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Re: [TCML] Tesla coils in films, a little help wanted

Hi Dave, all,

I agree. Although this subject may have considerable potential
to quickly veer OT, I think the discussion of what motion pic-
tures employed the use of Tesla coils and closely related HV
effects should be allowed as an on-topic discussion. 
I just recently acquired a copy of Harry Goldman's book,
"Kenneth Strickfaden - Frankenstein's Electrician" from the
author himself recently at Ed Wingate's Rochester, (NY) Teslathon last week from the legendary Mr. Goldman himself 
(author of the 20 year run of the TCBA quarterly newsletter)
and got him to personally autograph it for me. ;^) I've just
finished reading the book and would highly recommend it.
It covered the life of  Mr. Strickfaden, who was the true pio-
neer in the art of high voltage special effects used on the sets
of motion pictures. There is an attempted exhaustive list of
movies, serials, and television productions that had some ties to Mr. Strickfaden and/or his apparatus and it is quite a long list. I counted 77 movies alone! Every motion picture that's been mentioned so far on this thread was listed in this list. 

David Rieben
----- Original Message ----- From: "Dave Goodfellow" <dgoodfelo@xxxxxxxxxxx> 
To: "Tesla Coil Mailing List" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, August 30, 2008 8:45 AM
Subject: Re: [TCML] Tesla coils in films, a little help wanted
Don't forget "Frankenweenie" a short film about a boy's dog that gets hit by a car and is brought back through the miracle of ultra high voltage.
There is a very short scene of one of Strickfadens coils in the movie "Brainstorm" on a trauma or nightmare video. 

"Metropolis" from 1926 or so has some live high voltage scenes as well.
I think a list of films should be considered on topic because Tesla coils in films gave me, and possibly many more, the inspiration get into coil building. I remember when I was 7 years old, watching the sparks on the old black and white movies, thinking "I want one of those transformers" Since the films were black and white, it occurred to me that it was old technology doing those voltages, and as such, might be within my reach as I got older. 

Dave Goodfellow

Jeff W. Parisse wrote:

kVA Effects provided arcs for:

Film:
XXX - Vin Diesel (Digital Domaign used an SG10-TC to "motion capture" arcs and present them as CGI) The Prestige - Hugh Jackman (arcs were real and photo composited (using Discrete Logic software) to get the "look"). 

Jeff


----- Original Message ----- From: "Tesla" <tesla@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, August 29, 2008 2:02 PM
Subject: [TCML] Tesla coils in films, a little help wanted



Hi all.
I'm in the process of making a list of MOVIES where Tesla coils appear either only the coil itself, sparks from a coil or both. I would also like to know WHO(company/person) was 
responsible for the effects/coils.

At present I have the following movies on my list :
The Prestige: AFAIK the sparks are computer generated but I'm not 100% sure. 

xXx: Sparks produced by kVA effects. I'm also not 100% sure about this.
Star Trek:The Movie: I have no information on who produced the sparks here. 

The Entity: Sparks by Bill Wysock. No doubt about this information.
Terminator 2: Roumors say that Mark Barton has produced the effects but in the end titles a company called "The Artificial Lighting Company" appear and next to it the name Ed Angell. I can find no verification if Mark was involved in this so I have to assume the 
information in the film is correct.
Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix: Sparks are "sampled" from coils by HVFX. It says so on their site so I have to assume that information is correct.
A Tesla coil also appear in an episode of "I Am Weasel" but as this is a cartoon, well.... 

Any other films you can think of?
All help is greatly appreciated. Please contact me off list as I think this is on the fringe of 
being a valid topic here.

Thanks!
/Matt

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