The Portal, in it's home.

We made serious strides this weekend on the lab set! Most notable was the actual installation of the Portal in this final resting place, the Event Chamber. The very minute we plunked that baby down things got real.



Feast on the glory of the underside of the turn table.



He's not crazy, he's my brother... Zack.

 After some very long hour days this past week, the lights inside the chamber were hung, the ceiling dropped in, doors installed, and the floor was tiled. This was all preparation for the Portal and the rotating "turn-table" it sits on to be made active. We rolled the giant 8-ft aluminum disc into the Chamber, and designer Matt Sheick made the final calculations before we set it spinning on its casters and lazy-Susan-style base. Then it was all about the Portal. It took 4 dudes to shimmy that thing inside the Chamber. (I was dude #3) Once it was secured to the turn table we all stepped back to bask in its ominous magnificence.

Check out the behind-the-scenes VIDEO clip below... VIDEO!!! Watch it!

There was something eerie about that simple horseshoe design, draped in all that white, inside the massively intrusive metal structure. It felt like a villain for the first time. It looked epic.

Our 2 actor mice... and 1 stunt double.

After we had the Portal squared away, it was time to clean and start really dressing the set. Electronics were brought in by the pallet load, and the test mice were nestled in a corner.

Gus, and a sneak peek at one of the delivery robots.

Jason Spisak, checking the orange goop.

The next few days will be a hectic "let's-get-this-place-ready-to-shoot" sort of few days. Preliminary testing and shooting will begin at the end of the week. We can't wait to fire up the RED and start putting all this hard work on film. Science willing, we will have some great footage on our hands very shortly. Stay tuned!

Me, trying really hard to look like President Kennedy.

-Luke (D.P.)