It’s been a grueling three standard months for Evren Groal and his squad, three months of endless patrols on the frozen tundra on planet Eobosh, a world full of extremes, of scorching deserts on one side and near eternal night and constant sub-zero temperatures on the other. So far his team has lasted the longest. Four squads before had gone missing in this area, no one knows what happened as each one was sent to investigate the priors disappearance. Evren’s Theta Squad was the unlucky number five. The moral of the garrison had already hit rock bottom at that point. There were bets on how quickly they’d lose contact once they get out there. Dread was hanging in the air like a toxic cloud.

This wasn’t what Evren had imagined when he signed up to defend the Empire against its enemies. It was supposed to be honorable, he wanted to be a defender of order and law, a good citizen who performed his duty, willing to give his life for what is righteous. And then he simply became a number. ‘They call your number, you step up to the task, you get lucky and come back to fight another day. And if not, they’ll just write you off, literally, and slap the next higher number on a fresh recruit. This isn’t honorable, this is questionable at best, revolting at worst,’ he thought to himself while slowly wading through hip deep snow. They’d beaten every bet against them, day after day. And each day they’d returned with nothing, no clues as to what had happened to the other squads. In the beginning, for a while, they received looks and comments of disbelieve and relieve when they came in but by now nobody could care less. ‘Numbers 356, 359, 412 and 423 reporting in. No, sorry sir, we didn’t find any of the other numbers. But you can keep counting on us,’ that’s how Evren felt he should respond at their next debriefing.

A minute later this endless sea of snow and ice began vibrating, shaking and rattling. About twenty meters in front a gap appeared, widening in a circular motion. He signaled his squad to fall back while keeping their blasters trained on whatever might spring from the rapidly growing hole. “Let’s make this one count, mates.” And as quickly as the rumbling and rattling and shaking had started it now ceased and Evren found himself barely a meter away from the edge of a gaping chasm. A few seconds passed, a minute, two minutes but nothing else seemed to happen. He took half a step forward, peeked over the edge into the darkness, his blaster firmly aimed. But nothing jumped, nothing screamed, nothing tried to grab him. Nothing but a deep, black pit. “Alright boys, let’s give ‘em back at base something to bet on. Ready grappling hooks, let’s see how deep this rabbit-hole goes. We’ll do this by the numbers but make sure you don’t act like ones.”

The other day I realized that while this blog already has several posts there hasn’t been any true starting post, the one that kicks things off and explains what it’ll be all about. Part of the reason why that’s missing is that this blog has gone through several iterations over the past four years. Initially I used this space to promote a CD I had produced called Infiltrator – A Musicnovel, an album compiled of cinematic music composed by me in conjunction with a story I was working on. I had a lot of fun putting it together, I sent it out to various radio stations and magazines/blogs/zines for review and got some nice feedback and airplay and one of the tracks even made 3rd place in the Dance Music category of the 14th Billboard World Song Contest a few years back. Two tracks also ended up on a compilation CD. And while I am still working on the story and am also producing a follow-up album I felt that a blog wasn’t the right place and format for what I wanted to do with it, so I moved on to something else.

I’ve always been an avid photographer. As a kid I frequently brought a camera around with me to snap shots of whatever sparked my interest, usually nature, animals and architecture. I never had any particular subject I focused on until I started putting my photos on Flickr. Having worked as a graphic designer for several years and possessing a good grip on photo editing I decided to give my images a certain character and style. Since I enjoy movies very much (learning lines and all) and being interested in cinematography I started experimenting with different editing techniques to add a cinematic feel to my images. This in turn inspired me to write various short stories. I decided to re-purpose my blog so that I could share them and named it Fabula:Brevis (meaning “short story” in Latin). I enjoyed it, I got some nice responses but I began developing storylines that I felt could be “more,” that I’d rather keep offline for future endeavors. In addition I hit a snag – going out and taking photos confines one to what’s there. I eventually had stories in my mind that I couldn’t find any matching pictures for. I felt a bit stuck.

In 2007 I came across Cédric Delsaux‘s work in Star Wars Insider 92 (February 2007). Cédric takes pictures of Star Wars statues and larger scale figures, compositing them into Parisian urban environments. I don’t have the issue in front of me but I remember reading that he brings all the figures with him on site, photographs them to get the light right, then photographs the scene itself and later on combines it all in scale for a more realistic and dramatic effect. I liked his approach and it gave me some ideas. So I began collecting action figures of all sizes that I could use in my own photos. But instead of simply taking toy shots I wanted to create something that could be mistaken, at first glance, for a scene from a movie. My earliest attempts date back to April 2007 and to my surprise my very first photo, this one of Darth Vader, was included right then, right there in Wire.com’s Star War’s 30th Anniversary special. In May 2010 I decide to close Fabula:Brevis for good. I extracted all those stories that were based on and accompanied by cinematic style toy photos and created Cinematic Toys.

Not being content with simply having a showcase of my own work I also began searching Flickr for other toy photographers that have a similar approach. Hence I created a companion Flirck group, also called Cinematic Toys. As of time of writing it is still small but already filled with great work. Have a look at the sidebar and you’ll see the latest additions under Flickr Group. There’s also a corresponding gallery here, a rotating selection of my personal favorites from that group. It’s a pleasure to see such talented photographers, I am very impressed with their work and more than happy to share their work for all to see. And of course I am always on the lookout on Flickr for photos and photographers to invite to my group. So if you take cinematic toy shots as well and I haven’t found you yet just drop me a note, I’ll be more than happy to take a look.

And that’s the story of how Cinematic Toys came about. It’s certainly been a refinement process over the years but one that has led me to a very enjoyable as well as inspirational past time activity. I hope you enjoy your visit and would appreciate your return, support, suggestions and comments.

PS: I chose a picture of R2D2 for this post for a specific reason: he keeps on going, no matter what and eventually accomplishes what he set out to do. That’s a good lesson for anyone creative. If you have an idea but haven’t quit nailed it yet keep at it, be persistent, eventually you’ll figure it out.

Star Wars Republic Commando – Vode An, Brothers All, originally uploaded by Thorsten Becker.

Legal disclaimer: The following story is considered Fan Fiction. All entities used are the legal properties and registered trademarks of Lucas Film Limited. I am not affiliated with Lucas Film or any of their subsidiaries or license holders.

“Some time after the crucial mission on Geonosis during which Delta Squad member Sev went MIA word came that an undetermined number of clones were held in concealed research facilities somewhere on the planet. Inexplicably these reports were quickly dismissed as unsubstantiated, supposedly created to cause divisions and divert crucial forces to what was referred to as “a hunt for phantoms”. However, several clones, mostly republic commandos, were determined to investigate such rumors hoping to find their long lost pod brothers. One such clone was Delta Squad’s Scorch who quickly took matters in his own hands. Planning to intentionally separate from his squad during their next mission to be declared MIA he confided in his squad’s leader, Boss, who agreed to provide support for his mission, knowing that Scorch could not be convinced otherwise.

Upon being left on his own Scorch began modifying his armor to specifications he had worked out over the past few months. As a demolitions expert his main concern was protection from heavy blasts, not only saving himself but also those in close vicinity in case of misfires or accidents. He reinforced crucial areas, rebalanced the weight and also added a layer of ablative alloy he developed. Initial tests suggested such modified armor could withstand a direct hit from a heavy projectile cannon, though these tests had been rather conceptual in nature. The new armor, while retaining its original cast, was sleeker and sported a blue metallic finish with a slight iridescent reflection inherent to the applied alloy.

After receiving an encrypted message from Boss that he had been reported MIA Scorch joined forces with a special ops squad. This particular squad played a vital role in unearthing initial evidence concerning the secret research facilities. After learning that their findings were widely dismissed they agreed to operate under his command. While shadow troopers generally worked alone or in pairs this specific squad was created for large scale infiltration, consisting of three shadow troopers and one covert ops clone. Similar to commandos these clones were highly individual due to the nature of their tasks but were capable of working in perfect unity to achieve their goals. In addition this particular squad used different armament geared towards rapid suppression, incapacitation and sabotage. Scorch also traded his trusty DC-17m for a WESTAR-M5 and a still unidentified sidearm.”

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Some of my creative spare time projects involve customizing action figures and putting them on display in a story like context. This particular scene is the result of playing the Star Wars video game “Republic Commando” which centers around a special forces squad (during the clone wars era) in the popular science fiction universe. At the conclusion of the game one of the squad’s members, Sev, is left behind and declared MIA. Currently no follow-up title has been announced therefore Sev’s fate is unknown. I decided to take another character of the game, Scorch, and continue the story from his perspective given that he was close friends with Sev. I first created a new paint scheme that would convey a prototype armor design. The figure was then cleaned and prepped and two thin layers of black paint applied. Afterwards the metallic blue paint was added and silver and black detailing done. Finally a dull acrylic sealer was sprayed on to give it the right sheen. For those interested I use Testors and Elmers acrylic paint markers as well as the occasional enamel fine tip markers by Nissen (though I find that acrylic works best on this type of plastic as enamel paint does not adhere well and stays taffy afterwards). Once done customizing I selected a new squad to assist Scorch in his mission.

© Thorsten Becker

This is an alternate take on ALIENS’ story progression. I like to analyze movies and toss ideas around how to change certain scenes if I had a say (while I certainly hold no claims of any improvements whatsoever, they simply are ideas along the lines of "what if")

By the time Ripley entered the egg chamber Hicks was already incapacitated. Aside from the dramatic choice of having Ripley go in by herself to retrieve Newt (the power of a mother) I think that logically she should have been severely outnumbered as I doubt that only a handful of Aliens would have still been alive to defend their queen. At 158 colonists (see sign in special edition), all incubators for the Aliens, and assuming close to 100 creatures killed (optimistic calculation) I think it would be plausible to have a good dozen of them around the Queen, in which case Ripley would have desperately needed Hicks assistance. So rewind a bit, let Hicks not get sprayed with acid and have both of them enter the egg chamber. Now he is covering Ripley as multiple Aliens approach from all sides. To keep the drama and intensity of the final battle I’d have him stay behind to enable Ripley and Newt to escape via the elevator. I think this would have been more in line with their developing relationship rather then taking him out of the picture (quite literally) prior to these events.

Everything in this picture was shot live. No alterations other then saturation adjustment. I use LED flashlights for the lighting effects as they offer good control over the illuminated area and the amount of reflection.

Yamato action figures of Deunan Knute and Briareos Hecatonchires from the 2004 anime Appleseed based on Masamune Shirow’s manga of the same name. I very much enjoyed the movie right the first time I watched it and can definitely recommend it if you like Animes such as Ghost in the Shell or Akira. Even though the second one, Ex Machina, boasts a significantly more polished style, visually and story wise, I still enjoy the first one equally as much. I’d also like to mention the excellent soundtrack which is available on a 2 CD set, one for the actual score and the other featuring the different Electronica style tracks from the movie by the likes of Paul Oakenfold, Boom Boom Satellites and Ryuichi Sakamoto, to name a few.

Shortly after watching Appleseed I started collecting some of the merchandise. Yamato had a nice set of various figures, though unfortunately they are not poseable (or only to a very limited degree). However, they captured the likeness of each character rather well and the chosen poses work nicely on display. The set is mostly sold-out by now but there are usually a few available on eBay.

This is a re-work of an older shot. After seeing some very impressive Anime styled toy photos recently (see my Flickr group to the right) I felt the need to give the initially rather straight shot a good work over, changing the mood and coloring to something a bit closer to the movie. The picture was originally taken with a Canon PowerShot S3 (a camera I was NOT very happy with as it had stuck pixels within 6 months of purchase). The figures were placed in front of my monitor while using one of my photos of the Boston InterContinetal as the backdrop.