Special effects department checking in

Tom Luhtala

Special effects supervisor/Producer

Hi, you don't know me. If you'll indulge me I'll give you the quick bio. I grew up in the Cleveland area, dreaded the day in day out kind of job in a factory that seemed to go with the family. My godfather always seemed to be doing something that blew my mind when I would visit, he had huge spaceships built from toys and hardware items, or his attic was built up into a space city or medieval landscape, or a giant robot was forming in his garage. In school I took some art classes and thought that special effects would be something fun, hey who wouldn't want to work in movies? I went to school for it out in Pittsburgh, the art institute specifically then came back home to get some money together to head elsewhere and make a living. I'm still here and still working at it, for many reasons, but mainly because the low budget movies seem to have the most opportunity and I'd love to see Cleveland become a new film center for the country.

With that said, I go back to "The Chase" with Johnny when the opportunity to work with him was presented to me. He had some wild ideas for what he wanted to do and I was interested in seeing how far he could take them. I'd say that after The Chase and "A Joker's Card" he can and has done a lot of what he wanted to. Nothing is ever dull with Johnny, that's half the fun, the other half is the crews he can get together and as stupid as you may think it, the energy that everyone has.

I've been given a lot of work on this movie and a lot of flexibility to pull things off. If you've seen the official site of the movie, rapturethemovie.com then you know that at least one character has wings, rather large wings to be more specific. They come in at about a ten foot wingspan. One of my jobs is building those, as a working practical effect. The process started out as another "use myself as a test bed" when I had some help from John Prisel to lifecast my back. A fiberglass plate was made that the wings would be attached to, along with pneumatic and electrical controls to operate them. The wings themselves are rather lightweight, under 10 pounds for the test set used in the teaser trailer. An aluminum framework covered by foam and fabric, and finished with foam feathers compose most of the wings. With some of the bugs worked out the set or sets used for the film will essentially be built the same way. Joints will be added at the wrist so they can bend towards his chest, a better more anatomical musculature will be made to cover the metal skeleton, and the feathers will be more detailed and should be able to pivot allowing the wings to fold naturally. Most of the other movies that have had wings have either made several sets that do one thing or another and get swapped out, a few have had one set that does everything but weigh in at 60 pounds or more. One of the biggest challenges that I'm approaching is trying to get a set of wings that CAN do everything while staying at a reasonable weight and looking good. The use of foam for the feathers should help with this quite a bit. Vacuum forming feathers into their shape and only adding the minimum plastic shaft should find some balance to this problem.

Another very fun job will be Job's tail. To keep some things under wraps for the time being, I'll just give a brief idea of what's going into this. The tail, like the wings, will be a metallic enhancement to his body. The design has drawn on crayfish, lobsters, crabs, insects, and machinery. The size is still in flux, but it will be impressive, and just wait until you see what it can do.

I'm trying to involve a long time co-worker, Don Bumgarner into things. Don and I go back several years, to when we were at school. He's worked with me on many projects, including working with Tom Sullivan last fall, a high point for a couple of evil dead fans. We're going to get to do quite a few other fun things from some sci-fi type weapons, armor, and helmets to other chimera enhancements and the challenges of making everything look good, be safe for all the stunts and stuntmen, and come in under budget and on time. Besides Don I'd love to get my godfather involved on a few of the things and have several other people who will probably be helping out in various capacities to make Johnny's wild dreams become reality.

One last note before I let you go, and that is to address the teaser. Things you saw will change, if you liked certain things you should be even more impressed with the movie, and if you didn't the final product will make you forget about anything you were disappointed with. I have faith in everyone Johnny has brought in on this.

You'll have to stay tuned to see what we've got going into this movie. Here's something to further tease and taunt all of you who love that behind the scenes kind of thing. I know you're out there.

See you soon with more.

Tom