Unlocking Sci-Fi Worlds: The Power of Kitbashing in Shaping Stories - A Deep Dive

[@damedusa5107]

This Deserves more views.

[@FuturistMedia]

The ultimate compliment, thank you.

[@invisiblewizard2538]

Excellent - I love how you extend the kitbashing ideal into the broader concept of repurposing story elements and images!

[@FuturistMedia]

Thank you - glad that point came through ok!

[@TheFilmeffects]

@@FuturistMedia Yeah, cinema is called a moderm myth with a reason - it kitbashed and repurposed all the antient mythology and fairy tales. That`s totally true. The whole horror genre came out of the classic fairy tales by Hoffman and the Grimm brothers.

[@pauladams286]

The works of Gerry Anderson, from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, are earlier examples. Toys were also used, and often appear in the giant monster movies of the 1950s. Model trains were also widely used for train wreck scenes in many movies and movie serials.

[@Thefixersnyc]

Yes, the Brits were the original “geeblers”, long, long, before ILM. In fact, the zero g explosion effect seen in “A New Hope” when the Death Star explodes, was actually innovated by Brian Johnson in the UK series, Space 1999 in the early 70s.

[@TryptychUK]

I would say the concept goes back even further. I would say the Godfather of kitbashing was Derek Meddings, from the early shows like Fireball XL5 through the opus epic of Thunderbirds. Many of the Century21 crew went on to other big films and took their techniques with them. Lucas was certainly not the first to come up with "dirtying down".

[@TheFilmeffects]

Officially it started with Douglas Trumbull on 2001. But surely before there were cases too no doubt about that.

[@TryptychUK]

@@TheFilmeffects 2001 was 1968, Meddings was doing this stuff at least five years before, on quite a big scale. And he was asked to join Kubrick, but turned him down, however, his assistant did, (Brian Johnson), so a lot of the Gerry Anderson techniques were passed on. And Trumbull was never involved on miniatures, most of his work was the opticals. Bear in mind Kubrick had four of the top guys in the business, all credited as VFX supervisors, Douglas Trumbull, Tom Howard, Wally Veevers and Con Pederson.

[@TheFilmeffects]

@@TryptychUK Trumbull WAS involved with miniatures, there is even photo of him doing the space bus. He also invented the prototype for motion control device to shoot them one frame at a time, long exposure. It has never been done before this way. And his assistent John Dyksra went on to create dykstraflex for Star Wars. So Trumbull was involved in miniatures. But thanks for Meddings fact :)

[@TheFilmeffects]

@@TryptychUK Yeah, Kubrick had four of the top guys in the business (except it was the very first movie project for Trumbull), but he only got the VFX Oscar for himself, he could share it with three of the guys, but he didn`t.

[@TryptychUK]

@@TheFilmeffects Actually, Kubrick took the Oscar on behalf of the team.

[@antonybullock2240]

It’s actually been stated that Derek Meddings was the godfather of this concept, which was developed while he was working with Gerry Anderson on productions such as Stingray and Thunderbirds

[@estebanuno1]

Great videoz

[@Matteline]

A nicely made video. As others have commendted kit-bashing, whie not a particularly unique idea, was nevertheless first employed by Derek medings on the Gerry Anderson TV series. while '2001' and 'Star Wars' definetly took the 'craft' (meaning both the technique ,or craft, and the vehicles, or craft, themselves) to a new level and created a distinct aesthetic, the fundamental process started with Derek Meddings and Thunderbirds.

[@huntercressall9610]

If I could be so bold as to add a caveat to kitbashing both physical and conceptual: It works as an aesthetic both in miniatures and story when you remember it is used to dress out or finish your creation with scavenged pieces. There can be a tendency to compose or directly construct from these salvaged parts and this can lead to story, setting or model feeling like a representation of that part rather than something new. The underlying design - physical or otherwise - needs to be complete in and of itself. Capable of standing naked and on its own. The kit parts be they detail, setting, narrative or character need to flesh out that underlying idea rather than be the ideas themselves. This is especially true for narrative pastiche but no less true of filming models. And as always, YMMV.

[@showplusbiz]

Brilliant.

[@charlie1872]

I built my first spaceship from computer parts, earbuds, yoghurt cups etc on top of a Lego zeppelin shaped container. I made a couple of videos of the build and can be seen on my youtube channel

[@securityrobot]

Here in the UK we call them Wiggets, or widgets so we can dispense with the American term. You aren’t American so why use Greeble? Bollocks to Adam Savage -whom continually bores his audience by reminding them that he worked on the later not so good Star Wars films.

[@FuturistMedia]

Politely, sod off