BGuthrie Photos: VA -- Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center -- Exhibit: Close Encounters Mother Ship Model

VA -- Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center -- Exhibit: Close Encounters Mother Ship Model:

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[1] AIRXCE_040817_016.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[2] AIRXCE_040817_022.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[3] AIRXCE_040817_026.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)
[4] AIRXCE_040817_042.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[5] AIRXCE_040817_072.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[6] AIRXCE_040817_082.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)
[7] AIRXCE_040817_090.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[8] AIRXCE_040817_099.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. AIRXCE_040817_016.JPG: Mother Ship Model "Close Encounters of the Third Kind": This model of an alien spacecraft was used in the filming of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," released by Columbia Pictures in 1977. Director and screenwriter Steven Spielberg envisioned the ship, and a team led by Gregory Jein made it from model train parts and other kits. When filmed with special photographic and lighting effects, the model appeared to be a gigantic craft rising up from behind Devil's Tower in Wyoming. Rotating, colored lights added to the effect. If you look closely, you can spot some details not seen in the film, including a Volkswagen bus, a submarine, the R2-D2 android from "Star Wars," a U.S. mailbox, an aircraft, and a small cemetery plot -- enhancements added by the model makers as inside jokes.
2. AIRXCE_040817_022.JPG: Mother Ship Model "Close Encounters of the Third Kind": Jet fighters
3. AIRXCE_040817_042.JPG: Mother Ship Model "Close Encounters of the Third Kind": R2-D2
4. AIRXCE_040817_082.JPG: Mother Ship Model "Close Encounters of the Third Kind": There's a VW microbus in the middle gap.
5. AIRXCE_040817_090.JPG: Mother Ship Model "Close Encounters of the Third Kind": US Mail box
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Description of Subject Matter: This is the model of the alien Mother Ship used in the filming of the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (Columbia Pictures, 1977). The ship was conceived by Steven Spielberg, the film's director and screenwriter. It was made by a team headed by Gregory Jein, using model train parts and other kits. When filmed with special photographic and lighting effects, the model appears to be a huge, hovering craft. Rotating, colored lights underneath the ship added to its effects.
Looking closely at the model, one can find tiny hidden smaller models which are not seen when the Mother Ship appears in the film. These models were added by the model makers as internal "jokes." They include a Volkswagen bus, a submarine, the R2-D2 android, a U.S. mailbox, an aircraft, and a small cemetery plot.
Bigger photos? To save server space, the full-sized versions of these images have either not been loaded to the server or have been removed from the server. (Only some pages are loaded with full-sized images and those usually get removed after three months.) I still have them though. If you want me to email them to you, please send an email to guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can email them to you, or, depending on the number of images, just repost the page again will the full-sized images.
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- 2021_VA_SIAIRVA_Close: VA -- Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center -- Exhibit: Close Encounters Mother Ship Model (9 photos from 2021)
- 2015_VA_SIAIRVA_Close: VA -- Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center -- Exhibit: Close Encounters Mother Ship Model (25 photos from 2015)
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Same Subject: Click on this link to see coverage of items having the same subject: [(Smithsonian) Udvar-Hazy Center (Everything)] [Display ALL (Smithsonian) Udvar-Hazy Center (Everything) photos] [(Smithsonian) Udvar-Hazy Center (Non-Events)] [Display ALL (Smithsonian) Udvar-Hazy Center (Non-Events) photos] [Museums (History)]
2004 photos: Equipment this year: I bought two Fujifilm S7000 digital cameras. While they produced excellent images, I found all of the retractable-lens Fuji models had a disturbing tendency to get dust inside the lens. Dark blurs would show up on the images and the camera had to be sent back to the shop in order to get it fixed. I returned one of the cameras when the blurs showed up in the first month. I found myself buying extended warranties on cameras. Trips this year: (1) Margot and I went off to Scotland for a few days, my first time overseas. (2) I went to Hawaii on business (such a deal!) and extended it, spending a week in Hawaii and another in California. (3) I went to Tennessee to man a booth and extended it to go to my third Fan Fair country music festival. Number of photos taken this year: 110,000.
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