Conan, the 30th anniversarry

May the 14th, 1982, 30 years ago today the unmatched movie summer of 1982 begins….

The first big movie to kick off the season was Universal Pictures’ Conan the Barbarian.  I had been waiting for this one for well over three years, when it was announced somewhere in 1979 that Super Body Builder Arnold Schwarzenegger was cast to play the starring role.  Like most of my friends at the gym, Arnold was a huge role model, and everyone aspired to work out hard and to be like him!!!  It was a huge day when the news came out that the king was going to be Conan; Arnold was born to play this part and, although his acting is not his sharpest talent, looking invincible and destroying everything with a sword was!!!

I was going to college in Arizona at the time, and my movie going buddies Rod Andrewson, Steve Boltz, Mark Zainer, and my cousin Jeff Goff were all ready for this one.  Opening night at the Mann’s Christown Theater was packed, and once the movie started, the cheers and howls never stopped. The film was 2 hour + roller coaster ride of incredible carnage and violence that was pretty hard to take at the time.  This was the begining of the bloody epic films, and the Summer of 82 had several more in store before the season was through.

Conan was an incredible film.  It is epic in it’s scope and visual scenery, and it stays fairly faithful to the novels by Robert E. Howard.  The film was written for the screen by Oliver Stone and John Milius (who was also the director).  Ron Cobb was the production Designer,  William Stout and Pier Luigi Basile made up the rest of the art department.  Cobb’s work has always been the cornerstone of my inspiration and art career and, for me, Conan was a visual feast of Ron’s talent.  From Swords to Temples his imagination was free to run wild, as well as the fine works of Stout and Basile. The incredible costumes were designed by John Bloomfield, and there are so many styles and tribes of people he had to design for, not to mention a huge cast of actors and hundreds and hundreds of extras that had to be suited.

One of my favorite parts of the film is the musical score composed by Basil Poledouris.  Basil is legendary and his work for Conan is definitely one of his many shining stars!!!  A robust and Romantic score filled with memorable themes, and his use of the choir only added to the majesty of the underlying voice he created to carry us to another place and time.  There are many versions of this soundtrack out but there are only one or two complete scores available.  These would be the best to seek out.  The original soundtrack was on vinyl  and accompanied the release of the film.  Because of the time restrictions of an LP there was only about 45 minutes of music to listen to from a 70 to 80 minute complete score.  Not until I did find the complete soundtrack some 20 years later did I realize how much beautiful, subtle music there was carrying the easier moments in the movie.

The filming locations for the most part were all in Spain except for a few in Canada.  Duke Callaghan’s cinematography is breathtaking to say the least, and his use of natural light and surroundings added yet another beautiful layer to the films exotic look.  The casting was perfect from the big parts to the minor roles, and there were some big names in this one.  James Earl Jones as the evil Thulsa Doom, Max von Sydow as King Osric, and Mako as the wizard.  Arnold’s costars were excellently cast, and their parts made for the right character balance for supporting roles.  Gerry Lopez played Subotai the archer, and Sandahl Bergman played Conan’s love and protector Valeria.  This was a big role or Sadahl who was previously a professional dancer.  Her work can be seen in “All that Jazz” and also as one of Olivia Newton John’s sister muse’s in (one of my guilty pleasure films) “Xanadu”.

I’m sure most of you reading this have seen “Conan,” but for those of you who haven’t, it is worth your time.  The movie is dated but stands the test of time pretty well.  Lots of long establishing shots and fixed camera dialog scenes let you know your in the 80′s, and I find it a fresh reminder that the camera does not have to be moving at all times to tell a story.

Milius succeeded in turning a fairly simple story into a much larger than life motion Picture.  “Conan” cost 20 million dollars to make, and at the time that was a fairly expensive price tag.  Box office grosses were high and the film made it’s money back inside of it’s first two weeks in theaters.  Overall the film was loved by moviegoers and received mostly positive ratings from the critics…I saw this one at least 6 times over the Summer, and it was a must VHS purchase when it came out the following Summer.

There is a lot out on the web about this movie so below are some of my fav links to go to if you’re in the mood for more about “CONAN THE BARBARIAN.”  If you’re an old reader to this blog, You know a lot about production designer Ron Cobb.  If you’re a new reader, here is a link to a post from several years ago showing Ron’s art from Conan…  http://johneaves.wordpress.com/2009/04/23/conan-and-cobb/     The art of Bill stout can be seen at, http://conancompletist.com/EN/william_stout.html      This is a fabulous website telling you everything about everything Conan,  http://conancompletist.com/EN/home.htm

OK fellow fans have fun, and hope you enjoy the grabs below.

Raising Arizona, the 25th anniversary

March 13th 1987-March 13th 2012,  Today is the 25th anniversary of the Coen Brothers classic “Raising Arizona”.   Story to follow,,,, sorry all I finished on Trek four weeks ago and haven’t had internet at the house because I’m getting ready to move to Wyoming, and the CA house has nothing but water n electricity,, Just started on Iron Man III today and just got a shot of the internet to post the title of today’s post only,, story to come as well as a post on the passing of Ralph McQuarrie and Moebius, from last week,,, very sad news indeed. I’ll have time at lunch to hopefully get things rolling again,,,, sorry for the busy-ness and all the delays

december 7, 1941

Today marks the 70th Anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States entry into World War II, Let us not forgot those brave men and woman which we lost on that tragic day. As a look back on this day of infamy, The movie “Tora Tora Tora” so wonderfully shows both sides of the attack from each country’s perspective and is a worthy view to best remember the events that happened oh so long ago.

the USS Shaw

the USS Virginia

cover story

from the plane dock

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The day the earth stood still, the 60th anniversary

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September 28, 1951 the land mark film “The Day the Earth Stood Still” is released by 20th century Fox. I saw this movie for the first time on late night TV with my dad sometime in the late 60′s. Our local station KPHO channel 5 had it on late one Saturday night and at the time I didn’t get the heavy dialog but as a youth I remember the music setting the mood of the scenes more so than anything else I had seen at the time. It’s funny to look back and think that even at a young age that a films score tells  it’s own story. My dad had a habit of falling asleep quickly on these late night movie adventures and a lot of times the only comfort was having him close during the scary scenes.. GORT was one big scary robot and I was quite terrified of that silver giant and his laser beam eyes. Since that first viewing I was a fan and even more so today and I have to say that this one will always be one of my most favorite movies of all time. I’m sure everyone that reads this post has seen the film,,, most likely numerous times and I’m sure we all see something new with every showing. It is a perfect film on so many levels. The story is fairly simply yet very cleverly written. The visual effects were very believable and I’m sure jaw dropping at the time. the use of shadows Matte Paintings and miniatures were used with exquisite perfection, and still look quite impressive even by  today’s standards. The actors are all perfectly cast from the main stars all the way down to the smaller roles. The brilliant direction by  Robert Wise is flawless and every scene, be it big or small has a special place in the film. Bernard Herrmann’s incredible score with it’s unusual and at the time very other worldly instrumentation set a pace for Scifi films that has been imitated and copied for the last 60 years. If you recall the pilot of Lost in Space used Herrmann’s (Day the Earth Stood Still) music before John Williams was brought on to re score the series once it was launched. and of coarse the use of the monuments in and around Washington DC added a credibility to the film that made it stand out as a film that felt more factual than science fiction. There are so many touching and memorable scenes from this film and some of my favorites are when Michael Rennie and young Bobby Grey are walking through the Lincoln Memorial and amongst the graves at Arlington Cemetery.  The eerie moments when Rennie is signalling Gort with a flashlight, the high anxiety of the opening of the film when various military crews are frantically working to find out what is entering earths atmosphere and traveling at speeds of 4000 miles an hour, and to many more than there is time to write about. Director Robert Wise is an amazing talent and has made so many of my favorite films like, “The Sand Pebbles”, “The Sound of Music”, “The Haunting”, “Run Silent Run Deep” and also Star Trek the Motion Picture. Each one a milestone of it’s time and each film is so diversely different in theme and style. In today’s world I couldn’t even think of a director who could tackle every genra with such skill and perfection. Wise also was a fan of Jerry Goldsmith and many of Robert’s finest films were accompanied by a brilliant Goldsmith score. In my opinion the best movies are the older ones and “Day the earth stood still” stands out as a masterpiece. Not to say that all of the movies of today are bad but it seems story and performance was far more important than visual gags to capture the audience’s heart. I cant praise this one enough and it was great fun watching it again before writing this post. one of my favorite pastimes with the love of these old films is to find out where they were filmed and if there sites have changed over time. Aside from the actual locations in Washington DC, the features always return  to California for the bulk of the shooting to take place at the studio for more control of the interiors and matching exteriors. Until I started this  post I was assuming the film was shot on the Fox back lot, but later found out it was all shot at the RKO Encino movie ranch in the San Fernando Valley. the movie ranch is long gone and has been turned into a park which I have been to many times without knowing of the incredible history that those few acres held only a few decades ago. The location is a rectangular spot of land on the North East side of Balboa and Burbank Blvd. If you remember the Jimmy Stewart classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life” you’ll recognize a lot of the fictional town sets and streets from Bedford Falls in “The Day the Earth Stood Still” For being as small as the property was it was well used with the placement of neighborhoods, and park settings.After viewing some of the pics of the RKO ranch and that of the film it’s pretty easy to see where the saucer landed and where the town and neighborhood scenes were shot. Sad to find out about all these movie ranches and backlots that are now long gone. Like loosing a loved one, the same goes for these vintage films in the thought that the memories and pictures will never let these places be lost or forgotten. So with all that said here comes a lot of pictures from the film, behind the scenes images, and a few of the RKO Ranch so kick off your shoes and enjoy all the images from “THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL”.

coutesy of the Byson archives comes this picture of the RKO ranch with some added notes

aerial view of RKO

present day view of the long gone RKO

title credit

first glimpse of the saucer with it's incredible rumbling engines whining down

circling the monuments

coming in for a landing, note the shadow of the ship on the ground

almost down

down and all goes suddenly silent

a beautiful mixture of a saucer matte painting, live action foreground crowd & park, and matte painting of Washington DC

a 7 foot wide foreground miniature shot in real time with the crowd at the park

the full sized set with the virtually seamless hatch n ramp panels in motion

our introduction to Klaatu, (Michael Rennie)

fabulous shot of the ship and Rennie

a gift for the president results in Klaatu getting shot in the shoulder

down

our introduction to GORT

what a scary image from a day long gone.

in a matter of moments Gort proceeds to destroy most of the soldiers gun's, tanks, n cannons, with his destruction beam

an unimaginable power

taken to a hospital to heal his wounds Klaatu meets with a government official who informs him that a meeting of the worlds great leaders will never happen in the earths hostile atmosphere.

disguised as a businessman Klaatu escapes the hospital and takes up a residency at a local boarding house

the tenants of the boarding house, lots of recognizable faces in this crowd.

Klaatu befriends Bobbie who's innocents and untainted view of the world make for a great comradery between our alien friend and this young ambassador from earth

a fabulous piece or art printed in the paper promoting that the alien is on the loose and very dangerous

a trip to the saucer with Bobby

the meeting of the greatest scientist on earth, only he can put together a group of scientists from the entire world for Klaatu to speak to

Klaatu sneaks out to his ship in the wee hours of the night

signaling Gort with a flashlight

Gort gets the code from the light bouncing off the wall in front of him

gort knocks the guards unconscious

into the ship

the interior of the craft was designed by the legendary architect, Frank Loyd Wright

more of Wright's exquisite designs

noon and the Earth stands still for 30 minutes

awesome shots combining matte painting of still and inoperative cars and live action crowds in New York,,,

London,,,

and other parts of the world.

Wise, on many occasions has small scenes where Rennie will be fascinated by objects of fancy in and around his surroundings, here he is amused by a simple music box

on the run Klaatu is hunted down and shot n killed in the streets

Gort to the rescue

brought back from the dead by Gort and this marvelous healing machine

you have the power of life and death asks Neal, No says Klaatu, only the divine spirit has that power,, pretty heavy lines for a scifi film acknowledging God as the creator of all worlds

Rennie delivers the final lines of the film,,, Live in peace or your planet will perish.

the saucer lifts off and the films ends on a heavy note

the 45th anniversary of Star trek, the original series

advertisement art, curtousey of Fredericks nostalgic newspaper movie ads

Holy smokes 45 years!!!!! Who ever would of thought that this little show would have spawned into what it has today!!!! The 12th movie is now in the works, we’ve enjoyed 5 television shows, and lots of cool merchandise, and out of geekdom bought lots n lots of bad merchandise. HAAA! Regardless the golden age of Television and the imagination of Gene Roddenberry, produced one incredible show in the 60′s, and on September the 8th 1966 we were introduced to Nancy, the salt monster, from the premier episode called “The Man Trap” Her terrifying debut  started us down the path for weekly adventures with the crew of the USS Enterprise. I so loved this show but after my parents saw the opening episode deemed it to scary for me to see for at least a season. My introduction to Star Trek came with “the Doomsday Machine” and is still one of my all time favorites. Besides all the show was and is I have to say the music from that series is beyond incredible, the themes and instruments were ground breaking at the time and still to this day when you hear the theme you remember the episode. Hard to think back that being a little fan of Trek would eventually be  a part of my life in a significant way as a livelihood starting in the late 80′s with occasional model work on TNG and full blown on Trek V working with my hero Greg Jein. Great fun and lots of great folks to work with on all of these additions and the same is true with trek 12. With all this said I want to end with a big Happy Birthday to “the Man Trap” and a big thanks to Gene for starting it all. Here are a few pics from man trap and some of the other incredible episodes from the 60′s

Nancy, I have salt Nancy!!!

The USS Enterprise

Kirk is seduced

from Doomsday machine

the USS Constelation

being drawn in

from tomorow is yesterday

tomorow is yesterday

from the arena

Gary 7

the planet killer

Aliens, the 25th anniversary

Howdy all, sorry for the lack of, and poor post subjects,,, We are moving to Wyoming and all has been crazy at the Eaves house since March!!! Regardless I’ll try n keep the posts coming and get more art and Trek stuff up soon… But today is a special day and as many of you know that it is the 25th Anniversary of James Cameron’s Aliens. July the 18th, 1986 was the day and next to ‘the Empire Strikes Back” This was my favorite part two to any sequel ever made. Aliens is as good if not better in many ways to the fabulous original directed by Ridley Scott in 1979. Cameron wrote the story for Aliens and what he did was magic, not settling for an ordinary sequel he went in a whole new direction with the emphasis on high octane action, thrills and and creating the strongest female characters to ever grace the silver screen. It’s a perfect film in it’s style,  pacing, music, directing, creature design by the late master Stan Winston, the cast, and the brilliant production design. Ron Cobb was back at it again after his incredible work on Alien his strengths were unmatched with his fabulous designs for the drop ship, the armored transport and the entire terraforming complex. As always Ron’s work shines more to me than the actors. Joining the design crew for this installment is another favorite of mine, Syd Mead, Syd’s work has been a staple of science fiction in films since his trademark design style was first seen in Bladerunner. A master and high tec designs made him the perfect artist to design the military transport ship Sulaco. The team of Cobb and Mead for Aliens is in my opinion one of the best designed films to date. As Alfred Hitchcock & Bernard Herrman were a team so are James Cameron and James Honer. Honer’s score for Aliens is nothing less than brilliant. An expanded CD of the complete score came out a few years ago and it is one to have. Aliens is one great ride and leaves you wasted by the time the end credits role. Happy Anniversary Aliens and thank Jim for the awesome adventure.

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the queen

the incredible Sigourney Weaver

Lance Henriksen

Mead's Sulaco

in color

Mead's hibernation chamber

Cobb's original design for the armored transport

cobb's drop ship

top of the drop

the 30th of john carpenter’s escape from new york

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July the 10th, 1981 was the opening day for one of John Carpenter’s finest films. Escape from New York was released across the nation and I was there on opening night. Hi friends,, It’s been a while since I have been able to blog but I couldn’t miss the 30th anniversary of  EFNY!!! All I can say is what a awesome ride and what an incredible film. John Carpenter was on the rise and “Escape” marked his third feature release as director and also his third film in partnership with producer Debra Hill. Escape is a basically a western set in a slightly futuristic setting. 1997 to be exact and all that John loved and was inspired by from Howard Hawks and John Ford shows with a great homage on the screen. The story was written by Carpenter and his friend Nick Castle, and along with their very imaginative tale Carpenter also scored the film and his music adds a very intense mood and feel to the motion picture.  This has always been one of my Favorites and I find it so hard to believe that opening day was 30 years ago.. Thanks and Happy Anniversary John for sharing your great talents on the screen… You are a master at what you do and your films are so uniquely yours!!! Here is a quick synopsis of the film so if you haven’t seen it yet, stop here and put this one on the top of your list. If you have then carry on and enjoy the text and images to follow. For unknown reasons the city of New York has been turned into the main prison for the entire United States. A security fence has been constructed around Manhattan Island and is patrolled by the United States Police Force. If your sentenced to prison, once over the wall your on your own and life expectancy is rather short. Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) is en route to be processed when Air Force One is hijacked and crashes inside of the prison’s confines. Prison Security Chief Hauk (Lee Van Cleef) has 24 hours to get the president and a special cassette recording out before the Hartford Summit ends. A failed rescue plan leads Hauk to offer Snake Plissken full pardon if he can get in and save the president. Plisken, once a war hero takes the offer but not without a price. Hauk injects Plissken with what he says are antibiotics but in fact are tiny explosives in his artery’s that have a 24 hour limit before they go off. Once Plissken finds out about this he is far more determined to succeed at his mission. Armed with guns, throwing stars and a whole bunch of devices that would make James Bond Jealous, Snake fly’s in a glider called the gulf fire and lands on top of the world trade center and begins his search for the president ( Donald Pleasence). Along the way Snake encounters the drudgery of what New York has become and his lonely search gains ground when he meets Cabby (Ernest Borgnine) who knows where the president is, Cabby takes Snake to meet Brain (Harry Dean Stanton) and his squeeze Maggie (Adrienne Barbeau) who work for the Duke of New York (Isaac Hayes) who has the president and is going to use him as their ticket to freedom. A failed attempt to rescue the president by Snake puts him into the Dukes Barbaric world. Snake is forced to be sport in a gladiator style ring and fight for his life. Brain comes up with his own plan and steals the president and is later joined by snake who has escaped from the arena. This motley crew makes a break for the heavily mined 64th street bridge pursued by the Duke. After battling the mines and the loss of Brain, Maggie, and Cabby, Snake and the President make for the wall at the end of the bridge where Hauk’s men are waiting to rescue the two. A final shoot out with the Duke takes place and the President himself serves his revenge with a lethal volley of bullets from an M-16. Once over the wall Snake gets the charges burned out of his neck with only seconds to spare. As the movie comes to a close we see the president getting cleaned up for an emergency broadcast to the summit. A face to face a conversation takes place between the president and Snake and it is quickly realized that the sacrifices that Plissken and and those involved to get the president out are meaningless and quickly forgotten. The film ends with a very nice little twist and the credits roll!!!

the prison layout

the prison called New York, Matte painting

the deal is made

coming into land, a beautiful VFX shot

Snake

the Duke and his court

the President

the ring

Raiders of the lost ark, the 30th anniversary

June the 12th, 1981, Raiders of the Lost Ark hits the big screen, and Indiana Jones becomes one of the biggest heroes of cinema, ever.  This movie was instantly an all time favorite, and I was there on opening day at the Mann Christown Theater in Phoenix to see it.  I was completely blown away on all levels. The action,  the horror, the romance, the way cool props, Steven Spielberg’s awesome direction & George Lucas’s incredible story penned by Lawernce Kasdan, and of coarse that incredible John Williams score.  I wish I could write more but we are leaving town so I’ll try and add more through out the next couple of days so in the mean time, dig out your copies of this one and have a Happy 30th screening.

original poster by Amsel

the idol

Indie, and marion

the incredible map room set

behind the scenes with the set up for the remote control glass eyes of the idol,, only a few frames of this made it to the final film

top gun, the 25th anniversary

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The date is May the 16th 1986, and Paramount Pictures releases the #1 smash hit of the Summer, “TOP GUN”.  This was an exceptionally exciting time because this was the first movie I worked on, and I drove from LA to Phoenix, Arizona on opening day to watch it in my favorite theater, The Cine Capri.  I find it so hard to believe that less than a year earlier I was a produce clerk at Bayless Markets and then all of a sudden my big dream of working in the movies was a reality.  It was a fast year to say the least and the whole experience of watching the movie and then seeing all of our names in the credits was very surreal!!!  I’m sure Doug, AKA Deg3D is going through this fantasy land experience as we speak with his starting in  Hollywood less than 6 months ago!!!  Go get em DEG!!!!

Writing this post brings back a lot of fun flashbacks and at the same time makes me realize I’m a lot older than I feel, HAAA! Anyways, Top Gun is the story of the best of the best Navy pilots that are hand picked to become even better pilots by training at Top Gun in Miramar, California. During a brief encounter with a Soviet Mig, Cruise and Edwards become legendary by making pretty close contact with the Soviet pilots.  Both men get awarded the chance to train at Top Gun.  A love story begins between Cruise and Navy advisor,  McGillis. and falls apart when drama unfolds as friends are lost.  Cruise has to cope with the fact that he feels responsible for his gunner’s death, and he is unable to operate as a pilot while carrying this heavy burden…Crisis arises at sea and Cruise has to pull himself together to help save his fellow airmen in an all out battle with the Soviets.  In the end victory is ours, love is rekindled and the sun sets on one awesome film!

The movie was the first big hit of the summer and became a world wide blockbuster that launched so many careers into super stardom.  Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, Tim Robbins, Meg Ryan, Kelly McGillis, and Anthony Edwards to mention a few.  The Cold War was a big topic in the 80′s and this movie brought it to the forefront.  Full of action, drama, romance, and some incredible aerial sequences that still stand as a milestone to this day.  Director Tony Scott and his crew put together a beautiful film with its awesome color and pacing.  The score by Harold Faltermeyer and the songs by Kenny Loggins,  Berlin, Cheap Trick, Loverboy, and the classics by Jerry Lee Lewis and the righteous Brothers made for a perfect soundtrack full of top ten hits, and many of the hits produced some very cool music videos.  “Take my breath away” was the breakout hit by Berlin with beautiful vocals by lead singer Terri Nunn; the band was on their last years as a group, and they also had songs featured in “Space Balls”, and “Innerspace”.

The live action was being filmed in San Diego and Nevada, with the above deck sequences being filmed aboard the USS Enterprise CV-65 and interiors aboard the USS Ranger CV-61.  In the Bay area, the behind the scenes folks responsible for the visuals were gearing up for the second leg of the film. The VFX team did some amazing visual work that tied together beautifully with the live action Aeriel scenes. The master minds behind the FX was Special Effects supervisor, Gary Gutierrez, and Director of Photography, Rick Fichter.  The two had worked together previously on “The Right Stuff”, and the work they did on that film showed off their talents at creating incredibly real aircraft miniatures in flight that rivaled actual footage of the real planes.  USFX based out of San Francisco was the VFX house that would be used to build all the F-14′s and F-5 models for the flat spin and explosion scenes.  Chief Model Maker David Sosalla was running the crew, and we were working together at Apogee in Van Nuys, CA.  David was finishing up a project he had going in Southern CA before he could break free to go to the bay for Top Gun.  David would often borrow me from my Boss, Grant McCune, to run molds and to build little parts for him and when the time came for the big move up North, Dave asked If I would like to come too!!!!  YEAH!!!!  Everyday a new adventure would take place at Apogee and I was off to work on my first big movie.  This was about mid November when we started working on the planes and we were in a warehouse over looking the bay.  The building was freezing and the ventilation system was a fan in an open window.  After the icy introduction we were off and running on getting all of the planes built.  There were three sizes of the F-14′s, two nine foot planes, a bunch of 6 footers fashioned off of some ducted fan RC models by Larry Wolfe of Jet Hanger Hobbies, and then what seemed to be hundreds of 1/32 scale kits.  The F-5 soviet jets were also ducted fan models recast for the film.  The models were built at a frantic pace and everyday loads of them would be trucked off to the mountain top location in Oakland.  The models, once there, would be thrown off 80 foot manlift’s, spun on wires, blown up, shot at, and burned on a daily basis.  I went on location once to see these incredible events and within an hour I saw three of the jets miss the drop net and disintegrate into millions of tiny pieces!!!  The hill top was terribly cold and horribly windy and there was no shade nor shelter to stop the weather that cursed and beat everyone to death.  The filming schedule for our part of the film was relatively short and we wrapped out at noon on Christmas Eve.

This was one of those life changing times and filled with so many memories and new friends.  Long gone are the days of miniature crews and FX being done this way, and I am so glad that I was allowed to share in the fun of these golden times.  On film everything looked so incredible and the crew had really outdone themselves with these incredible visuals.  It was a real treat to work with Gary Gutierrez and I’ll always be a fan.  His work on “The Right Stuff” still stands as some of my favorite movie magic.  Working with David Sosalla and Rick Fichter would go on for many years to come and they were always great fun to do shows with.  Below are the names of the talented crew that put all of these FX together, and it would be so cool to catch up with everyone again.  With all that said, Happy 25th Anniversary to TOP GUN and to all of those that made it happen!

Special Effects by
Peter Cairo
….
special effects
Steven C. Foster
….
special effects (as Steve Foster)
Gary Gutierrez
….
supervisor of special photographic effects
Allen Hall
….
special effects coordinator
Robert G. Willard
….
special effects
Marvin Gardner
….
special effects assistant (uncredited)
Jamie Hyneman
….
special effects crew (uncredited)
Mike Menzel
….
special effects technician (uncredited)

Visual Effects by
David Carothers
….
model maker: USFX
Samuel Comstock
….
animator: USFX (as Sam Comstock)
Stuart Cudlitz
….
model maker: USFX
John Eaves
….
model maker: USFX
Rick Fichter
….
director of photography: USFX
Whitney Green
….
production manager: USFX
William Groshelle
….
animation supervisor: USFX
Donald Hansard Sr.
….
process coordinator (as Don Hansard Sr.)
Don Hansard
….
process engineer (as Don Hansard Jr.)
Marghi McMahon
….
model maker: USFX (as Marghe McMahon)
Ted Moehnke
….
pyrotechnician: USFX
Earle Murphy
….
model maker: USFX
Kjell Ness
….
assistant model maker: USFX
Allessandro Palladini
….
assistant model maker: USFX
Mitchell Romanauski
….
assistant model maker: USFX
Steve Sanders
….
model maker: USFX (as Steven Sanders)
David Sosalla
….
model department supervisor: USFX
Wes Takahashi,

from the film, the old Paramount logo

the story

the title

the beautiful opening images on the flight deck of the USS Enterprise

F-14 launch

CV-65

incredible LIVE action areial scenes, no CGI here

awesome

encounter with a Mig

Filmed like George Miller's Mad Max trilogy only in the air. awesome shots and incredible lighting

Edwards and Cruise

Val Kilmer

the wooing of McGillis

romance is in the air

the boys are always in trouble and have to get their do from Tom Skerrit

A very young Meg Ryan

death on the high seas

Tony Scott's incredible lighting added so much to the mood and feel of the film as seen in this spectacular image

a row of Tomcats at Miramar

more of Scott's magic

the greatest shot in the world. the tail mounted camera as the F-14 launches from the deck and rolls into battle

a victorious return

the boys are a back and the sunsets with the end of 1986's Top Gun!!!

the VFX maestro, Gary Gutierrez

the world famous Rick Fichter

the F-5 at USFX, hey I have hair in this pic!!!!

David Sosalla

Mitch Romanauski and Steve Sanders work on one of the 6 foot F-14's

Stave sanders on the set

launching missiles

the F-14 takes a bow

the falling F-5

one of the VFX cameras equiped with the shaking drill addition for those bumpy looking shots

off the man lift

3

2

1

getting ready for the wire rigged flat spin

1/12th scale F-104 cockpit models were used!

ready, set,,,,,

GO!!!!!!

Mitch, Earle, and Gary discuss the shot

psycho, the 50th anniversarry, update

Well this is a story that started in August and is still in the works, but like fine wine the wait will be worth it. I went on a major trek to find all of the original filming locations so the “then and now” gallery is really looking beyond awesome. I also met the body double actress for Janet Leigh and will be interviewing her shortly so stay tuned and hopefully this will be done before the 51st anniversary comes along. HAAA! In the meantime here is a street view shot of the building used as the hotel in the opening sequence of the film. and one of the then and now shots as well.

Enjoy and have a good one.

the hotel

Central and Adams