Linda Maye Adams's Blog, page 45

The End of Filming on Location

During the filming of Star Trek, the special effects people used miniatures for the spaceships.  This is a photo I took of the miniature on display at the Air and Space Museum.

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With the new technology, a lot of science fiction shows and movies went to digital instead of building miniatures because there were so expensive.  And you can generally tell the difference.  There’s a flatness to the images that the miniatures don’t have.

Now there’s talk that movies might be headed for filming in a studio against a blue screen and adding the location in:

I watched a TV show recently where they added rain via special effects.  It didn’t look real…it was kind of like it was raining in front of the actors, not on the actors.

Yes, you can build an island paradise with computers, but it’s not the same as going to the real place and shooting there.  There are some things you can’t and shouldn’t create out of thin air.

Rendering Book Reviews Meaningless

When I was in college, we had this really great library of film.  Included was a set of reference books of movie reviews so I could read reviews of movies I’d seen. It always amazed me how different the viewpoints could be.  The reviewer wouldn’t like a film that I’d immensely enjoyed.

Social media’s made reviews a flashpoint.  Netflix recently dropped their existing system in favor of a simple up or down.  Amazon is still struggling with this issue and has been trying to figure out how keep fake reviews.  But one of the biggest headaches is the five star system.  The selection of the stars is based on personal taste, and all the readers have different definitions!

Anyway, I’m in a social media business group.  The owner, like most business people, did a book on the system they’re selling.  All pretty routine.  I bought the book, I read it.

Then the owner pops up into the group with a post about her first one star review.  So it’s become this big event, and to her credit, she was trying to use it as a teaching point to not let negativity get you down.

(Uh, that’s why you don’t read the review.)

The problem: She called the reviewer a “hater.”

Thud.

Another person popped up and said that if she did research into who had given that one star review, she bet they would be a negative person who hates everything.

Double thud.

When the word hater was used, even in jest, I was very glad I hadn’t done a review.   I’d have probably given it three stars.

I don’t like the way hater is bandied about today.  People seem to use it when you don’t give an opinion they want to hear, which renders any opinion pretty meaningless.  I enjoyed reading those movie reviews in colleges because they were opinionated, and sometimes I had to see a film to find out if I agreed or disagreed.  I’ve bought books for the same reason.

Rain is a Fascinating Thing

I woke up to rain this morning.  Since I grew up in Los Angeles where the sky is clear most of the time and rain an infrequent thing, it’s fun watching, or listening to the rain.

Especially at night, watching it spill over the street in the halos of the street lights.  I sat at the widow seat as we flew over thunderclouds and watched the lightning flash below (flying through thunderclouds…not so much).

Still I had business at hand, so it was off to the farmer’s market for fruit and vegetables.  It was raining enough that I had to be careful not to have water dumped down my back at the edges of the tents the vendors set up.

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Shatner Claus

Okay, this is way early for Christmas, but William Shatner is releasing a record with Christmas music on it.  Check out his enthusiastic rendition of Jingle BellsCheck out his enthusiastic rendition of Jingle Bells.

Most of the fan commenting where this was posted thought it was awful.  But, you know, he’s having fun, and actually Christmas hasn’t been fun for a long time.  So many of the traditional songs have been abandoned in favor of “safe” ones that don’t offend that it’s watered down the wonder of the holiday.  It’s supposed to be a magical time where everyone gets along together and when snow falls, it’s delicate and pretty and just what’s needed.

It is awful, and I enjoyed it.

Trusting that the Good Guys Will Win

With television shows so dark and gritty, one of the things I miss are shows where we know the good guy is going to win in spite of the odds–and getting there is fun.

That’s Airwolf.  It was a show from the 1980s, probably originated because of a popular film called Blue Thunder, about a high tech cop helicopter.  Blue Thunder was also made into a series, but it didn’t last very long.

Airwolf was produced by Donald P. Bellisario.  If that name doesn’t familiar, it’s the same guy who does NCIS.  The stories were top notch.  Not just stunts, but characters you wanted to watch.

It starred Jan Michael Vincent as a former Vietnam War pilot named Stringfellow Hawke, and Ernest Borgnine as his fellow pilot.  Alex Cord rounded it up as a spy.

The flying scenes were stunning.   Okay, we knew Hawke was going to blow up the bad guys at the end, but the battle in the air…that was plain fun.

One of my favorite episodes was when six missiles were launched at Washington, DC.  Of course, Airwolf took off after the missiles launched, so they really had a head start.  Hawke and Santini push Airwolf to the limit–the helicopter’s going so fast that it might come apart.  Hawke nails the missiles one at a time, getting four–but the last two are getting out of range.  And then he misses!  Of course, he shoots down the last ones just in the nick of time.

It’s immensely satisfying when the good guys win.

Below is a video of some of the flight scenes to the Airwolf theme.

Patrick Stewart: Cowboy Singer

Something to bring a smile for Friday. This was sent to me by Robin Bangerter, who is from my Fort Lewis days, and it’s hilarious!

Caving for Star Trek

When I returned home to California in 1997, my father said, “Do you want to see the Batcave?”

Batcave?  He was referring to the cave used in the opening credits of the Batman TV series.

Dog in hand (she wanted the ride), we drove up to the cave, which is called Bronson Cave.  It’s located in Griffith Park.  When we arrived, some construction was going on.  A big wooden frame was being built around the cave, and there was a man inside, pumping some water out.

So we walked over and asked.  They told us it was for the coming Star Trek film.  Pretty cool just walking around and finding a Star Trek set.

I had to look it up again–couldn’t remember the name–for my book Golden Lies.  This is an article on it (he says in the video it’s the 4th film; it’s actually the 6th film).

Space Shuttle Enterprise Anniversary

Thirty-six years ago this week, the first space shuttle came out.  It originally had a different name, Constitution.  But Star Trek’s popularity was starting to snowball at that point.  Just a few years later, we would have Star Wars out in theaters to long lines, and Star Trek: The Motion Picture (which I wish they had done better).

Fans did a letter writing campaign, and NASA changed the name to Enterprise.  The Star Trek cast came out for the roll-out ceremony.  Nichelle Nichols went on to recruit women and minorities for NASA.

The space shuttle itself would take off like a rocket and land like an airplane.  Needed a huge landing runway, though.

It was really a hopeful time with the launch of the Enterprise.  We thought we were going to go out into space like Star Trek.

Then NASA retired the shuttle program, and it felt like they said, “We give up.”

Yes, we still have the space stations, and the rover is on Mars.  But part of who we are is getting out and exploring.  Man has always done that, from venturing out of the village to see what else was beyond, to traveling the seas to see where they went.

We need the hope back.

Patrick Stewart Casting News

Patrick Stewart is going to play Bosley in the next Charlie’s Angels reboot.

I have to really think about that.  A long time.  I like Patrick Stewart…but Charlie’s Angels…

I saw the show in the original run.  I think everybody did because it was pretty popular.  Aaron Spelling produced, so David Hedison showed up twice on the show (first season and one of the later seasons).  It was new and different–remember this was the era when women were just getting into West Point.

The original angels were Farrah Fawcett-Majors (who passed away a few years back), Jaclyn Smith (doing a K-Mart brand of clothes), and Kate Jackson (seen her show up on TV in a few places).  David Doyle played Bosley, who gave them their cases and did other legwork (he went on to the Father Dowling Mysteries).  John Forsythe rounded up the group by being the mysterious Charlie that no one had ever seen (he was doing double duty on Dynasty).   While the costuming is tame by today’s standards, Spelling put the ladies in skimpy clothing that led to the media using the term “jiggle shows.”

And Charlie’s Angels does its own nod to the Airport movies.  Given Aaron Spelling produced, they also crossed shows with The Love Boat.  That was a weird combination, and much later in the series when they were going through Angels.

Charlie’s Angels showed up on MeTV, so I tuned in.  The original show has not aged well.  The stories are surprisingly not well-written, and the thing that drew audiences too it then are standard for films and  TV now.

I’m not sure if Patrick Stewart’s presence can improve the show.  Without the era and changes going on at the time, it’s a very standard private eye movie.  Doesn’t have anything special to it.

Crusing Nostalgia Con

Last Thursday, I drove to Maryland and went to Nostalgia Con.  That’s a convention for movie and TV buffs.  Major guest stars were Robert Wagner and Stephanie Powers.  Ricou Browning was also there.

It’s been quite a few years since I went to a media con, and things have changed and stayed the same.  I would have liked to do a drive by and get photos of Robert Wagner and Stephanie Powers (who looks awesome at her age.  Very trim and fit).  But the layout of the tables only allowed people to stand in line to get an autograph.   Photos from those two stars were $40, and if you wanted a shot with them, $60.  I might have stood in line for $20-$25, but $40 was out of my price range.

So a few of the celebrities I did get:

First up is me and the Green Guy.

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Ed Begley Jr…

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This is Ricou Browning.  He’s the guy seated at the table.  If you don’t recognize the face, that’s probably not surprising.  He’s the man who was in the creature suit for the underwater sequences in The Creature from the Black Lagoon.  He did those shots holding his breath for four minutes!

He also was on Sea Hunt, Flipper, and did an episode of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.0

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And the creature himself.  The post-it is the price.  It was $$$$.

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The closest I got to Barbara Eden.  She was supposed to make an appearance, but cancelled (along with Loni Anderson) due to the hurricane.  We just got clouds and some rain.

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I stayed only for the day.  In that past, I would have cruised the dealer’s room and gotten autographs and photos from as many stars as I could.  This time I went to the seminars on films.  One that was really good was on The Andy Griffith Show.  The presenter  was very knowledgeable–they were down to trying to identify two people who were in the background.  None of the stars remembered who they were, and they apparently didn’t do anything more than be background players.

Trivia: The Mayberry set was used twice for Star Trek, once in Miri and once in City on the Edge of Forever.  Floyd’s Barbershop can be clearly seen in one of the scenes.

Because of what I saw here, I’m starting to watch the Andy Griffith Show again.

And one final picture.  This was out in front of the hotel.

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