‘Close Encounters’ awareness is up this week, what with a national mini-release of the 1977 Steven Spielberg hit, so I reached into the bottomless Savant archives for something to show-and-tell. This might be educational for fans of old-school visual effects, in this case, the miniature-making genius of Gregory Jein.
The miniature shop at the Marina Del Rey effects facility for Close Encounters of the Third Kind was full of surprises. Miniature specialist propmaker Gregory Jein had help at times from several modelmakers, mainly Ken Swenson and Michael McMillen. But a great many of the tabletop miniatures for the flying saucer epic were built primarily by Greg alone. He carved the Devil’s Tower mountain and constructed several other landscapes on plywood tables about ten feet in length.
The most complex miniature was not a full model, but a ‘reflections’ model of an auto toll booth, in which Director of Photography of...
The miniature shop at the Marina Del Rey effects facility for Close Encounters of the Third Kind was full of surprises. Miniature specialist propmaker Gregory Jein had help at times from several modelmakers, mainly Ken Swenson and Michael McMillen. But a great many of the tabletop miniatures for the flying saucer epic were built primarily by Greg alone. He carved the Devil’s Tower mountain and constructed several other landscapes on plywood tables about ten feet in length.
The most complex miniature was not a full model, but a ‘reflections’ model of an auto toll booth, in which Director of Photography of...
- 9/4/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
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