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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: Cloverfield (1-18-08) » Cloverfield: General / Updates
[SPEC]The original Clover Field project; a clue to the name?
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KidReviewer
Boot


Joined: 10 Aug 2007
Posts: 64

 		[SPEC]The original Clover Field project; a clue to the name?
I still don't know what exactly the reference to Cloverfield is for, but it was meaningful enough to win top choice as the movie title.

Clover Field has it's own notoriety highlighting deception and camoflage, two ideas that may have appeal for JJ. Abrams. It was a testing field for a Douglas airplane plant making bombers. It was located just outside of Santa Monica, and with the help of Warner Bros set designers, pulled off a massive 'disguise' initiative. So impressive was it, that Warner Bros studioo itself copied the tactic.

Read on:

http://www.militarymuseum.org/CloverField.html

"With World War II raging in Europe, Douglas realized well before Pearl Harbor that his plant was a sitting duck for an air attack. He didn't wait for the government to protect him; he took the controls. Douglas asked his chief engineer and test pilot, Frank Collbohm, and a renowned architect, H. Roy Kelley, to devise a way to camouflage the plant. (Later, Collbohm would found Rand Corp. and Kelley would design its headquarters.)

Together with Warner Bros. studio set designers, they made the plant and airstrip disappear--at least from the air.

Almost 5 million square feet of chicken wire, stretched across 400 tall poles, canopied the terminal, hangars, assorted buildings and parking lots. Atop the mesh stood lightweight wood-frame houses with attached garages, fences, clotheslines, even "trees" made of twisted wire and chicken feathers spray-painted to look like leaves.

Tanker trucks spewed green paint on the runway to simulate a field of grass. Streets and sidewalks were painted on the covering to blend into the adjacent Sunset Park neighborhood of modest homes that housed Douglas employees.

The tallest hangar was made to look like a gently sloping hillside neighborhood. Designers even matched up the painted streets with real ones.

When they were done, the area was so well disguised that pilots had a hard time finding Clover Field. Some of them landed at nearby airstrips instead, protesting that someone had moved the field.

Douglas adapted. When planes were due, he stationed men at each end of the runway to wave red flags like matadors. Eventually, the signalmen were replaced with white markers painted on the hillsides.

(The facade was such a success that Warner Bros. replicated it, fearing that the studio looked like an aircraft plant from the air.)

The simulated neighborhood became such a part of the community that, when Douglas Aircraft shed its disguise in July 1945, it was as if a landmark had been destroyed."

If someone has uncovered this before, my apologies. I've posted and lurked since the first week of July, and hadn't seen the name explained, but I admit I've had to take long breaks here and there from the Unfiction forums.

KidReviewer

Edit - Tags - MikeyJ

PostPosted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 2:21 am
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Bacon Army
Unfettered


Joined: 01 Nov 2007
Posts: 447

 		Re: The original Clover Field project - a clue to the name?
This last sentence piqued my interest -

KidReviewer wrote:

The simulated neighborhood became such a part of the community that, when Douglas Aircraft shed its disguise in July 1945, it was as if a landmark had been destroyed."
KidReviewer


Other than that, though, I don't see much to go on. Nice try, but I'm not buyin' any connection.

PostPosted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 2:34 am
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Red Walrus
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Joined: 24 Jul 2007
Posts: 589

 		I don't recall reading anything like this here, interesting, thanks KidReviewer.

PostPosted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 3:07 am
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Vendicare
Boot

Joined: 16 Nov 2007
Posts: 45

 		I don't know if it has anything to do with the movie, but you have just given me something to waste lots of time looking into! That was really cool. Now I have to find some good pictures of this to check out. Thanks!

PostPosted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 2:22 pm
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Row2k
Boot

Joined: 09 Jul 2007
Posts: 27

 		There was a post on this back july/august but I can't seem to find it...

I can't remember if it was the Douglas or Warner Bros compound, but they had some pretty sweet pictures from the air before and after. It was amazing how well they made it look like a suburban neighborhood

PostPosted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 4:17 pm
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Lambo_Diablo_Svtt
Entrenched


Joined: 18 Aug 2007
Posts: 914

 		http://www.flatrock.org.nz/topics/flying/douglas_dream_in_santa_monica.htm

*cheesy original Unreal Tournament voice* Boom!

PostPosted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 4:28 pm
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HaloKitty7
Boot

Joined: 25 Sep 2007
Posts: 46

 		So Cloverfield was a fake / Camouflage then?
And now maybe, too? Wink

One of the Production Offices is Santa Monica:
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2007/08/clover_field_wraps_and_weve_got_the_call_sheet.html

PostPosted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 4:51 pm
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I'M HUGE!
Decorated


Joined: 13 Oct 2007
Posts: 215
Location: U.S. 447

 		Hmm, makes you kinda wonder about the legitimacy of the call sheet, characters, trailer, teaser, or just the whole darn movie in general. Very peculiar. Thanks KidReviewer. Very Happy
_________________
Your retarted.

An anagram for JJ Abrams is Cloverfield. Shocked

PostPosted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 5:06 pm
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fleabit
Veteran

Joined: 16 Nov 2007
Posts: 125

 		I'm thinking it's simply the name of a street coupled with the fact it may well tie in with the entire "seabed's nectar" theme in the movie. Heck, the "ingredient" above the slusho cup looks almost exactly like a clover. I think it's simple as that.

PostPosted: Sun Nov 25, 2007 11:56 am
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