photo by Mark Czarnowski
PInball Donut Girl will be screening back to back with Wade Krause: Pinball Artist at the Midwest Gaming Classic on Sunday, March 24 near Milwaukee.
Mark Czarnowski of Illini Pinball Association will be hosting (thanks, Mark!)
Helping people see the beauty of pinball more clearly than ever, one of the Visible Pinball games from the Pacific Pinball Museum and six other vintage games were featured at the Cinequest Film Festival Opening Night Gala.
photo by Paul Breski
The real Captain Fantastic, Chris Kuntz of Pinball Pirate brought the games to San Jose.
Ably assisted by Mike Harris…
…who really gets into his work.
Chris and Mike tuned the games to perfection…
…and they were beta tested by the highly qualified Chris Garcia, festival programmer and curator from the Computer History Museum.
The doors opened, and the party was on!
photo by Cynthia Pyun
Don’t forget you can come out and have more pinball at Cinequest by coming to the Friday 3/8 6:45 PM screening of Wade Krause: Pinball Artist at Camera 12 in San Jose, or the Saturday 1:45 screening. See you at the movies!
This year I’m thankful for a chance to see the Visible Pinball machine in its new home at the Exploratorium. Visiting his awesome San Francisco science museum was the perfect end to a long Thanksgiving weekend. Kids and adults were playing pinball nonstop, so excited to see the game. Wade and the Pacific Pinball Museum created a gift to the city and beyond when they made this machine.
Exploratorium will be moving to a new home at Pier 15 in San Francisco this spring — I can’t wait to see the magic they make in an expanded space. Based on the huge interest and enjoyment I saw with the exhibit, I hope more museums buy clear pinball machines for their visitors.
Hope you’re coming on Friday to the Pacific Pinball Expo; the first festival event in the Sausalito room will be Wade Krause: Pinball Artist. Wade himself will be there to talk about his work and help me answer questions about the film.
image from Wade Krause: Pinball Artist, photography courtesy Joe Bansuelo
Get behind the backglass with Wade! You’ll learn about his restoration work and his collaborations with artists like Dirty Donny on the Metallica game, Beatniks, Hellacopters and other cool games.
Date: Sept. 21, 2012
Time: 11:00 AM
Where: Sausalito Room, Pacific Pinball Expo, San Rafael, CA
Directions: http://www.marincounty.org/Depts/CU/Directions
Hope to see you there.
PS: Stay for the whole weekend so you don’t miss seeing Pinball Donut Girl on Saturday.
It’s all come full circle! A year ago this month I shot our first footage for PBDG at California Extreme 2011 with Brian J. Patterson.
And now thanks to your generous support, this weekend we are screening the PBDG trailer at the very same show. I’ll be talking about some of the techniques we used to film inside the AFM playfield to capture the amazing stunt play of Jeri Ellsworth (we got your bang back right here on camera, baby!) and how we worked with the games on set, including blowing up some backglass.
Does a year seem like a long time to make a short film? Maybe so, but I’ve also been working on pinball documentaries about the Visible Pin project at the Pacific Pinball Museum and a second film about Wade Krause, who worked on that game and many others — I’ll be showing excerpts from Wade’s film as well.
Come by and say hi!
Pinball artist Wade Krause was in the Bay Area last weekend to meet with customers and do some research at the Pacific Pinball warehouse. Wade was kind enough to let me, PBDG Director Don Starnes, and Cinematographer Charlie Kuttner tag along.
photo by Charlie Kuttner
While Wade worked at the PPM warehouse and we filmed him, I snuck in some photos of games.
Time 2000 backglass
Bally Hot Rods playfield detail
In addition to the wonderful games waiting their turn to be exhibited at the museum or PPE, I’m always fascinated by the machines under repair and the store of components and parts.
Beehive detail on EM game
EM game under repair
Wood legs for games
Woodrails waiting room
I was happy to visit a Pinbot we used in Pinball Donut Girl.
Pinbot Playfield detail
More Pinbot
Pinbot playfield detail
Wade and Charlie and I also made a quick trip to the De Young Museum and hit the Gaultier exhibit.
photo by Charlie Kuttner
Even if you aren’t into fashion, the projection technology of the exhibition itself and the over the top construction and materials of the garments never get old. I think this was my fourth visit. It runs through August 19, 2012 and is totally worth a trip.
Gaultier exhibit, San Francisco
While you are in Golden Gate park, you can go across the way and also visit the Academy of Sciences — that museum has been redone in the last few years and is amazing too.
I have been getting a set of photos ready to post from Wade Krause’s recent trip up here. I don’t know if I have mentioned this or not, but the PBDG DVD will include documentary material about Wade and his work on the clear pinball games, Hellacopters, etc.
I should have that post ready tomorrow. First — I want to share a photo I took last night on the way home from a screening:
These giant sculptures from Burning Man by Karen Cusolito are outside American Steel Studios an amazing art place in Oakland where they are created. Cinematographer Charlie Kuttner (who is also working on the Wade project), told me about them and taught me how to take these long exposure night photos. So cool!
photo by Charlie Kuttner
You can’t imagine how huge these pieces are until you see them.
We also stopped on Treasure Island to take some skyline photos. We had the good fortune of a barge passing through some of the shots.
photo by Anna Newman & Charlie Kuttner
So when you all come out to the East Bay to visit the Pacific Pinball Museum, there is a ton more to do and see as well!
Pinball photos tomorrow.
Happy Fathers Day!
Associate Producer Lily Achatz and I attended our first Pin-a-Go-Go in Dixon, CA. We got to meet up with lots of Pinball Donut Girl supporters, play great games (there were around 200 pins, I heard), and enjoy some perfect central valley weather. I will definitely go back next year; I had a really good time.
It’s always the first Sunday after Mother’s Day — mark your calendar now 
Lily plays Bowling Queen in the back room.
Bowling Queen backglass detail.
I was totally taken with Star-Jet’s art.
Star-Jet playfield detail.
Star-Jet backglass detail.
More Star-Jet playfield.
I also got to see a Palooka Dan Kramer had restored. Very cool.
Palooka backglass.
Palooka playfield detail.
I love the speed bag with a face!
The turnout was strong with people enjoying both EM and SS games.
Lily and Eight Ball Deluxe.
Bounty Hunter backglass art.
This young lady was part of the fun tournament.
And this little guy was making the rounds with his dad and a step stool.
I was happy to see Wade Krause and meet Dirty Donny Gillies, the artist behind Hellacopters and other custom art games Wade has worked on. Donny, Wade, and Tanio Klyce were so generous to let us use Hellacopters in the Pinball Donut Girl tournament scene.
Wade and Donny at Pin-a-Go-Go 2012.
Lily and I also got to visit with the folks of Planetary Pinball.
I can’t get enough of taking pinball photos…
Foto Finish playfield detail.
Star Pool backglass detail.
Star Pool backglass — seems like this should be a poster!
Meet Brian and Chris. Long time supporter of the Pacific Pinball Museum, Brian brings his son Chris on regular visits.
Nine year old Chris is an excellent docent and pinball ambassador. Cinematographer Charlie Kuttner and I were at the PPM to film some more clear game footage, and Chris introduced us to Adventures in the Development of Pinball, the new exhibit. The show includes one of the Bally Freedom clear games built with Wade Krause.
Chris is pretty good at the clear game — he had moves!
On display are a set of images and interactive exhibits that explain the development and workings of pinball machines. Chris walked me through several of them with great expertise.
Be sure to stop by the PPM when you are in the Bay Area to visit the exhibit, check out and play the new visible pin, and of course play the other hundred plus games at the museum. Michael Schiess and his crew have everything set it up to be very hands on, and as you can see, kids will definitely enjoy it.
Adventures in the Development of Pinball
ART AND TECH SHOW, runs April 6 through July 6, 2012.
Come inside Ed’s 8,000 square foot custom building with me and check out some of the pinball and arcade games he has collected. Wade Krause and I were thrilled to take the tour when we visited Pittsburgh.
In addition to pinball machines, Ed also collects arcade games.
I loved the older shooting games.
Wade went for the more recent.
I had a great time looking at all the artwork.
I made some new friends…
and visited some old…
Thank you so much for sharing your collection, Ed!
