Finding the Time and the Space: part 1 of TBD

Like I said a little while back, I wanted to talk about my work on Timespace in better detail. Maybe it will help recounting the experience while it's fresh in my brain. Maybe some of this might be interesting to see the movie from a different side. Maybe, maybe? Well enough maybes, let's get down to the info that's juicy and nice.

In the middle of January was about when I first started doing things for the film, locked in the Dan-Cave with Daniel. After a ride in the back of a limo planted ideas in his head with ideas as stretchy as that stretch limo. He had a rough idea of where he wanted to go with things already then. Even still, it unraveled much differently than what it grew into. Daniel had a white board filled with how the rules of time travel worked and what happened in each timeline as a result of the time travel. It was thorough. You can't do time travel without setting your rules first! Get rid of as many holes as you can right away!

One of the early time machine designs that ended up being
further explored to refine the design.

I was sitting there working on time machine designs. He showed me one of those funny conspiracy shows he got this concept of the "Nazi bells" from. The legends told of Nazi's using time travel using bell-shaped things filled with mercury counter-rotating super fast to transport something to another time! Some crazy Nazi scientist escaped and something similar to that winded up crashing around Pennsylvania in the 60s. It's funky stuff but it was a totally neato basis to power our version of time travel!

Getting there.

Those things would be on the sides, attached to an enclosed and refined base to ensure the mercury would flow around in the vicinity of the time machine chamber. The base was going to have fancy fans and grates underneath to air out those Nazi bells and also maintain direction and stability when traveling. That was the idea. Yeah. One thing that was trying to be avoided early on was making the time machine look like a giant dick. That was a challenge given the fact that there was no avoiding the big bells needing to be attached.

Time Machine Model Sheet

Some motifs would stay, like the overall color scheme. The red lights on top ended up both being in front to give the whole thing more of a giant toy robot feel. The machine itself was to be pretty practical since it was made in a government laboratory. Things shouldn't end up looking too sterile, though. I wanted to inject the sense of peculiarity I like to add to most things I do. Time machine, that's absurd- and it needs to have a level of acknowledgement to that. It ended up kind of looking vaguely enough like a giant toy robot you're stepping into. Also, yeah- it's shaped like a coffin. Yes.

The TO-DO list.

There also needed to be some firmer cohesion between the shape of the base, and the connectivity of the bells to the chamber. That's where the shape started to become more like a rocketship and less of a box. The two silver coils attached the bells to the chamber now, taking that mercury flowing directly into the chamber. They also look like big robot arms. Now it was a Robot-Rocketship! Good!

BLAST OFF.

Mercury flowing directly inside, though? What? The walls were intended to be "lead-lined" but there's only so much you can suspend your disbelief when you're working with some pieces of wood in reality months later. No wonder time travel's bad for the health. There are vents on the sides, though! The interior's floor also had a mirror, which was to lend to the idea of time travel creating a mirror reality. The actual time travel was to be activated with two handlebar switches being pulled on the sides after all was ready to go.

Wowee.

Constructing the time machine came months later after all of the thoughts had gotten to these points and it was finalized. The actual prop wasn't assembled until early June, done so quite professionally by Dave Mirl. With his expertise in crafting things like this, he slightly modified the design to make more sense when building. All that was left for us to do with this big hunk of wood constructed was make it look like the design. All that was left, ha! The time machine wasn't ready to film until about the night before it finally went in front of the camera in mid-July.

Even after that first day it was reinforced further that same night to be safer in the future. It was continually worked on for that near month and a half in between, with just about all of the major cast and crew pitching in to help whenever they were around. Around the side of the Ziegler household, where the time machine was. That was real swell, though. Everybody was really great in helping get this thing in working order and their efforts should not be unnoticed. Timespace! Teamwork!

Mid spray painting, woo.

Copious amounts of spray paint was inhaled, and so many trips to the hardware store that all the employees kept wondering "how's the spaceship coming along?" every time upon entering. Work was done then on the insides to try and get away with the insulating idea in some way. We found a shiny bed sheet that fit snugly and flush to all the corners, one of the best finds for this thing. Covered everything inside that needed covering!

Done spray painting, woo.

After the whole wooden time machine was painted, the rest of the matters involved detailing to the best of our abilities with time ticking. The rest was small, except for those darn bells. We had no clue what to use for them. We started to go into panic mode after several last minute trips to hardware stores proved fruitless, it ended up being a trip to the dollar store that was our near-priceless (for once) gift from the heavens. Daniel and I both spotted some small plastic trash cans and laundry bins and we both had the same idea going on right there. High fives for synergy! The bins were stacked on top of each other and we knew we had our base for the bells right there, it was the best thing ever.

Ding dong, the bells are ringing.

Of course, now they needed to become bells. So tape fastened the pieces in place and the whole two things were done with paper mache. I did have some much appreciated help in making those from Mrs. Z, Mr. Z, and Katelyn! 80s jamming got us through, I recall. All along the way, Arizona was being bombarded by dust storm after dust storm for this whole month, as well as rains, winds, lightning, thunder, meatballs, the works. If there was ever an eventuality such as this, the whole thing needed to be completely covered in a tarp and securely fastened down.

Batten down the hatches.

Mr. Z installed the working red overhead lights - running down the side to a fancy flip switch, then things were in pretty good order! We had wanted there to be fog effects when powering up the time machine but that didn't pan out, I guess. Another thing I wanted to point out is the fact that every day this prop was needed for filming, it required to be towed in the back of two separate trucks and both heavy pieces were lifted from there into the desert and back.

The whole process of designing a prop as huge and heavy as this hunk o junk was a very adaptive one. Naturally so, I suppose. A very sweaty and slow job till the end, but there was undoubtedly fun to be had along the way despite some of us wanting to burn the machine like the protestors wanted in the film. I think given the materials we had, the intent managed to shine through in what winded up on screen where it counted.

That's it...

After this long-winding post on the time machine, where could I possibly go from here?? Well... I'll talk about the characters next, I guess.



It's gonna eat me.

You can watch Timespace here, if any of these revelations have piqued your interest.

TIMESPACE IS OUT!

What's coming out of that funky time machine? It's me with another Timespace post, but this one will change things forever!! Timespace has just been released online:

  Right here. 

It is available either to rent or to purchase. I will perform impromptu my (not-yet-patented) dance... JUST FOR YOU! But really, I will. But also, we would be very grateful if you supported this little project by a bunch of young college and high school kids that by my estimation are some of the most driven and genuinely genuine people out there. So many worked hard on this just because they wanted to and because they were also struck by the vision that director Dan had and wanted to help bring that vision of his to life. 

I don't like sounding like I'm overly gushy, and I write that because I am being overly gushy. These guys all deserve the gush, however.

"Ya wanna know how I got this scar?"

For now, take a look at this early concept piece from months and months before production started and see how things like the wardrobe of the two main characters would end up changing. One fun thing for me was taking these ideas from Daniel's script and visualizing them. It's a unique process because at that beginning stage you start out with these vague ideas and begin nurturing and getting to know these characters and the world they inhabit better. Things change and new things are given to work with. There's very much a sense of building and building very carefully so that there becomes a stabilizing sense of identity when the time comes.  Then getting to see it actually come to life, wowzers! 

I'll discuss this idea more whenever I decide to do a post on the visual identities of the characters. I think my future self might have to come back and do it for me or something. I just don't want to now.

That Timespace poster

I remember saying I wanted to save going wackier for another poster when I was doing the teaser poster, so I started thinking further about some of the thematic ideas present in the film. Took these things and tried to integrate them in a fairly abstract way. Now, the way my brain works didn't allow me to fully focus on the approach I was wanting to take until I finished working on something else.

That's just the way it's gotta be I guess. But when I did finish what I was doing, I was able to get the idea I had down pretty quickly and it's what I ended up settling on. Working through to the actual finished version, it became inclusive of several different mediums. After penciling and inking, I ended up using India ink to give a wide range of grey tones. Then came layers of watercolor on top of that, then gouache.

Timespace poster.
Pencils, inks, India ink, watercolors, gouache, 11x14 on bristol board

The idea was to have James Pratt stepping into the time machine and seeing a bunch of crazy stuff on the inside. But not just any crazy stuff, more specifically the vices or devices he uses to get his means to their ends. All the unruly things he does to achieve his goals, right in front of him leading him to his inevitable destination.

rough layout

Melting clock hands, cyanide in a syringe, cocaine, a single bullet, the hourglass necklace, blood: all being sucked into this rip in reality/space (more twisting of clock shapes for that rip) containing blackness becoming illuminated by white light. Don't want to give away what that is or how any of this stuff directly relates but it is contextualized in the film. Those objects are also referential to the three planetoids floating around. They have faint faces on them- the other three main characters in the film. They are all directly intertwined in the narrative through the choices that are made by James, so that's why they are there.

Original unused layout designs

My original ideas above came several months ago and still was presenting these ideas but in a slightly more literal way. I felt it was more fitting to go for something less straightforward given the nature of the time travel in the film and what state the main character is even in.

Hope these things give you some good thoughts to eat (oh boy yum) and ponder if you haven't seen the film yet. Sometime later this week Timespace is to be released online for rental on Vimeo. I'll definitely be posting a link here when the time comes.

I've seen how the film has come together from working closely on it with it's esteemed writer and director, my good pal Daniel Ziegler since January when it was just a rough idea little idea of a time travel movie in his head. I've seen him finally just about wrap up editing the film this past night after weeks and weeks of working his tush off and it was very surreal to see that end point in sight. Seeing those ideas that were cultivated be there in such a powerful way is totally nifty!