Spaceship

just made my final run to the hardware store
found those last few pieces i was looking for
soon everyone will see why i was working so hard
i'm building a spaceship in my backyard

can we overlook the typos on my resume?
when you see my spaceship you'll be blown away
a few more paychecks and i'm outta this place
google my name when i'm in outer space

the neighbors are laughing but i really don't mind
i'm doing this for you, your friends - all of mankind
though many have tried and many have failed
i figured this thing out – i know i'll prevail

i'm going to fly in and out of weeks, maybe a year
stare monsters in the face, show them no fear
to bring back truth, justice, and a better way
and prove i'm not crazy, i told you i'm ok

don't wait up for me, this may take a while
to find hope for a world living in denial
to restore faith in the light of things unseen
and sell a few articles to the travel magazines

my spaceship's almost ready, red letters spell my name
and yes i'll wear a seatbelt, i told you i'm not insane
better stand back while i light this and burn up the sky
remember this day
and that a departure's not a goodbye

I'll Be Right Here

Another paper cutout project completed! I ordered a moon poster online and then I drew and cut out the bicycle and the trees and taped them to the poster. This one doesn't make use of silhouettes the way I usually do with these, but that wasn't possible with the moon poster. I tried positioning the bicycle and trees out in front of the poster, but lighting the moon to match the movie still and keeping unwanted shadows out proved to be an insane balancing act and in the end this looked better, anyway:

I figured the bicycle/Elliot/E.T. would be the trickiest part, but it actually wasn't too bad and I got it right after two or three attempts:

The trees were really tedious and took quite a while to complete. Originally, I planned to make four or five, but then decided it would look too crowded with that many trees. Plus, they are a pain to cut out:

I used two studio lights; one to the left with a blue filter and a second one to the right with no filter that I set to fire at the lowest power. I taped the poster to a black bedsheet and then taped the bicycle and trees in place:

This blue filter cast a strong blue hue to the shot, which helped match the color seen in the movie. Using two lights – one without a filter – made the lighter areas of the moon appear white, instead of everything looking like shades of blue. I rarely use these things, but this time it came in handy:

Coming up next: Mad Max...

War of the Worlds

My latest card stock project:

I used a small high-intensity LED that I positioned behind the tagboard and directed it through a hole that I cut in the board. The aerosol can of photography mist in the picture below provided some dramatic "smoke" in the shot. Behind the scenes:

This whole thing took longer than intended because I accidentally set the first alien tripod guy on fire!

You can see the flame just starting in that picture. Those studio lights get scorching hot very quickly. Lesson learned. It burned up the tripod and part of the tagboard in just seconds. I guess it was a fortunate accident because the LED light I ended up using provided more of a directional beam and I got the effect I was looking for on the first try... after some serious repairs, ha.

The photographic aerosol mist was cool, but pricey and it produced a faint mist without looking very substantial. I think a fog machine would work better. Maybe I'll try that for my next one.