- December 9th, 2014, 2:36 pm#4821448
Howdy:
A few months ago I had the pleasure of hanging out with a group of swell men and women from the Portland Ghostbusters group at the Rose City Comic Con. When it comes to strapping on my gear I’ve been somewhat of a loner for the past few decades, so it was nice to meet and have dinner with others who share my love of Ghostbusters and, especially, its props.
My Proton Pack turned 30 years old a few months ago (late October, 1984). I guess the age of my pretty-accurate pack is kind of unprecedented, at least according to Portland Ghostbuster Jason Groschopf, who’s more in-tune with the current prop-building community than I am. I come to this site now and then and am amazed by the accuracy and level of detail that’s being achieved these days.
For those who might be interested in how my friend Bryan Ambacher and I managed to build our packs over a decade before the internet came to be I’ve put together this website:
http://marshall-arts.net/ProtonPacks
I built the image-heavy site in Adobe Muse; it will probably look best on a desktop machine. It looks kind of cramped on our old MacBook.
Here's a photo of our packs taken in 1985:
The general accuracy of our packs can be attributed primarily to luck, in that we happened to be living in the right place (southern Arizona) at the right time (September, 1984) when we heard that Richard Edlund would be giving a presentation at a film festival in Scottsdale, hot off his company, Boss Films, completing work on Ghostbusters and 2010. On the hope that, just maybe, he would bring a Proton Pack along with him I brought a really old 35 mm non-SLR camera, a light meter, 1000 speed film and a ruler. Our hopes were rewarded, as there was a hero pack, a stunt pack, and a trap on display at the Scottsdale Center for the Arts.
Here's one of the photos I took on September 15, 1984 of that hero pack (a bit soft and grainy but invaluable):
I took 13 photos, 12 of the hero pack and one of the trap. We also took measurements, writing them down on this crude sketch of the prop:
Unfortunately, we didn't take photos of our build in progress. At the time the process wasn't as important as the outcome. To make up for the lack of in-progress photos I've created a model of our pack in Cinema 4D, showing what went into our build. It was mainly plywood, masonite and PVC pipe. Very, very heavy.
Here's one of the 3D renders I've done for my site:
There's also a video section that includes our appearance on the KOLD-TV news from November 10, 1984 when we entered the masquerade at the local Tus-Con convention.
My site has additional background leading up to our builds, plus a lot more photos and scans and renders. Please take a look and let me know what you think. Digging up our old photos, sketches and video, building the 3D model and creating the site has been kind of a labor of love for me. Bryan and I are quite proud of our packs, even though they aren't quite as accurate and detailed as those being built these days.
Thanks.
Shawn Marshall
Portland, Oregon
A few months ago I had the pleasure of hanging out with a group of swell men and women from the Portland Ghostbusters group at the Rose City Comic Con. When it comes to strapping on my gear I’ve been somewhat of a loner for the past few decades, so it was nice to meet and have dinner with others who share my love of Ghostbusters and, especially, its props.
My Proton Pack turned 30 years old a few months ago (late October, 1984). I guess the age of my pretty-accurate pack is kind of unprecedented, at least according to Portland Ghostbuster Jason Groschopf, who’s more in-tune with the current prop-building community than I am. I come to this site now and then and am amazed by the accuracy and level of detail that’s being achieved these days.
For those who might be interested in how my friend Bryan Ambacher and I managed to build our packs over a decade before the internet came to be I’ve put together this website:
http://marshall-arts.net/ProtonPacks
I built the image-heavy site in Adobe Muse; it will probably look best on a desktop machine. It looks kind of cramped on our old MacBook.
Here's a photo of our packs taken in 1985:
The general accuracy of our packs can be attributed primarily to luck, in that we happened to be living in the right place (southern Arizona) at the right time (September, 1984) when we heard that Richard Edlund would be giving a presentation at a film festival in Scottsdale, hot off his company, Boss Films, completing work on Ghostbusters and 2010. On the hope that, just maybe, he would bring a Proton Pack along with him I brought a really old 35 mm non-SLR camera, a light meter, 1000 speed film and a ruler. Our hopes were rewarded, as there was a hero pack, a stunt pack, and a trap on display at the Scottsdale Center for the Arts.
Here's one of the photos I took on September 15, 1984 of that hero pack (a bit soft and grainy but invaluable):
I took 13 photos, 12 of the hero pack and one of the trap. We also took measurements, writing them down on this crude sketch of the prop:
Unfortunately, we didn't take photos of our build in progress. At the time the process wasn't as important as the outcome. To make up for the lack of in-progress photos I've created a model of our pack in Cinema 4D, showing what went into our build. It was mainly plywood, masonite and PVC pipe. Very, very heavy.
Here's one of the 3D renders I've done for my site:
There's also a video section that includes our appearance on the KOLD-TV news from November 10, 1984 when we entered the masquerade at the local Tus-Con convention.
My site has additional background leading up to our builds, plus a lot more photos and scans and renders. Please take a look and let me know what you think. Digging up our old photos, sketches and video, building the 3D model and creating the site has been kind of a labor of love for me. Bryan and I are quite proud of our packs, even though they aren't quite as accurate and detailed as those being built these days.
Thanks.
Shawn Marshall
Portland, Oregon
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