h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

On Wednesday, Sean (U7), Tim (U1), Yoz (U47) and myself were invited (by Robbie Stamp, Executive Producer and our old boss at The Digital Village) to visit Elstree Studios, where they are currently filming Big Brother and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. Oh, and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie.

Before we went to the set, Robbie showed us a wall with a set of storyboards and production drawings showing the story from start to finish, so we could get a good idea about which parts are familiar, and which are new. Obviously, I can't talk about the specifics of the story, but it was reassuring that it was still very close to the parts of the story that Douglas told us while he was still working on it.

From there, it was on to one of the stages, where they were looking after some of the creatures for the movie. Among these were several Vogon heads. These were amazing - huge and extremely detailed, right down to the facial hair. The Vogons have a particular facial appearance which is a result of one aspect of the environment of their home planet which Douglas told us about several years ago (and which we all thought was very funny) so it's great to see that not only is this idea still in the script, but the physical design of the Vogons has been shaped by it. (I know all this sounds terribly vague, but I'm not allowed to mention specifics.)

After this close encounter, Robbie took us to the George Lucas stage, where we entered the Heart of Gold. I was slightly disappointed that by the time we arrived, shooting had just finished for the day, so we didn't get to see any scenes being shot, and we didn't get to see the set fully lit. Robbie started to show us around the set when we met Garth (Jennings, the director) who told us we were doing it all wrong, and insisted on showing us round the set 'the right way.' We started in the embarkation bay, where Ford and Arthur first arrive (some interesting furniture there), took us through a couple of 'those self-satisfied doors' into the main part of the set. It has been built complete as a single set, rather than as lots of disconnected sets, so you can actually walk from the entrance all through the ship, to the bridge, the bar (there was a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster in a glass there, but I didn't inhale), the huge viewing deck, and even the kitchen (complete with a Nutrimatic machine, and a superb teapot which I covet deeply). While on the bridge, I succumbed to my inner geek, and asked if I could press the Infinite Improbability Drive button. Unfortunately, it wasn't powered up at the time.

It really is stupendous. Even without the proper lighting (the lighting rig is so large that they can only light it for six minutes at a time, otherwise the set starts expanding and you can hear it cracking) it's truly beautiful. The main control panel is a mass of buttons and lights (most of which are labelled, although you're unlikely to read the labels on film) with the large IID button in the centre. They even have a set of instruction manuals.

Once Garth had finished giving us the guided tour, they had to dash off and view the day's rushes. We did ask if we could watch, but no such luck. We did get to see a very interesting *second* Heart of Gold set, but the details of that are top secret.

Seeing that one set, and the production paintings, I think there's a very good chance that this could turn out to be one of the most beautiful SF films ever made. The Heart of Gold itself has immediately entered my top three greatest spaceship designs based on the initial designs I've seen. If they can translate those onto film, it's a shoo-in.

This movie has had a more chequered history than most, and several times it looked like it would never get made (especially after Douglas died). But now it's really happening and it's looking really good. So far, everything about the movie that I've seen or heard about has made me more enthusiastic about it. The designs are rarely what you would expect, but they always make perfect sense. The Vogon ships, the Heart of Gold, Deep Thought, all of them are nothing like I would have imagined, but once you see them they seem utterly correct. I keep waiting to see or hear something that makes me think 'Oh no, that's not right at all' but it hasn't happened yet.

I can't wait for Summer 2005.

drool drool

I want to be you when I grow up!

That sounds so !
I wanna see, I wanna see!!
[I don't think I've ever been this excited about a film before ]

"the lighting rig is so large that they can only light it for six minutes at a time, otherwise the set starts expanding and you can hear it cracking" it's lucky it's not a real spaceship then, isn't it - although I guess it could be held together by sheer improbability!

constant improbability? Oh no thats impossible!

I can't wait to see it, my heart is really into Scifi Comedy and Hitch Hikers is my favorite.

-- DoctorMO --

Wow! That's so cool! You are really lucky!

Incredible!

Thanks Jim.
Your 'robbie stamp' of approval is most heartening!

I'm glad the overall design continues to be impressive.

What I saw of the 'Marvin' costume on an earlier link you provided had already cracked my pessimism, y'know that tension of being prepared for the disappointment which often accompanies impossibly high expectations.

And now I'm positively optimistic that the film will be worthy of the subject, the authour and his fans.
Keep us posted. Thanks.

~jwf~

I'll bet that second set for the Heart of Gold is after the spaceship has been tastefully redecorated, courtesy of the IID.

Hmmm... Yep, I'm feeling a bit of too.

<>

So we can safely say no long scenes set on the Heart of Gold then It must be an awesome set to use that much lighting- it's a far cry from nicking Blankety Blank's turntable!

You are soooooo lucky!

Traveller in Time upside down (does not help, paying the licence fee)
"For all you brittish (Licence fee paying) researchers, there is a chance to get in (hurry).

Board the studios at < A2756577 > "

Oh, and I'm very pleased to hear from someone I've met and whom I trust that the movie's looking good, as you never can quite tell from the usual publicity information, as of course they're going to make it out to be good.

Thanks for telling us about it Jim.

I have to ask, and i'm sorry

"the lighting rig is so large that they can only light it for six minutes at a time, otherwise the set starts expanding and you can hear it cracking"

How does the size of a lighting rig make a set expand?

If it doesn't fit in the set, y would it wait six minutes before it started to expand the set?

I may be suffering from a sense of humour failure here, but:

The size of the lighting rig would make the set expand because of the heat generated by large numbers of industrial arc lamps- the heat makes the materials used in the set expand, and thus begin to crack.

um...wow?

You wouldn't believe the amount of heat generated by those lights. I've had my handies burned a few times by touching barn doors what haven't cooled down properly

>> ..touching barn doors what haven't cooled.. <<

Technical foul!

Now seriously, how do you expect someone who doesn't realise that 'many 10k lights make one great 10k heat' to understand a technical term like 'barn doors'?

zarni, m'dear, barn doors are metal flaps hinged on the front of a 'light'. There are sometimes four, two on each side and one top and bottom. Or if only two they can be rotated. They can be opened to create a full 'flood' of light or partially closed in each of the four directions to create a 'box' or beam of light on a given area or to cast a shadow.

When all four are fully closed they also help protect the lens and bulb when the light is being moved to another set up. It is at this time that 'grips', the people who move the lights where the lighting director tells them to, should be wearing heat resistant gloves with which to do their famous 'gripping'.

Scroll down a bit on this link for several modest examples used by stills photographers and imagine something bigger, more like small cupboard doors, for ten and twenty kilowatt film lights. Even military searchlights would only require a small shed door rather than actual barn doors.
http://www.frezzi.com/mini-acc.htm


~jwf~

my knowledge of mechanical engineering ends at computer fire wire and Eth'net'working

thank you for acomidating this ignorance

and ~jwf~, from what i have read of your filmography (I do my research for the most part) you have had some kind of unimportant parts in films, in fact, the most recognizable was a driver in that martha stewart film, no offense to you, but how do you know so much about lighting if your film acting extends to driving cars on set? that sounds mean, i'm sorry, but i'm wondering how you got so damn smart!!!