Monday 1500 hours (cst)

It took a long time to get everyone's outfits on correctly and the lights, and cameras, and crew all in sync. But once they did, they moved pretty damn fast. Usually just a couple of takes, then it was time to reposition. And "BAM" they would start shooting again.

In all this time I would wander around, watch them set up the shots, look at the monitors, talk with grips about the worst projects they've worked on, talk with the PAs about ogre producers, you know typical set stuff.

Then all of a sudden they finished having to shoot everyone in the big Vacuum Chamber at once, and now they were doing a series of close ups on the people needed for talking and stuff. I didn't really notice this, since I was talking with Geek 2 and SuperGeek about the utter coolness of being here at NASA watching one of the premier cool directors work, with a top notch crew working ala a clockwork mechanism. Some people have said "sets" are boring. Not me. There are so many people on a big film, that have worked on other films. There is so much to learn about, to talk about, to be excited about. Hell we even talked about the Stock Market

Monday 1530 hours (cst)

All of a sudden I feel someone sit beside me on the door frame of the BIGGEST DOOR IN THE WORLD, I turn to see SPACE MAN BEN AFFLECK.

"You're Harry Knowles, right?" Ben enthusiastically says.

"Yup," I respond

"Oh man, I thought it was you, cool I read your page all the time."

I think, uh huh, yeah right. I bet you do. So I do my standard test question.

"So when did you start reading the site?"

Ben responds instantly with, "Oh maaaannnnn, well I was doing Chasing Amy with Kevin Smith when he told me I had to check out this cool page. Then when I read the review of GOOD DAY HUNTING, I started reading everyday."

Wow, he was genuine. Holy crap, I wasn't expecting that. I mean usually you think the attractive young male stars (female too) are too busy into a "scene" to be reading your website, but Ben was really into talking about it. I mean weird articles and stuff. He knew the site alright.

I asked him what he thought of being in a movie like Armageddon, and he went off on this whole geek-out about Star Wars figures and how cool it was, and he can't believe it. Then he started geeking on being at NASA, then he started getting excited about filming down at Cape Canaveral and walking across the gantry and into the shuttle. He was psyched. It was soooo cool to talk to someone that was as high on their situation as I am. I could tell as he looked around this big ol room, that he realized, just like me, that thousands of hours were and are being spent in these rooms doing what he was playing like, but FOR REAL.

This was the place and the equipment that real live Astronauts use. This is where all that history, and history that is yet to come is borne. He could feel the electricity that the objects gave off. And THAT was exciting. When RoboGeek took a picture Ben grabbed me tight a gave a real sheeet-eating grin. Then he invited me outside for a smoke and to shoot the crap for some down time.

En route we stopped by the snack cart and loaded up on candy and goodies. Yummm goodies. We then walked outside. We sat on the tail of a big ol truck and talked about fame, popularity, choices in films, scripts coming up. He asked me what I thought was cool, and what I had read that was great, and I gave my answer and turned the question around. We chatted like two old buddies. Geek #2 and RoboGeek stuck around for a bit, then went back inside to find their own coolness.

Ben was very real, no fake schmooze, no staring into your eyes with that huckster's stare or looking away in that cue card way. No, we were doing that very real conversation bit. We talked for about 40 minutes till...

Monday 1610 hours (cst)

Mr Publicity tells Ben that he has a couple of calls, and then we head back in. Ben goes to make his calls, and I head over to the monitors to see how filming is going. Now I haven't really stated what they were filming, but basically it was just a training talk, and one of the guys goofs off and the "teacher" type straightens them out.

My feet begin hurting, so I look around to see if there was a place where I could sit. Meanwhile I would approach the different cool actors to sign my script. Everyone did. Often times they would ask how I got it, "It's what I do." I would always respond.

The next couple of hours is spent in small chat with cool people like Brad Sisk, PA to Michael Bay, about what he did to get where he is. And like me, he was here because of that ultra cool Jennifer back in LA. Poor Jennifer, she stays at the production office taking care of business while all us dweebs get to hang out at NASA, and next Brad moves on to Florida. Sigh. Thanks Jennifer!!!

Monday 1715 hours (cst)

The shoot moves to this side of the "great door". I set up shop with Michael Bay's group, that way I can see his cool playback monitors. They really are the best. Man, that's great color. There were two cameras set up doing their thing. One on a crane, which had plenty of room to shoot in, but not quite enough. The full range of motion was there, but the room didn't go far enough back to allow for getting the entire door in the frame. Which meant Bay had to rethink his shot composition. This was cool, cause we got to see Michael with his little shot lens, laying on the floor, getting in different positions trying to find the angles, and like Minnesota Fats he found them.

I made mention of the cool light thing on the floor next to the Giganto-door. It looked lovely on camera. In fact when yall see the shot in the film, I bet most of you won't believe it is even close to being real. But it is, and is everybit as stunning as you will see. In this room of startling technical achievements, it was this "lightbulb" that was the key to the exterior shot. Bay referred to it as "that cool thing down there" in actuality it was a big ol Xenon bulb with a set of complex super refined lens that would magnify the brightness and heat intensity of the light. In the giant chamber there were multiples of these. Their purpose was to recreate the brightness and intensity of the sun, as viewed in outerspace. VERY COOL LOOKING!!!

This was a silent shot, meaning sound was not "instrumental" so Bay could scream out camera directions as the cameras worked. On the third take, beauty was accomplished, the word "COOOOOOOOOOL" escaped my lips loud enough to be picked up and echoed back to Geek #2 and RoboGeek who were chatting up a storm with Sound Mixer god Keith Wester. You heard his work in THE ROCK, AIRFORCE ONE, GI JANE and on and on and on. Look him up in IMDB, you'll see a long list. I have to compliment Michael Bay and Director of Photography John Schwartzman for this shot. It was very cool to observe happen. It was fantastic. I heard that ol Keith Wester smiled gigantic when he watched the take, and Geek #2 and RoboGeek audibly gasped. But of course they did another take. #3 was magic though in my opinion. You could just tell.

Monday 1840 hours (cst)

The day was winding up, they were closing the door and doing interior vacuum chamber shots showing the door closing it's last few feet. Michael Bay was wanting to wrap it up quickly because they had a VERY early call the next morning and didn't want to tire the cast or crew too much. Because on Wednesday the crew moved to Florida.

As everything was winding up, I began talking with a NASA geek. This lady/gentlemen then began to say she/he could get me and my group into the New Mission Control. And show us the parking lot where we had parked. That was IMPORTANT. So we strike up a bargain to hang around till then.

Monday 1850 hours (cst)

Ben Affleck gets out of his space suit and becomes a normal being again, I'm trying to get Bear's autograph to complete the heroes' on my script. Ben comes up to figure out some communication issues and to thank me for coming out. I turn the thanks around. He then tells BEAR to be cool, like Bear has any other choice. Ben shakes my hand one last time, and is off for a well deserved rest. Bear signs, and then Michael Bay escapes from the Vacuum Chamber, to a near vacant room. Most everyone and everysign of a movie crew was gone. A few remnants being cleaned up quickly.

Michael comes over and signs my script of Armageddon and we chat a bit longer, just about this and that. He looks spiffy in his Black Planet Hollywood Houston jacket. We part ways knowing that neither one of us is the Prince of Darkness, and both of us love film.

On this set, I met 4 geeks. Michael Bay was a geek. Ben Affleck was a geek. Sound Mixer Keith Wester was a geek and then the NASA person I'm getting ready to tell you about was a geek. These were the people that I could sit down and rapid fire talk to till the moon turned paisley. They had a passion for what they do, be that directing, acting, sound or space stuff. I'm sure there were more "geeks" on set, but unfortunately, try as I must I only talked to about 45 people, and the crew was made up of about 400 I was told. That's alot of people.

Jennifer Klein and Michael Bay were indeed confident in their film, to invite me on their set, but they had good reason. They have a cool script, cool actors, and a damn good unit putting it all together. They hid nothing, and shared alot, that's all we geeks want. And it's nice to see a production with the confidence to say, "Hey, we're pulling back the curtains, flame away geek boy!" Was I star struck? Not really, Bruce was cool, but I was truly in awe of the location. Ben felt like just one of the guys, as did Michael Bay. Watch out for this one, I've got a feeling.

Monday 1910 hours (cst)

I part ways with the cast and crew of Armageddon, and now place the lives of myself and my fellow AICNers in the hands of a NASA person. We pass through card keyed entrances and touch pad codes. We enter the heart of NASA. The nervous system of a fantastic world, where the world in not the limitations. Our guide, Morbius, took us into top secret rooms, and sat us at desks. You know the MARS ROVER, we went to that room where it was observed. We saw the room where copies of the payloads are kept, so they can Apollo 13 out in case of a problem. Geek #2, Father Geek, RoboGeek and I are all stunned that we are where we are. Then after Morbius tells us that we have seen it all, I comment upon something upon the wall. I can't say what, but Morbius takes the object and reveals something that literally almost caused me to wet myself. This was the thing, you would never guess, never see, and never hear of in any NASA tour or book. A secret that Father Geek, RoboGeek, Geek #2 and I will never reveal. But for the rest of the night, it was this thing that made us tremble and shake. We knew something sooooo coool. It opened millions of cool courses of trouble making, adventure and coolness. And we knew.

After it all, we went to the Geekmobile, and headed home for Austin. Stopping to eat at the Space MacDonalds of course. The whole 2 and a half hour ride back home we are geeking, recounting our different "key" moments. The "crap" moments and the "cool" moments. Favorite looks on faces. We replayed the entire day 10 times in that brief ride home. None of us would sleep though we were all exhausted. For we knew cool things no one else knew, and we had lived one hell of a cool day.

Hopefully, I will be meeting the fantastic person that made it all happen this Tuesday when I arrive in LA for the World Premiere of Starship Troopers. I'll only be in town for two days, so stay tuned for info about where I'll be. That will be forth coming!!!