The Fifth Element

Beauty shot of the Fhloston Paradise cruiser model from "The Fifth Element."

Looking down one of the streets of Manhattan in "The Fifth Element." There are several levels of traffic lights on the sides. I spent a lot of my time on stage swapping gels on them so that when a building switched sides of the street, the traffic direction indicator was the correct color.

We used a lot of miniature fluorescent tubes on these models, most of them on this garage.  There are some rain of rice lights as swags on the cafe above the garage.  Those were very susceptible to blowing out - usually when someone walked by with a radio.  It didn't even have to be in use for them to flicker and go out.  I made them several times before we realized it was the radios causing the t

This was supposed to be an historical building that had been saved and preserved at the top of this skyscraper - which is why it's in a glass and steel enclosure.

A cool black and white overhead view of the models for Manhattan.  The 12 step ladder in the middle is about 11 feet tall when it's open, to give you a sense of scale.

All of the buildings are 1:24 scale. We rearranged these models, some of which were 20' tall!, several times to get streets that looked different. Every building had a name, usually scrawled inside it somewhere, so that it was easier to move them when the time came.