Star Wars: The Not-So-Lost Interviews
From 1975 to 1978, Charles Lippincott–the marketing and publicity maestro for the Star Wars Corporation, conducted interviews with the movie’s cast and crew. He would use these to write The Making of Star Wars, a project that he ultimately dropped. Years later, Jonathan Rinzler used the interviews for The Making of Star Wars. Now that Disney has acquired the franchise, they’re releasing extracts of these interviews as bonus material for the digital release of Star Wars Episodes I through VI, on sale for digital download on April 10, 2015.
On April 8, extracts from two of the interviews became available online. Here they are:
Anthony Daniels:
Carrie Fisher:
How to Make a Fairy Door
In this just-over-three-minutes video, New Zealand sculptor Kim Beaton demonstrates how to make a fairy door using their revolutionary long-lasting modeling substance, Pal Tiya:
Uploaded March 31, 2015. ©Pal Tiya 2015
In this 43-minute video, Kim fashions an “Ivy Face”:
Uploaded March 17, 2014.
Video Directed & produced by Chris Burns
Music: “Folk Song” – Brian Boyko, 2004
©Pal Tiya 2014
Chapters:
1:41 Skull – “BONE-a-fide anatomy!”.
5:36 What the heck’s a “Zygomatic Arch?”.
8:22 Terrific Tools of true tactility.
9:42 A “liberated” Kitchen Mixer??
11:50 Applying the clay WILDLY!
14:00 EYES – Don’t EVER do this bit!!!
16:10 Easy-Peasy Symmetry.
17:50 Clever Trix for Eyelids!
22:20 Nose, Lips.
25:45 Smile lines! (or ELSE!).
26:48 AARGGH! My Kidney!!!
29:40 Eyes! – and, another unexpected tool!
35:06 “Upside-down Symmetry.
35:40 “It cuts! …like, Fabric??”
37:18 Making your Eyes “Glitter”.
39:24 “It’s a Wrap! – honestly, wrap it!
41:30 Wha? Changing it all? weeks later!??
Stan Freberg Passes On
Stan Freberg passed away today.
In my younger years I only knew him from the acting he did for Warner Bros., as the voice of Pete Puma in “Rabbit’s Kin,” Junyer Bear, narrating and performing the Three Little Bops, the Gambling Bug, Benny the Cat, Bertie the Mouse, Tosh the Gopher and Chester the Dog.
When I worked on Pinky and the Brain, Batman: The Animated Series writer Paul Dini asked me to illustrate a tribute to Stan which Warner Bros. would give to him for his birthday. Here is the illustration with Stan’s Looney Tunes characters:
However, Warners management thought the illustration inappropriate and I was never reimbursed for my labor. The original, alas, disappeared. Fortunately I had made a copy. I scanned it and colored it digitally. The next step was to get it to Stan as my own personal gift to him. Fortunately, Mark Evanier brought Stan to the San Diego Comic Con for a panel saluting him. Afterward, Stan availed himself in the Exhibition Hall to sign autographs and to sell copies of his 1988 autobiography, It Only Hurts When I Laugh. I handed him a copy of the illustration, and his face lit up with joy when he saw the characters he voiced. I was thrilled by his response.
Of course, Stan Freberg has done a lot more contributions to pop culture, which you can read about here.
Mark Evanier has written a marvelous tribute to Freberg here.
A 10-Year-Old Reviews Thunderbirds
ITV’s new Thunderbirds Are Go! is targeted toward kids age 6 to 11. What do they think of the opening two episodes, “Ring of Fire” Parts One and Two? Two responses were published in the Radio Times, April 4, 2015. 10-year-old Hugh’s observations were quite telling. While he praises the attention to detail, he says:
“It wasn’t the best. I preferred the puppet version. It went way over the top. It was too much bang, bang, bang. Do you know what I mean? They didn’t really pause for breath.
“I mean, if I was making the first episode of something, I’d want to introduce the characters properly. I didn’t really feel like I knew who all they all were. And I didn’t like it that Jeff Tracy was dead – I liked him in the old series.
… “Also, they do SO many rescues. Like, one every six minutes. Imagine the size of the dinners they’d need to have enough energy. It would be carbohydrates ahoy! And in the old series, they didn’t have all the vehicles involved at once.”
What do you think?
Meanwhile, here’s the new opening:
5, 4, 3, 2, 1!
ITV is launching Thunderbirds Are Go!, a modernized remake of the classic series from the 1960s, using CG character and model designs, and live-action backgrounds constructed by Weta Workshop of New Zealand. Here are Weta co-founders Sir Richard Taylor and Tania Rodger with their kids at the premiere screening on April 1 at Park Road Post Production in Wellington, NZ.
Here is Richard promoting the series for New Zealand’s Sunday TVNZ:
Uploaded March 29, 2015.
Thunderbirds Are Go! blasts off in the UK on ITV April 4, at 5:00 pm. The New Zealand launch is April 12 on TV2 at 7:00 pm. The American launch has yet to be announced.
X-Wings from Disney/Pixar!
Would you believe a Star Wars mashup with the Cars universe from Disney/Pixar? No? Well, here’s what it would be like:
Happy April Fool’s Day from Big Bee Studio.
Directed and animated by Brian K. Anderson. BigBeeBKA@gmail.com
Twitter @BigBeeStudio
VOICE CAST (in order of appearance):
Narrator: Scott Fletcher — voice@caraworks.com
Red Leader: Brian Ibbott — Twitter @coverville
Blue 34: Antonius Nazareth — Twitter @AV_byte — youtube.com/AVbyte
Orange 8: Veronica Belmont — Twitter @veronica
Brown 16: Brenden Bytheway — Twitter @ScottandBrendo — youtube.com/user/ScottandBrendo
Periwinkle 19: Felicia Day — Twitter @Felicia — youtube.com/user/geekandsundry
Red 11 & 7: Bill & Brittany Doran — Twitter @chinbeard & @LadyLongshanks — youtube.com/PunishedProps
Blue 24: Scott Winn — Twitter @scottdavidwinn — youtube.com/scottdw
Hazel 42: Kiala Kazebee — Twitter @kiala
Pink 28: Vijay Nazareth — Twitter @AV_byte — youtube.com/AVbyte
Green 33: Bonnie Burton — Twitter @bonniegrrl
Luke Skywalker: Minnau Millah
Y-Wing Comic & Major Derlin (John Ratzenberger): Paul Arbisi
Princess Leia: Elizabeth Oldak — Twitter @ElizabethAOldak
Darth Vader: Riley Workman — Twitter @worktron
Han Solo: Anthony Ingruber — Twitter @AnthonyIngruber
Original Music by Voodoo Highway: http://www.voodoohighwaymusic.com/
COMPOSERS
David Brian Kelly
James Chapple
Brian Pickett
Graeme Cornies
