(I'm sure it went something like this

Head set designer to his assistants: Ok guys, as you know, we've been working night and day for the past 3 months to make up these things, and now we have about a thousand fake rocks.

Allen: Yeah, and what a job it was too. What with labelling each and every one of them with large dark letters and numbers as well.

Head: Well, now it's time to start arranging the set. First, we've got to spread out all that sand. Bob, that's your team's job. Try to lay it out it as evenly as possible, but with a lot of hills and craters. We've got to make the astronauts' shadows show up clearly.

Bob: Right.

Head: And be sure to hose it all down thoroughly. We've got to make it sticky enough to hold a good bootprint and not get blown about in the AC ventillation..

Bob: But then how is it supposed to scatter and billow when they kick it about?

Head: Don't you worry about that. The SFX guys will take care of it. Ok, Jim, once the sand is down you'll be in charge of marking the set. Take this schematic and put down label markers at every place a rock should go. Make them big and clear now, and don't leave anything out. If even one rock is out of place, someone will notice.

Jim: Ok boss. I'll get everyone organized. But how do I get the letters to stick to the sand?

Head: I'm sure you'll think of something. Oh, and don't go making any footprints yourself. Finally, we've got to put out all these rocks. Check the letter or number on each one and and put it down on the the marker that Jim sets down for it. Here, take this rock for example, "C"...

Jesse: Hey, I remember that one. It was the third one we ever made. Took forever to get the color to come out right.

Head: Go over the set and find the marker labelled "C" and place it over it. But you must be careful about it. The rock has to cover up the marker completely, or else it might be seen on camera. And for crissakes, be sure to put it label-side down, for the same reason. Robert, are you listening to me?

Robert: Huh? What? Oh, sure boss. No problem.

Head: Then here. (Gives rock to Robert) You can start with this one. Right. You all know your jobs, so let's get to work. We have to get it done by the end of the week, and I want it looking perfect. Let's go....

__________________
...And that, my liege, is how we know the Earth to be banana-shaped. --Sir Bedevere

LOL. Hey, it COULD HAVE happened that way, therefore, it did.

Anyway, I was watching "Apollo 13" (the movie) over the weekend, doing some indepth research, when I noticed how incredibly fake the dream scene where Tom Hanks imagines his moon walk looked. The background looks fake, the LM is odd, and when he walked, he kicked up a dust cloud with every step!

We all know how obsessed Ron Howard was with realism for this movie, and that is the best he could do for the lunar scenes.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Tomblvd on 2002-07-01 10:17 ]</font>

You left out this part:

Head: And for goodness' sake, make sure you don't put any of the props in between the camera and those "crosshairs" we constructed out of large black rods.

So how do they label the 27th rock? If rock no. 3 was "C" and rock no. 26 was "Z", and there are thousands of rocks ...

Plus, I can see a backwards "R" in the ground in that same shot, which makes me wonder why they're labeling the set in Russian. Of course "C" is a letter in the Cyrillic alphabet too, so perhaps all the sets are labelled in Russian, adding a very interesting twist to the whole conspiracy theory.

I can also see the numeral "14" which means they were using both letters and numbers to label the set. That means you have to figure out where to put rock no. 61 versus rock no. 19, or whether you're holding rock "I" or rock "1".

The biggest trick is how they got that "C" on the rock to show up on a print without it showing up on any of the transparencies.

You also forgot this part-


Director- CUT!!! For cripe's sake, who left the coke bottle on the set??? Get that dang thing off of there. Thank god we're only broadcasting to one small town in Austrialia now...

__________________
"Ignorance has caused more calamity than malignity" H.G. Wells

"Getting lost is part of exploring." Uniqua in "Backyardigans-Heart of the Jungle"

Lets not forget:

DIRECTOR: OK Neil, the money line... And ACTION.

NEIL: Thats one small step for a man, one giant leap for all mankind.

DIRECTOR: AND CUT! BEAUTIFUL NEIL BABY!... Hey waitaminute... WHO LET THE JANITOR IN

EVERYONE: (Laugh at the Janitor)

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Waarthog on 2002-07-01 15:05 ]</font>

"Okay, next! Who are you?"

"My name is Neil."

"Well, you know, we're faking the moon landings, and we need some 'astronauts' <snicker> to pretend to go to the moon. Think you can act in a 'space suit'?"

"Sure, I mean, I played "Othello"."

"Let's hear you. Read from line, uh, line 149 there."

"Uh, okay. 149. 'That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.'"

"That was pretty good, but it's supposed to be 'for A man'. Nevermind, you're hired. HEY! Joey, I think we got our 'first astronaut on the moon' here. Say, Neil, do you know anyone else that could do this work?"

"Well, my friend Buzz was Hamlet, he'd be pretty good."

"Give him a call."

"So, we're not ever going to have to actually GO to the moon, are we?"

"Nah, that's the point. And if we do need location footage, we'll just send stunt doubles."

"Won't they be upset that they're not coming back?"

"Stunt men are pretty stupid, we just won't tell them. Who's next?"

"My name's Gene."

"You look pretty good, Gene, but I think you'd go better as one of the last 'astronauts'. Come back in a few years, okay?"

Hey...who's doing the minitures? Someone is going to have build all of those scale sets so we can shoot the LM with a telephoto lens so it looks miles away. It will also make it easire to shoot those pan shots where no astronots in the scene.

...and who did the really *really* miniature miniatures?

You know...the one's that P**** is always going on about?

Wait, wait, wait! I see the problem. The set designer shouldn't be talking about the rocks. That's the set dresser's job. The union would never let that happen.

They got the guy working both jobs. You know, to reduce the number of people "in the know". As for the union, well, a little pressure from the MIB did the trick. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

__________________
...And that, my liege, is how we know the Earth to be banana-shaped. --Sir Bedevere

IATSE vs. MIBs? My money's on IATSE. Ever worked in a union theater?