This would be a shot of the Mercury Redstone rocket in flight, traveling diagonally through the frame, with smoke blowing past to represent clouds. It would be shot against the sky in Palmdale.
The model was mounted through its tail to a counterbalanced rig which would be obscured by the thrust trail, added digitally in post production.
A great deal of planning was necessary, working closely with Visual Effects Supervisor Ernie Farino and Director of Photography Tony Cutrono, to ensure that our rig would accomplish the shot as storyboarded. Back when I was doing computer animation I wrote a little computer program that would calculate field of view for a given lens at a given distance with a given aspect ratio. This came in very handy, as did Tom Seymour's drafting experience.
Click on any thumbnail image for a larger view
This diagram (drawn by Tom Seymour) indicates some of the planning that was necessary to insure that our rigs would accomplish the shots as they were storyboarded.
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Charles and Tom assemble the rigs. The Redstone rig is in the foreground. |
The rig on the platform. |
Hutch and Charles work with the model makers from Vision Crew to mount the Redstone. |
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© Copyright 1997 R. Hutchins
Unless otherwise noted, all photos are © Copyright 1997 R. Hutchins.
All rights reserved.
hutchfx.com - Revised December 1997
