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mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,454
I've always enjoyed Wilmington. I was offered a job on the newspaper there, before the I-40 was completed, and the place just seemed too remote. Since then, newspapers have had such a hard life, I'm glad I didn't do it. But I can get there from Raleigh and back as a day trip, or used to. Also, that was before it was beat up by two or three hurricanes. It's a pretty waterfront, had good restaurants, but has had kind of a bumpy road with its movie industry. Sable has a memoir in him, war stories from the sound stage, editing suite, and special effects.
 
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sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
19,745
45,274
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
Hey Sable, do you recall ever working with a grip named Gene Poole?
Nope. I spent a lot of my time there in the art department, sketching out storyboards, when I wasn't on set figuring out the matte shots, so my interaction with the shooting crew was pretty limited.

Whoever they hired to manage the stunts was frighteningly incompetent. I got to see dailies where disasters happened, like when the two stuntmen playing the Mario brothers had to leap from the top of a wall onto the top of a garbage truck. The call was late. The two guys hit the back of the truck, bounced off of it and hit the ground, breaking their legs. Or the time when some of the cast flew in on that damned flying carpet, came in too fast so the crew pulled the brakes on the wire rig too abruptly, causing it to flip over, which resulted in the actor's heads getting pasted on the concrete floor. Good times.
 

cigrmaster

Lifer
May 26, 2012
20,249
57,280
66
Sarasota Florida
Welcome from Florida. I have a list of blends that are available most every day. Then there are blends that you have to hunt for.
Readily available:
Capstan Blue Flake
Solani 633 and 660 Silver Flake
Mac Baren Old Dark Fired
Orlik Dark Strong Kentucky---one of my favorite blends but it needs aging. Itis not bad fresh, but it gets much better aged as most virginia blends.
Hard to get blends worth hunting for. Start in the low tax states who have little to no internet presence.
Here is what I would look for

Fribourg & Treyer Cut Virginia Plug
Esoterica Stonehaven
Samuel Gawith Best Brown, Full Virginia and St James Flake

There are so many others but I think I gave you enough for now.
I wish you good luck on your journey.
 

Zepfan84

Starting to Get Obsessed
Apr 10, 2021
198
1,819
39
Wilmington, N.C.
Welcome from Florida. I have a list of blends that are available most every day. Then there are blends that you have to hunt for.
Readily available:
Capstan Blue Flake
Solani 633 and 660 Silver Flake
Mac Baren Old Dark Fired
Orlik Dark Strong Kentucky---one of my favorite blends but it needs aging. Itis not bad fresh, but it gets much better aged as most virginia blends.
Hard to get blends worth hunting for. Start in the low tax states who have little to no internet presence.
Here is what I would look for

Fribourg & Treyer Cut Virginia Plug
Esoterica Stonehaven
Samuel Gawith Best Brown, Full Virginia and St James Flake

There are so many others but I think I gave you enough for now.
I wish you good luck on your journey.
Thank you! I will certainly work my way through this list. I love Capstan Blue, and I've been thinking about trying some of the Solani blends, now I know which ones to try. ?
 

anotherbob

Lifer
Mar 30, 2019
15,777
29,582
45
In the semi-rural NorthEastern USA
Nope. I spent a lot of my time there in the art department, sketching out storyboards, when I wasn't on set figuring out the matte shots, so my interaction with the shooting crew was pretty limited.

Whoever they hired to manage the stunts was frighteningly incompetent. I got to see dailies where disasters happened, like when the two stuntmen playing the Mario brothers had to leap from the top of a wall onto the top of a garbage truck. The call was late. The two guys hit the back of the truck, bounced off of it and hit the ground, breaking their legs. Or the time when some of the cast flew in on that damned flying carpet, came in too fast so the crew pulled the brakes on the wire rig too abruptly, causing it to flip over, which resulted in the actor's heads getting pasted on the concrete floor. Good times.
the more you talk about this the more you start making sense. I get how you got the way you are. After seeing that you'll see the apocalypse coming and just go back to puffing on whatever you're smoking at the time. Now I wait impatiently for Cosmic to reveal the inciting incident in his past.
Seriously though getting hurt for that movie is extra horrible. Like breaking your leg for a movie that more then one guy on some random pipe forum liked when he was 8 at least might feel worth while.
The real question is how was it working with the looneies that directed that thing.
 
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sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
19,745
45,274
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
the more you talk about this the more you start making sense. I get how you got the way you are. After seeing that you'll see the apocalypse coming and just go back to puffing on whatever you're smoking at the time. Now I wait impatiently for Cosmic to reveal the inciting incident in his past.
Seriously though getting hurt for that movie is extra horrible. Like breaking your leg for a movie that more then one guy on some random pipe forum liked when he was 8 at least might feel worth while.
The real question is how was it working with the looneies that directed that thing.
Rockabelle, which is the less than affectionate nickname they were given by the crew, were...interesting...
I'll give you two examples. The first was when Bob Hoskins blew his stack at them on set. Bob was an amazing talent and one of the more genial people I've worked with. At one point Bob just had it with their "method" and yelled at them, "You two cunts couldn't direct traffic!!"

The other time came when were were scouting camera locations around the exterior of the cement factory. Rocky pointed to the tall smoke stack, and decided that the top would be a great place to put a camera. All one had to do was climb the 100 or more feet to the top, using the rusty little rungs that ran up the side.
Rocky turned to Fred Caruso, the producer whose credits included the original Godfather, and said, "Is there someone less important than me who can climb up to the top to take some snapshots for me?"
To which Fred replied, "There is no one less important than you."

Eventually they were forced to leave the production and take their vacation so that Roland Joffé could come in and get the movie completed.
 

anotherbob

Lifer
Mar 30, 2019
15,777
29,582
45
In the semi-rural NorthEastern USA
Rockabelle, which is the less than affectionate nickname they were given by the crew, were...interesting...
I'll give you two examples. The first was when Bob Hoskins blew his stack at them on set. Bob was an amazing talent and one of the more genial people I've worked with. At one point Bob just had it with their "method" and yelled at them, "You two cunts couldn't direct traffic!!"

The other time came when were were scouting camera locations around the exterior of the cement factory. Rocky pointed to the tall smoke stack, and decided that the top would be a great place to put a camera. All one had to do was climb the 100 or more feet to the top, using the rusty little rungs that ran up the side.
Rocky turned to Fred Caruso, the producer whose credits included the original Godfather, and said, "Is there someone less important than me who can climb up to the top to take some snapshots for me?"
To which Fred replied, "There is no one less important than you."

Eventually they were forced to leave the production and take their vacation so that Roland Joffé could come in and get the movie completed.
pure madness. Isn't it funny how big the ego can be on people who've done next to nothing?
 

sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
19,745
45,274
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
pure madness. Isn't it funny how big the ego can be on people who've done next to nothing?
I looked up their careers on imdb, and they've done a lot of stuff, Annabelle has evidently won some awards. But they weren't suited to helm a complicated film that included a lot of physical stunts and VFX. They liked to improvise, not plan, and that doesn't work with dangerous stunts, and didn't work with the VFX technology of the time. Their metier seems to be smaller forms, music videos and such.
 

anotherbob

Lifer
Mar 30, 2019
15,777
29,582
45
In the semi-rural NorthEastern USA
I looked up their careers on imdb, and they've done a lot of stuff, Annabelle has evidently won some awards. But they weren't suited to helm a complicated film that included a lot of physical stunts and VFX. They liked to improvise, not plan, and that doesn't work with dangerous stunts, and didn't work with the VFX technology of the time. Their metier seems to be smaller forms, music videos and such.
you know before learning a tiny bit about film making and movie making I'd see certain B movies and wonder how they could make something so cheese and after learning all the things that go into it (for a quick idea watch the credits on any movie and think about the fact that all these departments have to come together and making a finished project and basically the company structure is new every single time) I am amazed even by any movie that half way seems coherent getting made. From what I've heard about that movie a big part of the problem was that the directors viewed it as a chance to shoehorn in their dream passion project you know skipping the step of demonstrating they can pull off a movie at all. I think any artist on any level has come across that phenomenon if they have to work with someone else. The person that can't accept that this isn't the time or place for their specific dream to come to fruition. Like the bassists who love jazz and prog who throw in complex intricate basslines where they really don't belong and instead of creating something interesting it's just a mash of garbage made of really good parts.
Thanks for the insight I love this kind of behind the scenes stuff. Whether it's about the personal life or philosophy of a painter or stories about how a movie got made or the weird stuff that happened on set. So thanks a bunch.
 

sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
19,745
45,274
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
you know before learning a tiny bit about film making and movie making I'd see certain B movies and wonder how they could make something so cheese and after learning all the things that go into it (for a quick idea watch the credits on any movie and think about the fact that all these departments have to come together and making a finished project and basically the company structure is new every single time) I am amazed even by any movie that half way seems coherent getting made. From what I've heard about that movie a big part of the problem was that the directors viewed it as a chance to shoehorn in their dream passion project you know skipping the step of demonstrating they can pull off a movie at all. I think any artist on any level has come across that phenomenon if they have to work with someone else. The person that can't accept that this isn't the time or place for their specific dream to come to fruition. Like the bassists who love jazz and prog who throw in complex intricate basslines where they really don't belong and instead of creating something interesting it's just a mash of garbage made of really good parts.
Thanks for the insight I love this kind of behind the scenes stuff. Whether it's about the personal life or philosophy of a painter or stories about how a movie got made or the weird stuff that happened on set. So thanks a bunch.
You're welcome! The other reason for their being hired, as I was told to me by an exec at Lightmotive, was that they could be gotten for a "bargain" rate. Their connection to Max Headroom was another.

All projects present problems and dilemmas. Sometimes you can turn those into opportunities and solutions, sometimes you can't.
 
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