Mercury Capsule set for short film 'Infinity 7'

[Brett Williams]

Hey folks, for the last year or so I designed and built a replica interior set of a Mercury capsule for a short film I've been working on. We didn't have a huge budget so everything was handmade (using a lot of the techniques I've learned on the RPF actually!). It was a lot of work but a TON of fun to make.

Part 1: The Control Panels

All the control panels were built in my apartment in the Bay Area, so I didn't have a lot of room to work. With all the great reference material that exists from NASA, I was able to trace up the control panels pretty quickly and get them laser cut and painted.

There were a few dozen breakers, indicator light covers and switch sockets, all of which I designed, 3D printed, then molded and casted.

The indicator lights were all wired up with LEDs and connected to an Arduino so we could have things go bad for our astronaut in the film.

I also had to make a few pull handles. They were 3d printed and smoothed with XTC3D. Overall, I'm pretty happy with how they came out.

All of the gauges were drawn up in Illustrator and printed on gloss paper at FedEx.

Lots and lots of breakers....

First completed panel!

Test fitting everything. This was definitely a "what did I get myself into???" moment!

Finally complete!!

Packed for shipping to Texas for filming! (So terrifying! A year's worth of work in one box!!)

I'll cover building the actual set and installing all the panels in Part 2!

 

[StephenMG]

Wow!

 

[nick daring]

Amazing project! I've always wanted to do this exact thing.

Can't wait for more details.

 

[Brett Williams]

Part 2: The Cockpit

We started building up the base of the set using wood and marked out the size for the interior wall. We framed out the shell of the cockpit and started painting the interior.

At this point it started looking like.... something....

The seat was a cheap plastic racing seat we painted the right color. We cut a hole for the window and added a few basic odds and ends to get started.

After this point, we were able to start mounting in the control panels into the cockpit. A lot of the miscellaneous hardware in the rest of the cockpit came from scrap air conditioners. Our star/producer's friend owns an air condition repair company and he let us pilfer his scrap to for a lot of the larger components. The rest is misc stuff from Home Depot, wiring from old Alfa Romeos, etc. Not 100% accurate but good enough for a film set!

By the end of it the outside still didn't really look like much.

But the inside turned out great!

And here's a shot from the final film:

If you're interested in checking out the teaser trailer, it's available here:

Thanks!

 

[TheBigBang914]

Wow thats just amazing. One of my dream is being a film director so its two things that right up my alley! haha Keep us updated.

 

[KramStaar]

This is fantastic. Congratulations and thanks for sharing!
High regards,
MARK

 

[animator]

Fantastic work! Everything looks very authentic.

 

[Lt Washburn]

Very cool. And the trailer looked great.

 

[Brett Williams]

Hey folks, for anyone interested we just finished and released the final short film online! Hope you like it!

 

[funboy1013xx]

I liked it, I wish you coulda added alittle special effect of the helmet floating when he pull's it off. and just wondering why the original short trailer said "coming fall 2018"?

 

[Brett Williams]

I liked it, I wish you coulda added alittle special effect of the helmet floating when he pull's it off. and just wondering why the original short trailer said "coming fall 2018"?

Sadly, deadlines slip . Better late than never!

 

[Apollo]

Wow!!

Awesome job!!!

 

[MrJerry]

great job! and really impressed with the build!

 

[thegnome]

That looks like a lot of fun! Its going to look amazing when finished.

 

[PropsToHistory]

This looks fantastic

 

[goldcylon]

Pretty good !

 

[postmanpat]

Incredible build!!!

 

[Harada357]

Incredible build - OMG the detail is unbelievable !!! Outstanding Job sir. Loved the short film !!!

 

[thecollective]

WHOA I've always been a space/nasa history geek and I love seeing props and setups like this. Great job!

Where did the mercury spacesuit come from btw?

 

[Brett Williams]

Where did the mercury spacesuit come from btw?

The suit was about the only thing we didn't make. We rented it from a company called WonderWorks. They make space props and costumes for film. Kind of expensive compared to the rest of the set but was totally worth it.