Open Thread: It Took Three Years and Ton of Money, But Fireball Tools Turned Their Offices Into a Sci-Fi Starship Interior Out of Star Wars and Star Trek

So I'm putting up an open thread because it's been a busy week and I want to chillax.

I watched this over the weekend. It's pretty great. If you can't watch it today, come back to this post over the weekend and check it out.

There are nine parts and they're all worth the watch. Here's quick ten-minute recap of the whole project.

I don't know if I'd recommend that, though. If the subject interests you, I'd recommend just watching all nine parts so as not to spoil the final form of the remodel.

One thing he keeps pointing out is that TV and movies can build these props on the cheap because they're only props and only have to survive a couple of uses before the shoot is over. On the other hand, he has to build this stuff to be functional and long-lasting. I mean, the "Star Map" isn't actually functional, but all the stairs, doors, guardrails, and office furnishings are.

Here's Part One. In this video from three years ago, they build out the exterior of their offices, overlooking the fabrication floor. The offices look like the conning tower of a high tech aircraft carrier.

In Part Two, he builds heavy "blast doors" like you see in Star Wars. This is actually the first part I watched because, if you know me, you know I'm all about heavy blast doors. Of course they open and shut automatically. He doesn't include a "shissh-shissh" sound effect because he realizes that would drive everyone in the office crazy after five minutes.

Part Three is short and skippable. In this, they put on false "armored blast shutters" over the windows from Part One. It's neat but in the end, it's just about cutting plywood to look like metal armor shutters. It's not going to blow your mind. You can skip to the end to just see what they look like, installed.

Part Four is also skippable. In this, they build a giant "sensor screen" for the office. It's neat but like the last one, it's mostly what you'd think it would be. Putting four 65 inch TV screens on the ceiling and making them look like one big portal. Again, maybe skip to the end.

Part Five is interesting -- stairs up to the office. Yes stairs are boring but science fiction Death Star stairs are interesting. They plot a design which will make them look futuristic. The owner points out that in Star Wars, stairs never have railings, but unfortunately the Fascist Building Code requires them. But he'll try to make them look "spacey."

In Part Six, he builds an "infinite reflection" "Portal" as a visual feature for the stairs. Kind of neat, but also, I think, skippable unless you're going to watch all of them. Go to the end to see what it looks like.

Part Seven is interesting. He doesn't want people to walk under the landing on the stairs, because tall people might bang their head. He doesn't want to just close off the stairs that he worked so hard to look spacey. He steals a trick from Disneyland's imagineers and decides he'll build a prop under the landing that will keep people from walking under it while looking like a piece of sci-fi tech. The tech he builds is one of those glowing glass "star maps" you see in Star Wars and other sci-fi media. It's pretty neat.

In Part Eight, he actually finishes the interior of the "starship command offices." Pretty neat.

And in Part Nine, he finishes the project by building a spacey guard-rail on the mezzanine overlooking the fabrication floor. In a perfect Sci-Fi World, there would be no guardrail at all, but once again Imperial Building Codes require one. This is also skippable.

I like all the parts but I'm leading you to the best ones if you only have time to watch some of them.

Makes me really want to buy a two million dollar wetsaw. I can really get a lot done with a two million dollar wetsaw.

posted by Disinformation Expert Ace at 05:00 PM

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