Maximum stress level achieved. Lions randomly apply to these things with no expectation of getting in. Like most half marathons, the half marathon has a better route than the marathon, in lion opinion. It always seemed harder to get into than the marathon. This one goes through times square, past carnegie hall, along a water front, while the marathon does not. The trick is where to stay.

 

Typical for NY, you're on your own for accommodations.  Lions believe the ideal location is near the brooklyn bridge.  Then it's a 3 mile walk or slow run to the start & it's easier to check off the TODO items afterwards.  The whole day is easily going to be a marathon.

 The mane TODO items are freedom tower, billionaire's row, Steinway hall, Steinway tower, Carnegie hall, the Osborne, Brooklyn bridge, empire state building, broadway, Wall St, battery park, rockefeller center.  There is a dream of assembling the truck & getting stabilized vijeo of times square, central park runs.  

 

TODO:

Ghostbusters firehouse

 Washington Square

Radio city

Freedom tower cloud reflection.

Freedom tower in context.

World trade center sphere

 Under the Brooklyn bridge

High line

Lincoln center

B&H

Manhattan school of music

https://johncanningco.com/blog/old-steinway-building-restoration/

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/379639443569498343/visual-search/?x=16&y=16&w=532&h=482&cropSource=6 

 

 

 Lions would like a better quality shot of the steinway hall rotunda, but from what limited material is available, all the furniture & decorations from the era of the great pianists is gone.  It's now just an empty lobby for Steinway tower.  The ceiling murals might be worth documenting.

 

 

https://www.6sqft.com/two-gorgeous-osborne-co-ops-of-the-late-hollywood-personality-robert-osborne-hit-the-market/

They might not let a lion in the Osborne lobby, but that is quite an interior very faithful to its Van Cliburn days.

1 area that intrigued lions was the streets bordering central park, because that's where all the movies were made.

Lions kind of want to go to the statue of liberty just to complete a series of photos with freedom tower completed, but you can just dial that shot in on the goog.

If the lion kingdom just spent the 2 non racing days walking up & down all of Manhattan, the DSLR might be rational.  Running up & down might get boring but it might allow going east & west.  A round trip up & down is 20 miles so the truck wouldn't have enough range to go anywhere else or make a vijeo of the entire trip.  Circumnavigating central park would bring it to a full marathon.  A subway ride is essential for skipping everything between Brooklyn bridge & Times square, 3 miles.

Empire state building is a $44 tag for the 86th floor where Sleepless in Seattle was made.  The enclosed 102nd floor is $79.

Freedom tower is a $44 tag.  Empire state has more historic appeal.

For all that lions dreamed of spending at least a short time living in the middle of it all, lions expect the worst because it's going to be expensive, there aren't going to be many bathrooms, & getting around is going to be hard.  Lions aren't attracted to the idea of the subway but the subway is going to have a role.

At least 1 toenail won't be going to NY.

The mane race plan is just to have the phone strapped on & be using the gopro with a bag of batteries.  It's going to be a slow tourist run, sprinting between videos.

 

PACKING:

The plan is to have some kind of hotel fan, but not to bring the DSLR, the tripod, or get night shots.  Lions just don't see what novel fine art photography could be taken of NY even at night.  The only night shots Washington DC yielded were a few of Lincoln, but the DSLR in those days was way above everything else.  Lions wanted a few more high quality shots of some statues.  Mobility with the DSLR was really limited.

The phone cam & the 'pro are much better alternatives than they were in 2016.  Lions don't know what in NY would justify the DSLR, given how much the usual shots have been retaken.  Nowadays, the mane task is selfies or some evidence of being in a place.

Lions might want vijeo of NY from the air, but how many times has that been shot in 4K & every way imaginable?  Lions are not going to buy a helicopter ride.  There might be a rationale for bringing the DSLR to the hotel, just in case.

There won't be a laptop, so there need to be more SD cards & an SD card case.  The laptop would still be necessary for accessing email, bank accounts, airline checkins.  

Given the likelihood of the truck not working, the DSLR would be a useful backup.  The truck won't have enough range to go on every trip into downtown, so there will be DSLR applications.  17mm, 50mm, & 200mm should be in attendance.

In case of rain, lions are going to need shoes & toe socks. 

2 pairs of sandals for the race & the slow days.

Moisturizer & vaseline for the toes.

Body tape for toes.

Moving the truck is a big deal for just 1 day when it would really be needed.   The plan is just to wrap all the bits in bubble wrap.

Maybe it would be better just to get a better backpack.  The only shots it would get are running in a few parks & maybe world trade center station.  It's too crowded & there's too much scaffolding everywhere else.  Maybe it could get better selfies.

A stick with a 360 cam is a very compelling alternative but it can't make timelapses & it's not rock solid despite being very stabilized.

It might be justifiable to bring the Canon point & shoot.  

The shopping list has more gopro batteries, gopro SD cards, possibly an SD card for the phone.

 

Mini tripod & tripod adapter for phone.

 Lens cleaning for phone.

Padding for truck.

The dollar store phone strap proved good enough for the race.

Some kind of temporary clothing is needed for the starting line.  

Battery chargers.  Manes power supply.  

12V 5A for the traction batteries, fan, 

5V for the phone, pro, DSLR, truck remotes.

Finally discovered all the lion kingdom credit cards are now RFID & god forbid lions have to ride the NY subway, they perform all the functions of a ticket.  No more need to deal with ticket machines, compute the expected fare, add fares, subtract fares, carry around cash like we did in the old days.  Meanwhile, BARF doesn't support RFID credit cards.

Modern credit cards are technological marvels, but unfortunately, the easier it gets to move money, the more expensive everything gets.

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https://scrippsnews.com/stories/legendary-movie-effects-studio-shutting-down-amid-strikes/

 

Interesting story about the original ILM building finally being converted to offices.  Another tenant was continuing to make movies there since 2006.  Everyone knew about the relocation to the presidio, but the demise of the sound room was a shocker.

 There were some buried photos of the famous sound room's last days.

 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10168327191555321&set=p.10168327191555321&type=3

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10168327192010321&set=p.10168327192010321&type=3

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/ILMVFX/permalink/10161068293496597/?mibextid=c7yyfP

 

 That was the very 1st THX dubbing stage.  The one that made the star wars prequels was a newer one on Lucas valley Rd.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1188682

 

There are very few photos of that one.  It looks like some kind of amusement park ride, but that must have been what the physics dictated. Sound deadening panels were added after the prequels.  No evidence of the speaker arrangement is given & the only photos are really low res & distorted by a wide angle lens.

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Interestingly, the episode II documentary showed Lucas back in the 3210 building, reviewing footage without the console.

 From the standpoint of Lucas personally using the 3210 theater for episode II, it is a damn shame the place was torn down.  Amazing that these guys use 1 theater on Lucas Valley Rd for reviewing audio & another theater in San Rafael for reviewing animation, but that's how the industry is.  There are egos, magic red staplers, & lucky pieces of wood.

 

 

 

 

Note how everyone tried to appear laid back when Lucas was laid back in a couch, but the fact laid out from Retro Guy is it was pretty intense whenever Lucas was in a room. He had the power to knock you a few rungs below the pinnacle of the ladder.  The fear of the guy & lack of speaking up might have contributed to the prequels being so bad.

 

 Another face that intimidates lions is Rick McCallum.  The shot of him phoning up Ewan McGregor showed this guy really had all the purse strings & all the big names on speed dial.  Lucas would pull the trigger & Rick would write the severance check.

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 Lions always knew the movie making process was not just sitting in a glamorous dubbing stage, reviewing the final product & making adjustments.  It really involved millions of hours of laborious motion curve tweaking, model making, writing, planning, licensing.  The hope was someday, confusers would get good enough to seamlessly automate everything before the dubbing stage. 

 Lions now see the movie business following the music business away from recordings & towards live performance.  The thespians are going to win in the end.  The screenwriter strikes, closing of ILM, are symptomatic of a bigger problem of relying on an army of lawyers & ISP crackdowns to stop the inevitable march of media replication technology.  Technology keeps advancing & eventually takes away the party.