142 pics of Making of miniature of Blade Runner
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TazMan2000
Master Member
JediMichael
Master Member
I know when you are on a really tight schedule, it becomes work, and hard work, but man, it still looks like it would have been fun to work on some of those movies from the past, building models....and mainly, when its over to have the bragging rights to what you did.
Its also funny how when you look at a model that has a close picture, it can look really awesome, but then you see a person next to it, and realize its either super tiny with a ton of detail, or actually huge and still extremely impressive.
Its also funny how when you look at a model that has a close picture, it can look really awesome, but then you see a person next to it, and realize its either super tiny with a ton of detail, or actually huge and still extremely impressive.
yuumi2891103
Master Member
Thanks, TazMan2000-san and Micheal-san!
I love those cutting edge technology for movie CGI. It's really fantastic but still, I love those special effects with real miniature models and pyrotechnics. I'm happy to know that the moviemakers are still using miniature models even if it's very limited use of it.
I've just happened to find these pics on the web today.
I hope you enjoy them.
I love those cutting edge technology for movie CGI. It's really fantastic but still, I love those special effects with real miniature models and pyrotechnics. I'm happy to know that the moviemakers are still using miniature models even if it's very limited use of it.
I've just happened to find these pics on the web today.
I hope you enjoy them.
JediMichael
Master Member
For sure. I love when you see pics from these old movies and have never seen them before. Makes me wonder how many pics were taken and just never were released and are stored away in some file at ILM or other shop....
Raid the place!!!!!
Raid the place!!!!!
stevielewis
Sr Member
Great find!
monsterpartyhat
Sr Member
Oh, those are so inspirational!
yuumi2891103
Master Member
Count me in!
Thanks!
Thank you!
Yes, they are. Still, they are fresh apples for my eyes.
Here's a comment of Greg Jein - Giant of the miniature maker - interviewed by a movie critic Shinji Nakako at L.A in 1982.
This interview has been made for the mook 'SFX Cinematic Illusion' published in 1983. This was published in Japan. So, I would like to translate it into English.
Miniature giants, people call Greg Jein that way. There may be many reasons. For example, Jein is a genius of detailing, whose delicate mothership, such as the mosaic he created in "The Close Encounter of the 3rd Kind", symbolizes his unique talent.
When he majored in art and graphic design at LA College in the early '70s, he made a part-time job to create a miniature house and furniture made of fiberglass used for San Diego Sea World tuna attraction. It caught the attention of the people involved in "The Fresh Gordon" and he started his carrier in the movie world. So Jein made a number of weirdly designed spacecraft, but all the checks paid for were unpaid. Moreover, the production of "Fresh Gordon" was interrupted due to an unlawful investigation by the FBI. At that time, at the request of Dan O'bannon, He made starcraft for "The Dark Star" and received $350. As a miniature maker, this was his first income.
Jein's main screen credits in addition to the previous two works are "The Daytime Ended" (1977), "The Laser Blast" (1978), "1941" (1979), "Star Trek" (1979), "Virus" (1980), "The Close Encounter of the Third Kind - Special Edition" (1980), "The One From The Heart" (1982), "War Game" (1983), "The Blue Thunder" (1983), "The Deal of the Century" (1983), etc. Among them, he was twice nominated for the Academy Award for his "Close Encounter of the 3rd Kind" and "1941" miniature work.
Mr. Jean and his miniature of UAV for the movie 'Deal of the century". His original model made of Phaser gun seems to have finally been approved.
Mr. Nakako: You used to have a headache during the production of the movie "The One From The Heart". Did you suffer in the same way in other movies?
Mr. Jein: Everything was a headache except for "The close encounter of the third kind".
Mr. Nakako: May I ask the reason why?
Mr. Jein: Probably because I worked with a filmmaker or production designer who didn't understand SFX well.
Mr. Nakako: You participated in a Japanese movie, were you confident that you wouldn't feel a headache?
Mr. Jein: Yes, I was. I believed in the producer's words, "Kinji Fukasaku is Japanese Spielberg."
Mr. Nakako: But that was not so, wasn't it?
Mr. Jein: It was lighter than "One From The Heart" headache.
Mr. Nakako: Although it is "One From the Heart", there were few miniature shots, despite spending two years on miniature production. I think there were a lot of miniatures that didn't appear in the final cut.
Mr. Jein: Fortunately, only one-fourth of the miniatures we made have appeared on the screen.
Mr. Nakako: I don't think the cause was in miniatures, wasn't it?
Mr. Jein: There was a big mistake in art planning. "One From The Heart" is the result of Francis Coppola's desire for technology and artistic repulsion. The miniature scale suddenly changed, or the miniature set assembled over two months was disassembled before shooting. Incredible things happened every day.
Mr. Nakako: I knew, Coppola used a computer for art planning in this movie. It would have been a way to bring out the necessary SFX by memoizing the costume design, choosing the vehicle, building historical certification, scene environment, speech style, either miniatures or stationery matt.etc. on the computer. Need to make front projection equipment or do it at the rear projection. I've heard that the computer made the final decision for those.
Mr. Jein: If Francis overconfident the computer, there was no problem. But he was also a great and whimsical artist. That caused the imbalance.
Mr. Nakako: The miniature set that has been dismantled, it was a huge flat set, not a perspective one. When I saw that, I thought, "What a luxury revel! Greg is the only miniature maker in the world that allows it."
The hudge flat miniature set dismantled before shooting.
Mr. Nakako: Because I know the anguish of the staff working at Roger Corman's studio. If you were working with Corman, he'll probably ask you to make the miniature of entire Manhattan with the cost of making the Sands Hotel signboard you made.
Mr. Jein: However, Corman does not dismantle before shooting. What makes SFX People the happiest is when their works appear on the screen.
Mr. Nakako: The miniature department during the pre-production of "The One From The Heart" had the spirit of aiming for an Academy Award. It changed gradually. Some were disappointed and fled. Why did you stay in this stupid production until the end?
Mr. Jein: I had a contract and had an unpaid salary.
Mr. Nakako: I heard that in "The Close Encounter of the third kind", a low-cost perspective miniature set that was incomparable to "The One from the Heart" was used effectively. Which part?
Mr. Jein: A night view from Mount Crescent, Indiana. UFO-possessed people would have gathered beside the road looking at the night sky. The night view under the sky was the perspective miniature set.
Mr. Nakako: So did you place the miniature at the end of the full-scale set?
Mr. Jein: I shot a small table-sized miniature with a 4x5 still camera and front-projected its transparency.
Mr. Nakako: Does intuition have priority in the production of perspective sets? Or do you have any special tips?
Mr. Jein: Some miniature makers make it just by intuition, but I don't have that confidence. I took a completely different approach. First, draw a picture in black and white, make it transparent, project it on a table with a projector, then trace the projected picture with white paint and assemble a miniature on it.
Mr. Nakako: Which is more challenging for you, spacecraft, or miniature set?
Mr. Jein: It's a miniature set. That is also to accurately make the actual landscape. I'm more interested in fooling spectators with a lifelike miniature set, rather than making them dazing by a magnificent mothership.
Mr. Nakako: This means that making the miniature of the signboard of McDonald's hamburger was more fun for you than making a mothership.
Mr. Jein: Exactly. I made the mothership by working 12 hours a day for 8 weeks without a break, but the McDonald's signboard can be finished in about a week.
Mr.Nakako: How big was that sign?
Mr. Jein: The height is 12 inches.
Mr. Nakako: There were miniature cans of coke and scraps of paper around the sign. How long did it take to make a can of coke on the same scale as the 12-inch tall sign?
Mr. Jein: Just to drive from my home to Olvera Street and buy a keychain with a miniature can of Cork at an accessory shop. I do like that many times. I often go to toy shops, etc., and the doll's corner is just as important to me as the plastic model kit corner.
Mr. Nakako: What materials have you purchased from the toy shop so far?
Mr. Jein: I have used the miniature of Roy Nearly standing in the mothership of "Close Encounter of the Third Kind special edition" with the parts of the plastic model kit. I used the little spaceman that came with the kit of the show "Space 1999" Eagle. Recently, I made a prototype of the fighter that appears in William Friedkin's new movie "The Deal of the Century" with the body of the "Star Trek" phaser. But unfortunately, my design was not adopted. Because the movie production company, Warner Bros., has tightened its budget. They decided to use the MIG 31 again for "Deal Of The Century" to amortize the MIG 31 full-scale model that was invested heavily for the "Firefox." So I'm going to make a miniature of MiG 31.
Mr. Nakako: You were one of the designers of the "Firefox" MiG 31 but with no credit. This means that for the first time in "Deal of the Century", you will get official credit, right?
Mr. Jein: That's totally ironic.
Mr. Nakako: A F-16 appears in the "Blue Thunder", but did you bother to make the original without using the plastic model kit?
Mr. Jein: If the F-16 would only be displayed on someone's desk in the movie, I would be willing to utilize an elaborate Japanese kit. However, there is a problem with the joints attached to the model stand of the motion control camera. For that, you have to make the fuselage by myself. It's also to charge production for the miniature production costs.
Mr. Nakako: Does miniature marking as a shooting object need to know the shooting know-how?
Mr.Jein: It is useful to have about 1/10 of the knowledge of a professional miniature photographer. Especially the miniature setting is a collaboration with the photographer. We need to understand each other.
Mr.Nakako: In "1941", William A. Fraker, a leading live-action shooter, also shot a miniature. Did the collaboration with him work?
Mr.Jein: It was saved to some extent because the miniature was a large scale of 1/10.
Mr. Nakako: I heard that most of the "1941" miniature buildings were made of cardboard boxes, but how did you detail them?
Mr. Jein: The schedule is tight for many productions, especially the Hollywood Boulevard buildings, which are made of cardboard, could not take the time to detail. My job was to cut out a box and make it into a window. I was confident to omit the detail because the setting was that the neon lights and lights of the Christmas lights would blur the scene.
Mr. Nakako: What are your favorite materials for craft making?
Mr. Jein: I mainly use liquid plastic. Convenient for modeling and extremely hard when hardened. Fiberglass is used when the size of the miniature would be large like a mothership. When you need transparent parts, it's a resin.
That means that mold is needed, so there is a pre-stage of making an original to make a mold with another material.
In modeling for taking a mold, we sculpt wood or clay and put it in a silicon mold.
Mr. Nakako: I think the plaster mold is cheaper.
Mr. Jein: Silicon is certainly expensive. However, it has the advantage of being more precise and flexible than plaster. Especially suitable for casting small parts.
Mr.Nakako: Finally, please tell us what a miniature as SFX should be.
Mr. Jein: Aside from the fantasy models and sets that make spacecraft come out, miniatures are just full-scale substitutes. The substitute is meaningless if the audience notices it. So I want you to forget about the existence of a miniature maker like me. Wouldn't there be more time for you to talk about my favorite movies, "Zatoichi" and "Kodure-Ookami" than I would talk about miniatures?
If you find something wrong or inaccurate, it's all my fault.
Thank you for reading.
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yuumi2891103
Master Member
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