In late 1988 I designed some concepts for the (very) low budget feature film Johnny Shortwave (released in 1996). A few of these were 'optical matte painting' shots, an attempt by the producers to "open up" the film. Unfortunately, as was often the case with older low budget pictures, the wish to include matte shots was one of the first things to be jettisoned. And forget about hiring a matte artist when you have no money; he or she is of a very specialized craft and charges accordingly. (Now, of course, for relative peanuts one can whip up something on a computer. And now we can call on the help of A.I.)
Below are several thumbnail sketches of ideas I had for extending the industrial areas of Toronto into an heavily industrialized state.
With the producers' blessing I rendered a larger concept painting. Johnny Shortwave was photographed in black and white, hence my monochrome still photograph.
To those (original series) Trekkies or Trekkers out there it's pretty obvious I was inspired by Albert Whitlock's paintings for Star Trek, specifically his artwork for the show's second pilot episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before".
When I look at that painting now, it gets me thinking that perhaps I should use if for something... something "weird and futuristic".
Postscript: Just a few years later I would work in 'opticals' as a compositor, at times combining a matte painting with a live-action element, with the feature film Darkman III: Die Darkman Die (1996) being but one example.
The 2026-27 NHL (National Hockey League) season is well under way. It's time again!
I first posted the following piece in April of 2017. In the years since, the names on Leafs jerseys have almost all changed but the story is always the same....
Enjoy!
We writers must keep our ears to the ground in search of a story. Sitting in a coffee shop is one way to do our work; to mind one's business, but not feel like an eavesdropper should fellow patrons talk of cultural issues at an audible level.
Recently two older gents sat at the table beside me and debated the chances of the Toronto Maple Leafs making this year's NHL (National Hockey League) playoffs.
Gent 1: "They have a real chance of getting somewhere this year."
Gent 2: "Really? We've been hearing this for years."
Gent 1: "Yeah, but they have Auston Matthews."
Gent 2: "Yes, I know, but we've heard this kind of story many times before; for a long time."
"Gent 2" is right. Over the years there has been a Darryl Sittler, Rick Vaive, Curtis Joseph, Wendel Clark, and more. Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner are just the latest stooges who will take the Toronto Maple Leafs to a place nowhere....
(I use the word "stooges" in the Toronto Maple Leafs Masterplan context. I'm sure they are nice people; and they are/were fine hockey players, of course. Most forgotten is the fact one must have a good team, not just two or three good players. Sports history is littered with Leafs-type teams — they are nothing special in that regard.)
The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) has uploaded to YouTube a wonderful selection of their old film shorts. One such film, from 1957, is titled Test Pilot, and its twenty-nine minutes are pretty wonderful, certainly for those folk who find such material engaging. And it stars one James Doohan, "Scotty" from Star Trek. (Hearing him say the word "engineers" several times... well, you know. If he only knew then that in a few years hence he would fly to the stars, and fame.) During World War II, Doohan flew observation aircraft while serving with the Royal Canadian Artillery.
"Dave Frost" works as a company (Avro Canada) test pilot; his job is to test various aircraft functions and potential capabilities. As with any job where one is a test pilot for a high-performance aircraft, there is always that risk, that possibility that something might and can go wrong. These pilots are of a special breed: recreational flyers, they are not.
Test Pilot's angle of attack is typical of a late 1950s short film, one with an educational bent. The acting is fine, especially from that famed starship engineer, and the filmmaking sound, which is to be expected from the NFB, old or new. The short-subject was shot primarily on 35mm black-and-white film but contains a few 16mm-35mm "blow-up" sections: some of the aerial photography was captured on the smaller film format, no doubt due to its extra portability. I was somewhat surprised that the filmmakers didn't mount a dashboard camera. That "pilot's point of view" would have given the aircraft climb some extra dimension, even if the viewer would have been treated to little more than clear skies and perhaps a few cloud formations.
The featured flying machine: the Avro Canada CF-100 "Canuck" was a great aircraft, an all-weather twin-engine jet-powered interceptor/fighter operated by the RCAF (Royal Canadian Air Force). It served in that role from 1952 to 1961. However, the air force used the 100 for other roles before retiring the type in 1981. (The Belgian Air Force also bought and operated a few examples.) When I lived in CFB Borden a "Clunk" was parked in a holding area not far from our PMQ (Private Married Quarters). It may have been a static training example... or just forgotten. By the way, my dad worked on the CF-100 as an armourer. (When Test Pilot was produced he had already been serving with the RCAF for a few years — and would serve for many more.) A few years ago, while visiting the wonderful Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, I sat in a beautiful CF-100. One is allowed to sit in the machine, with a little help from the museum's terrific staff, of course. (Military-aviation buffs would enjoy visiting the CWHM. It's located at the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport in Mount Hope, Ontario, Canada. The selection of aircraft is wide and varied.)
Test Pilot was directed by Fergus McDonell, and written by Arthur Hailey, who, the year before, scripted the CBC live-to-air television play, Flight into Danger, which starred... James Doohan.
Postscript: Flight into Danger was produced by Sydney Newman, who, after that production was bought by the BBC and aired in the UK, went on to create The Avengers for ABC Weekend TV, and co-create Doctor Who for the BBC. Scribe Arthur Hailey went on to co-write the Flight into Danger-inspired 1957 feature film, Zero Hour!, which, years later, was adapted as the 1980 comedy flick, Airplane! He went on to great literary-pulp fame with his novels, Hotel (1965), and... Airport (1968), which was then adapted for the big screen and released to movie theatres in 1970. Airport was a big box office hit. I remember well the endlessly replayed television adverts.
Those Crazy Canadians and Their Flying Machines....
"A riveting story told by a superb writer." ― Walter Lord, author of A Night to Remember
The Sea Shall Embrace Them - The Tragic Story of the Steamship Arctic is not a dry account of what happened on that day in September of 1854 when the Collins Line's grandest transatlantic passenger vessel sank off the coast of Newfoundland, but one told with flair by a writer who understands the mayhem of tragedy inherent in any such tale.
Just sixteen months after the SS Arctic sank, the Collins Line's SS Pacific disappeared without trace on a transatlantic crossing (and has never been found).
While walking about here in Toronto this past weekend I noticed a dog monitoring me from an open car window. Immediately I said hi and asked the owner, who was sitting in the driver seat, if I could take a photo of her friendly-looking pup. She smiled readily and said: "Of course. She's friendly."
"Hi sweetie."
She hopped to the opposite side.
The owner's hubby returned and chased pup back to my side of the car. He had noticed what I was trying to do. With the new picture-popping advantage I captured the above moment.
I love dogs. I prefer cats, but any cute puppy gazing happily in my direction gets my attention.
Postscript: As a general rule, dogs are so happy to see us around and about and are more than willing to greet us. With cats, we get the distinct impression that we're... "serviceable", as in: "we serve them." To cats, we humans are barely able to tie our own shoes, are ocularly-challenged (seemingly unable to read a simple timepiece!), and are clumsier than an obese poodle.
As I walked along a path a beautiful sight stood before me, and my Canon AE-1. My first inclination was to capture this lovely textural mix of stone and flora.
That morning as I readied my day in my London hotel room I asked myself: "Where should I go today? I know where. Oxford! A day trip!"
The post's title may come across as somewhat vain, I'm not even a star here in Toronto, but I thought it would be a cute play on Canadian singer Patsy Gallant's big disco hit song of 1977.
Lord Horatio Nelson, the great and legendary Royal Navy admiral, no doubt dreamt of a fantastic naval machine having the ability to travel under the sea.
Yesterday I posted another piece on my visit to Portsmouth, UK. And at the end of that piece I wrote: "While at HMNB Portsmouth, I visited the insides of a sub...."
Indeed I did: the insides of HMS Alliance, a Royal Navy A-class (Amphion-class or Acheron-class) diesel-electric submarine. Essentially a Second World War sub, hence the "diesel-electric", she was literally opened up to the public in 1981, shortly after her decommissioning as a training ship, and now rests on dry-land cradles at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum in Gosport.
The above pic is the only one I took of the boat. Unfortunately, my camera was loaded with 100 ASA/ISO film, making sub-interior photography somewhat problematic — not instamatic. Besides, I enjoyed the tour so much that bringing my camera up to my eye was not a priority, certainly not in a submersible's cramped spaces. (I should have had my 28mm lens with me.)
Where does my love of submarines come from?... Probably from a television series I loved in my youth. I missed Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea in its original 1964 to 1968 run, but did watch it religiously when Buffalo, NY, television station WUTV stripped it at 5pm on weekdays in the early to mid 1970s. The nuclear submarine SSRN Seaview was a great and fantastic machine, one commanded by one Admiral Harriman Nelson.
Further to my post from yesterday, on a visit to Portsmouth, UK, years ago I took some snaps of a Royal Naval fleet, from yesterday to today. Above are Oberon-class submarines, diesel-electric boats, and the type operated by the Royal Canadian Navy from 1965 to 1998.
Looking at the pictures now I noticed how much the sky (and colour temperature!) had changed between my two shots: the top one I took from a small tourist boat; the bottom from a walkway.
I love submarines, and all things Navy. While at HMNB Portsmouth, I visited the insides of a sub....
Minutes ago I was reading up on Austrian-American film director Alfred "Fred" Zinnemann when I saw actress Eva Marie Saint listed — she co-starred with Don Murray and Anthony Franciosa in the director's 1957 flick A Hatful of Rain (which I've never seen).
My Wow: Ms Saint is still with us at 102 years of age! "She was born in nineteen twenty-four, which means she's now...."
She co-starred in the brilliant 1954 crime drama On the Waterfront, with Marlon Brando.
My fascination with "ironclads" drew me to HMS Warrior, a warrior now berthed at the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. Aye, she's a beautiful lady, and a fine ship!
I took the top photo while standing on the stern of a small tour boat. Of course, British seaside weather being what it is, my fellow tourists and I were blessed with a flash drizzle.
I'm looking forward to giving this a spin! I have their two previous albums, Growing Up and No Obligation. They are four very talented young ladies who have written some terrific songs.
I've heard a couple of samples from Gotta Get Out, and if they represent the level of songwriting on this album, then all I can say is I'm in for a treat! Tomorrow....
Yesterday I keyed-in my domain name improperly and ended up on a search result displaying the above. I found it to be very interesting in how it did an accurate overview of this website/blog.
Yikes!
The text, and text....
"Squibber is the personal website of Simon St. Laurent, a Toronto-based artist and former film and television technician."
Fine.
About the Website
"Content: Features personal photography, reflections on Toronto, memories of growing up as an RCAF (Royal Canadian Air Force) military brat, and posts about books and media."
Not bad.
"Background: The author is a former film and TV visual effects technician who previously worked on projects like Time Runner."
While I worked as an optical compositor with Film Effects - Toronto, that indeed was a film I worked on. It missed American Psycho (Film Opticals of Canada).
"Access: The site's content is actively updated and licensed for public viewing."
I made a joke online about this site being licensed for public viewing. Good scoop-around! Actively updated, yes — very important.
It was a beautiful Sunday in November of 1989. We shot for two consecutive Sundays since we worked most of the time, it seemed. Actually, with the exception of the gent in the fedora, the crew was also crew at VTR Productions, which is how we all met. The project: a 35mm short film called "Visual Effects Matte Composite". I really should dig out that neg roll and have it digitized. (Another "I really should", yes.) The location is Sir Winston Churchill Park, a beautiful filming location.
The super film crew is, from left to right: Me, Mark, Nicole, Joe, Paul, Mike. Not shown: Jonathan.
