VA -- Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center -- Exhibit: Close Encounters Mother Ship Model:
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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
AIRXCE_150525_022.JPG: Mother Ship Model "Close Encounters of the Third Kind":
R2-D2
AIRXCE_150525_029.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.
AIRXCE_150525_095.JPG: Mother Ship Model "Close Encounters of the Third Kind":
Cemetery
AIRXCE_150525_100.JPG: Mother Ship Model "Close Encounters of the Third Kind":
Post office box
AIRXCE_150525_108.JPG: Mother Ship Model "Close Encounters of the Third Kind":
TIE Fighter
AIRXCE_150525_150.JPG: Mother Ship Model "Close Encounters of the Third Kind":
School bus
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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.
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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)
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2015 photos: Equipment this year: I mostly used my Fuji XS-1 camera but, depending on the event, I also used a Nikon D7000.
I retired from the US Census Bureau in god-forsaken Suitland, Maryland on my 58th birthday in May. Yee ha!
Trips this year:
a quick trip to Florida.
two Civil War Trust conferences (Raleigh, NC and Richmond, VA), and
my 10th consecutive San Diego Comic-Con trip (including Los Angeles).
Ego Strokes: Carolyn Cerbin used a Kevin Costner photo in her USA Today article. Miss DC pictures were used a few times in the Washington Post.
Number of photos taken this year: just over 550,000.
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