Blackwell gave us the footage for episode nine, filmed entirely with green screen background. David chose to do physical models for these shots instead of digital. I was in charge of making the models, while David was responsible for prop designs and postproduction effects.

Our assignment was to create a columned great hall similar to one in Star Wars and a large impenetrable door. We had a few recyclables to choose from so David decided that Gatorade bottles might work.

While he got busy designing the concepts for the door, I began cutting the bottles to form the base of the columns. We were going to use 2” PVC pipe and caps for the columns from Home Depot. I figured we were only going to use the top part of the bottle until I tore the labels off and discovered a more interesting top for the column.

After cutting and painting the various parts of the Gatorade bottles, they looked like this:

The door was constructed of mainly foam core, matte board, balsa wood strips, and various parts from a plastic model tank kit placed on quarter-inch masonite for strength. It had three height layers for dimension and the appearance of sliding open.

Once the door was painted, it was photographed for postproduction.

All the parts to the hallway were now finished and needed to be assembled.

David wanted to do that on top of a table so he could get the proper angles for the shoot. I was a little nervous for fear that we would accidentally knock one or more of the columns off the table. The columns looked good, but they were quite fragile and barely put together with super glue. We carefully spaced each column in two rows and hot glued a 1″x3″ board with decorative trim across the tops…so far, so good. Next, we placed the ceiling arches and hot glued them. Once we did that, we felt fairly safe that the whole thing wasn’t going to fall.

Several sheets of poster board were layered across the arches to enclose the ceiling. More foam core was painted and added behind the columns as walls. A 2’x8’sheet of Masonite was placed for the end of the hallway. Now were ready to set up the lighting for the hallway shots.

After weeks of running around in the Arizona heat for supplies, much hard work, and a few other minor setbacks, we finally got the shots we needed (at least David thought so). Now it was time to carefully deconstruct our model to be used possibly in the future for another project. Unfortunately, sometimes your greatest fears come true. As David was removing the arches, he hooked one up on the column bridge. The whole thing fell! Oh well, easy come… easy go!

Episode nine of Voyage Trekkers with hours and hours of David’s postproduction work will be up beginning September 12. We invite you to come see our efforts at: http://www.squishystudios.com/voyage-trekkers-web-series/

Three days before the shoot, I was sent on location to view our prospective time machine. A grimy, un-restored Austin Healey Sprite needed to be rolled out of the garage, hosed off, and cleaned out before we could even begin to figure out what we were going to do with it.

After clean-up, the ideas began to flow…

David had a lot of ideas, but since we had a limited budget, whatever we could recycle was what we used. As with the death ray, we scavenged the trash bin for parts looking for interesting shapes and sizes. Small plastic bowls were sprayed with glass frost paint (a tip from my son, Todd) to cover holes in the dashboard. Lights were then hidden behind the dash.

I was busy covering the bare console with fun foam and distressing any “metal” pieces to look old. Sitting on hard concrete and bending over for hours can kill your back. OMG! I just had to rest for a minute! The pipes were now ready and glued in with hot glue making everything easily removable later.

Quarter-inch foam core board was painted and added to the roll bar along with anything else we could find that looked interesting. A spiral disc attached to an invisible hand crank gave the appearance when it turned that the car was going back in time.

David wanted to keep the continuity between the death ray and the time machine by creating parts to be swapped out. The night before the shoot, David and his son, Nathan, created a generator looking piece complete with lighting to fill the empty passenger side of the car. The duel canisters from the death ray would be placed on top of this when the scenes using the ray gun were completed. Unfortunately, the shooting schedule was such that these were never used in the actual scenes of the time machine.

The web series “Normally This Weird” is scheduled to resume airing in October. It will be exciting to see how Nathan Blackwell creates his magic on these shots. Until then, the first two episodes are up at http://www.normallythisweird.com/

Phoenix Comicon 2011

For all of you who know that I pretty much started this blog to showcase my son Todd’s work, he now has is own site where you can see what he is up to these days. It is at www.toddcookdesigns.com.

I realize I haven’t posted anything here in almost a year, but I will get a couple of posts up soon.

I wanted to share my story opening because this begins a book I will hopefully write;  it has been about three years in the preparation.

The Mushroom Tree

Zachariah stomped out of the house slamming the back door. He headed for the forest grove; his refuge and the only place he felt comfortable in this rural heartland. So many thoughts rumbled around inside his head about leaving the only friends he knew and moving from Arizona to this small Midwest community. I don’t want to live in this hick town. Why did Mom have to be the one to take care of sick old Aunt Elizabeth? When are we gonna go back home to Phoenix?

A firefly flitted over the small creek as Zachariah crossed the stone bridge and moved closer to the woodlands. A tiny glow reflected above the clear water as the firefly switched on its lamp for the coming sunset. These mystical insects reminded Zach of fairies, but at eleven, he didn’t believe in such things.

“I won’t go near the mushroom tree,” Zachariah mumbled to himself. He had sensed strange things around it that made the hair prickle on his arms and his stomach leap. The tree bark was peeled away, exposing the inner guts all sticky and oozing. Large mushrooms grew like awnings over chipped out woodpecker holes. Once he thought he saw something move out of the corner of his eye… no, he would not go that far as it would soon be dark.

As Zach walked farther away from the clearing, a clammy mist enveloped him. The unnatural fog seemed to have come out of nowhere, aromatic of almond butter snickerdoodles, leading him deeper through the thicket. He could barely see the winding path; the leaves crunched beneath his feet as he traveled. Calmness came over Zachariah as he felt himself disappear into the scenery. That’s how he felt most of the time…invisible.

It’s All an Illusion

      Thick, dark, red blood oozed from the victim’s neck trickling onto the floor.  The pungent odor of a fresh kill wafted in the air.  “I knew it was a mistake the moment it was over,” the special effects technician quietly said as he cleaned up his wares.  I’ll show my Dad.  He never thought I would amount to anything, Jason mused.  This gig could possibly net him an Academy Award or, at the very least, lots of money.

     Just that morning, Jason and his dad discussed the freelance jobs that paid little or no money.  “You need to get a real job that pays actual cash,” said his dad.  “How are you ever going to pay your bills?  You’ve played around too long.  I can’t just let you keep living here for nothing.”  On and on, it seemed like he would just never stop, Jason’s mind kept telling him.

     Jason picked up the jagged, glistening chard of glass next to the body.  These effects props are made to look so realistic these days.  The sound stage was dark except for a filtered light streaming through a crack in the door.  Everyone had gone home for the night.  Making zombie movies and hanging around on a movie set was the best job in the world; lots of parties, booze, drugs, women, you name it.  As long as he had somewhere to crash free, he could do this until he hit the big time.

     Voices from the overnight cleanup crew penetrated the door from the outside air.  “I’ll just be a minute longer!”  Jason called out as he quickly stuffed the body next to some damp rags behind the artificial landscape trees.  He could still hear his dad’s voice in his head, Jason when are you ever going to become a responsible adult?

      “I’ve done a lot of the work around the house you wanted me to do!”  Jason yelled back at the ceiling.  “Why does it never seem to be enough?  For God’s sake, I spent all day yesterday sorting through mounds of garbage papers in the file drawers.”  Instantly, everything became quiet.  For a second he realized the night crew might have heard him.  He cleaned up quickly and looked for another exit.

     As the stage crew entered the side door, Jason slipped out the back.  His hands began to shake slightly as he reached in and pulled the folded papers from his pant’s pocket.  Again he thought about what he had done, a mistake, well maybe not.  Finding this gem was going to make the act worth it.  Luring his dad to the lot today was difficult, but necessary.  Jason lit a cigarette to calm his nerves.  There was no way he was going to let his dad cancel this life insurance policy.  I could hide out for some time on six hundred thousand dollars; maybe even begin a career in Europe.  It would be years before the authorities would catch up to me, he thought as he opened the back door and flicked in the match.

Phoenix Comicon has been over for almost a month and I have been so slow getting these pictures up.  I actually prepped the photos shortly after the convention was over.  Unfortunately, other things took precedence in my life so this blog post was differed until now.

There were lots of great costumes this year, but here are only a few with , of course, my son as Spiderman and an Arizona Ghostbuster.

More coming!  Keep checking back even if you have a picture here.  I may still have more of you or your kids.

Click on any of the thumbnails to see the full picture.