I’ve said it before but it’s been 9 years since Mary and I moved into this wonderful creative space. I just can’t get my head around it. So much has happened hear. So many people from all walks of life and fame have been here. It would be hard to list them all but the guest book tells the story.

So much creative work from art, sculpture, props, models, and films we have made and still are making. I really must write the SNG Studio story at some point. I have a wealth of pictures and even video from our events here.

As I was cleaning up my office I took some pictures in detail of some of my treasures not seen in past pictures. Here’s a Gallery of them.

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I have been on a cleaning binge for awhile now. Between filling orders and working on my film every week night and weekend. I had over time this build up of clutter, dust, dog hair, and spiders and their webs that just had to be dealt with.

The models where covered in dust. Many the lights weren’t working on. Power supplies had failed and some the cords were ripped out of. This is what happens after a couple of years of neglect and the Covid lockdown.

I got rid of the things that were clutter and thinned it out so it’s just things I love. I still have much to do but the office is pretty clean. I removed all the computers for visual effects and editing and brought them home. Only 2 PCs remain for printing and internet purposes. I never did like doing post production at the studio.

When I get the post production set up at home finished I’ll out some pictures of that up too. What I’ve done so far I really like. I’ll be getting an additional high end PC to add to the mix soon as I plan to make many more films.

Here’s some pictures of the office. I’ll get more today and a video tour. The old TMP Enterprise was built over 15 years ago and was my first of that model and the only one that remains. It was shoved upstairs broken and falling apart. Originally made as a RC sub it wasn’t fully lighted and did have a NAV board. I didn’t know about them then and the water would have shorted it out anyway. Instead if had just blinkers.

I got it to light up again and it looks pretty good but this will be a project later on to Re-fit the Refit with up to date lighting and details since the entire model was made to come apart. Even the saucer section is put together with screws as is the engineering hull.

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Mary and I had a peaceful Monday at the studio. Mary worked on her paintings and I made up a V-2 Rocket kit order. I forgot to glaze the eyes and mouth on the Salt Vampire so I did that and packed it up to ship.

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I also made a repair to my Canterbury J Class sailboat. I found that the screw for the rudder was backing out slowly that could have resulted in my losing rudder control. Glad I found it before that happened.

I then did a little work on the J-3 Cub and got some more covering on her.

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Got home and tested the other sailboat in the hot tub and found no leaks. Nice and dry boat. I plan to take the first voyage with her Friday. It will be nice to have both boats tested.

Lastly I worked to about 8pm on the film doing VFX work in After Effects and got some amazing results! I made the first composite of the characters Mark and Adolf in the opening scene in “The Dreamtime”. I have been waiting a couple of weeks now to do this as I had other footage to edit and comp first. In editing I work from the beginning to the end in a linear fashion. The effect I got with the green screen footage was beyond my expectations bringing an end to a perfect day.

This all takes me back to high school and college. I had a 3 man crew, my friends as actors, a 16mm camera and a Nagra for sound. I made films. Not movies. Kubrick was my inspiration and it’s never stopped for me. The passion is strong.

To me film is art. You don’t follow the rules of the movie maker that puts out branded products to suit the needs of their pocket books feeding the public a formula they will eat.

Let’s face it, art is art and in the eye of the artist. This current film I’m making meets this criteria. 
I’m a one man band on the post production of this film aside from the help of Raul Arteaga. He was my assistant director and creative contributor to this film during production. He is now sound and sound editing for the film. I’m doing all the editing and VFX. That includes the green screen composites and there are a lot of them.

Using Unreal Engine for my backgrounds and virtual sets is a dream come true. It’s powerful, fast rendering and allows me to play god. This outmodes Maya, Lightwave, and the rest of those old programs in this experienced VFX man’s opinion. I am one that has used most of them in the past. Best part. It’s free.
So I’m plugging along daily, every chance I get between the lines of the studio to make this film. And I’m writing the next script which is about the importance of space exploration and how it will solve all our problems on Earth first. And it’s a drama, not a documentary, I don’t think I’m cut out to do docs. Although I may try it one day.

Here’s a few frame grabs from the edit bay. God I love this work. I’m so thankful to still be alive in a time when the technology and equipment allows us to make films without the need for Hollywood. The sky’s the limit. Or is it? 😉

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At the end of this video is the maiden of this beautiful Canterbury J Class sailboat. I sailed for two hours yesterday at Marina Park without a drop inside the hull. She performed perfectly. Worth every dime I spent and the time building her.

At the end of our weekly studio video is the video Mary shot in low wind conditions. Later this week I’ll post the video Tony Accurso shot in high winds. She really hauled the mail in 10-12 knots. Perfect heal. That heavy lead keel balances this boat perfectly. Even in a hard gust she took it with ease. Hans Burger does such a great job on these kits. You follow his advice and instruction as I did and you’ll have a perfect boat. This one sure is!

Thank you Tony Accurso for this great shot. It was great spending time with you yesterday!

https://vimeo.com/567855251

I spent most of the day working on a mask order. Got this painted and all haired up. I have yet to epoxy glaze the eyes and mouth and will do that today. Monday it ships.

And then I had a whole 30 mins. left in the day and I started back on my Peck Polymer J-3 Cub Free Flight model for indoor flying. Love building these stick and tissue models it’s been months.

I started covering the wing. More later today.

This morning early we will be at Marina Park to sail the big JClass sailboat I built during the Covid crisis.

Back at the studio we’ll do a wrap up of the last two weeks on our SNG Weekly Video show.

I was up pretty late last night compositing Whitley Strieber’s intro for our film. It came out great!

I had all these plans for the day. Work on the Laser blast sculpture and pain a mask for a customer. The mask was still a bit wet in the mold so no go there. I looked at the sculpture and then went upstairs to get some things I needed. What I saw was a mess I have been meaning to clean up for months. Stacks of models both built and unbuilt. Un flown as well.

I decide it was time for a purge. So many of these things I’ll never finish. My priorities are changing as I grow older. I thought, get rid of the things you will never build or fly. So I did just that. I gave away the Wright Flyer. The client fell off the face of the map and I don’t hear from him anymore. Many attempts to email and contact have failed and it’s been months. I don’t need or care to build a Wright Flyer so it went to a happy home.

5 boost gliders I will never fly. Basically because there’s no safe place to fly them. The desert isn’t an option. They’d be torn up there on landing on the first flight. So I took pictures and put them all up for sale for local pickup only, including the unfinished space shuttle. They are all currently for sale.

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As I started to fill up the dumpster outside with many things I could never sell or even give away it felt good to lighten my load. I uncovered projects I did care about and could now have the space to finish and see.

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I put in the trash tons of model plans I’ll never build of need. Half of them were built. I also tossed out kits that would be never built and no one wanted. Boxes, old equipment and more. It felt so good I feel like I can think clearly once more.

I am keeping some of my RC planes but many have gone to new homes. Some free flight models too. And I only have 3 RC subs now. I’m keeping the RC gliders because I love those the best. No more jets either. I did keep one small F-15 EDF.

Rockets? I kept them all. I love them and fly them all the time.

Tomorrow this expensive beautiful boat hits the waters for the very first time. This large RC sailboat is a keeper. So are the other 4 I have. Nothing like relaxing on the waters edge while sailing.

After nearly 40 years of flying everything from the SR-71 to the Bell X-1 at blistering speeds and screaming sounds it’s time to relax and enjoy the silence and peace of gliders, free flight flying, and sailing for me. It’s less complicated and serene.

And I do have that slot car track at home. 😉

As you know something went wrong with Whitley’s shoot. The footage had excessive noise we could never explain. But with After Effects and it’s noise remover, placing him in the Unreal Engine cave and a bit of fog and volumetric I managed to get some we can use.

I have yet to place the rocks with the Aboriginal cave paintings this was a quick unfinished test I did last night with amazing results.

Here’s a frame grab. If you zoom far in you can still see some of the noise but I think this will be fine.

Thought I’d share a little of the progress on the film with the public now and then. This is what I sent out the crew today:

This shot was somewhat of a bear to do because Steve was always looking in the wrong direction(my bad in directing him). In addition to that there was some green spill on his neck. That was surprising but there it was. So I spent hours on it. And I suspect this will always be the case. What I did was right click on Steve’s layer and “Flip Horizontal”. Bingo! Now he looks the right way.

In the first film I didn’t always take that extra time with some of the effects, and some scenes it shows. When this film is done I’m going back over the first film to do a director’s cut. All new legal music and better effects and some removed that aren’t needed. This is all Mary’s idea and a wonderful one at that.
Steve first walks into the Park world with the stone circle and looks around. We see how POV and his close up. Then our friend in the hat walks in and welcomes him back. We cut to the look on Steve’s face and we cut.

https://vimeo.com/565882927/8e614af265

Just click on the link to play. The sound will of course be replaced.

I’m calling it film shooting rather than a movie shoot because to me movies are Hollywood product and what we do is film making. It’s a canvas and you paint on it. There are no rules or standards to follow only one’s artistic vision as with any true art. It’s not made to sell or please anyone but the artists.

We shot last Tuesday on location, Friday at the studio on green screen and the entire weekend, all green screen. The rest of the week was prep when we weren’t shooting. Another words it was a very long 7 day week. Mary and I worked hard and although I’m use to much longer shoots and longer days in my career, at age 69 I definitely felt it a bit more.

The shoot went very well and a it did so because we worked with a group of beautifully talented friends we love dearly. Everyone gave their very best from the actors to the various crew positions.

Mary Cacciapaglia, Emel Durson, Raul Arteaga, Steve Altman, Robb Wolford, David Alan Graf, Tammy Klein, Whitley Strieber, Walter Evans and our producer, Dr. Chris Landon. Not a large crew but one of the very best I have ever had the pleasure or working with. Additionally I want to thank Paul Gentry and Paul butcher for there creative and technical input, you were both with us in spirit.

Now that everything is in the “Can” (as they would say) we move on to post production. On this film I have worn many hats, producer, director, director of photography, writer and makeup artist. Now I become the editor, visual effects artist, and more.

Glen Campbell will be doing a couple of VFX shots for us and Raul who has been the sound man and assistant director will be doing sound effects and sound editing. Raul was invaluable during the shoot with his many outstanding ideas and suggestions that really improved the look of this film.

Mary produced and worked the set from feeding lines to the actors to keeping everyone on top of their game. Between Emel’s and Mary’s producing along with consistent attention to details, script, schedule shots as well as making new ones I overlooked, we had the coverage we needed for a good edit.

Today I take a rest but will be back to the studio tomorrow. I will do a little editing and compositing today because I just can’t wait to see a little less green and a actual composited shot. After two days of green screen it’s hard to wait to see how it will all look with the animated backgrounds. The art is just getting warmed up!

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