leading from
and
a) Dan's return
A number of months went by, perhaps even a year. Dan have begun working on his first scifi film, called at the time Electric Dutchman, which would ultimately transform into the feature length film Dark Star. Dan tried to reach Ron Cobb to get him to design the whole film, but Cobb was unreachable. For weeks his phone would ring without and answer, and then it was disconnected. Soon Dan got an unlisted number for Cobb but it was unvariably answered by one of the girls who were living with him who always told Dan that he was out. It seemed like another year and a half before Cobb would be tracked down, and this would be a point when Ron was in a slump period after doing cartoons.
Dan called him, reconnecting with him from where they left on some years earlier and said "Well I'm a student at USC now and three quarters of the way through a film that I and John Carpenter are putting together, it's science fiction like we discussed. We thought maybe you would like to see it and maybe might have some suggestions. It's a space film and we have to do the effects and I don't have a satisfactory design for the exterior of the space ship. Would you be interested?"
Ron responded "I'd love to. I'll meet you."
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| International House of Pancakes 4301 Riverside Drive an example of these early International House of Pancakes |
b) Meeting at the House of Pancakes
They met at a House of Pancakes situation near enough by the Shrine Auditorium within walking distance from the USC, they sat there, talked about the film project a bit , Ron rambled away about his thoughts about his interests in depicting space flight in movies and his gripes about how many opportunities were missed and then Ron went over and saw all the footage Dan had. Ron was quite amazed. It was Dark Star in its formative stages.
Dan told him "Well we just reached the point where we have to design the exterior of the spaceship. Do you have anything thoughts about it?"
Ron replied "Sure I would!"
It didn't look like any student film that Ron had ever seen - it was so elaborate, incredibly ambitious. The only student-like thing about it was that it seemed kind of stilted, overly pompous, the acting was student like
What he saw was footage that Dan had put together, all the live action and some of the interior sets, in the fragmentary form, he was absolutely floored, shocked out competent it was, and was impressed by the sets the most, which Dan was personally responsible for the look of. He could believe it was a student film, but at the same time he was appalled by how primitive the acting was, how student like many of the characters were and how the storyline was a bit derivative and transparent. Meanwhile, it had a strange tension about it that was compelling and a humrous element submerged throughout the film, which he felt could be stronger because the seriousness of it didn't work
Ron kept telling Dan "Dan, I hope you don't take offense but I think it's kind of funny, it's a ridiculous situation."
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| Photograph from the documentary "Let there be light: The Odyssey of Dark Star" representing the House of Pancakes interior |
c) Designing for Dark Star
It appeared that one evening, around 10pm, Dan drove with John Carpenter over to Westwood and rousted Ron out of sound sleep. Ron was hung over from an LSD trip and Dan felt quite guilty, but he had to have those designs.
He took him to somewhere that might have been a House of Pancakes again, but whatever it was, it was some sort of an all-night coffee shop and Dan fed him, getting him to a point where he was half awake. Ron was scribbling away on napkins,
In the drawings made a little drawing and it was a little surfboard-shaped Star cruiser with a flat bottom for atmospheric landings with a little re-entry body shuttle nose that would appear in the movie
Dan and John liked it. Dan's response was "That's it! Could you draw plans for that?" and wanted three views of it
Ron replied. "Sure, I'd love to"
Dan brought him a pad of yellow graph paper on which Ron began sketching a 3-view plan of the spaceship, and so he went home that night and drew up the plans for it, giving to Dan the next morning, who then had a beautiful model built by Greg Jein who would later become the chief model maker for Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", and then it appeared in the film three months later
source quotes
It appeared that one evening, around 10pm, Dan drove with John Carpenter over to Westwood and rousted Ron out of sound sleep. Ron was hung over from an LSD trip and Dan felt quite guilty, but he had to have those designs.
He took him to somewhere that might have been a House of Pancakes again, but whatever it was, it was some sort of an all-night coffee shop and Dan fed him, getting him to a point where he was half awake. Ron was scribbling away on napkins,
In the drawings made a little drawing and it was a little surfboard-shaped Star cruiser with a flat bottom for atmospheric landings with a little re-entry body shuttle nose that would appear in the movie
Dan and John liked it. Dan's response was "That's it! Could you draw plans for that?" and wanted three views of it
Ron replied. "Sure, I'd love to"
Dan brought him a pad of yellow graph paper on which Ron began sketching a 3-view plan of the spaceship, and so he went home that night and drew up the plans for it, giving to Dan the next morning, who then had a beautiful model built by Greg Jein who would later become the chief model maker for Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", and then it appeared in the film three months later
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| Plan for the Dark Star by Ron Cobb (source muddycolors.blogspot.co.uk) |
source quotes
- Ron Cobb: A number of months went by, it might even have been a year. I was in a slump period after doing cartoons. Dan called me and said "well I'm a student at USC now and three quarters of the way through a film that I and John Carpenter are putting together. I'd like you to come and see it. It's a space film and we have to do the effects and I don't have a satisfactory design for the exterior of the space ship. Would you be interested?" I said "I'd love to. I'll meet you. " I met him at a House of Pancakes and we sat there and talked about it a bit and then went over and saw all the footage he had. I was quite amazed.(Fantastic Films)
- Ron Cobb:Many months later
he called again. He was then a cinema student at USC and was making
Dark Star. He showed me some footage that they made but none of the
effects were done and he was stuck with the design of the ship. They
wondered if I had any thoughts and I scribbled a design on a napkin. Dan
became enthusiastic and asked me to do a three view plan of it which
they made a model from.
Starburst: What did you think of the end result of that film?
Ron Cobb:When I first saw the footage that Dan had put together, all the live action and some of the interior sets, in the fragmentary form, I was absolutely floored- shocked at how competent it was. Dan personally was responsible for the look of the sets which was part of the film which impressed me the most. I couldn't believe this was a student film., but at the same time I was appalled at how primitive the acting was, how student-like many of the characters were and how the story line was a bit derivative and transparent
Nonetheless, it had a strange tension about it which was compelling. There was a humorous element submerged throughout the film, which I felt should be stronger. Dan was aware of it because, his ending is hilarious. They shot additional footage which was pure slapstick. It highlighted the humour of the rest and when I saw the film I was delighted. It was much better than I ever thought it could be. I think now it's almost perfect. Whatever it lacks in other areas, it more than makes up for it in this incredible raw directness. It's so real, and it's such an unpretentious film - so clever. (Starburst #? "Ron Cobb On Alien) - Ron Cobb: That didn't look like any student film I had ever seen - it was so elaborate, incredibly ambitious. The only student-like thing about it was that it seemed kind of stilted, overly pompus. The film was more or less serious - it just didn't work. I kept saying "Dan, I hope you don't take offense but I think it's kind of funny, it's a ridiculous situation." (Fantastic Films)
- Ron Cobb:Well, years later, he calls me again and says, "Well, now I'm a cinema student at USC and I'm making a student film and it's science fiction like we discussed, and we thought maybe you would like to see it and maybe might have some suggestions." I said "I'd love to!"(Rocketblast Comicollector 148, p27)
- Ron Cobb: So I went over, and , of course, it was Dark Star in its formative stages, and he said, "well we just reached the point where we have to design the exterior of the spaceship. Do you have anything thoughts about it?" I said , "Sure I would!" So I started scribbling out things on napkins at a House of Pancakes somewhere, and I made a little thing and I made that little re-entry body shuttle nose thing that was in the film and Dan said, "That's it! Could you draw plans for that?" and I said, "Sure, I'd love to." I started drawing again, so I went home that night and drew up a plan for it, gave it to Dan the next morning, and he had a beautiful model built, and months later there it was on film. (Rocketblast Comicollector 148, p27)
- Years later O'Bannon was making Dark Star with John Carpenter, as their student project at U.S.C.They called Cobb when they needed a design for the spaceship exterior..(Starlog 57)
- Ron Cobb: I started scribbling out things on napkins at an all night coffee shop, They liked it, I drew up the plans, and it appeared in the film as a model built by Greg Jein. (Starlog 57)
- Ron Cobb: So, in a way, my re-introduction to films is due to Dan. Later, when Dan was working on Star Wars, he suggested to George Lucas that I be hired to design some additional aliens for the cantina scene, and to produce some of the imagery for the computer screens — the latter being Dan's specific job on the film at that time, (Starlog 57)
- JOHN
CARPENTER: Ron Cobb was someone
Dan O'Bannon contacted. Dan saw his cartoons in the Free Press. He never really
did a great deal on the film. He designed some of the things we never used.
I think the closest thing that he did was a design of the Dark
Star, the ship, which Dan subsequently altered and designed himself.
The credit really goes to Dan, but Dark Star
was where their friendship began and then they've gone on to make Alien.(http://www.geocities.ws/fixer1977/cobb3.html)
- DAN O'BANNON: I
was working on my first sci-fi film,
John Carpenter's Electric Dutchman, which would
ultimately metastastize into the feature-length Dark
Star. I tried to reach Cobb to get him to design the whole film, but he
was unreachable. For weeks his phone rang without an answer, and then it was
disconnected, and then I got his new unlisted number but it was invariably
answered by one of the girls who were living with him, who always told me
he was out. It was impossible. It took another year and a half to track him
down and get him to agree to design us a nice, simple little spaceship for
our simple little movie. Finally, one night about ten p.m. Carpenter and
I drove over to Westwood and rousted him out of a sound sleep. He was hung
over from an LSD trip and I felt kind of guilty, but I had to have those designs.
We took him over to an all-night coffee shop and fed him and got him half-way
awake, and then he brought out this pad of yellow graph paper on which he
had sketched a 3-view plan of our spaceship. It was wonderful! A little surfboard-shaped
starcruiser with a flat bottom for atmospheric landings. Very technological
looking. Very high class stuff.
But it was'nt quite finished, and Cobb sat there hunched over a cup of coffee, shivering, and sketched in the rest of the details. We took it away and built it to specs, and it eventually became one of the better-known spaceships among the science-fiction underground. An encyclopedic magazine called it "one of the most amazing of all motion-picture spaceships. (http://www.geocities.ws/fixer1977/cobb3.html) - Dan O'Bannon: A
year and a half later I was working on my first sci-fi film John
Carpenter's Electric Dutchman. which would ultimately metastasize into a
large feature film Dark Star. I tried to reach Cobb to get him to
design the whole film, but he was unreachable. For weeks his phone rang
without an answer, and then it was disconnected, and then I got his new
unlisted number but it was then invariably answered by one of the girls
who were living with him, who always told me he was out. It impossible.
It took another year and a half to track him down and get him to agree
to design us a nice, simple little spaceship for a simple little movie.
Finally one night about ten p.m. Carpender and I drove over to Westwood
and rousted him out of the sound sleep. He was hung over from an LSD
trip and I felt kind of guilty, but I had to have those designs. We took
him over to an all-night coffee shop and fed him and got him half-way
awake and then he brought out his pad of yellow graph paper on which he
had sketched a 3-view plan of our space ship. It was wonderful! A little
surfboard shaped starcruiser with a flat bottom atmospheric landings.
Very technological looking. Very high-class stuff. But it wasn't quite
finished, and Cobb sat there hunched over a cup of coffee, shivering
and sketched in the rest of the details. We took it away and built it
to specs, and it eventually became one of the better known spaceships
among the science-fiction underground. An encyclopedic magazine called
it "one of the most amazing of all motion-picture spaceships." (Colorvision, 1980)
- Bill Taylor (Optical effects for Dark Star): The model was designed by Ron Cobb. Superb illustrator. very strong science fiction illustrator, was also a blistering political cartoonist.
("Let there be light: The Odyssey of Dark Star" documentary) - Ron Cobb: I didn't know who Dan O'Bannon was , he just wanted to come meet me in my little apartment in Westwood, and very quickly got around to the fact that he was working on this student film or was trying to get this student film going with John Carpenter who I did not know, and as soon as I discovered that, I was you know that really peaked my interest because I was fascinated by film design and the idea of erm depicting space flight in movies, you know, and I had a lot of gripes about how, how many opportunities are missed and so I started rambling away and we went of to er the House of Pancakes, I think in the middle of the night
("Let there be light: The Odyssey of Dark Star" documentary) - Tommy Lee Wallace( Associate Art Director for Dark Star ): Across a parking lot under kind of under the Shrine auditorium, this one restaurant you had to go to unless you really wanted to walk a long way., Basically campus, off campus life was the international house of shit, it's what we called it ("Let there be light: The Odyssey of Dark Star" documentary)
- Ron Cobb: And I brought my pad along with me, my drawing pad, and I just sort of, you know, these are the things that are never, you never see in movies and and they're interesting and they can be used and they're based on more or less a fairly accurate depiction of what we know about space flight, and I don't know why these elements aren't used. ("Let there be light: The Odyssey of Dark Star" documentary)
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