Photo from New Music Video

Groovy! I began poking around several "Dark Star" fan-sites. I sketched up three variations for her. My third sketch nailed the look and feel they wanted while maintaining the originality they needed. In planning to build it, I pondered the many tool changes that had come about since I was last commissioned to design and build a spaceship miniature. I also realized that I could easily create the spaceship using 3D, but some Directors prefer to look at a miniature. This way, they are enabled to envision what they can do with it. They can light it and walk around the many sides looking for the tasty shots. It can be a real freedom to work this way, rather than having to translate the vision to a 3D Layout Animator.

After speaking with Shannon, and browsing the web for some info about her, I discovered a very creative lady behind such a sweet phone voice. She had appeared in "Pickle" - a 1st Prize winner in short film festival "Entertainment Industry Incubator" and appeared as an incredibly provocative zombie in "Fashion Freak."

At the time we began the 70's Spaceship project, Shannon's eclectic talents and passion for film-making were in process of touring around Sweden while shooting the "Miss World 2006 Beauty Pageant."

This new 70's style spaceship was going to be used in an up and coming music video for the Swedish hit-band "Moonbabies." After Shannon indicated that she really liked the third design, I submitted a finished line-drawing created using Flash. Flash with ease-curve line drawing gizmos is quick, easy and clean as compared to drafting with a mechanical pencil and templates. On top of all that, and regardless of the commission, Moonbabies music is good!

Building the Moonbabies Spaceship was a chance to resurrect my craft using Sintra. In studios past, we were able to build just about anything one could imagine using Sintra. However, it was not an easy thing to find here in the Bay Area. In Detroit, one could find it a local plastic vendor. It's a closed-cell PVC foam that can be sanded, cut, drilled, and glued instantly, with a stronger than itself bond using super-glue.

A handy development over the last decade is L.E.D.'S. No longer need we toil and spin about Halogen bulbs requiring liquid-coolant to prevent melting away hours of work, or spending countless hours with bundles of Fiber Optic spaghetti. Today's L.E.D.'s are very bright, and don't generate much heat at all. The trick is using the right color to give off a warm or cool light as needed. In the spaceship engine (photograph below), one mere L.E.D. with a small lens mounted at the proper length away from the bulb may fool the camera by looking like a much brighter light-source.

Once the design was approved, I had a little over a month to turn around the miniature, and it was a real pleasure. It was fun to experience a reprise role as a miniature builder. Sometimes, late at night when I was working on it, the ghosts of FX-shops past would remind me of the camaraderie, the long hours, late nights, and good soundtracks we would all share working together on the road to deadline.

Visit the Workbench Archive if you would like to view more pictures of the Moonbabies Spaceship.