Just hours away now, as Browncoats begin massing outside QMx’s website to get one of the limited edition sets of official Serenity blueprints, it’s time to talk to two of the people behind them.
The blueprints, 10 18″x24″ full-color and insanely detailed pages, were carefully crafted by Geoffrey Mandel (graphic designer for the movie) and Tim Earls (who created the original drawings of the ship for the TV show CG models and was set designer for the movie). An amazing amount of resources were tapped for this design including the original drawings, the CG models, the set blueprints, and thousands of screenshots to make sure that this was as close to canon as it could possibly be. Not only do these sheets finally determine where all the cabins are, where the crew keeps their drinking water, and where the heck all those doors lead to, they also include detailed views of the shuttles and mule.
These sheets — 10 blueprints and one “signature sheet” signed by Geoff and Tim, printed on heavy stock paper, are works of art and well worth framing, the definitive blueprints for our beloved little ship. I talked to Geoff and Andy Gore, director of Quantum Mechanix, about the whole shebang.
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Q: Tired of Serenity yet?
Geoff: Never! In fact, corresponding with you and the other Brain Trust members [note: the beta-test team] made me look forward to revisiting the Firefly DVDs (after a decent interval, of course). Going through all the photos and reference materials made me remember a lot of details from the movie set… such as the fact that the cargo barrels down in the hold were really rusty and disgusting.
Andy: Tired? Tired? Are you MAD?! Am I tired of my left arm? My right foot? A rainbow after a summer storm? 😉 Okay, no. You should *see* the list of Serenity-based projects I’ve submitted to the PD team for review. Don’t believe me? Ask Geoff. He’s working on all of them, right Geoff? 😉
Q: Who’s idea was this? Geoff, did you approach QMx, or did they contact you, or were you both drawn to each other like in a dream?
Geoff: I’ve been kicking around the idea of Serenity blueprints for a while, trying to get Tim interested, and finally he drew the blueprints of the shuttle to shut me up. I pitched the idea to Andy at the Backup Bash, when I was signing money packs, and it took QMx’s deep pockets to get the ball rolling. The finished blueprints are pretty much what I had in mind: full color, and large enough to give you the feeling that you’re actually walking the corridors of Serenity.
Andy: Yeah, pitched. Right. ‘Cause, you know, I took a whole lot of convincing 😉
Q: How many hours do you figure you’ve put into this? Have you slept? Do you remember what sleep is?
Geoff: Certainly 10 hours a day for the last several weeks… I’m going to guess at 300 for the total (which works out to quite a bit less per hour than I make on my day job).
Andy: And, of course, that doesn’t include the marketing, product management, development, web programming, ancillary and packaging design, printing or manufacturing. Everyone worked incredibly hard for *months* on this project, and no one worked harder than Geoff.
Q: So how do you start something this detailed?
Geoff: The starting point was Tim’s renders of the Zoic CG model from the series, which I basically traced using CorelDraw. Also, Tim’s set plans from the film (upper level), as well as Clint Wallace’s AutoCAD files (cargo hold and lower level).
Q: Were you out to map the TV Serenity or the slightly different movie Serenity?
Geoff: It ended up being a “greatest hits” of Serenity: I included many of the changes made for the movie, including the new engines and landing gear, but I kept the color scheme, the retro solar panels, and some other aspects of the series version. There were also some substantial differences between the cargo door and full-size engines built for the film and the CG model, so I used a little bit of both.
The interior is almost completely the movie version, except for the crew quarters and passenger dorms, which we barely saw in the movie.
Andy: I also think it’s important to note that – by and large – the series and movie versions are very similar. In many ways, the movie version is simply a more “ideal” version of Serenity; what you can do when have more time and a bigger budget.
Q: Was it tough to make it into a working spaceship? How well did the original design hold up?
Geoff: I don’t know about a working spaceship, but there was enough room for fuel tanks, the main reactor, water and waste reclamation, air conditioning machinery, and all the other things you’d need aboard a ship like Serenity.
Andy: The design held up incredibly well. The fact is, the folks who designed this ship clearly put a lot of thought into making her look like a real, functioning ship. And that required that a lot of the functionality of the ship be fully designed, as well.
On many Sci Fi ships, there’s a lot of empty space between the sets. In the case of Serenity, that was very little of the ship that wasn’t in the set designs and CGI files – it was 90% complete. Compare that with Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica, where there are vast areas you never get to see. Browncoats *know* what Serenity looks like – inside and out. Her blueprints had to live up to that standard.
Q: I know you agonized over each and every design decision. What was your biggest challenge to make work? Did you have to hammer anything to get it in?
Geoff: The front hallway as built was way too short to lead up to the bridge, and needed to be slanted up slightly. (Luckily, the grav dampeners make it feel as if you’re walking on a level surface!) There was also a problem with access to the shuttles: they ride much higher than we thought, practically on the level of the dining room, so you need a short stairway that leads up from the catwalk in the cargo hold. The shuttles also eat up a lot of the room where the dining room should be, so I had to eliminate another head and make the rotunda/observation lounge a little smaller than the movie version.
Q: Can you give us some quick thoughts on the following areas:
Bridge:
Geoff: Thanks to Tim’s redesign for the film, some flaws in the series bridge (such as a window crossbar blocking the pilot’s view) were eliminated. That other bridge door was always intended to lead toward the head, and even had a men’s room sign in the film (as well as a toxic hazard warning sticker).
Andy: And, let’s face it – if Jayne was using that particular head, the toxic hazard sticker was probably well earned.
Crew cabins:
Geoff: The Serenity Brain Trust (including you, Chris) pulled our asses out of the fire here by combing through the episodes and documenting exactly where the furniture and entrances were located in each of the cabins.
Andy: The Trust was just amazingly helpful making sure not just the rooms, but the layout of the furnishings, were exactly correct. And they even helped suggest a few fun surprises to include!
Dining room:
Geoff: Interestingly, when I first lined the sets up with the CG exterior, the windows at both ends of the dining room were almost exactly where they should be. Even the observation lounge dome wasn’t too far off. According to Tim, the observation lounge was intended as a kind of “roll cage” to keep the crew from being squashed during an emergency landing, although the furniture there didn’t look very sturdy… basically, old lounge chairs from the Salvation Army.
Andy: The way I figure it, if that area is a roll cage, being inside it during a crash must be something like being a frog in blender.
Engine room:
Geoff: The accelerator core (the spinny thing) was quite a bit different in the film… I guess Serenity had an engine upgrade after the Lassiter was sold. Even Kaylee’s hammock was different: rope mesh instead of rainbow fabric.
Infirmary:
Geoff: One of the few changes I made to the as-built sets was to make the staircase running down to the infirmary straight rather than diagonal. This allows for a single staircase (with a small landing) between the back hallway and the infirmary, as seen in the opening of the movie. Of course, you never saw the waste reclamation area or water barrels, but hey, it was dark…
Passenger dorms:
Geoff: Again, a big vote of thanks to the Serenity Brain Trust, who figured out who lived where and how the furniture was arranged. Serenity’s hull curves rather sharply up right here, so there’s not much room for the lower-level dorms on the left and right, but we managed to make it fit (barely).
Andy: And we all know who got the biggest dorm – Reverend Book – on account of all that hair.
Shuttles:
Geoff: Based on our first estimate of Serenity’s size, we discovered that the shuttle hatches were tiny…less than half the size of the full-size shuttle that was made for the movie (the scene was cut, unfortunately). Even the ceiling height was barely high enough to stand up in. This was one of the main reasons we “upgraded” the size of Serenity, making it bigger than most fans (and the RPG manual) would have predicted. This also helped us with the passenger dorms, which would extend out into empty space if they were laid out as indicated in the RPG manual.
Cargo bay:
Geoff: As everyone knows, the cargo bay in the film had the most differences from the set as seen on the series, so it’s always been my theory that Serenity scrapped its old hold and got a shiny new one sometime between the series and the movie. Tim says that there was some early discussion about the cargo hold being detachable like a cargo container, so this isn’t as farfetched as it sounds. The interior of the cargo hold is based closely on Clint Wallace’s set plans from the movie, including the full-size cargo door and airlock.
The mule:
Geoff: Many thanks to set designer J. Andre Chaintreuil and Dan Sudick, the special effects wizard who built the full-size mule, who both gave me files. Incidentally, Dan reports that the mule was recently torn apart by its owner, a prop house, for scrap metal… a shame, as I’m sure there are fans out there who would have made them a good offer!
Q: Are there any surprises or Easter eggs in there?
Geoff: That’s for me to know and you to find out. 😉
Andy: Easter eggs? What easter eggs? 😉
Q: So can Browncoats start building their own backyard Fireflies?
Geoff: I look forward to taking a tour!
Andy: Well, I’m not really supposed to pre-announce products, but we are looking into the feasibility of a do-it-yourself Firefly kit, 1:1 scale. Having a bit of trouble with the engine, though. We’re trying to retrofit a Capissen 38 engine, but they keep falling right out of the box.
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As someone who had the opportunity to see the designs in various stages of development, I have to tell you that my estimation of Geoff and Tim, already pretty damn high, is now nearly religious. Hear more about the process in the interviews with these guys at Firefly Talk and The Signal.
The blueprints go on sale tonight at 11:59 PM EST. There are only 750 in this limited edition set and previous pre-order opportunities sold out quickly, so you may not want to dawdle. Head to QMx for more details.
“Incidentally, Dan reports that the mule was recently torn apart by its owner, a prop house, for scrap metal… a shame, as I’m sure there are fans out there who would have made them a good offer!”
Noooo! The mule was last seen at Universal Studios California on display. Are they sure?
Hadn’t the prop house ever heard of ebay. Maybe parts of the mule still exist.
Hey, I really love old retro stuff and vintage furniture is one of my favorites. The old stuff was made well and lasts, not like the new cheap stuff.