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From: jittlov@gumby.cs.caltech.edu (Mike Jittlov)
Subject: WIZARD's "Up-Hill Bicycle Scene" EXPLAINED!!
Message-ID: <jittlov.715436778@gumby.cs.caltech.edu>
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Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
References: <1992Aug28.@zip.eecs.umich.edu><inki.dnki.prli-v00>
Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1992 14:14:42 HST
Lines: 334
Names Dropped: 35
Re: The Amazing Hill-Climbing Bike Scene in
"THE WIZARD OF SPEED AND TIME" feature
[Please excuse any typo's - I'm still new to the creative
world of UNIX, Gumby, and these #*@% command interfaces] *@%cmnd]
^L
Late-Breaking Theories Mentioned as a NewsGroup Courtesy:
COMMAND:
HANGING ONTO A CAR/TRUCK & LETTING GO THEORY CAR/T
BIKE TIRES FILLED WITH HELIUM THEORY .1cYa9
VIOLENT AIR BLASTS FROM STREET SEWERS THEORY ___ Aekt
A GIANT WIND-UP SPRING-LOADED MECHANISM THEORY eHA4*^O
SERIOUS FILM-LAB MATTING WORK THEORY bus
EDITING MANY RE-TAKES TOGETHER THEORY error
SUBLIMINAL MESSAGES THEORY CORE
THE HIDDEN-MUPPET THEORY DUMPED
THE HYPER-CAFFEINATED CHIPMUNKS THEORY
THE MOMENTARY EARTH-TILT THEORY CORE
THE VERY HUGE ELECTRO-MAGNET THEORY [close, but not It] DUMPED
THE MYSTERY-HILL PHENOMENAE THEORY [also close] @a(Yo*_Mv
<![m1sttn
a.bhkifA
HOW WAS IT DONE??? HOW WAS IT DONE??? HOW WAS IT DONE??? :@?>SI:@
The Official *Wizard* Answer may Surprise You... Xyplex>?
~login:
*Wizard*
THE LOCATION: locati:
invalid
That section of Maltman Avenue, located in the Silver-
lake neighborhood between Hollywood and downtown Los :locate
Angeles, is somewhat historical, and in its own way,
unique. que.
Looking at the shot, famous film editor Slavko Vorkapich
lived in the green apartments just to the right. And STAR STAR
WARS animator Phil Tippet lived in the house on the corner, WARS
to the left. (In fact, Phil once invited me over, then
suddenly said to wait outside while he threw covers over
one of the models in development, apologizing for the
security. No problem, and I could tell by the outline
it was a Taun-taun.) _taun.)?
And up the far end of the street is the fabled "Corner of ~Co?
Maltman" (and Marathon), where the black-caped Fantum first ~ (a?
zoomed to a landing; and a bevy of Girls (including "Miss ~Mi?
Virginia 1980" Paige Moore, NURSES star Arnetia Walker, *8P
and Patty Thomson) jumped and pointed at the onrushing point>ed
Green Wizard. Behind them is the studio of mirror-
sculptor Jud Stoddard, who created the mirror-vest creat>ed
for Liberace.
And even further back, by Oliver Hardy's house, is where
Dennis Muren, LucasFilm's multi-Oscared cinematographer,
lived. And over to the left, also out of sight, is STAR STAR
WARS Marketing VP Charley Lippincott's home, where he's WARS^MVP
now secretly in development on the JUDGE DREDD feature. CodeREDd
And just beyond Marathon is the original HQ of the 60's HQ60_s
rock & lunch group, The Peanut Butter Conspiracy... lunch?
But enough - you get the idea. grep PBC
Back in 1973, when I was researching THE WIND DEMON - .73config
my science-fantasy trilogy about a war between a magi- LAUNCH
cian and a sorcerer in Downtown Los Angeles - I noticed seq/
something odd about the city's streets and structures.
It was just a feeling...but I decided to call a friend Clrnc:
in New York - famed author and Researcher Into the
Unknown, John Keel. KEEL
CONFIRMED
A former magician, psychic-skeptic, and real-life OPENsilo
Indiana Jones [read his book, JADOO], John also saved [re,OO]
my life when I hitchhiked to Manhattan in 1967 and 67.fORT!
naively chose the YMCA for my night's lodging - but
that's another story. CLOSE
silo
Anyway, John verified the startling coincidence of magnetic
fields surrounding a cultural nexus or center of worship.
Intrigued, I took a bus downtown and visited the U.S. US/
Geographic Survey Office, where I bought three sets of maps, .
for 50-75 cents each. Very intriguing maps: "Bougher 50_75:
Gravity Anomaly Map", "Natural Gamma Aeroradioactivity ~Na
Map", and "Aeromagnetic Map of Los Angeles and Vicinity". Angel
The latter is a detailed chart of Los Angeles and icons Angel:ic
of its major structures, superimposed with loops and
whorls of magfield lines that seem independent of LA's LA:la
topography.
The greatest magfield change is a 1675-3510 gamma flux, 1675_35
right in the heart of Downtown. If you draw a line and 10
connect the two poles of the anomaly - from the old Pub-
lic Library Building (which always felt like a shrine to Connect?
knowledge, I spent a lot of hours in the bookstacks and
film rental section) to the intersection of 12th and 12^J
Flower, there are 7 churches in a row. Fascinating. 7777777
Especially when you consider the metals most used in Connect/
church worship, gold and silver, are diamagnetic (re-
pelled by mag-fields). ^O
Living things are definitely affected by magnetic fields. ringing
Rats raised in a magnetically-nullified environment become
lethargic, cannibalistic, and age faster. People kept in a
null field for several days have poorer reaction time. ringing
Our own hearts have magnetic fields (from the iron-rich
blood?), and our brains have 7 billion particles of 7777777
biologically-formed magnetite crystals [discovered by CONNECT
CalTech geobiologists Joseph & Atsuko Kirschvink]. And CalTech
is it a coincidence that own brainwaves, during alpha's :Gumby>
creative/passive state, cycle to match the rhythmic Gumby@
pulsation of Earth's magfield (7.83 cps - the Schumann Gumby/
Resonance, aka "the brainwave of the planet")? cd7.83c
ps -x
At UCLA's film school in the late 60's, we used to delight 60
in putting the large tape degaussers on the sides of our
heads, by the major nerve network at the temples. Half of !ntt
those who tried this, would see a bright flash "inside" - ~ins_
even with their eyes closed. It seemed quite harmless, LOCK
and many of us have gone on to superficially productive terminal
lives.
@berkely
But I digress.
If you check out the Aeromagnetic Map, you will notice that
in the magnetic anomaly near my home [Latitude 118.16.45, COORD
Longitude 34.05.07], a magfield line crosses Maltman Ave- ESTAB
nue right at the base of the hill, at Ellsworth Street. Lat
It is congruent with an extension of a local faultline 118deg
(and the former site of the now discontinuous Glendale 16'45"
Freeway). Maltman proceeds one block further, up to Belle- Long
vue Avenue, where it ends. 34deg
05'07"
This diagram gives a camera ^L
simplistic but rather / /cu
cute cross-section /== magfield-3 /== m_3
of the scene's area *}O/ /?
$^/ /$^CODEX
/O/ MJ on bike PRIORITY
. / ESTAB
. / /.
. / /.
. / //
/ //.902^N
Maltman Avenue / /Maltman
______________________/ Ellsworth Street crossing /Ellswor
= = ===^M=^M
=magfield-1 =magfield-2 =^M.=^M?
^H^H^H^H
THE PREPARATION: :>Lee<
*ManiacG
The WIZ-bike was holding up quite well. Originally a OPEN:chD
Trek 18-speed racer, I had heavily modified it into an 18_sp
effects geek's dream-machine: STAR TREK-like carriers, STARWARS
a gooseneck headlamp, tri-bladed propellor, extended thx.1138
mirror, horns, toy space-guns, lights and sound arrays, ACCESS:
and matching trim. I was also using it on city streets, spacegun
for daily film-lab runs. When people saw me coming, PASSWORD
they got out of the way. ACCEPTED
But all of the gadgets were simply film-effects geegaws and
gingerbread. Now was the time for "practical effects". ARMING:
I prepared the bike by rigging 4" U-coils over both 4~Usiloc
wheels - a primary coil with 288 hand-windings of #20 Silo288
wire in front, and two secondary coils with 576 win- Silo576
dings of #28 wire in back. Each wheel had 12 "Mystery >#20-28
Magnets" from Pasadena's B&B Surplus, epoxied to the BBS_+?
wheel rim at equal spaces. The bike's sound & light syntax
gadgets were disengaged (too dim in the daytime, and error
we were shooting silent anyway), and I rerouted the Silo:
bike-lamp generators through the coils. The Trek was 14_lb
now over 14 pounds heavier, but if the shot worked it
would all be worth it. detonate
rt.?
THE TIME: TIME:set
Sunday, May 11, 1986 - late morning. :S_986
~~syntax
Tempus fugit! I'd first begun this film in 1982, plan- f!irs982
ning to complete it within a $35,000 budget (my life $:access
savings). My esteamed business partner found me, used /IR$
my work to secure financial interest, and we restarted rmdir/
everything in September of 1983 - with a larger budget, 1040:p
and with him as corporate treasurer and CFO. (He also ^U^U^U^U
insisted on acting as the slimey, embezzling, sociopa- ERASE:?
thic producer in the feature, BTW.) Our production ALL:IR$
account soon mysteriously dropped to bare-bones, and I except
used my own savings to keep pushing the film toward ~RKaye!~
completion.
^U^U^U^U
Finishing by the 1984 Olympics had become a memory. 984_O
In 1985, a string of movies came out with stories, ,985_:mov
scenes and gizmos remarkably similar to WIZARD's: PASSWORD
PEE-WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE ("The story of a rebel and ~Pee-Wee
his bike"), BACK TO THE FUTURE (which even had "Wizard" ff
in graffiti on the high school entrance wall), and REAL 986_i
GENIUS. In 1986, it was "F/X" - and even our union-buil- ~F/X~
ding tilt-pans seemed duplicated in COCKTAIL. access:
access:?
Depressing, demoralizing, gut-wrenching, heart-breaking.
But still - no reason for giving up, nor adding the last NORAD
few shots.
I was in the Ani-Room prepping a photo-collage for the epp_coll
Wizard Run, when I noticed my pocket-magnetometer starting chmod
to vibrate. I called one of our feature's most talented NORAD>
production assistants and Wizard Apprentice - Brian Wizard
Thomas. This was the day we'd been waiting for. Luckily,
I still had our minimum package of camera equipment, grep F/X
rented over the weekend.
D.yoST
menu:?
THE FILMING: 1frmColB
Brian set up the tripod, while I loaded the 35mm Arriflex :35mmAr
with our last film short-end - we had to get this on the gon
first try. Brian also had to perform a difficult pan, 37
zoom-back and rack-focus - a shot normally requiring a 38
three-man union camera crew. 39
4-SJAck
Noontime. Parents were at church, kids were watching TV, Ack
the police were eating lunch at Winchell's Donuts. It ^H.ack.
couldn't be more perfect. This just had to work. A ARGon!
last-minute precaution: I gaffer-taped the official grgnr
WIZARD rubber rat to the top of the camera. This odd
little totem had worked before, since we'd shot the entire
WIZARD RUN without filming permits - you don't question .kibo
that kind of luck.
I coasted down the hill, riding back to Marathon - and wl:COORD
praying that we'd have no major traffic, just for the change
next few minutes. 2/RK
It was 12:10pm - high noon - when the Earth's magnetic 12:10_^Q
field is at its peak. The magnetometer needle deflected, adjust
as the first pulse rolled through the area. It was always
the weakest one. The bike vibrated, momentarily. WAIT
.
Time seemed to slow, with expectation. Above me, a large .
flock of pigeons were wheeling in wild loops. In a PROCEED
nearby garden, dozens of small white butterflies were
coming from every plant. The hairs on back of my neck
were beginning to stand up - this was definitely an electro-
magnetic event. w//
7.83 seconds later, the magnetometer needle suddenly 7.83sec?
pinned.
I signalled Brian to roll camera. He yelled, :~Ro!~_yb
"Rolling!", and slated the shot even as I began riding. JPL:nasa
accessng
I pedalled furiously along the straightaway. I soon WAIT
heard the U-coils humming, and the bike spokes singing, silo.800
and then experienced some physiological side-effects PROCEED
which would no doubt intrigue my girlfriend. In retro-
spect, it really was like something out of BACK TO THE ~Bt~?
FUTURE, with the DeLorean coming up to its 88mph time- 88.TIME_
speed. The script-writer probably had an innate sense WAIT
of this phenomenae.
VERIFY
The second pulse came sweeping along the terrain behind me :?
..there was a gentle bounce as it synched up. As expected, .
the U-coils combined to form a simple but adequate uni-polar
resonance "arc", catching and effectively "surfing" on the ~arc~
magfield wave. It felt like my first hang-glider, back PASSWORD
in 1960 - it felt invigorating, and fantastic. 960_i
accepted
I hit the second magfield line at the foot of the hill, and
a surge of force threw the bike onward. I nearly flipped
backwards, but just managed to grab the handlebar yoke. All
alongside me, car alarms were being triggered - a surreal
escort of weird trumpets and UFO sounds.
And it was at that point that I took my feet completely EXECUTE
off the bike pedals, and went zooming up the hill toward 1.800.
the camera. 8668269
There was a slight wobble to my riding, since Maltman runs
-5 degrees off magnetic-axis, and I couldn't head at -5degAdjt
a true magnetic south. But thankfully the beauty of the LAUNCH
effect compensated. [I love it when a science project 1-800
actually works right.][And even more, when I survive 10:00sec
it.]
9:95
Brian yelled in triumph, "Got it!". I clicked off the 9:90
generator switches and coasted back. 9:85
9:80
Suddenly, I smelled something burning - the U-coils were silo^Z
smoking! Just then, a Mr. Jingles ice cream truck *JINGLES
cruised into the shot, its speakers merrily playing 1.213
"It's a Small Small World". Remembering an article in 664.8626
General Technics Newsletter, I waved down the driver, ^W
and bought several snowcones to put out the potential
holocaust. A small world, indeed - Brian was in awe of PASSWORD
our dazzling luck. ACCEPTED
We packed everything up and left, just as a black execute/
limousine screeched to block the Mr. Jingles truck, JINGLES?
and several Disney lawyers got out. pause
DISNEY:
DeLuxe Labs processed this particular section without >mjj$$$$$
a hitch, I edited the shot into three cuts, for a com-
bined scene-time of just over 4 seconds. &o/ *mbk*
And remember: this is but ONE of the many thousands of <*>^<*>
shots in "The Wizard of Speed and Time". Virtually
every shot has a story behind it! [And many of those you have
stories are actually true!] mail
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ >N139
Postscript: Someday, when I've completed my film and Post:?
video work, I hope to explore this phenomena further. ^L
Because I sense a very special secret still undiscovered, cd:^@^?
through linking multiple gyros and electrical fields. SanOnofr
Something Big. And - as Nikola Tesla was to electricity PASSWORD
- someday, I may be, to spinning wheels. [After all, :TESLA
Tesla's birthday comes right after mine. Coincidence, HGttG*42
or Cosmic Plan?]
EXECUTE
CORE
______________________________________ ___._`.*.'_._ _____ MELTDOWN
Mike Jittlov - Wizard, etc . . + * .o o.* `.`. 10.00sec
Hollywood, CA 90026-2714 ' * . ' ' |\^/| `. * . * 9.95
jittlov@gumby.cs.caltech.edu(: May All Your \V/ Good Dreams 9.80
<& alt.fan.mike-jittlov> and Fine Wishes /_\ Come True: )9.85
=========================================== _/ \_ =========== 9.80
9.75
Copyright 1992 M. Jittlov [& all the protection that affords] 9.70
9.65
Next question? 9.60
9.55
the real answer
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