By early June, '08 Patrick Read Johnson was close to finishing 5-25-77 (now titled '77). He was putting the finishing touches in the editing process while his good friend, John Knoll, was working his magic on scenes that required very complex special effects. At this same time, marketing of the film was in the hands of the William Morris Agency. During all of this, I was again contacted by Patrick to build yet another model for the movie.

Patrick had cut into the film a temporary animatic which included the "Visitor" ship. In the '77 script (as in Patrick's real life story), the character of young Pat Johnson makes his Super 8 movies in his back yard and his garage-turned-soundstage. One of his home made epics is called "The Visitor," about an alien being coming to Earth and trying to experience life as an earthling.

To create the footage of character Pat Johnson's Super 8 film, Patrick needed a model of the Visitor's space ship. I had been the Model Making Coordinator for the ILM scene of '77, so, he asked me if I would build the model for this scene.

Patrick had designed the ship in 3D software. He sent me the file, which I dissected to make plans for a 17 inch long model. Unlike the Star Wars filming models, which had to look as though they were built by the ILM crew, this model had to look as though it were built by a teenage amateur. Thus, I built it out of sheet styrene, leaving some rough edges. Patrick asked me to paint it using fluorescent orange and blue to further the look. I found an alien figure on ebay that could fit in the ship model, and which also looked just enough like the alien mask worn by actor John Francis Daley as Pat Johnson in the film.

In less than a week I had the model finished. Patrick was going to come to my home to pick up the model personally. Patrick and I stayed in contact through e-mails and phone conversations, but I hadn't seen him since we shot the ILM scene two years earlier, so I was looking forward to his visit. He was coming from another visit to his friend and visual effects legend, Douglas Trumbull, who was kind enough to lend us all the actual storyboards from Close Encounters of the Third Kind for scenes in '77.

I always love to see Patrick's reactions to the work I do for him, and I couldn't wait to show him the model. In the time before he was to arrive, I couldn't decide where and how I was going to present it to him, presentation being everything. Finally, I simply set it on the coffee table for him to see as he walked in the room. When he did, his eyes immediately were attracted to the bright, neon orange and blue of the Visitor ship. As usual, his reaction was very positive, like a kid at Christmas with a new toy!

We had a great time during our visit. He showed me the amazing things John Knoll was doing for the movie and talked about some of the changes since the last cut of the film I saw. One of those changes involved the model I just presented to him, which will be a part of a very cool transition scene.

UPDATE:

Below is a still frame from '77... a dream sequence with the Visitor Ship Model.

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