Meddings magic miniatures - JOURNEY TO THE FAR SIDE OF THE SUN : Gerry Anderson's big screen science fiction epic with long time effects designer Derek Meddings.

This is one of those films that had always escaped me back in the day though not through any fault of my own - it just never seemed to play here in New Zealand, and if it did, it was a here today gone tomorrow enterprise which is unfortunate as it's a really neat little sci-fi epic.  The idea of there being an identical planet 'Earth' at the other side of the sun is an intriguing one and for the most part the film really delivers some great concepts, though the whole show ends too abruptly to have properly developed that alter-ego strategy sadly.

Like so many others I'd grown up on all of the Gerry Anderson shows in the 1960's and couldn't contain myself in anxious wait for next weeks' episode, be it STINGRAY, FIREBALL XL, CAPTAIN SCARLETT, JOE 90,  UFO or best of all THUNDERBIRDS.  Naturally what bothered us most was the not so subtle "in colour" title card thrust into our faces each week - a slap in the face as all we had on offer in NZ until 1973 or so was good old black and white television sets.  Despite the Government mandated monochromatic viewing option and having just the one and only channel -  we kids just couldn't get enough of all Gerry and Sylvia and their ace special effects chief Derek Meddings had to offer - and boy, oh boy did they deliver!  Every week without fail some bloody big behemoth of a mechanised contraption would fall off of a bridge, slide down a canyon or just plain blow up - jeepers, who could ask for more??  Excitement all the way, amd so much so that it took like minded kids a day or so to 'come down' after the televised events of the night before.

When the feature length motion picture THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO! hit the screen around 1967 I was first in line to see my favourite characters, vehicles and explosions on the big screen in Technicolour AND Cinemascope - a double windfall.... and I was not disappointed for a minute.  That show was all I had hoped for.  I think I must have seen that feature around 25 times - often double featured with the Japanese epic KING KONG ESCAPES or ROBINSON CRUSOE ON MARS.

Meddings with UFO miniature

Gerry and; Sylvia Anderson

For me Derek Meddings was the first 'special effects' personality I'd ever heard of and as he created such marvels each week he became my hero.  As with so many other young people I built model sets out in the sandpit and blew them up with fireworks or burnt them to the ground while taking snapshots on a crummy old instamatic camera.  I owned all of the official THUNDERBIRDS models which came out around 1966 - and I just wish I still had them (in their original boxes) - but alas they are long gone.

Which brings me to todays' special effect blog entry... JOURNEY TO THE FAR SIDE OF THE SUN.  This blog is primarily a matte shot blog, though as I've mentioned previously that doesn't by any means discount the possibility of other traditional effects methods being a topic here - be they old style miniatures, stop motion, optical printing, and just simply amazing feats created by hand (though the true love is of the painted matte).

Superman Oscar win- Colin Chilvers, Derek, Denys Coop

THUNDERBIRDS - all the toys a kid could ever want

JTTFSOTS  (also known as DOPPELGANGER in some markets, which no doubt killed it at the box office)is a great case in point as it has many ingredients from the above list of effects and presents them all extremely well in my book.  The film naturally is abundant with Meddings miniatures, there are optical effects and travelling mattes,  painted backings (which kind of qualify as matte paintings), split screen effects with actors and models combined and terrific physical effects in the form of the Meddings explosions.  Of course Derek started off in the film business as a matte painter under Les Bowie at the old Anglo-Scottish pictures in the late 50's.

So sit back and enjoy some wonderful visual effects from a genius who departed this world far too early, Mr Derek Meddings......................

Special effects director - Derek Meddings

Special effects art director - Bob Bell
Optical effects supervisor - Roy Field

Visual effects lighting cameraman - Harry Oakes, BSC

Visual effects designer - Mike Trim

Visual effects supervisors - Jimmy Elliott,  Shaun Whittaker-Cook and Peter Wragg

Effects technicians -  Alan Berry, Tony Harding, David Mitten, Ian Wingrove, John Evans,             Richard Conway, George Gibbs and Warwick Embury.

Model makers - Alan Shubrook, David Palmer, Brian Smithies, Russell Page, Ray Brown, Peter Aston, Eric Backman and Charlie Bryant.

*I don't know whether Brian Johnson was involved as he was tied up with Kubrick's 2001 around this time.

Derek Meddings - quiet, unassuming - an artist in many guises.

A wonderful painted backing, probably orchestrated by Bob Bell, who himself would become a matte artist years later.

Expert miniature cinematography by long time Meddings cameraman Harry Oakes

Although uncredited it's likely that models were fabricated by Alan Shubrook, David Palmer and Brian Smithies

Some of the wonderful mechanised miniature effects that Derek was the master of.

Dereks' models always had that sense of weight and believable motion to them.

As convincing a model shot as one could ever expect to see.

Astronaut training centrifuge - a miniature effect Derek would revisit on MOONRAKER

A rare use of blue screen travelling matte adds that extra credibility to the miniature set up.

The miniature stood around seven feet tall, allowing excellent depth of field for the lighting cameraman.

Another blue screen travelling matte.

The dazzling tilt up shot of the rocket - superbly lit and featuring lots of small moving parts and little 'workers' on the gantry

A spectacular down view combining actors with model set via blue screen matte by long time Pinewood optical man Roy Field.

Lift off!!!  I love that authentic white hot exhaust - a Meddings trademark on many shows with his similar work in 1979 on MOONRAKER being a career high for such an effect.

Meddings and crew putting the final touches on the magnificently detailed craft.

Meddings was 'dirtying up' miniatures decades before George Lucas.

A rare matte shot from a Gerry Anderson show - this being a superb and convincing split screen of actors in foreground and matted in miniature set and painted sky backing - terrific shot that really sells the show.

Century 21 model making at it's best.

A terrific sense of scale here.

A magnificent shot - spaceship, starfield, rotating earth and a rising sun all beautifully shot and composited presumably in camera or perhaps shot as a one take deal due to the entirely credible interactive lighting on the ship and no signs of negative degradation from duping.  This too was a signature shot refilmed for MOONRAKER by Derek years later.

Blue screened miniatures matted against rotating planet - presumably using Meddings' trademark rotating painted cylinder method again re employed by Derek for the SUPERMAN films and SPIES ARE US.

Crashing onto 'Earth'? 

More Meddings exhaust glow expertise at work.

I was always fascinated with the miniature wheels and tires in these shows and just how realistic they looked with a supposedly heavy load atop of the chassis.

I love this shot - breaking the sound barrier.  Wonderfully atmospheric effect with utterly believable clouds and sky.

Blue screen composite of miniature and revolving Earth with totally believable atmosphere.

An excellent blue screen comp with similar elements all expertly lit and photographed.  This footage was years ahead of it's time and when compared to very mundane Oscar winning shots such as those in MAROONED at about the same time JTTFSOTS really is a winner I feel - though naturally the academy wouldn't agree as it's not an American film, despite Universal releasing same.

Reverse angel on above scene - again totally realistic cinematography, set detail and lighting.

The only giveaway is the dirt and grain build up on the dupe during the matting process.

Catastrophe strikes - the end of the Space Program courtesy of Derek Meddings and his pyrotechnics.

All good things must come to an end - Meddings style!

It was the best of times...it was the worst of times.

Frank Capra captures the essence of Shangri-la in LOST HORIZON

Frank Capra's 1937 picture "LOST HORIZON" based upon the novel by James Hilton was by all accounts the most adventurous decisions to 'green light' a picture that Columbia mogul Harry Cohn had ever undertaken to date.  The story of a group of people plane wrecked somewhere near Tibet and their finding a lost city hidden among the alps was more than a simple adventure movie - far more.  The almost unfilmable novel was steeped in philosophical discussion and complex arguements on what is the essence of peace and harmony - coupled with real life international tension as impending war loomed in Europe this was never going to be an easy shoot. 

Frank Capra on the chiller set for the snow sequences.

Director Capra was Columbia's darling - having helmed the brilliant "MR DEEDS GOES TO TOWN" the previous year for which he deservedly won the coveted Oscar  - certainly a feather in the cap of an arguably economic little studio like Columbia - the K-Mart of movie studios - no fuss, get on with it, do it fast style of film making.

"LOST HORIZON" was not an easy adaptation, and Capra was pretty determined, along with screenwriter Robert Riskin to serve the novel to the best of their ability.  There's no doubt that star Ronald Colman was the perfect choice here and his status and ability did much to sell the film to a unsuspecting public.

The original preview cut was some 4 plus hours in length and in keeping with the wordiness of Hilton's novel several sequences involving speeches and conversation actually went on for 40 odd minutes a piece!  The final cut by Capra with Cohn's approval was 132 minutes though this too went through a number of re-cuts, retitlings and censorship over the years with a number of differing versions circulating.

Master of light - cinematographer Joseph Walker.

The film holds up surprisingly well even today in a restored format that fulfills Capra's original theatrical edit.  The production value is superb with exquisite cinematography by Joseph Walker and art direction by Stephen Gooson.  So too are the special photographic effects by E.Roy Davidson and Ganahl 'Kit' Carson.  I can tell you next to nothing about Carson but Davidson is another story.  Roy was born in 1896 and was in charge of the 'Special Camera Effects' department at Columbia from the early thirties working on a number of films and received an Oscar nomination in 1939 for the miniature airplane effects in "ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS".

Around 1940 Davidson moved over to Warner Brothers and was chief of 'Stage 5' as the Warners special effects department was then known.  Davidson supervised the photographic effects on a number of films including the astonishing matte work in "RHAPSODY IN BLUE" in 1945 (which I will upload here as a topic in the very near future).  Among Roy's many other credits at Warner Bros were the exploding oil refinery at the end of "WHITE HEAT" and assisting Jack Cosgrove with the huge number of miniatures and matte shots in Michael Curtiz' "PASSAGE TO MARSEILLE" among others. Roy died in 1962.

Also on the effects crew was Harry Redmond jr - a veteran who's long career in mechanical effects goes way back to the Willis O'Brien "KING KONG" (and that wasn't one of his first pictures either).  Noteworthy is the fact that Redmond was married to one of the conceptual artists on "GONE WITH THE WIND", Dorothy Holt.  As far as I know Harry is still alive today and is rumoured to be the only surviving crew member from "KONG".

"LOST HORIZON" isn't an 'effects' picture, though that doesn't mean automatic exclusion  from my interests in visual effects.  The matte shots are few and far between, as are a few miniatures and some process work, but in toto these elements help to tie together Capra's vision and are kept at a minimum...something that today's MTV reared directors and effects supervisors could do well to learn from.

*Oh, and no, I haven't seen the disastrous 1972 remake with Peter Finch and Liv Ullman, though I believe it is abysmal - effects and all!

I love old title cards - nothing today compares I'm afraid.  The title sequence is beautiful and elaborate so I have included many frames as the camera glides over valleys and peaks - all created in the special camera effects department at Columbia under E.Roy Davidsons' supervision.

It was common place for the special effects departments in the old days (and even more recently such as "STAR WARS" for example) to create and be responsible for the entire title crawl artwork and special composites required.

The doomed flight - a miniature plane in front of a process screen with wires occasionally visible; with crash at lower left and an interior plane cabin process set up seen lower right.

The full sized mock up built in a large coolstore chilled sufficiently to allow the actors breath to be visible.  The lower shot shows the set with an effective painted backing.

Upper left - the merging of two stages at Columbia to provide space for the large sets; other photos show the snow making machinery at worksupervised by Harry Redmond jr.  Actual ice was crushed up with other matter to provide as realistic a sense of snow as possible - which was unusual for a 1930's picture.

The avalanche as shot on a set in the coolstore showing the rock facades and the large chambers of 'snow' built by Harry Redmond jr which was released upon the actors in a chillingly believable sequence that was entirely practical and no opticals were employed. 

Wonderfully designed blizzard sequence shot on the set with a large process (rear projection) screen seen for projection of clouds, windswept peaks etc.  Lower right is Frank Capra on the set.

The process screen in use for the arrival sequence.  Also visible is the then brand new camera crane at Columbia.

Shangri-la ....  a beautiful glass painting supervised by Roy Davidson and Ganahl Carson.  I have not been able to establish who was the matte painter though Chesley Bonestell was at the studio at that time painting on shows such as "ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS".  Other matte artists who were employed by Columbia during the golden era were Polish born Hans Barthalowski and Mexico born Juan (Jack) Larrinaga

The approach to the temple - various photos show the stages of construction prior to the addition of the matte painting.

Upper left - the whole show was a multi camera affair with as many as five cameras covering some scenes; upper right is art director Stephen Gooson with his design team going over concepts for the interiors; lower left is an aerial view of the huge set built at Columbia ranch as it was then known;  lower right Capra and team shooting the arrival.

The departure at night - Shangri-la as seen from the secret passage through the mountain.  This shot is a partial miniature partial glass painting.  The middle mountain with the city is a miniature and the ascending monks with torches are a motorised 'train' system - this in turn was combined with the glass painting of the valley floor and distant mountains.

The miniature of Shangri-la;  Ronald Colman farewelling 'paradise' via a process shot.

The long journey home - I tend to think this upper frame is of a real glacier as snow falls down it.  A number of stock shots and second unit views such as this are featured, often very poorly due to severe grain and mismatch of contrast and film stock etc.

An exquisite matte shot with Colman crossing the glacier - really a beautiful visual effect with moving clouds possibly painted on a second glass positioned behind the main painted glass.

To give an example of the multi-plane effect I feel was used in the above glacier matte this unrelated diagram from an old movie magazine nicely demonstrates the method.

Bedraggled and blistered, Ronald Colman arrives at some semblance of civilisation.  I tend to think this is a matte shot due to the production photo seen here which doesn't show any detail beyond the foreground structure.

The middle shot is a fascinating out take of robed monks climbing a spiral staircase shot directly from below, with what i suspect is a matte painted ceiling atop the set.  Bottom frame is director Capra conferring with another esteemed cinematographer, Joseph Ruttenberg (who did amazing work on MGM's "GASLIGHT").  Ruttenberg was brought on board to reshoot some sequences involving the Lama character - a problematic character to write for, direct and headache inducing for Capra to shoot and edit while still maintaining the audiences' interest as the speeches in those sequences went on for up to forty minutes in the original rough cut.

Of interest here is the World War II re-issue title card whereby Harry Cohn heard a military reference to 'Shangri-la' that stuck in the nations ears so being the shameless opportunist he was he quickly retitled (and radically re-cut) the film to capitalise on this new found 'catchphrase'.  Oddly enough the picture was quite extensively censored to remove the (quote) "pacifist overtones" during WWII with alot of bits of dialogue being trimmed and entirely new plotl ine intertitles substituted.