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- SET UP - MAY 23 021 > The materials pickup, loading and unloading is always the part I hate the most at every convention.
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- SET UP - MAY 23 022 > Finally approved for another pickup and transport to our booth. After this just a few more items left inside the van.
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- SET UP - MAY 23 023 > As I got closer, I noticed where the drivers had dropped off our pallets. Yep that is our supplies, but they are far from our tables, gonna have to move fast and put it all under the tables before anything goes missing. Then the BIGGEST PRESENT I could ever have asked for happened...
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- SET UP - MAY 23 024 > After parking the van, John and I walked inside the convention area Mary had assigned to us for the diorama builders booth. WHOLY SMOKES !!! Look at the size of this hangar, that entire space can't be just for US can it ?
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- SET UP - MAY 23 025 > I looked up and for the FIRST TIME - Mary and Lucasfilm had made a OFFICIAL BANNER for our booth. Not only that, but they put a HUGE WICKET which if you are a long time fan know that my NiubNiub alter ego was my face under Wicket's hood 🙂 The 13 year old boy who was changed by Star Wars in 1977 just freaked the hell out. LOL. First getting my dream job at ILM and now, to be acknowledged like this was just an amazing feeling.
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- SET UP - MAY 23 026 > The hangar was SO MASSIVE and they gave us so much floor space, we could move the tables any way we wanted really. The first logical placement was for the Diorama Prototype display at the entrance of the booth. These are the 4 style of trees the fans would be able to choose from starting tomorrow. But now I'm jumping ahead, we still had so much left to do this afternoon to be ready for opening day.
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- SET UP - MAY 23 027 > Unloaded all of the twig fencing that we need to remove the support wires in order to place only the twigs in Tupperware bins for the fans to use to make their Ewok Hutts and bridges.
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- SET UP - MAY 23 028 > Sillof arrives !!! Jamie was one of the first fans to discover us at Celebration II in 2002 and spent every minute helping out. He had returned to help at CIII in 2005 and this was his 3rd convention as part of my CORE crew. Jamie has been with me at EVERY convention ever since. 2022 will make it 20 years !!! That's true friendship.
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- SET UP - MAY 23 029 > Union guys are finally bringing us electric power so that we can plug in our hot glue guns and continue the prep work needed for us to be ready in the morning.
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- SET UP - MAY 23 030 > John laying out a small area of mulch to see how it will look like on the tables and make it more Endor than white table cloths but more important...
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- SET UP - MAY 23 031 > ... Setting up the electric train tracks to test the Speeder Bike chase that will be zipping through the fan made trees during the 4 days of the convention. Everything seemed good but when we filmed our test in John's San Francisco apartment, it was on a flat hard wood surface. With the mulch, the trains became wobbly on those tall supports. In the end we will have to modify and lay them flat on the roofs of each engine.
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- SET UP - MAY 23 032 > One of the things I pride myself at our booths from the very first Diorama Builders is the signage I design and print to not only help instruct the fans where to go and what to do but also elevate a booth produced by 1 person - me - to look like it's a professional looking area that is on par to the big boy booths. Plus as a Bachelor in Graphic Design, it's a lot of fun to do.
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- SET UP - MAY 23 033 > Here mark Patton, who has also become a core crew member through the 10+ years helping me, is finalizing the table signs by hot gluing the tops and adding a T support in between to properly identify each table zone.
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- SET UP - MAY 23 034 > One of the cool design challenges I did for the show was create these deluxe MAKING OF instructions for the fans. I had printed 5 of each build option. Well little did I expect the fans to be so impressed that they wanted to take them home as souvenirs. LOL. By day 3 they had all disappeared and I had to print last minute Black and White emergency versions at kinkos.
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- SET UP - MAY 23 035 > At the end of the day my CORE TEAM for 2007 taking a well deserved break at dinner before the start of the show tomorrow. I have not laughed this hard in a long long time. If you ever bump into me at a convention, ask me to tell you what happened after this picture that caused the entire team to melt and want to hide under the table LOL. ALL because of a "S" LOL.
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- SET UP - MAY 23 036 > Here is a younger and skinnier version of me still wearing my backstage pass lanyard and to my left, John Shields, the ONE and ONLY person who was brave enough to answer my shout out in the Lucasfilm forums asking for convention helpers 🙂 John worked at Lucas Arts and was my number one during the months of planning and prototypes. There would NOT have been as successful a show without him. He also was able to get lots of Endor sound effects from the Star Wars video games that would help us with ambient forest background noises that would immerse the fan experience further during their time building at the booth.
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- SET UP - MAY 23 037 > Jamie Follis - aka Sillof to you customiser fans - came for his 3rd tour of duty as core crew. The ONLY person to this day to have been by my side at EVERY Star Wars Celebration diorama builders we did. Duke was one of the winners of my VISIT ILM tour contest and was in my debt 🙂 So he volunteered to join the crew and bring his girlfriend Danielle with him to help out. The 2 of them were a huge asset for me at the show. Duke has returned to every convention ever since as well.
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Did you attend our Celebration Diorama Booth ? If you came to build a piece of ENDOR , please don’t be shy and leave your experiences in the comments below. Even better, you can share them with other fans in the site’s GALLERY VISITORS DIORAMAS section. You can find out all the details on how to email me your photos on the VISITORS SUBMISSIONS INFO page … When I get your photos, I will create your very own page just like this one. You may not realize it but work does inspire others to join in the fun of making Action Figure Dioramas.
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If you have a facebook account, why not join the Official Diorama Builders Fan Club today, simply click the logo link below.
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Catch up with fellow visitors and exchange stories, read cool interviews with the crew, exchange photos, fun surprises and grab some FAN ONLY merchandise next year at actual future conventions ?
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ALL Decals, tutorials and artwork are ©FrankDiorio (dioramaworkshop.com) and offered FOR FREE to the fans – that would be you ? so you can build and display my diorama designs in your very own home. I realize I cannot control what one does with my graphics once I place them on the web, I can only ask you as one fan to another, please respect the artist and do not be that jerk who uses my designs and tutorials to build a copy of my work only to sell it on EBAY or trade/sale groups and forums. Thank You. Frank.
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