Hey all,
I wanted to bring you all up to speed on the role The Hunter's Lair had to play in the the 25th Anniversary of the release of Predator, as celebrated at Monsterpalooza. It was advertised as an hour-long panel discussion on Saturday, featuring of some of the artists and engineers who worked on Predator, with Stan Winston's son Matt serving as the emcee. Initially the panel was going to be made up of the guys we all know and love: Steve Wang, Shannon Shea, Richard Landon, Shane Mahan, Matt Rose, and assistant Brian Simpson. John Rosengrant was not scheduled to be there, but it was rumored that Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff Jr. (A.D.I. founders) would be. So, all in all there would potentially be ten present and former members of Winston Studios who worked on Predator at the show.
In the weeks leading up to the panel, I kept thinking that it was appropriate and necessary that these guys should receive some kind of trophy for their work in bringing to life one of the most revered monsters of all time. And who better to give an award to the guys who worked on Predator than the biggest Predator fan organization in the world - The Hunter's Lair! Originally I was just going to bring the first casting of my new screen accurate P1 cannon to MP to show Steve Wang what I did with his original sculpt, especially since I had all the clear reference photos I could ever want. (Turns out he doesn't even have them!) The more I thought about it, the most logical thing I could do is make ten cannons, turn them into trophies, and give them to the panel members. Because I wanted to make this a surprise for everyone on the Lair, I asked certain people in the know to keep this quiet.
With only weeks to go, I ordered 10 black lacquered trophy bases from an online trophy company. When they arrived, I attached color inkjet badges to the fronts with the names of each recipient and shipped them off to San Diego. San Diego is the home of Damon Silva (P-Disc) and Gene Emory (Sea Hunter), who offered to assemble and paint the cannon trophies, and then drive them the 2 hours north to Burbank to the show. No way in hell was I going to check those things on the plane, let alone paint them in time. Next, I reached out to my buddy Scott Andrews who lent his molding talents and roto-caster to the cause. You might remember Scott was involved in bringing the new cannon to life via his hyper-detailed 3D printer months ago. Meanwhile, I was casting and putting together all of the intricate parts for the new cannon arm. With a little under a week to spare, Damon and Gene received all three packages I sent and set about putting those babies together.
While all this was going on, I contacted Elliot Brodsky who created and runs Monsterpalooza, and asked him what he thought about my little trophy idea. He thought it was great, but that I really needed to talk to Matt Winston, since he would be the panel's moderator. Not knowing Matt Winston, I was naturally at a loss in getting a hold of him, and asked various Lair members if they could help, but to no avail. Then one day Andrew calls me up and suggested that I reach out to Shannon Shea, a member of our esteemed little group. Talk about a V-8 moment. So I sent him a FB message about my trophy idea along with my contact info to pass on to Matt. What struck me funny was Shannon's response, "Trophies? WE'RE the ones who should be giving YOU guys the trophies for keeping us going!" Within hours, my phone was ringing, and it was Matt Winston on the other end. Shannon came through, what a guy. When I explained to Matt that I wanted to hand the guys including himself a bunch of P1 cannon trophies as a token of the Lair's appreciation for what they had done in bringing our favorite movie monster to life on this silver anniversary, he was tickled pink. We chatted a little further and when I hung up the phone, the heat was on! Knowing my propensity for being on the slow side, I have to tell you my rear end was now on the line after talking to Matt. Not only mine, but those of the small band of people working to get those cannons put together.
In the end, Damon's and Gene's marathon assembly and painting of the 10 cannons along with mounting them to the bases was finished on time, despite my little screw up. Apparently I had forgotten to include the top knuckle in each of the 10 arm assembly bags when I mailed them out. I learned of this via cell phone with Damon as Glen (Guan Thwei) and I were headed to our hotel to check in on Thursday afternoon. As a sinking feeling was starting to hit me, Damon told me that with quick thinking on Gene's part, they were able to pop the knuckle from my generation 2 cannon, mold it, and cast up 10 replacements. This is why thinking on your feet while staring into the abyss pays off, ladies and gentlemen. Naturally I felt much better, but wouldn't be able to relax until those puppies were in my hands.
That moment did not finally arrive until 10:00 a.m. Saturday with 2 hours to spare before the panel. Glen, Damon, Gene, and myself, raced upstairs to Daman's (XDMRay) room in the Marriot to put the finishing touches on the cannons. (see Glen's video).
Out came the Dremel, scissors, and cyanoacrylate. There we were in a little assembly line, giving those babies one last go-round before handing them off. That moment for me, was one of the highlights of the whole trip. We got them all boxed up and down into the theater room where the panel was being held. Once there, we bumped into George (PTGreek) and shot the **** with him for a bit. It wasn't long before the honored guests arrived and took their places on stage as the room filled quickly to hear the guys recant their experiences working on the first film.
The panel attendees ended up being Dave Kindlon (who worked on the the P1 cannon animatronics), as well as Richard Landon, Shannon Shea, Matt Rose, and Steve Wang, with Matt Winston emceeing the event. Shane, Brian, Alec, and Tom all had work that kept them from attending. Despite that, it was really great seeing the slide show they put together of some on-location and in-studio photos of them building and shooting the Predator. To everyone's surprise, a young man stood up and identified himself as Jamie Hall, Kevin Peter Hall's nephew. He was so touched by the panel and loved hearing the stories about his uncle's antics in the jungle of Palenque. He especially wanted to express his gratitude for all of Kevin's fans out there. As a matter of fact, he posed in some of the photos with us later on and even wants to join the Lair and build his own suit!
As the panel wound down to it's conclusion, the moment of truth had arrived. Matt gave a wonderful intro speech about the Hunter's Lair, and then called me up to present the trophies to the guys on the panel. So, I made a little speech about how we in the Hunters Lair wanted to express our gratitude to all those who had a hand in creating the creature we love so well, and as a token of that appreciation, we wanted to hand out trophies to all those people. So, that's precisely what we did. The looks on the faces of the guys were priceless! They were like little kids, pointing to this and that feature on the cannon I had so faithfully reproduced. It was all very gratifying. What really blew me away was after handing out the trophies, Matt actually called all of us Lair members up to share the stage with the crew! The crowd went nuts and snapped dozens of pictures. There we were, with the guys who actually made it happen! After a couple of minutes I asked the Lair members to step off the stage, so that the audience could photograph the guys who really made all this possible----the crew. It was their day.
Without a doubt, Matt Winston, David, Richard, Shannon, Steve, and Matt Rose are the most appreciative, down to earth, lovable guys you will ever meet. They went so far as to tell us how they did this and that during the shooting of the film. When I pulled out Andrew's KJ bio painted by Paul Francis for the guys to sign, they loved it, and were looking it over. They were reluctant to ruin the paint job, but signed it anyway. As a special token of our thanks, I presented Matt Winston with a 1" sterling silver P1 bio charm necklace, put together by Clay (Eaglewood). He damn near blushed. Some of us did our best in not smothering them and playing the part of the hyper-active fan boy. I told Matt that we were just glad to be a part of the history of the predator, which, when you think about it, is precisely what happened that day. Not bad for a bunch of "half ass mountain boys" (and girls) : )
From left to right: Matt Winston, David Kindlon, Richard Landon, Shannon Shea, Steve Wang, and Matt Rose
I just want to say from the bottom of my heart that my "little experience in Burbank" showed me there may yet be some hope for mankind, as I made friends with some terrific people. From Gene and Damon's "cannon service", to Sean and wife Jane who videotaped the entire event, to Daman trimming the cannon hoses and getting us a brass luggage cart to transport the cannons downstairs, to Glendon's knowledge and coordination of all the big players at the event---- without them, the trophy event would not have been possible.
To Matt, Dave, Rich, Shannon, Steve, and Matt Rose, thank you for sharing your silver anniversary with us at the Hunter's Lair.
Thank you all -
Carl
Panel/ Trophy Presentation Update: Video of the event!
Shawn's (Master Anubis) wife Jane was an integral part of the event weekend, she served as our videographer of the panel/ trophy presentation. I took her segments and converted them and brought them into iMovie and exported a single video on page 3 of this thread: http://www.thehunter...g1/page__st__50
I wanted to bring you all up to speed on the role The Hunter's Lair had to play in the the 25th Anniversary of the release of Predator, as celebrated at Monsterpalooza. It was advertised as an hour-long panel discussion on Saturday, featuring of some of the artists and engineers who worked on Predator, with Stan Winston's son Matt serving as the emcee. Initially the panel was going to be made up of the guys we all know and love: Steve Wang, Shannon Shea, Richard Landon, Shane Mahan, Matt Rose, and assistant Brian Simpson. John Rosengrant was not scheduled to be there, but it was rumored that Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff Jr. (A.D.I. founders) would be. So, all in all there would potentially be ten present and former members of Winston Studios who worked on Predator at the show.
In the weeks leading up to the panel, I kept thinking that it was appropriate and necessary that these guys should receive some kind of trophy for their work in bringing to life one of the most revered monsters of all time. And who better to give an award to the guys who worked on Predator than the biggest Predator fan organization in the world - The Hunter's Lair! Originally I was just going to bring the first casting of my new screen accurate P1 cannon to MP to show Steve Wang what I did with his original sculpt, especially since I had all the clear reference photos I could ever want. (Turns out he doesn't even have them!) The more I thought about it, the most logical thing I could do is make ten cannons, turn them into trophies, and give them to the panel members. Because I wanted to make this a surprise for everyone on the Lair, I asked certain people in the know to keep this quiet.
With only weeks to go, I ordered 10 black lacquered trophy bases from an online trophy company. When they arrived, I attached color inkjet badges to the fronts with the names of each recipient and shipped them off to San Diego. San Diego is the home of Damon Silva (P-Disc) and Gene Emory (Sea Hunter), who offered to assemble and paint the cannon trophies, and then drive them the 2 hours north to Burbank to the show. No way in hell was I going to check those things on the plane, let alone paint them in time. Next, I reached out to my buddy Scott Andrews who lent his molding talents and roto-caster to the cause. You might remember Scott was involved in bringing the new cannon to life via his hyper-detailed 3D printer months ago. Meanwhile, I was casting and putting together all of the intricate parts for the new cannon arm. With a little under a week to spare, Damon and Gene received all three packages I sent and set about putting those babies together.
While all this was going on, I contacted Elliot Brodsky who created and runs Monsterpalooza, and asked him what he thought about my little trophy idea. He thought it was great, but that I really needed to talk to Matt Winston, since he would be the panel's moderator. Not knowing Matt Winston, I was naturally at a loss in getting a hold of him, and asked various Lair members if they could help, but to no avail. Then one day Andrew calls me up and suggested that I reach out to Shannon Shea, a member of our esteemed little group. Talk about a V-8 moment. So I sent him a FB message about my trophy idea along with my contact info to pass on to Matt. What struck me funny was Shannon's response, "Trophies? WE'RE the ones who should be giving YOU guys the trophies for keeping us going!" Within hours, my phone was ringing, and it was Matt Winston on the other end. Shannon came through, what a guy. When I explained to Matt that I wanted to hand the guys including himself a bunch of P1 cannon trophies as a token of the Lair's appreciation for what they had done in bringing our favorite movie monster to life on this silver anniversary, he was tickled pink. We chatted a little further and when I hung up the phone, the heat was on! Knowing my propensity for being on the slow side, I have to tell you my rear end was now on the line after talking to Matt. Not only mine, but those of the small band of people working to get those cannons put together.
In the end, Damon's and Gene's marathon assembly and painting of the 10 cannons along with mounting them to the bases was finished on time, despite my little screw up. Apparently I had forgotten to include the top knuckle in each of the 10 arm assembly bags when I mailed them out. I learned of this via cell phone with Damon as Glen (Guan Thwei) and I were headed to our hotel to check in on Thursday afternoon. As a sinking feeling was starting to hit me, Damon told me that with quick thinking on Gene's part, they were able to pop the knuckle from my generation 2 cannon, mold it, and cast up 10 replacements. This is why thinking on your feet while staring into the abyss pays off, ladies and gentlemen. Naturally I felt much better, but wouldn't be able to relax until those puppies were in my hands.
That moment did not finally arrive until 10:00 a.m. Saturday with 2 hours to spare before the panel. Glen, Damon, Gene, and myself, raced upstairs to Daman's (XDMRay) room in the Marriot to put the finishing touches on the cannons. (see Glen's video).
Out came the Dremel, scissors, and cyanoacrylate. There we were in a little assembly line, giving those babies one last go-round before handing them off. That moment for me, was one of the highlights of the whole trip. We got them all boxed up and down into the theater room where the panel was being held. Once there, we bumped into George (PTGreek) and shot the **** with him for a bit. It wasn't long before the honored guests arrived and took their places on stage as the room filled quickly to hear the guys recant their experiences working on the first film.
The panel attendees ended up being Dave Kindlon (who worked on the the P1 cannon animatronics), as well as Richard Landon, Shannon Shea, Matt Rose, and Steve Wang, with Matt Winston emceeing the event. Shane, Brian, Alec, and Tom all had work that kept them from attending. Despite that, it was really great seeing the slide show they put together of some on-location and in-studio photos of them building and shooting the Predator. To everyone's surprise, a young man stood up and identified himself as Jamie Hall, Kevin Peter Hall's nephew. He was so touched by the panel and loved hearing the stories about his uncle's antics in the jungle of Palenque. He especially wanted to express his gratitude for all of Kevin's fans out there. As a matter of fact, he posed in some of the photos with us later on and even wants to join the Lair and build his own suit!
As the panel wound down to it's conclusion, the moment of truth had arrived. Matt gave a wonderful intro speech about the Hunter's Lair, and then called me up to present the trophies to the guys on the panel. So, I made a little speech about how we in the Hunters Lair wanted to express our gratitude to all those who had a hand in creating the creature we love so well, and as a token of that appreciation, we wanted to hand out trophies to all those people. So, that's precisely what we did. The looks on the faces of the guys were priceless! They were like little kids, pointing to this and that feature on the cannon I had so faithfully reproduced. It was all very gratifying. What really blew me away was after handing out the trophies, Matt actually called all of us Lair members up to share the stage with the crew! The crowd went nuts and snapped dozens of pictures. There we were, with the guys who actually made it happen! After a couple of minutes I asked the Lair members to step off the stage, so that the audience could photograph the guys who really made all this possible----the crew. It was their day.
Without a doubt, Matt Winston, David, Richard, Shannon, Steve, and Matt Rose are the most appreciative, down to earth, lovable guys you will ever meet. They went so far as to tell us how they did this and that during the shooting of the film. When I pulled out Andrew's KJ bio painted by Paul Francis for the guys to sign, they loved it, and were looking it over. They were reluctant to ruin the paint job, but signed it anyway. As a special token of our thanks, I presented Matt Winston with a 1" sterling silver P1 bio charm necklace, put together by Clay (Eaglewood). He damn near blushed. Some of us did our best in not smothering them and playing the part of the hyper-active fan boy. I told Matt that we were just glad to be a part of the history of the predator, which, when you think about it, is precisely what happened that day. Not bad for a bunch of "half ass mountain boys" (and girls) : )
From left to right: Matt Winston, David Kindlon, Richard Landon, Shannon Shea, Steve Wang, and Matt Rose
I just want to say from the bottom of my heart that my "little experience in Burbank" showed me there may yet be some hope for mankind, as I made friends with some terrific people. From Gene and Damon's "cannon service", to Sean and wife Jane who videotaped the entire event, to Daman trimming the cannon hoses and getting us a brass luggage cart to transport the cannons downstairs, to Glendon's knowledge and coordination of all the big players at the event---- without them, the trophy event would not have been possible.
To Matt, Dave, Rich, Shannon, Steve, and Matt Rose, thank you for sharing your silver anniversary with us at the Hunter's Lair.
Thank you all -
Carl
Panel/ Trophy Presentation Update: Video of the event!
Shawn's (Master Anubis) wife Jane was an integral part of the event weekend, she served as our videographer of the panel/ trophy presentation. I took her segments and converted them and brought them into iMovie and exported a single video on page 3 of this thread: http://www.thehunter...g1/page__st__50
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