February 26, 2008

Chaka!

Working on a movie does have its occasional perks.
Last week we got "crew shirts" and here is the graphic on it:



It looks to me like and old lunch box painting.

East Of Byzantium

Sunday night Akiko and I went to a fundraiser for East Of Byzantium , a film by Roger Kupelian. Roger and his studio, Fugitive, (where Akiko works) shot a green screen trailer, added matte painting and 3-D and really knocked it out of the park.
Roger's passion for telling this historic story and the excitement generated by the Armenian community for this film was truly inspiring.
I now know what my next maquette will be; Vartan Mamigonian.

February 18, 2008

Ghost Town

Land Of The Lost news: As the shooting schedule nears, the Director was showing cast member, Anna Friel (from Pushing Daisies) around one of the sets we built.
After 4 straight 6 day weeks, our crew got some much needed rest with a 3 day weekend. Thank you Presidents.



Over the weekend Akiko and I took a day-trip to Calico Ghost Town just past Barstow which was a major silver mining town back in the 1800's.


The land was bought and rebuilt in the 50's by the Knotts family. They also built the Knotts Berry Farm amusement parks. This was evident because Calico, although a very historic location, did have a slightly cheesy roadside attraction feel.


This weekend they were performing Civil War reenactments.


Akiko in someone's former home.


One of the really interesting characteristic of the area was the geological formations. Lots of different colors and some cool rock action like this stuff behind me caused by the Calico fault.

February 11, 2008

WIENER!

How often does this happen?
I come home from work and parked across the street from our apartment is none other than the Wienermobile.



As the driver noticed me taking pictures, she flipped on the loud speaker and declared to the neighborhood her desire to be an Oscar Mayer Wiener.