Behind the Scenes – Examples from the Professionals

I thought we could use this thread to create a library of sorts of film makers and others with their behind the scenes. It could be really useful for us, while making dioramas. Here is a shot from the team behind Star Wars.

Behind the scenes of Revenge of the Sith

Is that for real a "making of" shot from Revenge of the Sith? That's, like, just a bunch of weird stuff from one of those yard decoration places or something. Or maybe that dude cleaned out his grandma's basement and saved all her old decorations from the 1970s, some of which were half-melted due to age and heat.

Some online searching suggests that model, with considerable digital enhancement, became Felucia, the Fungus Planet, where Aayla Secura was executed in response to General Order 66. The planet appears in Revenge of the Sith and in several video games based on the Star Wars franchise.

Note the round copper-colored textured discs in the behind the scenes pic, and see how they appear in the final images.




So even Star Wars -- later Star Wars, after the big money was already rolling in -- made use of inexpensive, and sorta janky, scenery materials. Cool.

Making UFO (1970-1971)

Another lovely example of behind the scenes, this time from Gerry Anderson.

these are the shows that make me want to keep going

JohnnyE4 wrote:

these are the shows that make me want to keep going

Me too, Johnny!

Those Gerry Anderson shots are interesting. The first one is from the 1960s, when they were still shooting on film. The second pic is more modern, with a monitor attached to the camera so they could see the results in real time, and a digital camera rather than the large film camera. Modern film lights are much smaller and not nearly as hot.

Nice views of the settings. Good pics to use for inspiration for building library or office settings as well as spaceship interiors (both of which are things I'm working on).

I see, too, that the sets are tall, taller than they would be in "true scale." This must be to ensure adequate "edge coverage" from any angle. I have discovered I need to make walls taller than "real life" so the top edges don't appear in photos. Now I know that is also a technique used by the professionals.

Those Gerry Anderson pics are fascinating. You can see the Captain Scarlet/Blue is more realistic scale than the thunderbirds. This might be old news to you; but they used a few Action Man as props in the 007 film “Moonraker.”






-Nate

More fantastic shots of behind the scenes shots,

The corpse bride.



Terminator 2 - Judgement day.



I found these while looking for scenes and had to include them. they are from the first 1954, Godzilla movie.



Godzilla, or Gojira, has been one of the most enduring and iconic kaiju (Japanese giant monsters) in popular culture. Undoubtedly, the monster created from the nuclear bomb blast has captured the imagination of people around the world.
The rampaging radioactive beast, the poignant embodiment of an entire population’s fears, became a beloved international icon of destruction, spawning almost thirty sequels.
The film was directed by Ishirō Honda, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. It stars Akira Takarada, Momoko Kōchi, Akihiko Hirata, and Takashi Shimura, with Haruo Nakajima and Katsumi Tezuka as Godzilla.
In the film, Japan’s authorities deal with the sudden appearance of a giant monster, whose attacks trigger fears of nuclear holocaust during post-war Japan.



Tsuburaya originally proposed for a giant octopus before the filmmakers decided on a dinosaur-inspired creature. Godzilla pioneered a form of special effects called suitmation, in which a stunt performer wearing a suit interacts with miniature sets. Principal photography ran 51 days, and special effects photography ran 71 days.
The film was released in 1954 and initially received mixed reviews but received reappraise in later years. In 1956, a heavily re-edited “Americanized” version, titled Godzilla, King of the Monsters! was released in the United States.
The film spawned a multimedia franchise, being recognized by Guinness World Records as the longest-running film franchise in history. The character Godzilla has since become an international pop culture icon.
Godzilla behind the scene photos
The filmmakers took inspiration from various dinosaurs to shape Godzilla’s final iconic design.
Godzilla was designed by Teizō Toshimitsu and Akira Watanabe under Eiji Tsuburaya’s supervision. Early on, Tanaka contemplated having the monster be gorilla-like or whale-like in design, due to the name “Gojira” (a combination of the Japanese words for “gorilla”, gorira, and “whale”, kujira), but eventually settled on a dinosaur-like design.
Kazuyoshi Abe was hired earlier to design Godzilla but his ideas were later rejected due to Godzilla looking too humanoid and mammalian, with a head shaped like a mushroom cloud; however, Abe was retained to help draw the film’s storyboards.
YSL
Toshimitsu and Watanabe decided to base Godzilla’s design on dinosaurs and, by using dinosaur books and magazines as a reference, combined elements of a Tyrannosaurus, Iguanodon, and the dorsal fins of a Stegosaurus.
Despite wanting to have utilized stop motion animation, Tsuburaya reluctantly settled on suitmation, Toshimitsu sculpted three clay models on which the suit would be based. The first two were rejected but the third was finally approved.
Godzilla behind the scene photosThe Godzilla suit was constructed by Kanju Yagi, Yasuei Yagi, and Eizo Kaimai, who used thin bamboo sticks and wire to build a frame for the interior of the suit and added metal mesh and cushioning over it to bolster its structure, and finally applied coats of latex.
Coats of molten rubber were additionally applied, followed by carved indentations and strips of latex glued onto the surface of the suit to create Godzilla’s scaly hide.
This first version of the suit weighed 100 kilograms (220 pounds). For close-ups, Toshimitsu created a smaller scale, mechanical, hand-operated puppet that sprayed streams of mist from its mouth to act as Godzilla’s atomic breath.
Godzilla behind the scene photosIn the film, Godzilla symbolizes nuclear holocaust from Japan’s perspective and has since been culturally identified as a strong metaphor for nuclear weapons.
Producer Tomoyuki Tanaka stated that, “The theme of the film, from the beginning, was the terror of the bomb. Mankind had created the bomb, and now nature was going to take revenge on mankind.”
Director Ishirō Honda filmed Godzilla’s Tokyo rampage to mirror the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, stating, “If Godzilla had been a dinosaur or some other animal, he would have been killed by just one cannonball. But if he were equal to an atomic bomb, we wouldn’t know what to do. So, I took the characteristics of an atomic bomb and applied them to Godzilla.”
Godzilla behind the scene photosOn March 1, 1954, just a few months before the film was made, the Japanese fishing vessel Daigo Fukuryū Maru (“Lucky Dragon No. 5”) had been showered with radioactive fallout from the U.S. military’s 15-megaton “Castle Bravo” hydrogen bomb test at nearby Bikini Atoll.
The boat’s catch was contaminated, spurring a panic in Japan about the safety of eating fish, and the crew was sickened, with one crew member eventually dying from radiation sickness.
This event led to the emergence of a large and enduring anti-nuclear movement that gathered 30 million signatures on an anti-nuclear petition by August 1955 and eventually became institutionalized as the Japan Council against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs.
The film’s opening scene of Godzilla destroying a Japanese vessel is a direct reference to these events and had a strong impact on Japanese viewers with this recent event still fresh in the mind of the public.
Godzilla behind the scene photosAcademics Anne Allison, Thomas Schnellbächer, and Steve Ryfle have said that Godzilla contains political and cultural undertones that can be attributed to what the Japanese had experienced in World War II and that Japanese audiences were able to connect emotionally to the monster.
YSL
They theorized that these viewers saw Godzilla as a victim and felt that the creature’s backstory reminded them of their experiences in World War II.
These academics have also claimed that as the atomic bomb testing that woke Godzilla was carried out by the United States, the film in a way can be seen to blame the United States for the problems and struggles that Japan experienced after World War II had ended.
They also felt that the film could have served as a cultural coping method to help the people of Japan move on from the events of the war.
Godzilla behind the scene photosBrian Merchant from Motherboard called the film “a bleak, powerful metaphor for nuclear power that still endures today” and on its themes, he stated: “It’s an unflinchingly bleak, deceptively powerful film about coping with and taking responsibility for incomprehensible, manmade tragedy. Specifically, nuclear tragedies. It’s arguably the best window into post-war attitudes towards nuclear power we’ve got—as seen from the perspective of its greatest victims.”
Terrence Rafferty from The New York Times said Godzilla was “an obvious gigantic, unsubtle, grimly purposeful metaphor for the atomic bomb” and felt the film was “extraordinarily solemn, full of earnest discussions”.
Godzilla behind the scene photosThe film spawned a multimedia franchise consisting of 36 films in total, video games, books, comics, toys and other media.
The Godzilla franchise has been recognized by Guinness World Records as being the longest-running film franchise in history.
Since his debut, Godzilla became an international pop culture icon, inspiring countless rip-offs, imitations, parodies and tributes.
The 1954 film and its special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya have been largely credited for establishing the template for tokusatsu, a technique of practical special effects filmmaking that would become essential in Japan’s film industry after the release of Godzilla.
Critic and scholar Ryusuke Hikawa said: “Disney created the template for American animation, In the same way, (special-effects studio) Tsuburaya created the template for the Japanese movie business. It was their use of cheap but craftsman-like approaches to movie-making that made tokusatsu unique.”
Steven Spielberg cited Godzilla as an inspiration for Jurassic Park (1993), specifically Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956), which he grew up watching.



The filmmakers took inspiration from various dinosaurs to shape Godzilla’s final iconic design.






Text taken from article. - https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/godzilla-behind-the-scenes-photos/

A bit of James Bond anyone? I've always liked Goldeneye from the newer Bond movies, and now having found these magnificent models, I like it even more!

The mountain snowscape from Goldeneye is truly impressive!

The dining hall setting from The Corpse Bride leaves me truly envious over having the space to work as well as the architectural craftsmanship to construct something so believable.

I miss the old show Movie Magic

Some if these photos are amazing. I believe some movie props are 1/6 that would work with action man. The helicopter that crashed into the bunker in Terminator 3 and the jets from the opening scene of the Bond film “Tomorrow Never Dies” were 1/6, I believe.

-Nate

Great thread! Enjoying!

That model looks so cool!
In the movie, it's so hard to tell it's a model, I wondered if they actually built the Jawa sand crawler full-scale.

I was reading a (five year old) article yesterday about how the Industrial Light and Magic model makers used bits and pieces from plastic model kits to make the Star Wars models look more realistic:

https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/greebles-how-tiny-details-make-a-huge-star-wars-universe/

"“The main difference between a professional and hobby model maker is, a hobby model maker takes pride in the year they spent on making a model,” says Davis. “Whereas a professional takes pride in the day or week they spent on making a model. So it’s about making it look as though you’ve spent a long time without actually spending a long time.”"

Great stuff Dal!

Blog post with a lot more photos here:

https://www.modelshipsinthecinema.com/2022/11/battle-of-sea-of-japan-1969.html

Oh wow! look at that! I wonder how they keep them where they want them while filming?

More old school special effect behind the scenes stuff no photoshop here! , I bet Chip would love this for his astronauts!

As cool as the Eagle looks on the outside, the design of the cockpit section would leave the pilot blind to his right and the co-pilot blind to his left. This would be just as stupid as the design of the Millennium Falcon, which would have a huge blind spot to the front left of both pilots. No aeronautical engineer would design a craft like that.

This being said, the model is a lot larger than I had envisioned.

Wow these are some awsome shots really good to see them thanks everyone for sharing

Kimono Troop Command wrote:

As cool as the Eagle looks on the outside, the design of the cockpit section would leave the pilot blind to his right and the co-pilot blind to his left. This would be just as stupid as the design of the Millennium Falcon, which would have a huge blind spot to the front left of both pilots. No aeronautical engineer would design a craft like that.

This being said, the model is a lot larger than I had envisioned.

As these were designed to be so far in the future , and I am only thinking and have no idea , but it wouldn`t be hard to believe that there could be monitors in both cockpits , covering all those blind spots . Just a thought Gary .