Neatorama |
- Movie Trivia: Raiders of the Lost Ark
- Video Games In Legos
- An Incomplete Evolution of the Cartoon Political Map
- A Zoo’s Message About Pollution
- Outlet Wall Helps You Manage Cables
- The DM of the Rings
- Web Side Story: Internet, The Musical
- Metrocard Recycling Projects
- Goldfish Bathplug
- Garbage Pail Kids
- There, I Fixed It
- Winston Churchill, Techno Star
| Movie Trivia: Raiders of the Lost Ark Posted: 29 Jun 2009 10:32 PM PDT Did you guys hear that Indiana Jones 5 is apparently in the works? Are you all as horrified as I am? If you’re like me and hated Kingdom of the Crystal Skull with a passion, then you prefer to dwell on the classics - Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Last Crusade, and yes, even Temple of Doom. Here’s some trivia to remind you of the good times.  The movie was filmed during the summer of 1980. You've probably heard the rumors, and yes, they're true – Indiana Jones was named after George Lucas' dog, Indiana. He was the prototype for Chewbacca as well, so his old malamute had a pretty big impact on Lucas' two biggest series. "Indiana Smith?" Yep, almost, until Steven Spielberg told Lucas it just didn’t sound right. The equally-generic “Jones” was suggested and flowed much better. According to George Lucas, almost every studio in town turned down the movie, feeling that it would cost too much money to make. Tim Matheson and Tom Selleck both tested for Indiana Jones; Karen Allen actually screentested with Tim Matheson. Tom Selleck did very well and was the frontrunner, but had to bow out due to Magnum P.I. Harrison Ford was brought up early in the casting discussion, but George Lucas wanted to avoid casting him since he had already become so closely associated with Star Wars.
Indy's leather jacket looks old and beat up, but in reality, it was brand new - and there were 10 of them. The costume director “aged” each jacket with a metal brush and Harrison Ford’s own pocket knife. The famous hat is from Savile Row in London, a place called Herbert Johnson. The hat had a very wide brim and the crown was quite high, apparently the fashion Down Under since it was their Australian model. After a couple of fittings, it was declared the Indiana Jones fedora. When the customized hat arrived at the studio, the costume designer rolled it up and crushed it, then various members of the cast (including Harrison) took turns sitting on it to make it look like a very worn-in, well-loved hat. Someone was actually sent out to find a mountain that specifically looked like the Paramount Studios logo mountain so they could create the opening shot of the movie. I suppose these days Lucas would have just made a CGI mountain… There was a complication during the scene where Alfred Molina is covered in spiders – they didn't want to move. They just sat stagnant on him, making the excitement of the scene rather… well, not exciting. They discovered that all of the spiders were male, so a female spider was put on Molina's chest. It did the trick – the male spiders were immediately more active and started to crawl in the direction of the female.
The movie was filmed in Tunisia because it was a lot cheaper to shoot there than Egypt, and since the script never called for shots of the Sphinx or the pyramids, so they were able to get away with it. In fact, one of the scenes was shot in the exact same canyon where R2-D2 was stolen by Jawas in Star Wars. The part where Indy watches a swordsman go through a very elaborate routine with his scimitar only to shoot him at the end of it happened because Harrison Ford really had to go to the bathroom. Indy was supposed to have a huge fight scene using his whip, but a bout of dysentery had left him weak and desperately needing the john. Because of this, someone - reports vary on whose idea it was - suggested that Indy just dispatch the dude like anyone who had a gun in his arsenal would. Harrison wasn't the only one who got sick – a majority of the cast and crew found themselves incapacitated at some point during filming in Tunisia. Steven Spielberg didn’t get sick because he ate only canned food from the U.K. Everyone else who ate food in the restaurants or at the hotel got horribly sick at least once during filming.  During the scene where Indy fights while the plane is rolling around, Harrison Ford actually sustained an injury when the wheels of the plane got too close and rolled right up onto his leg. It tore his ACL, but rather than submit to Tunisian hospitals, Ford wrapped it in ice and continued to shoot. He also bruised his ribs during the scene where he is dragged behind the truck. Unlike his character counterpart, Harrison Ford isn't afraid of snakes and had no problem working with them during the Well of Souls scene. Precautions were taken anyway - if you look closely, a reflection gives away the fact that a sheet of glass was placed between Ford and the cobra. It was a good thing, too – at one point the cobra actually sprayed venom onto the glass. Some of the sound effects weren't fancy at all: the sound of snakes slithering was really just the sound designer squishing his fingers through a cheese casserole, the sound of people getting punched was really a pile of leather coats being hit with a baseball bat, and the lid sliding off of the Ark was a toilet lid being slid off the back of a toilet. The sound designer was having trouble coming up with just the right sound for the rolling boulder at the beginning of the movie and ended up using the sound of a Honda Civic coasting down a gravel hill.
The boat was actually the submarine model from Das Boot. Although most shots were done in four takes or less because Lucas and Spielberg wanted a "quick and dirty" feel to the movie – nothing too perfect – there was one shot that took more than 50 takes. It was the scene where the monkey salutes with a "Heil Hitler" gesture. A grape was attached to fishing line and held just out of reach of the camera shot to achieve the salute, but it took a while to get it just right. It ended up being one of Steven Spielberg's favorite moments in the movie.  Those of us who like little movie secrets know that George Lucas likes to include a reference to "1138" in all of his movies in homage to his first movie, THX 1138. You'll find it in Raiders during the Nazi harbor scene if you listen to the numbers being read over the loudspeaker. It's subtle, though, because the numbers are read in German – "Ein, ein, drei, acht." 
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| Posted: 29 Jun 2009 10:14 PM PDT |
| An Incomplete Evolution of the Cartoon Political Map Posted: 29 Jun 2009 10:08 PM PDT  Maps have always been good visual aids for political cartoons, since there’s no question about who is referred to. BibliOdyssey takes a look at political cartoon maps of Britain and Europe through history. Twelve maps are featured, including this 1793 map by Robert Dighton (portrait artist, caricaturist, and thief). Portraying Britain as a person, often riding a fish, is a recurring theme in such maps. Link -Thanks, peacay!
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| A Zoo’s Message About Pollution Posted: 29 Jun 2009 09:57 PM PDT Artists Christoph Steinbrener and Rainer Dempf created this art installation in the Schönbrunn Zoo in Vienna to show the potential effects our negative actions take on the evironment.
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| Outlet Wall Helps You Manage Cables Posted: 29 Jun 2009 09:46 PM PDT If you’re like me, you have a major problem with cables taking over your home life. Here’s a great, visually interesting way to overkill the solution -a whole wall of outlets.
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| Posted: 29 Jun 2009 02:40 PM PDT  The DM of the Rings is a webcomic by Shamus Young which imagines the characters of The Lord of the Rings movies as players in a Dungeons and Dragons campaign who consistently refuse to stay in-character. Link via John Meunier
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| Web Side Story: Internet, The Musical Posted: 29 Jun 2009 11:11 AM PDT What could be better than the Internet? How about the Interweb, the musical? Here’s Web Side Story (but of course), a musical by College Humor about all the good things on the Net in the style of West Side Story. Leonard Bernstein is probably spinning in his grave. Web Side Story, written and directed by Sam Reich, produced by Eva Wong. Hit play or go to Link [College Humor Video] - Thanks Stephanie!
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| Posted: 29 Jun 2009 09:53 AM PDT  Taking public transportation is good for the environment, but used-up Metrocards aren’t -unless you find something useful to do with them. The Infrastructurist found nine wacky things people have made out of the cards, including this lovely suit. Link -via Everlasting Blort
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| Posted: 29 Jun 2009 09:38 AM PDT  Well, isn’t this cute? And it keeps the water from going down the drain while you bathe. Link -via Swiss Miss
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| Posted: 29 Jun 2009 09:17 AM PDT  The Garbage Pail Kids were collectible trading cards created in response to the Cabbage Patch Kids. The gross-out cards are back in print now, with the seventh series available in stores. How well do you remember the classic Garbage Pail Kids? Today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss presents a “Who’s who” that will test your memory. Link
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| Posted: 29 Jun 2009 09:16 AM PDT  There, I Fixed It is a blog profiling the strange and imaginative ways people rig up what they need with what they have. You’ll be forgiven if you thought this radiator repair job was supposed to be a still. Link -via Metafilter
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| Winston Churchill, Techno Star Posted: 29 Jun 2009 07:13 AM PDT (YouTube Link) Musician Michael Schmoyoho Gregory remixed a 1941 speech by Churchill with a techno beat. That is techno, right? I don’t know anything about music, but I do know that this is awesome.
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The role of Sallah was offered to Danny DeVito - he was Spielberg’s first choice - but was unable to do it because of Taxi. The job went to John Rhys-Davies instead. Picture from 
The golden idol was based on an Incan fertility statue. Photo from 
Marion was the writer’s grandmother-in-law’s name, and he had been mulling over a surname for a while when he came across a streetname called “Ravenwood” and loved the way the two names fit together. Photo from 
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