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The Making of |
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Pre-Production |
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Eric's storyboard. |
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Because Raiders
of the Lost Ark was still not available
for rental or sale in video stores when
the boys started in the summer of '82,
they had no reference copy of the movie
they were seeking to remake shot-for-shot.
So, they got everything Raiders
that they could get their hands on -
photos from magazines, the published screenplay,
storybooks, making-of publications, action
figures, an illicit recording of the soundtrack
from smuggling in a cassette recorder into
a movie theater showing Raiders
when re-released in 1982. With the amassed
material, and by memory of seeing Raiders
in the theater, they cobbled together a
composite reconstruction of the original
Raiders,
shot-by-shot, laying it out in storyboard
form. Before Raiders,
Eric Zala wanted to be comic book artist
growing up. This prepared him to hand draw
over 600 individual detailed storyboards
that became the blueprint they used for
seven years, only rarely deviated from.
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Indy's costumes. |
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Eric also designed and drew multiple costume
sketches, the hieroglyphics on the walls
for the set of the Well of the Souls among
dozens of other designs and drawings used
for Raiders: The
Adaptation. The hieroglyphics remain
on the basement walls of Eric's mom's
house to this day, although several sections
were knocked down during Hurricane Katrina
in 2005 (the house has since been repaired).
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In
the beginning years, an over sized vinyl
jacket and Chris' grandfather's
hat were both spray painted brown, for use
as Indiana's jacket and hat. |
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The
Idol was constructed out of a carved shrimp-net
bobber, topped with half of a Christmas ornament. |
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The
boulder went through no less than five different
versions:
- Massive bamboo frame covered
in cardboard and duct tape. It was too
big to get out of Chris's bedroom.
- A cable spool covered in
cardboard, painted grey. It looked horrible
and was half Indy's size.
- Chicken wire - it
blew away in a hurricane.
- Weather balloon covered
in Paper Mache. It popped.
- Fiberglass was the last
boulder. Eric and Jay dug a hole, made
two individual halves and glued them together.
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The
Medallion prop used was an old jewelry piece
of Chris' grandmother, with a Red Pente
stone Super-glued in the center. |
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The
giant Jackal statue that Indy (Chris) topples
over in the Well of Souls scene was constructed
out of an old hot water heater as the body,
poles hung by wires as the arms, and an over-turned
flower pot as the head, with a plastic tarp
spray painted gold and 46 individual Styrofoam
teeth in the open mouth. |
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Eric
built the Ark used in
Raiders: The Adaptation using $100
worth of lumber, and carved the cherubim on
the lid out of a block of Styrofoam, overlaying
it with plaster, then spray-painting it gold. |
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Interesting
fact: Eric, Jay and Chris were all raised
by single mothers. |
Next: Production
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