late reply. Found this thread again by accident!
No - there were NO PICTURES allowed. MOMA is very tough about these things ... which is unfortunate because there were other great pieces such as the Pinocchio maquette used for animator reference, Ellinshaw's overhead caldera matte painting of Vulcania from 20,000 Leagues and study guides for Monstro the whale.

The pure labor of constructing the Cygnus had to have been just painfully slow. CGI has certainly taken care of these concerns.....
 
Ahhh, that's tragic. I feared as much, but thanks for confirming it.

I wonder whether the Reader's Digest photographer took many alternative shots. If not, that likely means an already underphotographed model really was actually underphotographed, it's not just that stuff exists but hasn't surfaced. :cry
 
Has anyone tried contacting the MOMA? Maybe they took photographs for a book or pamphlet. I was trying to search online but no luck.
 
I don't remember any promotional material with pictures, only explanations of some of the items that would be on display.
I must have stashed away the pamphlet from the showing - if I run into it, will scan it.
 
I like that the mysterious feel of the Cygnus also apparently extends to the status of it's filming models! But yes, such a beautiful gothic creation.
 
Filling in some gaps.

I've talked to Harrison Ellenshaw about this film a lot (probably more than he would even like to admit......) and gone through his boxes of stuff. Surprisingly, I could find a single photo of the Cygnus (or any of the models for that matter) under construction. In fact he doesn't recall taking any. He was busy with the mattes, his father was busy with everything, and everyone was busy re-writing the script. (Yes, Peter and Harrison had a hand in that, too. The zombie crewmen - Harrison's idea.)

He does recall getting a phone call one day and having to hustle down to the miniature stage to pose for photos with the Cygnus and his father. Those are the B&W photos you see in CFQ. He didn't have the negatives for those.

The surviving Cygnus model (remember that there were two) was damaged en-route to MOMA, and Disney had to send out a couple of model makers to patch it up. During the course of the exhibit, parts fell off and could be seen lying around the plinth the model was on. After it returned to the studio, Harrison recalls seeing it (decaying). He can't remember when he last saw it, but he thinks (I think he said) he saw it during TRON.

The Smithsonian rumor has been floating around for a while. Last year (2010) in fact, we heard it might be in Disney Imagineering controlled storage (separate from the general Disney Archives storage). We placed a few calls and minions were dispatched to look for an appropriately sized crate but nothing turned up. Tracing the rumor back, we had to discount it due to the non-reliability of the source (long story - lots of politics). Likely the thing is in a landfill. Disney cleared out a LOT of props and "junk" when they reconfigured the backlot and got rid of the effects stage. The Archive only has isolated parts of the Sentry Robots because all the rest got thrown in a wood chipper back then. Maybe parts of the Cygnus will show up at a future date. I'd like to think a tower had survived.

I've been through several archives on the hunt for info for Charles' obsession (Harrison thinks he's nuts. Talented, but nuts.....) and have come across only one photo - actually a piece of film from a test - that shows the Cygnus only partially constructed -

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Without getting into all of the details, this image is from a test that was done in the early summer of 1977. The frame of film is from a rotoscope test (the stands supporting the model have been hastily painted out. I'm not sure if they were rephotographing a print or what. There are grease pencil marks on the left that suggest some sort of overlay. I haven't run this by Harrison yet, but I'll bet you he won't remember as he was the matte painting supervisor.

I'll try to dig up a better scan, but it's from a 35+ year old film test and it's only from this one angle.

Gene


Absolutely beautiful! Even incomplete the model is simply incredible.
 
I rewatched the film some of the stuff was really neat, but some of the shots and effects really show there age. The matte painting (which is my current job) was beautiful, and the Cygnus was beautiful, if you see Event Horizon and Sunshine you can see these films were heavily influenced by TBH. I once saw a scale model of a oilrig that took longer to build than the actual rig. It breaks my heart when I see models destroyed or not loved post shoot. Loving this thread and seeing more of this great model. Keep it up.

Richie
 
Excellent work on the 3D...I'd love to try the Cygnus on my CNC, but what an undercut nightmare it would be! :)

Rob

Sent from [location encrypted]...somewhere on the Tharkside of Barsoom ;)
 
Hi,

Longtime lurker decloaking. Haven't posted on these forums before because, frankly, though a working cg person I'm not much of a physical modelmaker but enjoy reading the exploits of those who are. This thread has been of particular interest to me given a longstanding love for the subject matter. You folks seem more interested in this beautiful model and its eventual fate than anybody else online. Which is why I HAVE to share something I encountered on a Facebook group discussion thread today...

The person asking questions (Peter) is me. I don't know the other person (Martha) at all, other than that she's a longstanding and respected member of this general sci fi discussion group, as well as a working genre-focused graphic artist in Worcestershire. She could be pulling my leg. She could be mistaken (her grammar and some of her details do not necessarily inspire confidence)... I have no idea. But this seemed like potentially interesting information that ought to be shared:
Marsha Parkins lol ,you pair , I am English , West Midlands . after collage here in UK I wanted to go to uni in America and first was a very rich snobby CT school , one of my friends dad was model maker for Disney's Black Hole and due to disagreements over pay he took the ship and it's in the basement of there ****ing huge ass house , it was pretty cool to be able to touch it and see it almost daily , sat behind us as we did our homework ! haah ,

Peter Birdsall Marsha... how big would you say the cygnus model you saw was... and what year roundabout would this have been?

Marsha Parkins it was 1989 Peter and it was freaking huge , over 10 ft long easily

Marsha Parkins film was 78 . model was in basement collecting dust when i saw it in 89 and onwards

Marsha Parkins i bet it's dilapidated by now even though it was a converted nice posh basement , still ..... no way of knowing , not seen them folk since I left in 92

Marsha Parkins aparently there were two at over 12ft long

Peter Birdsall Marsha, the weird thing is, there WERE two, and both are accounted for as destroyed: one in the filming of the finale (see pic below) and one supposedly in a forklift crash on the Disney backlot.... so if you actually can account for one of the two surviving intact, then it's kind of an amazing thing!

Marsha Parkins I'm pretty sure he had the crashed by forklift one , it was not in the best state , he could very well have rescued it and made repairs to it personally at home , it WAS dear to him he went on a lot about how Disney screwd **** up , very bitter about it , maybe that's why , it need rescuing from some forklift driving accident . there was a lot of other stuff in that basement also . he hoarded stuff , from films he had worked on

...

Marsha Parkins no need for apology , it's ok , glad to be the bearer for good news , he had other large models down there too , and lots of animatronics from the theme parks and shop windows , eg there was a crumbling old Goofy about 7ft tall that waved and blinked , the insides were fascinating and wonderfully made . we helped build a few one summer , at that time that was what his dad did , fix up and make Disney animatronics , he had either Vicent or Old Bob there too (too partial to tell), not sure if original or his own made ones , but he mostly was talkative about the ship itself or planes, him n his dad were utterly NUTS for model planes , wood , paper covering and dope.

Again, she was probably just having a laugh at my expense... :SHRUG:
 
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that's an amazing story.sounds like there is some truth to it.
what a find that would be.hopefully some more info will come out of this story.
lot of mystery seems to surround this near mythic model ( like the large discovery model).
 
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