From: jittlov@gumby.cs.caltech.edu (Mike Jittlov)
Subject: WIZARD's "Up-Hill Bicycle Scene" EXPLAINED!!
A
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1992 14:14:42 HST
Names Dropped: 35

Re:  The Amazing Hill-Climbing Bike Scene in
     "THE WIZARD OF SPEED AND TIME" feature


[Please excuse any typo's - I'm still new to the creative
world of UNIX, Gumby, and these #*@% command interfaces]        *@%cmnd]      
                                                                ^L 
Late-Breaking Theories Mentioned as a NewsGroup Courtesy:       COMMAND:
                                                                
HANGING ONTO A CAR/TRUCK & LETTING GO THEORY                    CAR/T
BIKE TIRES FILLED WITH HELIUM THEORY                            .1cYa9
VIOLENT AIR BLASTS FROM STREET SEWERS THEORY                    ___ Aekt
A GIANT WIND-UP SPRING-LOADED MECHANISM THEORY                  eHA4*^O
SERIOUS FILM-LAB MATTING WORK THEORY                            bus
EDITING MANY RE-TAKES TOGETHER THEORY                           error
SUBLIMINAL MESSAGES THEORY                                      CORE 
THE HIDDEN-MUPPET THEORY                                        DUMPED
THE HYPER-CAFFEINATED CHIPMUNKS THEORY
THE MOMENTARY EARTH-TILT THEORY                                 CORE
THE VERY HUGE ELECTRO-MAGNET THEORY [close, but not It]         DUMPED
THE MYSTERY-HILL PHENOMENAE THEORY  [also close]                @a(Yo*_Mv
                                                                <![m1sttn
                                                                a.bhkifA
HOW WAS IT DONE??? HOW WAS IT DONE??? HOW WAS IT DONE??? :@     ?>SI:@

    The Official *Wizard* Answer may Surprise You...            Xyplex>?
                                                                ~login:
                                                                *Wizard*
THE LOCATION:                                                   locati:
                                                                invalid   
That section of Maltman Avenue, located in the Silverlake       :locate
neighborhood between Hollywood and downtown Los Angeles,       
is somewhat historical, and in its own way, unique.             q
                                                                ue.
Looking at the shot, famous film editor Slavko Vorkapich
lived in the green apartments just to the right.  And STAR      STAR 
WARS animator Phil Tippet lived in the house on the corner,     WARS
to the left.  (In fact, Phil once invited me over, then
suddenly said to wait outside while he threw covers over
one of the models in development, apologizing for the
security.  No problem, and I could tell by the outline
it was a Taun-taun.)                                            _taun.)?

And up the far end of the street is the fabled "Corner of       ~Co?
Maltman" (and Marathon), where the black-caped Fantum first     ~ (a?
zoomed to a landing; and a bevy of Girls (including "Miss       ~Mi?
Virginia 1980" Paige Moore, NURSES star Arnetia Walker,         *8P
and Patty Thomson) jumped and pointed at the onrushing          point>ed
Green Wizard.  Behind them is the studio of mirror-sculptor
Jud Stoddard, who created the mirror-vest for Liberace.         creat>ed

And even further back, by Oliver Hardy's house, is where
Dennis Muren, LucasFilm's multi-Oscared cinematographer,
lived.  And over to the left, also out of sight, is STAR        STAR
WARS Marketing VP Charley Lippincott's home, where he's         WARS^MVP
now secretly in development on the JUDGE DREDD feature.         CodeREDd
And just beyond Marathon is the original HQ of the 60's         HQ60_s
rock & lunch group, The Peanut Butter Conspiracy...             lunch? 
But enough - you get the idea.                                  grep PBC

Back in 1973, when I was researching THE WIND DEMON - my        .73config
science-fantasy trilogy about a war between a magician and      LAUNCH
a sorcerer in Downtown Los Angeles - I noticed something        seq/
odd about the city's streets and structures.  It was just
a feeling...but I decided to call a friend in New York -        Clrnc:
famed author and Researcher Into the Unknown, John Keel.        KEEL
                                                                CONFIRMD
A former magician, psychic-skeptic, and real-life Indiana       OPENsilo
Jones [read his book, JADOO], John also saved my life when      [re,OO]
I hitchhiked to Manhattan in 1967 and naively chose the         67.fORT!
YMCA for my night's lodging - but that's another story.         CLOSE
                                                                silo
Anyway, John verified the startling coincidence of magnetic
fields surrounding a cultural nexus or center of worship.
Intrigued, I took a bus downtown and visited the U.S.           US/
Geographic Survey Office, where I bought three sets of maps,    .
for 50-75 cents each.  Very intriguing maps:  "Bougher          50_75:
Gravity Anomaly Map", "Natural Gamma Aeroradioactivity          ~Na
Map", and "Aeromagnetic Map of Los Angeles and Vicinity".       Angel
The latter is a detailed chart of Los Angeles and icons of      Angel:ic
its major structures, superimposed with loops and whorls
of magfield lines that seem independent of LA's topography.     LA:la

The greatest magfield change is a 1675-3510 gamma flux,         1675_35
right in the heart of Downtown.  If you draw a line and         10
connect the two poles of the anomaly - from the old Public      Connect?
Library Building (which always felt like a shrine to
knowledge, I spent a lot of hours in the bookstacks and
film rental section) to the intersection of 12th and Flower,    12^J
there are 7 churches in a row.  Fascinating.  Especially        7777777
when you consider the metals most used in church worship,       Connect/
gold and silver, are diamagnetic (repelled by mag-fields).      ^O

Living things are definitely affected by magnetic fields.       ringing
Rats raised in a magnetically-nullified environment become
lethargic, cannibalistic, and age faster.  People kept in a
null field for several days have poorer reaction time.          ringing
Our own hearts have magnetic fields (from the iron-rich
blood?), and our brains have 7 billion particles of             7777777
biologically-formed magnetite crystals [discovered by           CONNECT
CalTech geobiologists Joseph & Atsuko Kirschvink].  And is      CalTech
it a coincidence that own brainwaves, during alpha's            :Gumby>
creative/passive state, cycle to match the rhythmic             Gumby@
pulsation of Earth's magfield (7.83 cps - the Schumann          Gumby/
Resonance, aka "the brainwave of the planet")?                  cd7.83c 
                                                                ps -x
At UCLA's film school in the late 60's, we used to delight      60
in putting the large tape degaussers on the sides of our
heads, by the major nerve network at the temples.  Half of      !ntt
those who tried this, would see a bright flash "inside" -       ~ins_
even with their eyes closed.  It seemed quite harmless, and     LOCK
many of us have gone on to superficially productive lives.      terminal
                                                                @berkely  
But I digress.                                                  

If you check out the Aeromagnetic Map, you will notice that    
in the magnetic anomaly near my home [Latitude 118.16.45,       COORD
Longitude 34.05.07], a magfield line crosses Maltman Avenue     ESTAB
right at the base of the hill, at Ellsworth Street.  It is      Lat
congruent with an extension of a local faultline (and the       118deg
former site of the now discontinuous Glendale Freeway).         16'45"
Maltman proceeds one block further, up to Bellevue Avenue,      Long
where it ends.                                                  34deg
                                                                05'07"
This diagram gives a                  camera                    ^L 
simplistic but rather                  /                        /cu
cute cross-section                    /== magfield-3            /== m_3
of the scene's area               *}O/                          /?
                                  $^/                           /$^CODEX 
                                 /O/ MJ on bike                 PRIORITY
                                . /                             ESTAB
                               . /                              /.
                              . /                               /.
                             . /                                // 
                              /                                 //.902^N
         Maltman Avenue      /                                  /Maltman
      ______________________/ Ellsworth Street crossing         /Ellswor 
         =                 =                                    ===^M=^M
         =magfield-1       =magfield-2                          =^M.=^M?
                                                                ^H^H^H^H

THE PREPARATION:                                                :>Lee<
                                                                *ManiacG
The WIZ-bike was holding up quite well.  Originally a Trek      OPEN:chD
18-speed racer, I had heavily modified it into an effects       18_sp
geek's dream-machine:  STAR TREK-like carriers, a gooseneck     STARWARS
headlamp, tri-bladed propellor, extended mirror, horns, toy     thx.1138
space-guns, lights and sound arrays, and matching trim.  I      ACCESS:
was also using it on city streets, for daily film-lab runs.     spacegun
When people saw me coming, they got out of the way.             PASSWORD
                                                                ACCEPTED
But all of the gadgets were simply film-effects geegaws and     
gingerbread.  Now was the time for "practical effects".         ARMING:

I prepared the bike by rigging 4" U-coils over both wheels      4~Usiloc
- a primary coil with 288 hand-windings of #20 wire in front,   Silo288
and two secondary coils with 576 windings of #28 wire in        Silo576
back.  Each wheel had 12 "Mystery Magnets" from Pasadena's      >#20-28
B&B Surplus, epoxied to the wheel rim at equal spaces.          BBS_+?

The bike's sound & light gadgets were disengaged (too dim in    syntax
the daytime, and we were shooting silent anyway), and I         error
rerouted the bike-lamp generators through the coils.  The       Silo:
Trek was now over 14 pounds heavier, but if the shot worked     14_lb
it would all be worth it.                                       detonate
                                                                rt.?

THE TIME:                                                       TIME:set

Sunday, May 11, 1986 - late morning.                            :S_986
                                                                ~~syntax
Tempus fugit!  I'd first begun this film in 1982, planning      f!irs982
to complete it within a $35,000 budget (my life savings).       $:access
My esteamed business partner found me, used my work to          /IR$
secure financial interest, and we restarted everything in       rmdir/
September of 1983 - with a larger budget, and with him as       1040:p
corporate treasurer and CFO.  (He also insisted on acting       ^U^U^U^U
as the slimey, embezzling, sociopathic producer in the          ERASE:?
feature, BTW.)  Our production account soon mysteriously        ALL:IR$
dropped to bare-bones, and I used my own savings to keep        except
pushing the film toward completion.                             ~RKaye!~
                                                                ^U^U^U^U
Finishing by the 1984 Olympics had become a memory.  In         984_O
1985, a string of movies came out with stories, scenes,         985_:mov
and gizmos remarkably similar to WIZARD's:  PEE-WEE'S BIG       PASSWORD
ADVENTURE ("The story of a rebel and his bike"), BACK TO        ~Pee-Wee
THE FUTURE (which even had "Wizard" in graffiti on the          ff
high school's entrance), and REAL GENIUS.  In 1986, it          986_i
was "F/X" - and even our union-building tilt-pans seemed        ~F/X~
duplicated in COCKTAIL.                                         access:
                                                                access:?
Depressing, demoralizing, gut-wrenching, heart-breaking.
But still - no reason for giving up, nor adding the last        NORAD
few shots.

I was in the Ani-Room prepping a photo-collage for the          epp_coll
Wizard Run, when I noticed my pocket-magnetometer starting      chmod
to vibrate.  I called one of our feature's most talented        NORAD>
production assistants and Wizard Apprentice - Brian Thomas.     Wizard
This was the day we'd been waiting for.  Luckily, I still
had our minimum package of camera equipment, rented over        grep F/X
the weekend.                                                    
                                                                D.yoST
                                                                menu:?
THE FILMING:                                                    1frmColB

Brian set up the tripod, while I loaded the 35mm Arriflex       :35mmAr
with our last film short-end - we had to get this on the        gon
first try.  Brian also had to perform a difficult pan,          37
zoom-back and rack-focus - a shot normally requiring a          38
three-man union camera crew.                                    39
                                                                4-SJAck
Noontime.  Parents were at church, kids were watching TV,       Ack
the police were eating lunch at Winchell's Donuts.  It          ^H.ack.
couldn't be more perfect.  This just had to work.  A last-      ARGon!
minute precaution:  I gaffer-taped the official WIZARD          grgnr
rubber rat to the top of the camera.  This odd little
totem had worked before, since we'd shot the entire WIZARD
RUN without filming permits - you don't question that kind      .kibo
of luck.

I coasted down the hill, riding back to Marathon - and          wl:COORD
praying that we'd have no major traffic, just for the next      change
few minutes.                                                    2/RK

It was 12:10pm - high noon - when the Earth's magnetic          12:10_^Q
field is at its peak.  The magnetometer needle deflected,       adjust
as the first pulse rolled through the area.  It was always
the weakest one.  The bike vibrated, momentarily.               WAIT
                                                                .
Time seemed to slow, with expectation.  Above me, a large       . 
flock of pigeons were wheeling in wild loops.  In a nearby      PROCEED
garden, dozens of small white butterflies were coming from
every plant.  The hairs on back of my neck were beginning
to stand up - this was definitely an electromagnetic event.     w//

7.83 seconds later, the magnetometer needle suddenly pinned.    7.83sec?

I signalled Brian to roll camera.  He yelled, "Rolling!",       :~Ro!~_yb
and slated the shot even as I began riding.                     JPL:nasa
                                                                accessng
I pedalled furiously along the straightaway.  I soon heard      WAIT
the U-coils humming, and the bike spokes singing, and then      silo.800
experienced some physiological side-effects which would no      PROCEED
doubt intrigue my girlfriend.  In retrospect, it really was    
like something out of BACK TO THE FUTURE, with the DeLorean     ~Bt~?
coming up to its 88mph time-speed.  The script-writer           88.TIME_
probably had an innate sense of this phenomenae.                WAIT
                                                                VERIFY
The second pulse came sweeping along the terrain behind me      :?
...there was a gentle bounce as it synched up.  As expected,    .
the U-coils combined to form a simple but adequate uni-polar
resonance "arc", catching and effectively "surfing" on the      ~arc~
magfield wave.  It felt like my first hang-glider, back in      PASSWORD
1960 - it felt invigorating, and fantastic.                     960_i
                                                                accepted
I hit the second magfield line at the foot of the hill, and
a surge of force threw the bike onward.  I nearly flipped
backwards, but just managed to grab the handlebar yoke.  All
alongside me, car alarms were being triggered - a surreal
escort of weird trumpets and UFO sounds.

And it was at that point that I took my feet completely off     EXECUTE
the bike pedals, and went zooming up the hill toward the        1.800.
camera.                                                         8668269

There was a slight wobble to my riding, since Maltman runs
at -5 degrees off magnetic-axis, and I couldn't head at a       -5degAdj
true magnetic south.  But thankfully the beauty of the          LAUNCH
effect compensated.   [I love it when a science project         1-800
actually works right.][And even more, when I survive it.]       10:00sec
                                                                 9:95 
Brian yelled in triumph, "Got it!".  I clicked off the           9:90
generator switches and coasted back.                             9:85
                                                                 9:80
Suddenly, I smelled something burning - the U-coils were        silo^Z
smoking!  Just then, a Mr. Jingles ice cream truck cruised      *JINGLES
into the shot, its speakers merrily playing "It's a Small       1.213
Small World".  Remembering an article in General Technics       664.8626
Newsletter, I waved down the driver, and bought several         ^W
snowcones to put out the potential holocaust.  A small          PASSWORD
world, indeed - Brian was in awe of our dazzling luck.          ACCEPTED
We packed everything up and left, just as a black limousine     execute/
screeched to block the Mr. Jingles truck, and several           JINGLES?
Disney lawyers got out.                                         pause
                                                                DISNEY:
DeLuxe Labs processed this particular section without a         >mjj$$$$$
hitch, I edited the shot into three cuts, for a combined         
scene-time of just over 4 seconds.                              &o/ *mbk* 

And remember: this is but ONE of the many thousands of          <*>^<*>
shots in THE WIZARD OF SPEED AND TIME feature.  Virtually
every shot has a story behind it!  [And many of those           you have
stories are actually true!]                                     mail

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/     >N139

Postscript:  Someday, when I've completed my film and video     Post:?
work, I hope to explore this phenomena further.  Because        ^L
I sense a very special secret still undiscovered, through       cd:^@^?
linking multiple gyros and electrical fields.  Something Big.   SanOnofr
And - as Nikola Tesla was to electricity - someday, I may be,   PASSWORD
to spinning wheels.  [After all, Tesla's birthday comes right   :TESLA
after mine.  Coincidence, or Cosmic Plan?]                      HGttG*42
                                                                EXECUTE
                                                                CORE
________________________________________ ___._`.*.'_._ ________ MELTDOWN
 Mike Jittlov - Wizard, etc       .   . +  * .o   o.* `.`. +.   10.00sec
  Hollywood, CA 90026-2714       '   *  . ' ' |\^/|  `. * .  *   9.95
jittlov@gumby.cs.caltech.edu  (: May All Your  \V/  Good Dreams  9.80
  <& alt.fan.mike-jittlov>    and Fine Wishes  /_\  Come True:)  9.85
============================================= _/ \_ ===========  9.80
                                                                 9.75
(c) 1992 by Mike Jittlov [for all the protection that affords]   9.70
                                                                 9.65
Next question?                                                   9.60
                                                                 9.55