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…  https://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.

the wrath of comicon, 2011 part 3

Wow what a week!!! had our big garage sale, making the final pack for Wyoming, getting ready for the fair, and just started on Star Trek Monday morning, life is good but a bit blurry in the high speed lane, HAAAA anyways I’m takeing a coffee break and trying to get up as many con pics as I can this morning,,, there will be a part 4 if I don’t make it today.  OK one n all have a great day and enjoy the pics.

a pin up style movie ticket, cigerrette girl

direct from disneyland, a pair of evil queens

it's mickey's bones

an awesome star wars poster

komodo king

ol scratch

just cool

full view

staem punk thrives at the con

the dream machine from "Inception"

the bat mobile

the original, my favorite martian ship

James Bond props from "the Man with the Golden Gun"

props from, Men in Black

a very cool MIB rifle with a special detail

there's a real octopuss inside!!!!

a wicked bike sculpt, (GROWN)

CAPTAIN A

the leg lamp in miniature

OK have to go so there will be a part 4

she needs a name!!!! It’s the give Kendell a new name contest

Kendell from our first shoot

Hi all, Several months back I posted  some pictures of Kendell in the pin up update section and since then we have done quit a few different themed shoots. A month ago the record company BUYSOUNDTRAX  called, and asked if I had anything scifi without being Star Trek or Star Wars that they could use in an up n coming scifi compilation movie and TV themed CD they were putting together,,, I said no but I could shoot something…. This happened the just before Comicon so I called Kendell about modeling for the shoot and then the quest for a look & an outfit began.. It was great timing to be able to start looking at the con, the Steam punk look was every where and was the basis for the inspiration. There were vendors for clothes and effects on every corner and  a booth called Pendragon Costumes, caught my eye… Many hours were spent there going through all they had with one of the gals who worked their. Her name was Kyriss and man did she know her stuff. The booth was so cool and full of every kind of incredible outfits you could think of. Defiantly a steam punks dream store. After all was said and done I walked away with two leather tops, they were separates but by putting them together on one hanger, Kendell’s look was born. Once home Kendell and I figured out the rest of the outfit, high boots black swimsuit bottoms, a big gun belt and a painted black Star Wars toy gun from Wallmart.  We met at the sand dunes in Lake LA for the shoot and when Kendell was all decked out everyone’s jaw dropped!!! WOW she transformed from the dirt bike queen to the goddess of the galaxy!!! She looked so awesome and she really got into the character for the pictures!!! We did two shoots over to days at two different locations and sent the pics off to Mark Banning who was the art director for the CD. He had the entire package done in about two hours and sent over the rough layout and Kendell had about six or seven pics in the CD…. I was so happy for her and what a cool CD it’s going to be too… tons of cool music they are putting on it. After the fact we were looking at the pictures and thought her character needed a name..  We thought it would be fun to do more shoots like a live action comic but we are stuck on what to call her. Neither of us have come up with anything good so far so we thought it would be cool to have a blog contest to help name Kendell’s alter ego. So have a look at the pics and give it your best shot. The winner will receive two signed prints by Kendell and an invite to come along on one of the shoots. OK then have fun n can’t wait to see what you all come up with.

k 1

k 2

k 3

k 4

k 5

the wrath of comicon part 2

As promised here are more pics from the show!!! be sure to check out pin up model Valerie at the end of the post and stay tuned for part three of the con coverage coming tomorrow!

iron man

the full size T800

the big suit from iron man

one cool iron man model

chromed!!!

captain America

the original alien

full size predator bust

hey, there's a hidden mickey in Jessica's dress!!

one very cool Star wars display

this one blew me away

from Sucker punch

the pan am stewardess's

what ever this is it's cool

coolness

I bought an art book in the 80's called sexy robot by Japanese artist Soriama and it featured pin up girls rendered in gold and chrome and this is the first relly good sculpt I've seen of his work, INCREDIBLE!!!

lots of great costumes started hitting the floor come Thursday

creepy

a lot of the sculpts are grown now, it's an interesting mix to see grown pieces and hand sculpts!!

this is a very cool

arrrrrrrrrr!!!!

awesome home made steam punk costumes everywhere!! this was a fav

way cool retro rockets!!! i wanted these bad

and one more pic of the bewitching Valerie to end todays comicon special, stay tuned for part 3 coming tomorrow!!

2011 and the wrath of comicon, part 1

AHHHHH!!  I am finally home! Directly from the con, we spent a week packing for our first big, long drive to Wyoming to get our first load of stuff from CA to our new home.  It took a week to drive there and back and then another week to get the truck ready for trip #2.  It’s early in the AM and I have an hour to myself, so here is part one to followup the story from this summer’s COMICON!!!!  Way too many pics to load in one post so more tomorrow.

Wednesday afternoon my buddy Nelson Broskey flew down from Northern California for what was about our 20th trip to the con.  We started the trip off with a stop off at the Chiodo Brothers studios in Burbank and then hit the road for San Diego for the premiere opening on Wednesday night.  Traffic was awful like always and took a couple of extra hours to get there; once in town the crowds were everywhere and mood from traveler to line warrior switches into high gear.  There is always great anxiety about getting to the right door to get your pass and get in, and if you do it correctly the first time it takes about 45 mins to to go the the process.  Once your tag is on, you enter the big doors to the multiple acres of booths and a glittering cornucopia of scifi  books, sculptures, posters, soundtracks, games, movies and everything else imaginable.  There are movie stars from the past and present, as well as all of your favorite artists doing their thing in the artist alley.  The crowd at the door and the main back isle is always thick so a quick jet to the middle isle and over to the far west wall starts the glorious hours of wandering up n down every row searching for all the must have items while making sure you don’t spend all your cash at the first booth you come to, HAAAA!  The sad part about opening night is that the floor is only open for a couple of hours, not nearly enough time to do anything but wet your appetite for the next day.

The second best part of the adventure about the con is what restaurant  do you want, and do you think you’ll be able to get in… The gas light district is a street of old San Diego architecture and is double sided with bars and food joints to meet every style of meals from around the globe. Nelson and I have discovered the Rockin Baja Cantina which is an awesome place to eat and for some reason we have always gotten right in.  MMMMMM a way good place with steak n seafood coming to your table literally  in buckets.

Day two is the long day and it does take the whole entire day to walk all the isles.  Meanwhile there are panels, screenings,  and feature presentations in every side room or hall of the place.  That is where the big crowds are, and those lines start anywhere from the day before to somewhere in the middle of the night to see the really big events.  I only went to one or two before and it was the closest I have ever been to losing my mind and being put into a strait jacket…WAY to much to handle for my little brain and crowd tolerance so I just stick to the floor, HAAA!

Friday comes as the last day for us and we finish the morning with gliding by our favorite tables one last time just in case we missed anything.  The cash is all gone by now and Friday is as close to the weekend as you want to get, for that is when the real crowd comes.  It’s getting to be a yearly tradition to end the con adventure with a trip over to the USS Midway and a pin up shoot. This year we worked with a very beautiful young lady named Valerie Neff.  We had just met on the model mayhem site a day earlier and set up the shoot the evening before.  Nelson and I met Val at the dock and her incredible modeling presence stood out in every casual gesture and stance she took even while simply talking to her.  After a quick history we learned that Valerie had come to the states from Peru where she is known as one of the greatest models the country has ever seen;  she recently moved to San Diego to try her talents here which only means she will soon conquer our modeling world with her sleek grace and beautifully poetic style.  We only shot for a little over an hour, but in that time we shot well over a thousand pictures and went through 4 different costume changes.  From my end I have never worked with such a professional, and every picture she posed for turned out incredible.  I’m still in awe of her talent and on top of it all she is a very sweet lady with a contagious smile and a love for laughter.  I will be writing a much longer post about her soon so today is only a teaser.  SO with all that said enjoy the pics and look forward to reading all your comments.

the crowd crossing the street to the convention center

the turbulent sea of geeks n nerds,, Awesome fun,, many of these folks desperatly need deoderant and in a major way, HAAA!

a huge sculpt of Vader with an illuminated light saber!!!

a huge 7 foot tall display of a game board piece

the Quantum Mechanix Viper

the QM 1/350th scale Enterprise with fully lit shuttle bay, does anyone have $3000

another view of this beauty

the world of Star Wars products never ends and only gets better and more extravagant with every Con

more cool SW stuff

Thanks to the digital world, extremely accurate likenesses are finally available

always a fav, Bobba Fett

a miniature solo

a full size Vader bust

from clone wars

bobba

terminator 2

the terminator, from the assault on the police station

an incredible Christopher Reeves sculpt

FULL SIZE!!!!! Does anyone know people that have these things in their homes???

incredible

the ever lovely Valerie

Valerie 2

Valerie 3

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.

poster

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

top gun, the 25th anniversary

poster

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

soundtrack update, The complete “Right stuff” by conti, and ST 2 “Wrath of Khan” by Horner

I have been waiting for both of these complete scores for over 25 years and they are  finally out and already almost sold out,,, Just got the CD’s in the mail yesterday and all those tracks I loved from the films have been brilliantly remastered and presented here for the first time!!! Thanks to Robert Townson and all the folks over at Varese Sarabande for putting out this beautiful score for the “Right Stuff”, and Lukas Kendall and the gang over at SAE for the brilliant work on the complete Kahn CD!!!

http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/cds/detail.cfm?cdID=431

http://www.varesesarabande.com/details.asp?pid=VCL%2D0609%2D1095