Physical Effects
I've been a interested in entertainment since childhood, and began work in technical theater in 1989. I spent a few years at Hennepin Technical College learning mechanical drafting and CAD drafting which greatly enhanced my design and engineering skills. My college education at Bemidji State University was focused on miniature effects model building for film production. My professional career in the entertainment industry has brought me into a variety of productions of all sizes.
This is a collection of practical props, specialty sets, and physical effects projects I've done for theater, film, and special events, ranging from miniature effects model-building to set construction, to full production design.
CONvergence decor: Mascot Statue
I was commissioned by CONvergence, the Midwest's largest science-fiction and fantasy convention, to build a statue of their mascot "Connie", a superhero robot. Connie is the brainchild of comics illustrator Christopher Jones, who has drawn hundreds, if not thousands, of variations of this character. This sculpture, however, was the first time she had been seen in three dimensions. Read more »
CONvergence Main Stage CAD model
Before I even begin a production design, I spend lots of time studying the environment where that design will live. Often times, you'll see me scurrying about a production location with a tape measure and a notebook, taking dimensions of every last detail. Then, I reproduce that environment in a 3D CAD modeling program. Read more »
Giza Plateau Ouija Table
This is a prop I built for the Egypt 1929 : 2008 New Year's Eve Party. The piece was used in the "seance room" as a decoration.
The table itself was customized to be inset with Plexiglass and made into an Egyptian-themed Ouija board. Beneath the glass is a back lit golden scale replica of the entire Giza Plateau, including 9 pyramids, 5 temples, boat pits, walls, causeways, the Sphinx, and the eastern cemetery. Read more »
Guthrie Theater: A Mid-Summer Night's Dream
I'm rather proud to be part of the crew that helped create the set and effects for A Midsummer Night's Dream, now playing at The Guthrie Theater. There is a very comprehensive review of our scene shop's production on the Star Tribune website, including a time-lapse video of the set load-in week. Read more »
National Film Challenge: Salvage
I was the Production Designer for a filmmaking team that competed in the National Film Challenge. Our pre-selected theme was "horror", and we drafted a script titled "Salvage" about a couple who gets in a car wreck in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately, there is a nearby junkyard, manned by a creepy attendant who is preoccupied with an attractive visitor. Read more »
CONvergence decor: USS Discovery EVA Pod
In keeping with the "space" theme of the 2007 CONvergence science fiction and fantasy convention, I was contracted to design and build a decorative facade for the main stage entry way. I engineered this interpretation of a set from 2001: A Space Odyssey which included the interior of the USS Discovery hangar bay, a rotated EVA pod with the hatch open, and the infamous HAL 9000 computer. Read more »
Landroval Studios: Midnight Chronicles Set
In July 2005, I was contracted by a small start-up company, Landroval Studios, to build a set for some opening-scene test footage as a proof-of-concept. They handed me some research from the art department, I did the production design, ordered the materials, and got to work. I had only 14 days to design, build, paint, and dress this set. I had only 2 full-time carpenters on my crew, and had to recruit several part-time scene painters. It was exhausting work, in limited conditions, with a minimal budget, and I got paid peanuts, but on camera, this set looked great. Read more »
Gargoyle prop and body painting
I was commissioned to build a decorative piece for the Minneapolis Goth Prom, sponsored by gothling.com at the time, and decided to produce a human-sized gargoyle statue. Rather than create a human figure from scratch, I decided to accomplish the granite stone effect with body paint. The wings, tail, hair, and pedestal were constructed and painted separately out of various materials. Read more »
Midwestern Cybertising model
My first effects project was building a scale model of an office for a web design and advertising agency called Midwestern Cybertising. Back in 1995, somebody dreamed up the term "virtual tour", and having some photography of a snazzy "virtual office" on your website seemed like a good idea. Computer-generated imaging software was not very feasible yet, so I was brought in to build a model from scratch. This single still shot of the model was used as something of a "splash page", but the plan was to film multiple rooms that could be navigated through the site. Read more »
Shuttle Tydirium model
While studying model-building at Bemidji State University, my curriculum required a final project that focused on only one type of model (architectural, forensic, prototype, etc). I chose to build a special-effects model for filmmaking: the Shuttle Tydirium as featured in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. Read more »
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