Today I was able to meet with a brother-in-law of one of my mother's coworkers. His name is Scott Jones. He works at Lucas Film's Industrial Light and Magic and was gracious enough to give me a tour of the building. Upon arrival, the main focus of the area was this...
A Yoda Fountain. I already had goosebumps, but this officially put me over the edge.
As I walked into the main office I couldn't help but look around and hold back a gasp. After I checked in with the woman at the desk I searched the room.
There were two huge book cased filled to the brim with star wars books and statues.
There were statues, dolls, books, and replicas.
Thermal detonators, Light sabers, helmet miniatures, a seating area beneath a skylight with 4 tables stacked with Star Wars reading materials. Visual dictionaries, poster books, concept art books.
Chillin' Scout Troopers...
and Metal R2 units.... But BY FAR the pieces that stood out the most...
The LIFE SIZE Boba Fett and Darth Vader costumed mannequins.
Scott was gracious enough to take a couple pictures of me with each of them at the end of our tour.
After I checked in and signed a digital signature credit card machine type thing (stating I wouldn't disclose any plot lines or take any pictures of anything that might give away an upcoming movie) Scott showed up and we started our tour.
We walked down a few hallways, admiring models of dinosaurs from Jurassic Park to ET in a basket of a bicycle hanging from the ceiling. There were SO many different thing from all sorts of movies that ILM has worked on. Just about every hallway was lined with movie posters, vintage and recent. There were hallways with Terminator statues, hallways with figurines from movies like The Abyss and the actual HOOK used in the movie HOOK. And of course there were STAR WARS statues, costumes, props, and posters just about EVERYWHERE.
Scott was kind enough to take a couple pictures of me next to a Puppet of Yoda, an R2-D2 and a Storm Trooper costum. Believe me, It was hard to hold back my inner fanboy.
They even had the infamous Lucas Arts gift shop just for employees and their guests. Scott was even awesome enough to give me plenty of time to shop around in the store. After browsing a number of items including jackets, hoodies, books, video games, coffee mugs, legos and action figures, I ended up getting a few t-shirts.
The second one I found...
and of course, I couldn't leave the shop without a shirt that shows exactly where I've been.
Looking back now, I probably would have purchased a few more things, but I can't complain. I've experienced one of the things that most fans only dream about. A visit to where they make some of the best movies I, or anyone, has ever seen.
...
And finally I would like to apologize for the late post, I would have posted earlier but we took a trip to the Golden Gate Bridge, Pebble Beach, ate at a sushi restaurant and my dad was ready to go to the hot tub before I could finish this update. Tomorrow we move to a different hotel. One closer to down town San Francisco. So from here on out, most pictures will probably be city related...
I'll post pictures of the Bridge and Pebble Beach tomorrow.
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