About four years ago, the New Yorker published an article about a cache of dodo bones that was found in a pit on the island of Mauritius. Now, the island of Mauritius is a small island off the east coast of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, and it is the place where the dodo bird was discovered and extinguished, all within about 150 years. Everyone was very excited about this archaeological find, because it meant that they might finally be able to assemble a single dodo skeleton.
Rreth 4 vjet me pare, gazeta "New Yorker" publikoi artikullin per vendin e fshehtë te kockave te zogut dodo ne nje grope ne ishullin e Mauritius. Tani, ishulli i Mauritiusit eshte nje ishull i vogel ne bregdetin lindor te Madagaskarit. ne Oqeani Indian, dhe eshte vendi ku eshte zbuluar zogu "dodo" dhe eshte zhdukur, pergjat 150 viteve. Te gjithe ishin te entuziasmuar per kete zbulim arkeologjik sepse menduan qe ata me ne fund do te mund te mblidhnin nje skelet komplet te zogut dodo.
See, while museums all over the world have dodo skeletons in their collection, nobody -- not even the actual Natural History Museum on the island of Mauritius -- has a skeleton that's made from the bones of a single dodo. Well, this isn't exactly true. The fact is, is that the British Museum had a complete specimen of a dodo in their collection up until the 18th century -- it was actually mummified, skin and all -- but in a fit of space-saving zeal, they actually cut off the head and they cut off the feet and they burned the rest in a bonfire. If you go look at their website today, they'll actually list these specimens, saying, the rest was lost in a fire.
e kane skelete te dodo-s ne koleksionet e tyre, asnje bile as edhe Muzeu Historik i Natyres i tanishem ne ishullin e Mauritiusit-- ka skeletin i cili eshte bere nga kockat e nje dodo te vetme. Mirepo, kjo nuk eshte krejt e vertete e verteta eshte se Muzeu Britanik kishte nje specie komplete te dodos ne koleksionin e vet deri në shekullin e 18te i cili ishte i teri i balsamuar por nga zelli per te hapur vend te lire, ata ia kan keputur koken dhe kembet, dhe ia dogjen pjeset e tjera te kockave. Nese e shikoni faqen e tyre te internetit sot, ata listojme faktikisht 3 speciet, duke thene, pjesa tjeter ka humbur ne nje zjarr.
Not quite the whole truth. Anyway. The frontispiece of this article was this photo, and I'm one of the people that thinks that Tina Brown was great for bringing photos to the New Yorker, because this photo completely rocked my world. I became obsessed with the object -- not just the beautiful photograph itself, and the color, the shallow depth of field, the detail that's visible, the wire you can see on the beak there that the conservator used to put this skeleton together -- there's an entire story here. And I thought to myself, wouldn't it be great if I had my own dodo skeleton? (Laughter)
Jo e gjitha eshte e vertete. Gjithsesi ne ballinen e ketij artikulli ishte kjo foto, dhe une jam nje nga njerzit qe mendojne qe Tina Brown ishte e madhe qe pruri fotot ne New Yorker, sepse kjo foto krejtesisht ka shkundur boten time. U fiksova me kete projekt-- jo vetem nga vet bukuria e fotos, dhe ngjyra, thellesia e ceket e fushës, hollësi që është e dukshme, teli qe mund ta shikoni ne sqep qe ruajtesi i ka perdorur per te lidhur këtë skelet sebashku, ka një histori të tërë këtu. Dhe mendova me vete, a nuk do te ishte e mrekullueshme po te kisha nje skelet personal te zogut dodo? (Te qeshura)
I want to point out here at this point that I've spent my life obsessed by objects and the stories that they tell, and this was the very latest one. So I began looking around for -- to see if anyone sold a kit, some kind of model that I could get, and I found lots of reference material, lots of lovely pictures. No dice: no dodo skeleton for me. But the damage had been done. I had saved a few hundred photos of dodo skeletons into my "Creative Projects" folder -- it's a repository for my brain, everything that I could possibly be interested in. Any time I have an internet connection, there's a sluice of stuff moving into there, everything from beautiful rings to cockpit photos. The key that the Marquis du Lafayette sent to George Washington to celebrate the storming of the Bastille. Russian nuclear launch key: The one on the top is the picture of the one I found on eBay; the one on the bottom is the one I made for myself, because I couldn't afford the one on eBay. Storm trooper costumes. Maps of Middle Earth -- that's one I hand-drew myself. There's the dodo skeleton folder. This folder has 17,000 photos -- over 20 gigabytes of information -- and it's growing constantly. And one day, a couple of weeks later, it might have been maybe a year later, I was in the art store with my kids, and I was buying some clay tools -- we were going to have a craft day. I bought some Super Sculpeys, some armature wire, some various materials. And I looked down at this Sculpey, and I thought, maybe, yeah, maybe I could make my own dodo skull.
Dhe kështu - unë dua të theksoj këtu në këtë pikë që Kam kaluar jetën me fiksimin ndaj objekteve dhe historitë qe ata tregojnë, dhe kjo ishte me e reja. Pra fillova te shikoj rreth e rrotull nese ndonjeri shet ndonje komplet ndonje lloj modeli qe do te mund te gjeja, dhe kam gjetur mjaft informacione adresimi, plot piktura te kendshme. pa shans: asnje skelet i dodo's per mua. Por demi ishte bere kisha shpëtuar disa qindra fotografi te skeleteve te dodo's ne dosjen time "Projektet Krijuese" kjo është një depo për trurit tim, çdo gjë që unë ndoshta mund të jem i interesuar Sa here qe kam lidhje interneti, fus gjera te reja aty, gjithshka nga unazat e bukura e deri tek fotot e kabinave. celesi qe Marquis du Lafayette i dergoi George Washington-it per te festuar sulmin e Bastille-s. Celesi Rus per leshimin e nukleares. ajo lart eshte nje foto qe e kam gjetur ne eBay; kete ketu poshte e bëra për veten time, sepse nuk mund te blija ate ne eBay. Kostumet e kaloresve te stuhise, hartat e Tokës së Mesme-- kjo eshte nje qe e vizatova vet. Ja dhe dosja e skeletonit te dodos. Kjo dosje permban 17000 foto-- mbi 20 gigabytes informacion dhe kjo është në rritje të vazhdueshme. Dhe nje dite, duhet te ishte disa jave me vone, ndoshta nje vit me vone, isha ne nje dyqan arti me femijet e mi po blija disa mjete balte - do të benim artizanat ate ditë. bleva disa lloj argjilash, disa me tela armature, e disa materiale te ndryshme. E shikova argjilen dhe mendova, ndoshta, po, ndoshta mund te bej vet nje kafke të dodos
I should point out at this time -- I'm not a sculptor; I'm a hard-edged model maker. You give me a drawing, you give me a prop to replicate, you give me a crane, scaffolding, parts from "Star Wars" -- especially parts from "Star Wars" -- I can do this stuff all day long. It's exactly how I made my living for 15 years. But you give me something like this -- my friend Mike Murnane sculpted this; it's a maquette for "Star Wars, Episode Two" -- this is not my thing -- this is something other people do -- dragons, soft things.
me duhet te theksoj tashme -- se nuk jam gdhendes jam nje krijues i modeleve me viza te drejta. Me jep nje vizatim, nje objekt skene ta kopjoj, me jep nje vinç, skelë, pjese nga "Star Wars"-- veçanërisht pjese nga filmi "Star Wars"-- mund te bejë kete gjë gjat gjithë dites. ajo eshte menyra qe kam bere jetesen per 15 vite. Por po me japesh dicka si kjo-- nje shok imi Mike Murnane ka gdhendur kete; eshte nje maket per Star Wars, pjesa e dyte-- Kjo s'eshte puna ime, kjo eshte dicka qe bejne njerzit e tjere -- dragonj, linja te buta.
However, I felt like I had looked at enough photos of dodo skulls to actually be able to understand the topology and perhaps replicate it -- I mean, it couldn't be that difficult. So, I started looking at the best photos I could find. I grabbed all the reference, and I found this lovely piece of reference. This is someone selling this on eBay; it was clearly a woman’s hand, hopefully a woman's hand. Assuming it was roughly the size of my wife's hand, I made some measurements of her thumb, and I scaled them out to the size of the skull. I blew it up to the actual size, and I began using that, along with all the other reference that I had, comparing it to it as size reference for figuring out exactly how big the beak should be, exactly how long, etc.
megjithatë, ndjeva qe kisha pare mjaft foto skeletesh te dodos që të jem në gjendje të te kuptoj topologjine dhe ndoshta edhe te kopjoj atë -- mendoj, nuk do te ishte edhe aq veshtire. pra fillova te kerkoj fotot me te mira qe mund ti gjeja. mblodha te gjitha referencat, kam gjetur kete pjese te bukur te references. kjo eshte qe dikush e shet ne eBay; ishte qarte nje dore femre, shpresojme qe eshte dora e nje femre. duke shpresuar qe ishte perafersisht madhesia e dores se gruas sime, i kam bere disa matje te thonjeve te saj, dhe morra masen e kockave. e zmadhova atë deri ne madhesine aktuale, dhe fillova ta perdor atë, bashkë me referencat tjera qe pata, fillova te bej krahasimet ne mes tyre si madhesia e references per te gjetur me saktesi se sa i madh duhet te ishte sqepi, saktësisht sa i gjatë, e te tjera e te tjera.
And over a few hours, I eventually achieved what was actually a pretty reasonable dodo skull. And I didn't mean to continue, I -- it's kind of like, you know, you can only clean a super messy room by picking up one thing at a time; you can't think about the totality. I wasn't thinking about a dodo skeleton; I just noticed that as I finished this skull, the armature wire that I had been used to holding it up was sticking out of the back just where a spine would be. And one of the other things I'd been interested in and obsessed with over the years is spines and skeletons, having collected a couple of hundred. I actually understood the mechanics of vertebrae enough to kind of start to imitate them. And so button by button, vertebrae by vertebrae, I built my way down. And actually, by the end of the day, I had a reasonable skull, a moderately good vertebrae and half of a pelvis.
Pas disa orëve, une perfundimisht arrita nje kafke te dodos te bukur dhe te arsyeshme. Dhe nuk mendoja qe te vazhdoja, Une-- eshte si nje lloj deshire, e di, si te pastrosh nje dhome e cila eshte shum rrëmuje duke kapur gjerat nje nga nje; nuk mundesh te mendosh te gjithen pernjehere. Nuk po mendoja per skeletin e dodos; sapo verejta qe kisha perfunduar kafkën, teli i armatures te cilin e kisha perdorur per ta mbajtur lart ishte ngjitur mbrapa saktesish atjet ku do te ishte shpina. Dhe njera nga gjerat qe isha i interesuar dhe fiksuar gjate ketyre viteve eshte shpina dhe skeleti, duke mbledhur disa qindra. faktikisht une kuptova mekaniken e rruazës aq sa te filloj kopjimin e tyre. pra nga butoni ne buton, rruaze ne rruaze, une ndertova timin. Faktikisht, gjate fundit te dites, une kisha nje kafkë te arsyeshme, nje pjese te mire te rruazave dhe gjysmen e legenit
And again, I kept on going, looking for more reference, every bit of reference I could find -- drawings, beautiful photos. This guy -- I love this guy! He put a dodo leg bones on a scanner with a ruler. This is the kind of accuracy that I wanted, and I replicated every last bone and put it in. And after about six weeks, I finished, painted, mounted my own dodo skeleton. You can see that I even made a museum label for it that includes a brief history of the dodo. And TAP Plastics made me -- although I didn't photograph it -- a museum vitrine. I don't have the room for this in my house, but I had to finish what I had started.
Dhe prape, vazhdova punen, duke kerkuar sa me shume referime, cdo copëz te referimit qe munda ta gjej-- vizatime, foto te bukura. Ky djali -- me pelqen se ka skanuar nje kembe te dodos -- ne vizore. Kjo ishte nje nga saktesite qe une doja, dhe une vetem kopjova qdo kocke të fundit dhe e vendosa në të dhe afersisht pas-- do te thosha gjashtë javëve, e perfundova, e pikturova, e montova skeletin e dodos tim. Ju mund te shihni qe kam bere po ashtu nje etikete muzeumi per te e cila permban nje histori te permbledhur te dodos dhe TAP Plastika me beri-- edhe pse une nuk e kisha fotografuar ate-- nje vitrine muzeumi. Une nuk kam hapsire ne dhomen time per këtë. por me duhej te perfundoja ate qe kisha filluar.
And this actually represented kind of a sea change to me. Again, like I said, my life has been about being fascinated by objects and the stories that they tell, and also making them for myself, obtaining them, appreciating them and diving into them. And in this folder, "Creative Projects," there are tons of projects that I'm currently working on, projects that I've already worked on, things that I might want to work on some day, and things that I may just want to find and buy and have and look at and touch. But now there was potentially this new category of things that I could sculpt that was different, that I -- you know, I have my own R2D2, but that's -- honestly, relative to sculpting, to me, that's easy.
Dhe kjo faktikisht me beri qe te shoh nje ndryshim tek une. Prap, sic e ceka, jeta ime eshte bere e hipnotizuar nga objektet dhe tregimet qe ata tregojne, po ashtu kur i bej ato per vete, kur i marr ato, duke i cmuar, dhe duke u zhytur ne to. Dhe ne kete dosje, "Projekte Kreative," qe jane projekte me tonelata qe jam duke punuar tani, projekte qe kam punuar deri me tani, gjera qe do te mund te kisha dashur te punoj ndonje dite, dhe gjerat qe une do te doja ti gjeja dhe ti bleja dhe ti kisha dhe -- ti shoh e ti prek. Por tani ketu ishte nje kategorise se re gjerash qe mund te skulpturoja kjo ishte e ndryshme, qe une -- une kam nje R2D2, por ajo-- sinqerisht, lidhur me skulpturimin, per mua, kjo eshte e lehtë.
And so I went back and looked through my "Creative Projects" folder, and I happened across the Maltese Falcon. Now, this is funny for me: to fall in love with an object from a Hammett novel, because if it's true that the world is divided into two types of people, Chandler people and Hammett people, I am absolutely a Chandler person. But in this case, it's not about the author, it's not about the book or the movie or the story, it's about the object in and of itself. And in this case, this object is -- plays on a host of levels.
Keshtuqe shkova prap dhe pashe ne doset e mia "Projekte Kreative", dhe u ndodha perballe Falkonit Maltez. Tanime kjo eshte qesharake per mua: te bie ne dashuri me objektet e noveles te Hammett, sepse eshte e vertet qe bota eshte e ndare ne dy lloje te njerzve njerezit Chandler-dashes dhe njerezit Hammett-dashes, une definitivisht jam Chandler-dashes. Por ne kete rast, nuk eshte per -- nuk eshte per autorin, nuk eshte per librin apo film, apo historine. eshte lidhur me objektin perbrenda dhe jashte tij. Dhe ne kete rast, ky objekt eshte-- luan prezantuesin-- ne disa nivele.
First of all, there's the object in the world. This is the "Kniphausen Hawk." It is a ceremonial pouring vessel made around 1700 for a Swedish Count, and it is very likely the object from which Hammett drew his inspiration for the Maltese Falcon. Then there is the fictional bird, the one that Hammett created for the book. Built out of words, it is the engine that drives the plot of his book and also the movie, in which another object is created: a prop that has to represent the thing that Hammett created out of words, inspired by the Kniphausen Hawk, and this represents the falcon in the movie. And then there is this fourth level, which is a whole new object in the world: the prop made for the movie, the representative of the thing, becomes, in its own right, a whole other thing, a whole new object of desire.
Se pari, eshte nje objekt ne bote. kjo eshte "Fajkoi i Kniphausenit." Eshte nje ene ceremoniale zbrazjeje e bërë rreth 1700 për një Kont suedez, dhe eshte shume e mundshme qe objekti prej te cilit Hammett u frymezua per Skifterin Maltez. Ketu eshte nje zog i trilluar, te cilin Hammetti e krijoi per Librin e tij. I ndertuar nga fjalet, eshte nje motorr qe e shtyn komplotin per librin e tij duke perfshire edhe filmin, ne te cilin eshte krijuar nje karakter tjeter : replika qe paraqet gjene qe Hammett e ka krijuar me fjale, i inspiruar nga Fajkoi i Kniphauserit, dhe kjo paraqet skifterin ne film. Dhe pastaj ja tek eshte niveli i katert, i cili eshte nje objekt teresisht i ri ne botë replike e bere per film, paraqitese i saj, behet, ne te drejten e tij nje gje kretesisht tjeter, nje objekt teresisht tjeter i deshires.
And so now it was time to do some research. I actually had done some research a few years before -- it's why the folder was there. I'd bought a replica, a really crappy replica, of the Maltese Falcon on eBay, and had downloaded enough pictures to actually have some reasonable reference. But I discovered, in researching further, really wanting precise reference, that one of the original lead birds had been sold at Christie's in 1994, and so I contacted an antiquarian bookseller who had the original Christie's catalogue, and in it I found this magnificent picture, which included a size reference. I was able to scan the picture, blow it up to exactly full size.
Dhe tani qe erdhi koha per te bere pak kerkime. Une ne te vertet kam bere disa kerkime disa vite me pare -- ja pse dosja egziston. Une do te kisha blere nje kopje, nje kopje plehrë, te Skifterit Maltez ne eBay, dhe kisha shkarkuar mjaft piktura qe aktualisht te kisha nje reference te arsyeshme. Pro une e zbulova, ne kerkimet e metejshme, duke dashur nje referim te sakte, qe zogu kishte -- nje origjinal te ketij zogu ishte shitur ne ankandin Christie ne vitin 1994, keshtuqe kontaktova nje shites antikash i cili kishte katalogun origjinal te Christie-s, dhe aty une gjeta kete pikture te mrekullueshme, e cila përfshinte referencë per madhesine. une e skanova foton, e zmadhova saktesish ne madhesine reale.
I found other reference. Avi [Ara] Chekmayan, a New Jersey editor, actually found this resin Maltese Falcon at a flea market in 1991, although it took him five years to authenticate this bird to the auctioneers' specifications, because there was a lot of controversy about it. It was made out of resin, which wasn't a common material for movie props about the time the movie was made. It's funny to me that it took a while to authenticate it, because I can see it compared to this thing, and I can tell you -- it's real, it's the real thing, it's made from the exact same mold that this one is. In this one, because the auction was actually so controversial, Profiles in History, the auction house that sold this -- I think in 1995 for about 100,000 dollars -- they actually included -- you can see here on the bottom -- not just a front elevation, but also a side, rear and other side elevation.
Kam gjetur nje reference tjeter .Avi Chekmayan, nje botues nga Nju Gjersi, i cili faktikisht gjeti kete Skifter Maltez prej rrëshire tek nje treg vjetersirash ne vitin 1991, edhe pse iu deshen 5 vite qe ta vertetonte origjinalitetin e tij- tek drejtuesit e ankandit duke bere specifikime, sepse kishte mjaft polimika per kete. Ishte bere prej rreshire, i cila nuk ishte nje material i zakonshem per replikat e filmave ne kohen qe eshte bere filmi. me duket qesharake qe mori kaq shume kohe per te vertetuar atë, sepse duke krahasuar me kete gje, mund t' ju them-- eshte e vertete, eshte gjeja e vertete, eshte e bere nga saktesisht i njejti model si ky. Ne kete, pasi ankandi ishte kaq i diskutueshëm, Profilet ne histori, shtepija e ankandit qe e shiti kete-- mendoj qe ne vitin 1995 perafersisht 100,000 dollare -- ata ne te vertete perfshine - ju mund te shifni ne pjesen e poshtme-- jo vetem pamjen frontale, por po ashtu anen, pjesen mbrapa dhe pamjen e anes tjeter.
So now, I had all the topology I needed to replicate the Maltese Falcon. What do they do, how do you start something like that? I really don't know. So what I did was, again, like I did with the dodo skull, I blew all my reference up to full size, and then I began cutting out the negatives and using those templates as shape references. So I took Sculpey, and I built a big block of it, and I passed it through until, you know, I got the right profiles. And then slowly, feather by feather, detail by detail, I worked out and achieved -- working in front of the television and Super Sculpey -- here's me sitting next to my wife -- it's the only picture I took of the entire process. As I moved through, I achieved a very reasonable facsimile of the Maltese Falcon. But again, I am not a sculptor,
pra tani, une kisha te gjitha topologjite e duhura per te kopjuar Skifterin Maltez. Por si behet, si fillon dicka e tille? Une me te vertet nuk e di Keshtu bera, prap, sikurse me kafken e dodos i rrita te gjitha referencat ne madhesine reale, dhe pastaj fillova te kepus pjeset negative duke perdorur keto shabllone si referencat e formave. pra morra argjilen, dhe ndertova nje blok te madh me te, dhe e kalova ate ne disa forma, deri sa fitova profilet e sakta. Dhe dalengadale, pupel ne pupel, detaj ne detaj, kam punuar dhe arritur -- duke punuar perballe televizorit-- dhe super argjila-- ketu jam i ulur afer gruas sime-- eshte e vetmja fotografi qe kam bere ne tere procesin. duke e cuar me tej, une arrita nje kopjim te arsyeshem te Skifterit Maltez. Por prape, une nuk jam skulptor.
and so I don't know a lot of the tricks, like, I don't know how my friend Mike gets beautiful, shiny surfaces with his Sculpey; I certainly wasn't able to get it. So, I went down to my shop, and I molded it and I cast it in resin, because in the resin, then, I could absolutely get the glass smooth finished. Now there's a lot of ways to fill and get yourself a nice smooth finish. My preference is about 70 coats of this -- matte black auto primer. I spray it on for about three or four days, it drips to hell, but it allows me a really, really nice gentle sanding surface and I can get it glass-smooth. Oh, finishing up with triple-zero steel wool. Now, the great thing about getting it to this point was that because in the movie, when they finally bring out the bird at the end, and they place it on the table, they actually spin it. So I was able to actually screen-shot and freeze-frame to make sure. And I'm following all the light kicks on this thing and making sure that as I'm holding the light in the same position, I'm getting the same type of reflection on it -- that's the level of detail I'm going into this thing. I ended up with this: my Maltese Falcon. And it's beautiful. And I can state with authority at this point in time, when I'd finished it, of all of the replicas out there -- and there is a few -- this is by far the most accurate representation of the original Maltese Falcon than anyone has sculpted. Now the original one, I should tell you,
dhe nuk di shume nga truket, e dini, nuk e di sesi shoku im Mike arrin kaq siperfaqe te bukura, te shkelqyera me argjilen e tij; une pa dyshim nuk e kuptoja. Pra shkova poshte ne punishte, dhe e modelova ate ne rreshire, sepse ne rreshire, do te kisha mundur absolutisht ta bej te lemuar si xham. tani, ka disa menyra qe te mund te arrish siperfaqe te lemuar. preferenca ime eshte perafersisht 70 shtresa te kesaj -- auto mbushes me ngjyre te zeze mat. e kam bere me spray perafersisht 3-4 here ne dite, dhe pikon shume, por qe me lejon me te vertet te arrij nje siperfaqe te lemuar mire. dhe mund ta bej ate te lemuar si xham. Oh, duke perfunduar me nji ferkues shume te holle. Tani, gjë e madhe për të mbaruar atë në këtë pikë ishte se sepse ne film, kur ata e sjellin zogun ne fund, dhe e vendosin ate ne tryeze, ata faktikisht e rrotullojne ate. Pra une aktualisht mund te bej screen-shot dhe ngrirjen e figures qe te sigurohem. dhe po ndjek te gjitha dredhite e drites ne kete gje dhe po sigurohem ndersa e mbaj driten ne te njejten pozicion, po marr te njejten tip te reflektimin ne te-- kjo eshte niveli i detajeve qe po kerkoj. arrita me kete: skifterin tim Maltez. dhe eshte i bukur. Dhe mund ta shpall me autoritet ne kete kohe, kur e kam perfunduar, te gjitha kopjet e gjendura -- dhe jane vetem disa kjo eshte më e ngjashmja. prezantuesi i Skifterit origjinal Maltez sesa kushdo qe e ka skulpturuar. Tani origjinali, me duhet te ju them,
is sculpted by a guy named Fred Sexton. This is where it gets weird. Fred Sexton was a friend of this guy, George Hodel. Terrifying guy -- agreed by many to be the killer of the Black Dahlia. Now, James Ellroy believes that Fred Sexton, the sculptor of the Maltese Falcon, killed James Elroy's mother. I'll go you one stranger than that: In 1974, during the production of a weird comedy sequel to "The Maltese Falcon," called "The Black Bird," starring George Segal, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art had a plaster original of the Maltese Falcon -- one of the original six plasters, I think, made for the movie -- stolen out of the museum. A lot of people thought it was a publicity stunt for the movie. John's Grill, which actually is seen briefly in "The Maltese Falcon," is still a viable San Francisco eatery, counted amongst its regular customers Elisha Cook, who played Wilmer Cook in the movie, and he gave them one of his original plasters of the Maltese Falcon. And they had it in their cabinet for about 15 years, until it got stolen in January of 2007. It would seem that the object of desire only comes into its own by disappearing repeatedly.
eshte skulpturuar nga nje djale qe quhet Fred Sexton. kjo eshte ku -- behet cuditshem. Fred Sexton ishte shok i ketij djaloshit qe quhej George Hodel. Djale i tmerrshem -- pranuar nga shume njereze qe eshte vrases i Black Dahlia. Tani, James Ellroy beson qe Fred Sexton, skulptori i skifterit Maltez, ka vrare nenen e James Elroy-it. une do te shkoj ne nje me te panjohur sesa ky, ne vitin 1974, gjate prodhimit te komedise se cuditshme vazhdimit te "Skifterit Maltez," e thirrur "zogu i zi," me aktor George Segal, Muze i qarkut te artit ne Los Angeles ka pasur nje origjinal allcie te Skifterit Maltez-- nje nga 6 allcite origjinale. mendoj, te bera per filmin -- te vjedhura nga muzeu, Shume njerez menduan qe ishte nje marifet publiciteti per filmin. John's Grill i cili faktikisht eshte dukur shkurt ne "Skifterin Maltez," eshte nje restaurant qe punon ende ne San Francisco, Elisha Cook llogaritet ndër klientët e rregullt i cili ka luajtur Willmer Cook ne film, ai i kishte dhene restorantit nje nga allcite origjinale te Skifterit Maltez. ata e kishin në kabinetin e tyre për rreth 15 vjet, derisa dikush e vodhi prej aty ne janar te vitit 2007 mund te shihet qe deshira per kete objekt vjen vetvetiu me zhdukjen e perseritur.
So here I had this Falcon, and it was lovely. It looked really great, the light worked on it really well, it was better than anything that I could achieve or obtain out in the world. But there was a problem. And the problem was that: I wanted the entirety of the object, I wanted the weight behind the object. This thing was made of resin and it was too light. There's this group online that I frequent. It's a group of prop crazies just like me called the Replica Props Forum, and it's people who trade, make and travel in information about movie props. And it turned out that one of the guys there, a friend of mine that I never actually met, but befriended through some prop deals, was the manager of a local foundry. He took my master Falcon pattern, he actually did lost wax casting in bronze for me, and this is the bronze I got back. And this is, after some acid etching, the one that I ended up with.
pra ja ku e pata kete Skifter qe ishte i bukur. Dukej me te vertete i shkëlqyer ai -- drita reflektonte me te vertet bukur ne te, ishte me i mire sesa çdo gje qe kisha mundur te beja apo te arrija ne kete bote. Mirepo kishte nje problem. Dhe problemi ishte, qe : une e doja kete objekt ne teresi, doja qe te kishte peshen e vertete te tij. ai eshte bere me rreshire dhe ishte shume i lehte. Une mbaj lidhje me nje grup online. eshte nje grup maniak konstruksionesh si puna ime i quajtur Forumi i Props Replika, njerzet bejne tregeti aty, marrin e japin informacione per props te filmave. Dhe doli se një nga djemtë aty, një mik i imi që kurrë nuk e kam takuar në të vërtetë, por e bera shok permes disa detajeve te props, ishte manager i fonderise lokale. Ai mori modelin e Skifterit, ai në fakt bëri derdhjen e dyllit per mua ne bronz, dhe ky eshte bronzi te cilin morra. Dhe kjo eshte, pas disa gervishjeve me acid, ky eshte i perfunduari.
And this thing, it's deeply, deeply satisfying to me. Here, I'm going to put it out there, later on tonight, and I want you to pick it up and handle it. You want to know how obsessed I am. This project's only for me, and yet I went so far as to buy on eBay a 1941 Chinese San Francisco-based newspaper, in order so that the bird could properly be wrapped ... like it is in the movie. (Laughter) Yeah, I know! (Laughter) (Applause) There you can see, it's weighing in at 27 and a half pounds. That's half the weight of my dog, Huxley.
Dhe kjo -- me jep kenaqesi te thelle Po e vendos ketu, me vone sonte, ju mundeni... dua që ju të vini ta merrni e ta peshoni ne dore Doni te dini -- sa i fiksuar qe jam. Ky projekt eshte vetem per mua, dhe ende I shkova deri aty sa të blija në eBay nje gazete kineze te San Francisco-s te vitit 1941 ne menyre qe ta mbeshtillja zogun ashtu sic duhet... sic eshte ne film. te qeshura Po, e di! (te qeshura) (Duartrokitje) ja sic mund ta shikoni, ai peshon 27 pound e gjysem. kjo eshte vetem gjysma e peshes se qenit tim, Huxley.
But there's a problem. Now, here's the most recent progression of Falcons. On the far left is a piece of crap -- a replica I bought on eBay. There's my somewhat ruined Sculpey Falcon, because I had to get it back out of the mold. There's my first casting, there's my master and there's my bronze. There's a thing that happens when you mold and cast things, which is that every time you throw it into silicone and cast it in resin, you lose a little bit of volume, you lose a little bit of size. And when I held my bronze one up against my Sculpey one, it was shorter by three-quarters of an inch. Yeah, no, really, this was like aah -- why didn't I remember this? Why didn't I start and make it bigger? So what do I do? I figure I have two options. One, I can fire a freaking laser at it, which I have already done, to do a 3D scan -- there's a 3D scan of this Falcon. I had figured out the exact amount of shrinkage I achieved going from a wax master to a bronze master and blown this up big enough to make a 3D lithography master of this, which I will polish, then I will send to the mold maker and then I will have it done in bronze. Or:
Por ketu ka nje problem. Tani, ky eshte perparimi me i fundit i Skiftereve. ne anen e majte eshte nje plehre -- nje kopje te cilen e kam ble ne eBay. ketu eshte Skifteri prej argjile qe e prisha, sepse duhet ta merrja perseri nga forma. Kjo ishte hedhja ime e pare, kjo eshte vepra ime, dhe ky eshte bronzi im Ndodh dicka kur ben formen dhe derdhjen, cdo here qe e hedh ne silikon dhe derdh ne rreshire, humbet nje pjese te volumit, nje pjese te madhesise. Kur e mbajta bronzin perkunder argjiles, ishte me e shkurter 3/4 inc. Po, jo, me te vertet, kjo ishte si ahhh-- pse nuk e mbajta ne mend kete? Pse nuk fillova ta bej me te madhe? Pra cfare te bej? Mendoj qe kam 2 zgjedhje. nje, ta godas me laser, gje te cilen e kam bere, te bej nje skanim 3D- kam nje skanim 3D te Skifterit. Kuptova peshen e sakte qe eshte tkurrur duke shkuar nga forma e dyllit ne ate te bronzit. dhe e zmadhova ate mjaft saqe te bej nje kopje 3D litiografi te kesaj, te cilit do ti jap shkelqim, pastaj do ta dergoj tek mjeshtri i formes dhe do ta kem ate ne bronz. Apo ...
There are several people who own originals, and I have been attempting to contact them and reach them, hoping that they will let me spend a few minutes in the presence of one of the real birds, maybe to take a picture, or even to pull out the hand-held laser scanner that I happen to own that fits inside a cereal box, and could maybe, without even touching their bird, I swear, get a perfect 3D scan. And I'm even willing to sign pages saying that I'll never let anyone else have it, except for me in my office, I promise. I'll give them one if they want it. And then, maybe, then I'll achieve the end of this exercise. But really, if we're all going to be honest with ourselves, I have to admit that achieving the end of the exercise was never the point of the exercise to begin with, was it. Thank you.
jane disa njerez te cilet zoterojne origjinalet, dhe kam tentuar qe te flas me ta duke shpresuar qe ata do te me lejojne qe ti shpenzoj disa minuta ne prezencen e zogut te vertete, ndoshta t'i beja ndonje foto, apo ndoshta te nxirrja nje skaner dore lazer qe e kam i cili futet ne nje kuti ushqimi, dhe do te mundja, pa e prekur zogun fare, ju betohem, te kisha nje skanim perfekt 3D. Poashtu jam i gatshem te nenshkruaj kontrate duke thene qe nuk do le asnje tjeter qe ta ket, pervecse une ne zyren time, premtoj. Do tia kisha dhene nje atyre po ta donin. dhe pastaj, ndoshta, do te kisha mundur te arrija me perfundu kete detyre. Por me te vertet, nese te gjithe do te jemi te sinqerte me veteveten, me duhet ta pranoj qe ti dilja ne fund ketij ushtrimi nuk ishte kurre piknisja e kesaj detyre. Ju falemnderit