You know I stressed a bit when I bought my stormtrooper costume. It was a lot of money and I thought I might wear it a few times and sell it. I had no idea the way it would change my life. On my way home from Austin last night I mentioned to Angie how I am still tickled at the way our lives have been enriched from that seemingly simple purchase.
Yesterday we went to a photoshoot for the garrison. The shoot was in the small town of Driftwood,Tx just outside of Austin. The thing that was intriguing was that it was for Wired magazine, a national magazine! Secondly it was for a new movie coming soon called Fanboys.
Fanboys is a movie that is set before Episode I TPM comes out. It's a movie about 4 buddies that love Star Wars and are in geek heaven with the new movie coming out when one of the comes down with terminal cancer. Upon realizing their friend is not going to see TPM they take him across the country to break in to Skywalker Ranch and sneak a peek at the movie before he succumbs to Cancer. The writer, Ernest Cline lives in Austin and this was his photoshoot. We were there for props.
When the request came in from Driftwood,TX no one really wanted to go initially. We were afraid of a smear piece and don't even mention the long drive for just about everyone. After we found out it was not going to be a smear piece a few of us decided why not, national magazine, not something you get to do everyday. Initially it was going to be 6 of us total, then they told us they needed 15! The call went out, and the troops responded in grand fashion, coming from the DFW area, San Antonio and Houston. We canvased the state! We even had a visitor from 70th Explorers in Kansas!
So Sunday morning bright and early we get up and drive on in to Driftwood. The place is small, an old Texaco station... The photographer's name is Dan Winters. He is very personable and easy going. He was geeking out on all the Star Wars costumes and just having a good ol time. I thought ok dinky place, nice guy, hard to believe this is for Wired Magazine. They took a handful of single costume images before we were doing the big group shot with the writer, Ernie. Dade got to be one of those characters! CooL!
Here are some pics...
It was a fantastic experience... the friends and fun and everything just could not have been better. Ernie Cline was awesome. He was a SW nerd like us and he got along with everyone famously! We ended the day at the Salt Lick BBQ a table of 30, great conversation and new friend of the Empire. It was well worth the long drive... I didn't want it to end! I came home last night happy, no giddy this had been a great troop, huge turnout and everything went smoothly with no drama or grief.
Then today I decided I would look up the photographer to see "if" he had done anything like this before...ummm yea! HFS!!! Dan Winters is an icon in the industry apparently. I was dumbfounded when I visited his website and read his bio... ..in addition to regluar assignments for magazines such as The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, GQ, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Los Angeles Magazine, W Magazine, Fortune, Premier, Discover, Gourmet, Entertainment Weekly, Texas Monthly Magazine, and Rolling Stone and other National and international publications. His clients for print advertising include Nike, Microsoft, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Sony, Bose, Saturn, Converse, Warner Bothers,Parmount, Dreamworks, Columbia Tri-Star and Twentieth Century Fox. Regular music clients include RCA, A&M, Sony BMG, Warner Bothers and Epitaph.
Be sure you stop by and see his site at http://www.danwintersphoto.com/ His body of work is well decorated with awards and then there are the people he has photographed. All I can say is wow! I am blown away! Once again that simple little purchase of a box 'o plastic turns out to really make a fantastic memory we'll cherish for years to come.
, a national magazine! Secondly it was for a new movie coming soon called 
So Sunday morning bright and early we get up and drive on in to Driftwood. The place is small, an old Texaco station... The photographer's name is Dan Winters. He is very personable and easy going. He was geeking out on all the Star Wars costumes and just having a good ol time. I thought ok dinky place, nice guy, hard to believe this is for Wired Magazine. They took a handful of single costume images before we were doing the big group shot with the writer, Ernie. Dade got to be one of those characters! CooL!