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Reviews
Here's what industry experts say about CEM
"As a liquid pump, it is ideal...This
design obviously has massive potential because of its flexibility."
• Eureka Engineering Materials & Design
Magazine, February 1998 issue
CEM Wins Editor’s Choice Award!
"Pump/Compressor Module provides Endless
Design possibilities... Immense potential..."
• Medical Equipment Designer Magazine, May 1994 issue
"Firetrucks could get a whole lot smaller
with [this] new multi-purpose device..."
• Los Angeles Times, Technology Special section, October 27,
1997
"This technology is superior to anything
we have witnessed. My colleagues and I have had the opportunity to
thoroughly review [the] Cylindrical Energy Module... I can confidently
state that the technical feasibility and prognosis for commercial
success are unquestioned."
• L. Gordon Cooper, CEO of Galaxy Aerospace Management, Inc.
and Retired NASA Astronaut
"Versatile little device could serve as
a remarkably powerful pump or an engine."
• Popular Mechanics Magazine, September 1994 issue
"Batamweight Rotary pump delivers heavyweight
output...The CEM's primary strength lies in its increased output [over
conventional pumps] for a given size."
• Design News Magazine, January 17, 1994
"Engine of ingenuity...an engine more
powerful and lighter in weight than an internal combustion engine."
• Los Angeles Business Journal, January 19, 1998
"The birth of a new technology... It operates
on a uniquely different principle, has only 5 moving parts, is simple
and compact, weighs only about 1/5th that of a standard unit, and
can be built at about 1/4th the cost."
• Design Products News
"This pump is far more efficient than
anything I’ve seen to date."
• James Morand, President and Chief Executive of Enviro-Foam
Technologies
Here's what Amazon.com had to say about Eddie's book: The
Cars of the Fast and the Furious
The Cars of the Fast and the Furious
Editorial Reviews –Amazon.com
Book Description
A fascinating look inside the preparation of the cars and the making
of the movie scenes featured in the 2001 box office hit The Fast and
the Furious and in the 2003 summer release sequel The Fast and the
Furious 2. Officially authorized by Universal Studios, the book draws
on the experience of Eddie Paul in acquiring, constructing and modifying
the cars for both movies. The book, with 300 color illustrations,
reveals how the automotive stunts were choreographed, performed and
filmed. This is a true insider’s guide to the exciting world
of fast cars, thrilling stunts, and motion-picture production.
From the Publisher
From the surprise box-office hit of 2001 to one of the most talked
about sequels this summer, Fast and Furious fever is gaining momentum.
Having only rolled from the garage to the theaters in two short weeks
and grossing over $83 million, 2 Fast 2 Furious is following in his
big brother’s footsteps in fine style. Ask anybody why they
watch this franchise over and over and the unanimous answer is…
THE CARS. Strangely enough this also is the biggest mystery surrounding
the movies; who customized all those amazing cars? The answer - movie
car maverick Eddie Paul.
Eddie, in conjunction with MBI Publishing and Universal Pictures,
is proud to announce that the first edition printing of his book ‘The
Cars of the Fast and the Furious, The Hottest Cars on Screen' HAS
SOLD OUT with more orders pouring in from all over the globe.
This gorgeous book is a feast for the eyes as it takes the reader
behind the scenes and into the workshop detailing how each of the
major racers from the movies was customized. Engine mods, body kits,
tires, sound systems and even the paint colors are revealed in this
must-have gem. Every conceivable aspect from how he pulled all these
cars together to getting them all on the set on time and on budget
is in here. ‘The Cars of the Fast and the Furious, The Hottest
Cars on Screen’ also features interviews, facts and trivia about
the cars. Every racer has a story and Eddie shares them all in his
candid down-to-earth manner.
This book has a wide rang of appeal from the seasoned mechanic to
the weekend grease monkey, everyone who likes cars will love ‘The
Cars of the Fast and the Furious, The Hottest Cars on Screen'!
About the Author
Eddie Paul is the Founder and President of E.P. Industries, Inc. With
over 30 years of engineering experience, Mr. Paul has developed innovative
designs in pumps, compressors, engines, optics, electronics, camera
movements and housings, hydraulic systems, and animatronics. His diverse
background in prototype development and design and his knowledge of
a wide range of engineering sciences has led to many discoveries.
Consequently, Mr. Paul is the holder of several U.S. and international
patents. He is also the Principal Investigator who guides and assists
a highly qualified team of engineers.
In 1970, Eddie Paul established E.P. Industries, which has become
a successful research, development, and prototype manufacturing company.
Awards
Circlescan 4D • Winner 2002 Top 100 Producers A/V Multimedia
Producer Magazine
Eddie Paul invented the Circlescan 4D process out of dissatisfaction
with the common 3D effect. "What we call 3D doesn't really exist
because the 3 dimension of depth is only simulated" he says.
The Circlescan process uses a patented camera attachment consisting
of several mirrors at 45 degree angles. "Instead of looking at
a TV screen, you're looking with a window" Paul says.
CFX Compressed Air-Foam Fire System • "EXCELLENCE
IN DESIGN" by Design News Magazine
CFX CAFS eliminates centrifugal water pump and air compressor with
a high-efficiency positive-displacement CEM Rotary Pump.
El Segundo, Calif. , CFX, Inc., manufacturer of compressed air-foam
fire pump systems (CAFS) has recently captured one of the top three
places in the annual Excellence in Design competition hosted by Design
News Magazine. The contest, which features engineers, inventors and
design teams from all fields of technology has become extremely competitive
and often serves as a preview of upcoming trends and changes.
Pump designer Eddie Paul spent the better part of 16 years developing
and streamlining his rotary cylinder pump concept before it was ready
for introduction. He applied and received patent protection for his
Cylindrical Energy Module (CEM) rotary cylinder pump in May of 1993,
classified as an engine/pump/compressor "power module" by
the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
From the moment of its market introduction, technical experts as well
as specialists in fluid dynamics have praised the CEM for its superior
efficiency, simplicity of design and unlimited potential. In 1994,
the first major prototype application of the CEM positive-displacement
rotary pump went to the medical field as the critical component in
an emergency ventilator system. The CEM Ventilator Pump was presented
with the Editor’s Choice Award in Medical Equipment Designer
Magazine, the first of many accolades to come. In mid 1995, the U.S.
Dept. of Defense took notice of CEM technology for its internal combustion
potential and, through the U.S. Army Small Business Innovation Research
program, awarded a Phase 1 contract for the development of a new internal
combustion engine/generator set based on CEM componentry. As word
of this ultra-efficient pump spread, the diversity and number of applications
increased.
Most applications have involved leading edge research and development
with companies such as TRW, whose aerospace division conducted tests
on the CEM pump for extreme high-pressure use in the Space Shuttle
fuel system. Raytheon Systems recently subjected a CEM prototype to
extended-cycle testing in a lubrication-free liquid carbon-dioxide
dry-cleaning system followed by a 3000psi static housing test. And
The Boeing Company is considering a major redesign of the Airborne
Laser System to use a CEM pump in its cooling system Whether or not
these prototypes lead to production is not an issue. The payoff is
a wealth of data obtained from researching and testing with these
high-technology companies and their national laboratories.
The CEM pump has the unique capability of flowing up to four separate
fluids and/or gases in and, depending on manifold structure, four
separate fluids/gases or any combination of the four, out. The CFX
system uses one CEM Rotary pump to handle the three foam elements
(water, foam surfactant and air). Until now, all CAFS consisted of
a low-efficiency centrifugal water pump connected to an air compressor
and a complex proportioning system to combine the three elements to
make foam. With less pump, less plumbing, and superior volumetric
efficiency, the lighter, smaller CFX CAFS delivers its rated outputs
with a mere third of the drive power of other systems of equal output.
All the same, CFX owner Eddie Paul knows that it takes more than just
having a superior design. This is why he’s chosen to maintain
such a moderate profile in the fire pump market. "The fire service
is rich in tradition. No matter how good the technology is, acceptance
takes time," says Eddie. "We’ve got a good product
here so we plan to give it all the time necessary to become part of
that tradition.
Articles
FF Journal• October 2010 Fabricating
for Film
Completing fabrications like these in compressed timelines
separates a regular metal-fabricating job shop from ones that produce
fabrications that make movie magic, Paul says. But to build sheet
metal movie marvels and meet tight deadlines, he needs to have the
right equipment in his shop.
Paul's first big job was producing 30 cars for the movie "Grease."
At the time, he had an automotive body shop with oxy/acetylene torches,
forming hammers, reciprocating saws, manual brakes and MIG welders
that he used to fabricate brackets, trim, gages, bumpers and difficult-to-find
parts. He also formed sheet metal by hand and machined parts from
billets.
Adding advanced metal-fabricating equipment helped productivity
rise dramatically, says Paul. When he built the "Grease" cars, it
took two weeks with 30 people working 12 to 14 hours a day. "The tools
we had then were all hand tools and gas welding equipment. Cutting
was done with a saber saw or an air hammer with a metal-cutting chisel,"
he says.
In contrast, Paul has built more than 200 cars for the movie
"2 Fast 2 Furious" in less than a month working a five day workweek
with only 10 people and no overtime using a Samson plasma CNC cutter,
CAD/CAM computers, MIG and TIG welders, and an Eagle tube bender from
Eagle Bending Machines, Stapleton, Ala.
Custom Equipment
Fabricating challenges have pushed Paul to build some of his
own equipment, incluiding a manual tube bender and a combination planishing
hammer and English wheel.
When looking at tube benders, Paul couldn't find an affordable
model. "I built a bender for the low-end market for someone who might
bend one to ten tubes and doesn't need a production machine. My bender
sales took off, and I couldn't keep up with orders," he says.
Paul's bender has a 24-in.-diameter wheel that uses a 1-in.
tube to move the material through the bending rolls. "We were making
this on our own machine by hand, and it was taking too long. I decided
that I needed an affordable bender that would help me build my bender,"
he says.
He purchased an Eagle CP30 RM Bender, which dramatically increased
productivity, says Paul. "To make our benders manually, it used to
take us almost an hour per wheel. Now we do it in 10 seconds with
the Eagle bender," he says.
"We first put Paul in our Eagle CP30 Bender that uses a manual
top-roll adjuster," says Jeremiah Weekley, Eagle director of sales.
"It was smaller than the one he has now. Paul then moved up to our
Z402H that uses a hydraulic system for the top-roll adjustment, and
it increased his bending capacity."
To make a bend with the CP30, a user would have to manually
set the hand crank on the top of the machine that moves the top roll
up and down and applies pressure to what's being bent, says Weekley.
Eagles' Z402H uses a hydraulic adjustment for the top roll and can
apply greater force. Also, the top roll's position is displayed as
a number on the machine's LED readout.
"It doesn't really matter so much about the pressure as to
the position of the top roll," says Weekley. By having the top roll
in the same position for a particualr part and profile, you will achieve
very similar results, he notes.
Tooling rolls for Eagle benders are manufactured at the company's
machine shop. "If a customer needs tooling for a particular tube or
pipe size, it's usually in stock on the shelf, but if not, we'll make
it," notes Weekley. Eagle also will produce prototype tooling for
unusual bending applications and have it done within seven to 10 business
days. "we can build tooling for any custom extrusion, incluiding triangular
tubes."
Like all Eagle benders, Eddie Paul's has a solid steel frame
machined from steel plate. No castings are used, says Weekley. "This
allows us to offer a lifetime mainframe warranty against stress cracks.
Solid-alloy steels are used for the shafts and journals."
Design challenges
Paul also uses the tools in his shop and his Eagle bender to
create one-of-a-kind projects for Hollywood productions.
When "Cars" debuted, Paul built drivable cars for publicity
that looked like the movie's animated characters Lightning, Tow Mater
and Sally. Paul used his AutoCAD system to develop detailed blueprints
from sketches for the frames and car parts.
"They gave us a pretty new Porsche for Sally, and we cut it
in half to make it smaller, to resemble the character. For Lightning,
we used late-model Pontiac Trans Am that we cut the body off. We also
had to shorten it. Tow Mater started out as a big GMC truck. We shortened
it 5 ft. and narrowed the body," he says.
Most of Lightning's outer body in ABS plastic. Paul used a
special router he had built with a 5-ft.-by-10-ft. bed with a 12-in.
Z axis to make the wood patterns for the body parts. He vacuum formed
1/4-in.-thick ABS-plastic over the pattern to make a final body part.
As the plastic pieces were built, Paul prepped the stipped
Trans Am chassis to mount a roll cage to it using mild-steel 1.5-in.-diameter
by 0.12-in.-thick tubing. "We used our Eagle bender to roll and bend
these tubes," says Paul. After the chassis was stripped, Paul had
to cut it in half and shorten it by about 2 ft.
As he finished, Paul attached the platic body pieces to 2-in.-wide
strips of T6-6061 aluminum in 6- and 8-ft. lengths cut using a manual
shear. These pieces were mounted to the plastic body pieces and then
to the frame tubes.
"At this point, we were still using the PlasmaCAM system. We
were continually checking between the frame of the vehicle and the
plastic pieces to make sure that they would go together properly.
We used a hand plasma cutter to do all our cutting, and our CNC plasma
cutter to cut out corner brackets that attached the toll cage to the
chassis," says Paul.
Paul then seamed and glued the plastic pieces together, sanded
them down and smoothed them with body filler.
Unique projects
While Paul has fabricated hundereds of cars, he also has completed
unique fabrication projects, including building life-like remote controlled
and manually operated sharks for Jacques Cousteau's group.
With a two-week time period, Paul had to build a great white
shark that could be manned internally by a diver. From his experience
with building other sharks, he decided to use stainless steel tubes
bent on the Eagle bender for its ribs and a 6-in-wide by 1/2-in.-thick
Lexan plastic piece for its spine and bottom containment piece to
hold the ribs together.
Paul designed the ribs to form a cage, with the largest rib
being about 36 in. in diameter at the shark's pectoral fins. "The
larger ribs used a 2-in.-diameter tube, and then the other ribs progressively
went down in tube diameter size and were smaller in their overall
dimeter," he says.
For articulation, Paul used a simple air cylinder to move the
tubular ribs of the shark from side to side. Overall, ti weighed 2,000
lbs. and close to 6,000 lbs. when filled with water.
Some might think fabricating for movies is more difficult than
building products for our parts, but "actually movie fabrications
don't have to be as good. They just have to be safe," says Paul. "The
rule of thumb is if you stand back 20 ft. {from a vehicle} and don't
see a problem, you don't worry about it."
September 2006• Mini Truckin' - 100
Lbs of Thunder
PPG Repaint Reporter • July 2006
From Cartoon to Reality:
Customizer Eddie Paul breathes life into Disney Cars.
"Cars" tells the story of Lightning McQueen, a rookie racecar
driven to succeed, who discovers that life is about the journey, not
the finish line. Crossing the country on famed route 66 to compete
in the big Piston Cup championship, McQueen gets to know the offbeat
characters of Radiator Springs, Colorado, who help him realize there
are more important things than trophies, fame and sponsorship.
"We had a great time making these cars in the movie, so we thought
'wouldn't it be cool if these cars were real," relays Bob Pauley,
one of two production designers for the animated feature. "So
we got a hold of Eddie Paul. It's kind of surreal. I never thought
we would actually make these cars."
For those who know Eddie Paul, he's always been up for a challenge.
For more than 30 years, he and his team at customs By Eddie Paul,
a division of E.P. Industries, El Segundo, Calif., have been fabricating
stunt vehicles, show vehicles, props and special effects for Hollywood's
major film and television studios. Some of their well-known creations
include the Greased Lightning and Flamed Merc seen in the hit movie
"Grease" and the ever-popular General Lee Dodge Charger
from the original "Dukes of Hazzard" TV series. More recently,
Eddie is known for building the cars for movies "Triple X,"
"The Fast and the Furious" and "2Fast 2Furious."
"Eddie Paul is one of those guys who won't say 'no,"' says
Jay Ward, character manager for "CARS." "He'll find
a way to actually do it. He has the ability to make something out
of nothing. He just takes whatever's in the shop and rolls and bends,
and welds, cuts, fabricates --- and somehow there's a car there when
you come back."
The world of custom car building required a whole new approach for
turning animated characters into reality, according to Brian Hatano,
general manager for Customs By Eddie Paul. Brian says the process
first involved taking the animations and converting them into AutoCAD
files. Then they were converted into G-code for CNC routing of Jelutong
pattern making wood. ABS plastic was then vacuum-formed over the patterns
and molded together.
Eddie Paul's crew worked around the clock to breath life into the
pixels and polygons. To create a real-life Sally Carrwera, a full
scale Porsche 911 was cut in half and put together again with the
objective of making the proportions cuter and more cartoon-like. The
tires were scaled up and the windshield was positioned more vertically
to make Sally's "eyes" more visible.
Tow Mater started off as an 80's eraChevy Dualie short bed. After
removing the body, the frame and rear-end were narrowed and shortened,
then ABS sections, formed from wood patterns, gave shape to a likeable,
real-model character.
Speedster Lightning McQueen began as a Trans Am, then was also transformed
from the ground up. " We took the whole bodyoff the car, so this
car is made of 100 different pieces," explains Eddie. "We
glued the plastic together like you would build a small model car.
When we are all done, we added the body filler, sanded primed, and
painted it."
To match Lightning's racy, bright red finish, Disney?Pixar specified
PPG paint and BMW's "Hellrot Red" color formula. The system
used was Deltron DBC basecoat and DCU 2010 2.1 Speed Clear.
Eddie Paul's marvelous creations are currently on tour with Disney/
Pixar's "CARS Road Trip 06", crossing the country with stops
in over 40 cities, including the world premiere for "CARS"
held May26 in Charlotte, North Carolina at Lowe's Motor Speedway.
The tour schedule can be viewed by visiting the movie's website at
www.carsthemovie.com. After the tour is completed, the life-sized
models will be on permanent display at Pixar Animation Studios. Also,
an illustrated book, The Art of CARS, has been published by Chronicle
Books, giving an insider's view of the exhaustive research and artistic
development that went into making the animated feature.
Summing up the project, Eddie proudly beamed that " We wanted
to dazzle 'em with what we can do here. It will be the hit of all
the car shows. Kids will love it. And I like making things that make
people smile." The beaming grills of life-sized models Lightning
McQueen, Sally Carrera and Tow Mater are sure to smile back.
Life • July 22, 2005
Building a Better Shark
by Jason Kersten
Being eaten alive isn’t the only way to get inside a great
white shark. You can also have a Hollywood engineer build you a submarine
that looks and moves like the real thing. That’s what oceanographer
Fabien Cousteau – grandson of the famous French explorer Jaques
– did recently near Mexico’s remote Guadalupe Island,
where a healthy population of great whites feeds off a nervous population
of seals. Cousteau’s idea: fool the giant predators into thinking
he’s one of them.
“I was trying to pass as the weird cousin from Australia,”
Cousteau says of his time as a 14-foot long female great white. “The
sharks were definitely curious. They would cruise in to investigate
and then stay in the area. Unfortunately – or fortunately –
none of them tried to mate with me.”
Cousteau, 37, got the idea of building the sub from a comic he read
as a kid: the ingenious design that engineer Eddie Paul came up with
utilizes an air-powered “tail” to propel the shark at
a great white cruising speed of two knots. Cousteau pilots the craft
using a joystick and a video monitor.
Following in his family’s tradition, Cousteau filmed his adventures
to make “The Mind of a Demon”, a documentary that should
air later this year. Cousteau hopes it will help change people’s
negative perception of great whites. In fact, he and his crew spent
more that 100 hours diving with sharks as large as 20 feet, most of
the time without a cage. “It was their world. They could have
attacked us anytime, but they never did,” says Cousteau. Keeping
the sharks honest came down to a trick that also works on humans:
“Always make direct eye contact.”
Roanoke Times • July 1, 2005
The Secret is out and he's coming to town.
by Staff
Eddie Paul may be the most interesting movie "star" you've
never heard of. Don't feel bad. Until recently, he was the best-kept
secret in Hollywood, too.
Paul builds stunt cars and motorcycles for movies "among other
things," and chances are, if you've been to a theater in the
past 20 years or so, you've seen his handiwork but not his face. Or
you've seen him drive as a stuntman on TV in "Dukes of Hazard"
and thought he was one of the Duke boys or a member of the law chasing
them.
Get ready to meet Eddie Paul, face to face. He will be in Roanoke
Monday, July 4, 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., as the special guest of Star
City Motor Madness's car show on the City Market. He will be appearing
with two stunt cars he built for major motion pictures and will be
available for questions, autographs and photos.
The two cars with him, a 1950 Mercury used in the 1986 movie "Cobra"
with Sylvester Stallone and a 1967 GTO that appeared in "XXX"
in 2002 with Vin Diesel, are owned by a Virginia businessman, who
wishes to remain anonymous.
The Mercury comes with a particularly interesting story. It is one
of four Mercurys Paul built for the movie, an action-thriller that
involved a lot of gunfire and wreckage. In the movie, the car was
used in a highspeed highway chase scene in which a stuntman made a
spectacular 180-degree spin backwards and then spun it back around.
Bullet holes were shot into the trunk during the scene. The movie
subsequently took it to Venice Beach, Calif., where it was used to
jump canals.
"It took some pretty bad abuse," Paul said.
If that wasn't enough to destroy it, consider what happened after
the film. Someone bought it off a junk yard, restored it and ran it
two years in the Carrera PanAmerican race in Mexico, one o€ the
most grueling races in the world. At same point, it also went to the
harsh Bonneville Salt flats for land-speed trials. Paul said he believes
it once was in the hands of the Hell’s Angels also.
“It’s been all over the country. I’m amazed he
tracked it down. I know I knew I was never going to see it again.”
The business man had seen one of the four cars in 1986 but couldn’t
buy it at the time. After 16 years of searching, a friend alerted
him in 2002 that one of the Mercs was being offered on Ebay, and he
jumped at the chance. He flew to Washington state, where the car had
been garaged for 12 years, looked it over, had it authenticated and
bought it.
Later, he met with Paul and arranged for the car to be put back in
movie condition. After nearly 20 years, Paul couldn't remember all
the details that went into building the car, so the businessman sat
down with a copy of the movie and examined it frame by frame and made
notes and photographs.
"A funny thing I tell people it took two weeks to make the Merc
for the movie, 10 seconds for them to wreck it and me two years to
put it back together again," Paul said.
The car is chopped 1 ½ inches, has a roll cage and a 350 Chevy
supercharged, nitrous powered engine that can churn out over 600 horsepower.
The engine was shot when Paul started rebuilding the car, so the businessman
had a new one made from scratch in Lynchburg.
Paul was skeptical when the studio making "Cobra" wanted
1950 Mercurys for the film. He wasn't sure he could find four 36-year-old
Mercs, but a buddy who has a junk yard on the West Coast had them
in the driveway of Paul's El Segundo shop in about two days.
Paul finished rebuilding the car in early June and had it shipped
to Virginia. Its appearance at the car show on the Market will be
its first public viewing ever as the "Cobra" car or "Awsom
50 car," as it is also known because of the movie license plate
- AWSOM 50.
"The movie makes it look virtually indestructible, and this
car has actually been virtually indestructible," its owner said.
The history of the "XXX" car is somewhat less colorful.
Paul had to scour the country to find five 1967 GTOs.
"We put 350 Chevy engines in a couple of them ... that's what
[the businessman] has ... beefed up the front suspension, modified
the frame and gave them a special paint job." The paint the studio
wanted wasn't available, so Paul had to have it custom-mixed.
The businessman first saw the GT0 in Paul's shop when he went out
to look at work on his Mercury right after the filming of "XXX."
He tried unsuccessfully to buy it from its owner, who subsequently
outbid the businessman for another of the GTOs on eBay. The owner
eventually put the car up for auction in Arizona, and the businessman
bought it in January of this year.
Paul's behind-the-scenes career in Hollywood has been going on for
more that 35 years. The former stuntman has customized cars and motorcycles
for more than a 100 films, and he's an author and special-effects
innovator.
He and a crew of 20 also have built cars for "Grease,"
"The Fast and The Furious," "ZFast ZFurious,"
"Taxi," "E.T." and "Gone in 60 Seconds,"
just to mention a few. They did 48 cars for "Grease" and
220 in two months for "Fast and Furious."
For "Streets of Fire," Paul's shop built 60 motorcycles,
and he signed on as stunt coordinator for the film, as well.
"I was supposed to teach bikers how to ride," Paul said.
"Oddly enough, instead of using stuntmen to ride Harleys, I talked
the studio into letting me hire bikers to do the stunts. All those
clubs ... I didn't know they didn't get along and I had them together
at one time. I think we lost only one person. I never asked about
him again."
When he isn't creating roll cages or tricking out cars, Paul takes
to the ocean to explore another of his passions, sharks. As a longtime
diver himself, Paul has worked with Jean-Michel, son of famed underwater
explorer Jacques Cousteau, created sharks for the IMAX feature, "In
Search of the Great Sharks" and recently built a mechanical shark
that Cousteau's grandson got into and swam with the Great Whites.
Paul also founded E.P. Industries Inc., where he engineers and develops
innovative designs in compressors, engines, electronics, camera movements,
animatronics and more. Circlescan, which brings 4D to the movies,
is one of his inventions. 4D goes into the screen, creating depth.
It works with only one camera, shooting the scene from different points
in a circle.
A television show called "Deadline" also is in the works
for Paul and likely will debut this summer on the Discovery Channel.
"I proposed it as a real reality show," Paul said. "Reality
shows are faked, you know. I insisted on this one being real ... that
whatever happens happens. Like if a UPS guy makes a delivery, we don't
tell him to go out and come back in again. The thing about the Mercury
will be on one show. Jay Leno came in four times about, the motorcycle
we're building for him. That will be on the show."
In addition to movie projects in the` works, Paul is writing another
book, "Extreme Chopper Building" to go with two he's already
written, "Cars of the Fast and Furious," and "How to
Build the Cars of the Fast and Furious." He also has produced
a DVD about, himself, "The Best-Kept Secret in Hollywood."
"I work with the [studios'] transportation coordinator who gives
me most of my work," Paul said, explaining the title of the DVD.
"I found out just recently that no matter how good a job we'd
do, he never told his friends about us. I never understood why. And
what it was - he finally told me that he kept me secret because he
didn't want `to let everybody know what you're doing and how fast
you're doing it ... they'd use you and you'd never be available for
me.'
"He's retired now. He brought us a lot of work over the years,
but I always wondered why nobody else ever called."
Design News • June 2004
Building a Great White Shark:
Inventor and Ex-stuntman Eddie Paul Describes how his team tackled
it's biggest project yet- Design and build a personal submarine in
just a few weeks.
Just the mention of the name Great White Shark is enough to send
a quiver down the spine of the average diver. Also known as Carcharodon
Carcharias, it can reach a length of 23 ft or more and weigh in at
over 5,000 lbs. That’s bigger than your typical SUV.
Yet little is known about this mysterious creature. To better understand
the legendary Demon of the Deep, Fabian Cousteau (grandson of Jacques
Cousteau) contracted my company, E.P. Industries, to design a “swimming
lab” that would allow him to observe and study the Great White
in its world. Our challenge: To construct a counterfeit shark that
would contain a diver with a PRISM (digitally controlled closed circuit
diving system), be self-powered (swimming by tail motion) and easy
to steer, and look like a real shark. These specs were a significant
leap over the decoy I developed in 1989 that was remotely powered
through an umbilical cord connected to a shark cage. It ultimately
met its demise in the jaws of a real Great White. Essentially, we
were being asked to design a giant, self-propelled mechanical shark
in just four weeks.
Working under an impossibly tight timetable, I asked our animator,
Dave Mansfield, to put together a quick animation showing the mechanical
shark swimming with a diver inside. He grabbed a generic Great White
shark mesh, loaded it into Discreet’s 3ds max 5.0 modeling and
animation software and scaled it to 14 ft. Then he started adding
spline shapes for the ribs, adjusting each to fit. He created models
for the air tanks and rebreather models from dimensions taken off
of various diving websites.
Since a shark’s natural movement is a sinusoidal wave, Dave
used a wave space warp modifier to create the swimming motion. This
way, he was able to quickly change the amplitude and frequency of
the swimming motion of the entire model with only two key frames.
He adjusted the attenuation of the wave space warp effect so that
the head would remain relatively still while the body moved. Dave
rendered out several different passes of the shark, including the
skin layer, the ribs, mechanics, and diver layer, and then composited
them all together in Adobe AfterFX 5.0 so I could easily control the
cross fades. I laid out the shark’s spine and ribs in AutoCAD.
Once the dimensions were set, they were handed back to Dave for finishing
while I started bending metal.
The shark’s skeletal frame consists of a Makrolon polycarbonate
spine and stainless steel ribs. For the spine, we needed a material
that achieved close to natural buoyancy in salt water, and was strong,
light, flexible, and cost-effective. Ultimately, we stacked individual
polycarbonate sheets together to form a 0.075-inch-thick laminate.
Since the ribs were to provide the skeletal shape, lend buoyancy to
the design, and function as a kind of swimming roll cage, they had
to be both strong and light. We chose to make them out of stainless
steel tubing of varying diameters and lengths, plugging the ends with
PV and sealing them with a rigid spray foam-and-silicone concoction.
Overall, the rib cage consists of 30 full or 60 rib-halves, bent
into a semicircle of approximately 180 degrees. The ribs closest to
the head have a 2-inch diameter and a 0.065-inch wall thickness, with
descending ribs decreasing down to a 1-inch diameter. This design
allows rigidity in the vertical direction and flexibility in the horizontal
direction (the body can flex almost 170 degrees).
We constructed the shark head out of of 0.0625-inch-thick fiber-glass,
hand-laying it up over a brushable urethane elastomer (which we also
used to create the skin). Our artist then air-brushed the head, using
photos of real sharks for a guide. She sculpted gums from epoxy and
molded hundreds of plastic serrated teeth. Our company tooth fairy,
Georgie, even cut a few of them to duplicate broken teeth.
Next challenge: How could we power this bag of pipe and plastic?
We chose pneumatics because we’re familiar with the technology,
and it can be used directly in saltwater without costly waterproof
housings. It also can be recharged at sea by simply changing the scuba
bottle.
We were able to reduce the pressure to 200 psi by employing the first
stage of a two-stage scuba regulator. This lower-pressure air can
then be connected to a four-way control valve, which redirects it
(via a simple joystick) to opposite ends of two air cylinders. The
pair is mounted to ribs near the front of the shark near the gill
area and connected to the tail by a stainless-steel aircraft cable.
As the cylinder on one side of the shark is extended, the opposite
cylinder is retracted. This transfers the linear motion of the two
cylinders into a lateral movement of the tail by “bowing”
the flexible spine from side to side, mimicking the oscillating motion
of a shark’s tail as it swims. As the control stick is moved
in the opposite direction, the two cylinders reverse, driving the
tail in the opposite direction. During the test phase we found that
a short (6-inch stroke), side- to-side motion created an underwater
vortex almost 12-inches deep at the termination of each tail stroke.
The stroke length of the cylinder determines the stroke of the tail,
while the power of the stroke is a result of the diameter of the cylinder
and the pressure applied in the cylinder.
After testing different bore diameters and stroke lengths, we standardized
on a 1.5-inch bore and 12-inch stroke. The shark can be turned by
the same control stick and a technique of timed movements of the stick.
For example, pushing the stick to the left for two seconds moves the
tail left one full stroke. Pushing the control stick to the right
for one second moves the tail right about half the distance. Repeating
this motion will allow the tail to act as a power device and a rudder,
turning the shark in the direction that the control stick and tail
is held in the longest. To aid navigation, we mounted a video camera
in a rubber remora on the shark’s body—making it the world’s
first “remoracam.”
After the air is expelled from the cylinder, it travels back to the
control valve and is redirected to two empty, carbon-fiber-wrapped
air tanks. They function as storage tanks for the spent air and will
allow for short runs in a “stealth non-bubble” run. The
tanks then can be vented to the sea, or the main pressure (scuba)
tank can be disconnected from the control valve and the system run
in re-verse. The pilot also has the option of simply dumping the storage
tanks and not reusing the air.
None of this, of course, had ever been accomplished by anyone before.
But even while navigating the depths of the unknown, we completed
the project on schedule and within budget!
Motortrend • April 2004
Sage of Invention:
From mechanical sharks to wildly modified cars for movies as “2
fast 2 furious”, Inventor and customizer Eddie Paul lives by
the maxim, “If you build it well, they will come.”
by Arthur St. Antoine
He’s hand built everything from personalized choppers to mechanical
sharks and hang gliders. He’s worked as a stunt driver and special
effects coordinator for such movies as “Gone in 60 Seconds”,
“Miracle Mile” and “Wild at Heart”. He’s
a restless inventor with international patents for such creations
as a 3D movie device and a super-efficient fire pump. And he’s
the designer and fabricator of customized cars and motorcycles for
more than 100 feature films – from “Grease” to “Mask”,
“Soylent Green”, “xXx” and “The Fast
and the Furious”.
Unlike those outsized, outspoken “star” customizers on
TV, though, 55-year-old Eddie Paul is as humble as he is multitalented.
We caught up with this shy, sheet metal bending Renaissance man at
his busy shop in El Segundo, California.
MT. You're involved with so many projects, Eddie,
it's hard to know where to begin. But you're probably most famous
for customizing cars. How did you get started?
E.P. I was always working on cars and motor- cycles
when I was young. My dad, who was an inventor, gave me a car to customize
before I was even old enough to drive. But then I drove it anyway,
and he took it away. He made a waterfall out of it!
MT. When did your passion for customizing cars turn
into a business?
E.P. I was working on cars and choppers in my garage
in Westchester, California, working day and night mostly on stuff
for myself and my friends. My neighbors were always complaining about
the noise and sparks, though, so eventually I moved to El Segundo
and opened a small shop there. And just like that-within two weeks,
I was flooded with work. One wealthy guy came in and had me build
a custom Challenger for him. Then Alice Cooper had me restore a 1957
Chevy, complete with machine guns on the hood and some other weird
stuff. Actor Lance Henriksen [the android, Bishop, in the movie "Aliens"]
had me do a 1934 Ford pickup, radically customized with stuff like
a rearview mirror that reflects through the roof instead of the rear
window. I never did any advertising. People just found me.
Next, Paul plans to soup-up his prized Boss Hoss motorcycle to produce
"maybe 2000 horsepower".
MT. What was your big break into customizing cars
for the movies?
E.P. Out of the clear blue, a guy knocked on my door, said he was
working on a movie. It was going to be called "Grease."
Apparently, the studio had already given money to some guy and given
him six months to build their cars, and when they went to check on
him all the money was gone and there were no cars. So they were down
to the wire, and they had two weeks left to build 48 cars. So the
guy told me, "If you can do it, this is yours." And then
he pushed a briefcase across my desk, and when I opened it, it was
full of $100 bills. I didn’t even count it. I just closed the
briefcase and said, "I can do it:'
MT. Just like that? I mean, how did you pull off
such a huge task?
E.P. That first meeting was on a Thursday. I only
had a couple of employees at the time, so on Friday night, I went
out and hit all the local street races. I hired people right off the
street, brought 'em in and said, "We're building movie cars."
I went out and bought anything I could find from the 1940s and '50s,
in any condition. Then I set up a sleeping bag next to my desk and
just worked around the dock.
MT. And you got all the cars done in time?
E.P. Yeah. And there were some happy surprises.
I think it was the 1950 Merc they used for the big jump scene over
the river ... well, we didn’t know they were going to jump it,
so we'd just slapped the body panels onto the frame with bungee cords.
Anyway, so they did the jump, and when the car landed, the fenders
bowed out and the hood popped up. Right after the shot, the director
called me and said, "That was the neatest-looking shot! How’d
you figure out how to make the body panels pop out and back like that?"
[Laughs.]
MT. Do you design the cars, or do the movie studios
tell you exactly what to build?
E.P. In the old days, they’d come in and say,
"Make us a car. What would you suggest?" Like "Grease.'
All they said was, "We want a lightning bolt on one car, and
we want the black Merc to look evil." I even got to pick the
car. Now, though, they often bring in "car experts" who
tell you what to make. Often it doesn't work, so you have to massage
their egos and say, "I know this is what you wanted, but it might
really work better this way." And then you make it right and
let them take all the credit for it. It can be a little frustrating.
MT. Do you have a favorite movie-car experience?
E.P. Probably when I did Stallone's Merc for "Cobra”
Basically because they just gave me the car they wanted and said,
"Do what you want.” With "The Fast and the Furious"
they said, "We want this color, we want this kind of stripe --though
I did get to design a lot of the stuff on the cars. I also really
enjoyed building the GTO for "xXx”
MT. What’s the process for designing and building
a movie car?
E.P. Sometimes I make a preliminary sketch, but
usually you just don’t have time. One of the problems is, for
my first movie, "Grease," we did everything in two weeks,
so now the studios rarely give me more than that for any project.
"The Fast and the Furious" was an exception-for that, we
got two months to build 220 cars.
Along with his crew, the wizard with the welding torch built 220
pulse-quickening street racers for "2 Fast 2 Furious "-including
the cars shown below.
MT. Do you prefer junkers, or do you start with
a car in cream-puff condition?
E.P. You can buy a junker cheap and fix it up. Or
you can buy a really, really nice car and cut it up. Lately we've
been leaning toward the newer cars. They're in better shape. Like
for "xXx," we bought seven or eight GTOS. Some were process
cars that don’t have to run-you just cut them up, so those can
be junkers. For the driving cars, we bought one junk car - an old
beat-up, rusted GTO- and one that was pristine, for five times the
money. And the pristine one ended up being cheaper, by far, to customize.
Because everything worked. It had new brakes, new transmission. The
junker that we thought was just bad on cosmetics was junk all the
way through. We had to replace the engine, the brakes, the transmission.
By the time we were done, it just wasn’t worth it. It's actually
cheaper to get something better.
MT. Do you build everything on the cars, or do you
outsource some of the work?
E.P. We can do everything, and that's what we used
to do, but today we're somewhat limited by the studio’s union
rules. For instance, now we're not even allowed to put in the roll
cage. I'm told that the studios have to pay a fine to the union just
for having us build the cars for them. But it’s still cheaper
to pay the fine and have us make the cars than having the union do
it. Our cost is about a tenth what it costs to do it at the studio.
MT. What sorts of things did you do on the GTO Vin
Diesel drove in "XXX"?
E.P. On that movie, we had a lot of control. They
wanted no door handles-that was easy. And they wanted the car lower
than it should be, so we did that. We talked the studio into putting
Chevy engines in the cars, make them easier to work on. Disc brakes
in front for stunts. Electronics-we designed the dash, but the studios
did the wiring because of union regulations. The rockets were done
with computer graphics-they just had a flame shoot out the nose and
added the rockets with CG.
MT. What was your toughest movie car to make?
E.P. "2 Fast 2 Furious" was a rough one simply because
of the quantity of the cars-we made 220. And there's a lot more to
the whole thing than just building cars. On that movie, for instance,
we had to rent buildings. We got the job on, I think, a Thursday,
and by Friday we had to start buying cars. We had to buy like 50 cars
on our credit cards and these are $20,000 cars. This is even before
we had a con- tract from the studio, but we had to start buying because
we were out of time. We didn’t even have time to use a realtor.
In one day, we just talked a guy into letting us rent 60,000 square
feet of his building; he moved all his stuff out and we moved all
our stuff over there. Then you gotta bring in the lifts and all the
equipment-because when we got the shop it was an empty building, and
we had to turn it into a car shop in less than a week. And then you
have to negotiate with the police and the mayor, so they’ll
let you move all these race cars around in the middle of the night
without anyone complaining and thinking we're running a chop shop.
When it was all done, I actually convinced the studio to shoot the
movie here in El Segundo . I didn’t want to go anywhere else!
MT. Buying cars on credit without a contract sounds
awfully risky. Ever been ripped off?
E.P. It happens more than you’d imagine. The
producers of "Cobra," for instance, went bankrupt and took
advantage of a lot of people--I was one of them. When we did the movie,
they gave me a down payment, and I built seven 1950 Mercs. But after
the movie, because I'd heard about their financial troubles, I'd told
them, 'I'm keeping the cars until you pay the balance of what you
owe me." And they were, like, "Oh, yeah, yeah. No problem.'
So they told me they were bringing a check and a transporter for the
cars. The driver came into my office and said, "I know you’re
not going to release these cars until you’re paid, so here are
the keys to my transporter. I'm just supposed to wait here until the
accountant brings the check down. But could you do me a favor and
line up the cars--I need to load 'em up quickly once he gets here.'
So we lined 'em up, and then I got a phone call: My secretary said,
"It’s the accountant with the check. He's lost. And he
insists on talking to you.' So I took the call, and he started asking
me all these weird questions-- "I'm on this street, I'm on that
street:' And while I was talking to him, I heard a noise out front.
So I put the phone down and ran outside, and all the cars were speeding
around the comer. The truck was a decoy. They had a bunch of drivers
hiding who came up and told my guys they were supposed to load up
the cars-that I gave the okay-then they hopped in the cars and drove
off. They stole the cars, and there was nothing I could do. The police
just said it was a civil matter.
MT. You never saw the cars again?
E.P. Well, its funny. Today I have one of them in
my shop. A guy bought it on ebay, and he's having us restore it. We
think its the car that did the flip stunt. That car was a junker,
and we just slapped it together with Bondo for the crash stunt But
now it's come back to bite me. I'm having to replace all that rusty
metal I never fixed in the first place!
MT. Any other horror stories from the business?
E.P. Unfortunately, there are lots of them. For
instance, I've got guys like George Barris [of Bat mobile fame] and
Craig Lieberman showing up at auto shows claiming they built a lot
of the cars we did for movies. I hear that Lieberman even appears
on the "2 Fast 2 Furious" behind-the-scenes DVD implying
that he did all the cars we built!
Need a flying replica of an Otto Lilienthal glider for your movie?
Eddie Paul is your man.
MT. Oh, man. Okay, lets change the subject We heard
you also used to do some stunt driving yourself.
E.P. I got hired to build a bunch of aircraft for
this movie called "The Wright Brothers.' It was about all these
famous people from early aviation history who get together as kids
in this small Western town-really weird. I don’t think it ever
even came out. Anyway, for the movie I built a Lilienthal glider and
a Wright Flyer. And during the filming, where I flew the planes because
I used to be a glider pilot, I met a bunch of stuntmen who worked
on "The Dukes of Hazzard” And soon I was working on "Dukes"
as a stunt driver, crashing everything, for about six months.
MT. Isn't stunt driving normally a tough business
to break into?
E.P. It is. But I was often making the cars they
were shooting in the film, and I realized early on that, if I made
the cars complicated enough to drive, they'd have to hire me to drive
them! I put in levers that didn’t do anything, put the steering
in backwards a few times--just anything that would goof somebody up.
And once the stunt driver couldn’t make the car work, they'd
come up to me and say, you have a Screen Actors Guild card, right?
Can you drive this thing?" [Laughs.]
MT. Still stunt driving?
E.P. Nope. My wife made me stop after I broke my
neck doing an underwater stunt with a Hyundai Tiburon, a commercial
that was a takeoff on 'Jaws.'
MT. Speaking of underwater stuff--didn't you used
to work with Jacques Cousteau?
E.P. Yeah. In 1989, I made a mechanical swimming
shark that Cousteau used to study shark behavior. In fact, right now
I'm building a full-size, moving Great White model that Cousteau’s
grandson Fabian will get inside of. He's going to swim with real Great
Whites for the Discovery Channel’s Shark Week.
MT. Um, that sounds just a little risky...
E.P. To tell the truth, I think the Discovery Channel
is hoping something goes wrong so they get it on camera [laughs]!
But that’s why I'm building the shark really, really strong.
Eddie lookin' down the barrel of a shark.
MT. Cars. Bikes. Historical gliders. Mechanical
sharks. What other stuff are you working on?
E.P. Hmmm ... well, we've got a patented, 100-gallon-per-minute,
115-pound portable water pump we're selling to fire departments. We've
got a new device called Circlescan 4D that allows anybody with a video
or movie camera to shoot movies in 3D. And we're doing lots of sales
and training videos. I'm also working with the Department of Defense
on the Airborne Laser Weapons System.
MT. [Doing Dr. Evil impersonation] A giant lay-zer?
How’d you get involved with that?
E.P. Originally they hired me for my fire pump to
help pump the gases in and out of the laser. And I was down there
looking at the thing, because I'd never seen a laser before, and I
said, "Why is it square?" And they said, "Well, all
lasers are square.' And I said, "Why don’t you make it
out of a tube?" And they were, like, 'We've never even thought
of that' Next thing I knew, they'd given me a security clearance and
were saying, "Give us some more ideas.” Now I see the head
guy every year for Christmas. It’s amazing how one thing leads
to another.
MT. Did you have lots of specialized training for
all this stuff? I mean designing custom cars and swimming sharks and
laser-weapons system?
E.P. None. My dad was an inventor, but I'm self-taught.
I never even graduated from high school. I just buy lots and lots
of books and read on every subject
MT. How about your employees? Are they all highly
trained specialists?
E.P. We hire more for personality than for skill.
For instance, the foreman in our machine shop was a carpenter when
he came in. He'd cut his thumb off on a saw. He and his nine fingers
came in here, and we taught him how to use the machine. And now he’s
one of the best machinists I've ever had. He had the mind for it,
plus the willingness to learn. Now there's nothing he can’t
build. I'll say, "Jon, can you do this by tomorrow?" and
he'll be, like, "Yeah. No problem.”
MT. How many people are on your staff?
E.P. When we're doing a feature film, we have about
35 people. Right now, we have about six to eight.
MT. How has the business changed since you started?
Are you now using computers for a lot of your work?
E.P. Not really. We're starting to design on computers
now, and they're great for making sales animations. But there's still
nothing like going out and bending metal-making something. It’s
like my mechanical shark. I started designing it on the computer,
then one day I just turned the computer off and started bending metal.
I mean, I wrote this program in Excel just for bending the shark ribs,
but in the amount of time it took to perfect the program I could have
had 'em all bent and in the shark. Computers are neat, but I don’t
see the advantage for designing cars.
MT. You're involved with all sorts of fascinating
projects. Is it fair to say you're doing exactly what you want in
life?
E.P. Yeah. The inventing is fun. I just wish it
were easier to do the marketing. In a perfect world, I'd just be an
inventor. I'd make something, then hand it to someone else and say,
"It’s not finished yet, but perfect it, market it and get
it out of here. I want to work on something else now." But that’s
what’s great about films. You never work on anything more than
a couple months, then you work on something that’s totally unrelated.
So it’s never boring.
MT. Any advice for anyone dreaming of following
in your footsteps?
E.P. Well, I've been in business for 35 years now.
I learned a long time ago to ignore what people say are hurdles. The
key is to keep an open mind and to do a good job. If you do a good
job, people will come from anywhere to get it.
Paul demonstrates how Jacques Cousteau's grandson Fabian will ride
inside his mechanical Great White, built to swim with real sharks
for an upcoming Discovery Channel special. Small TV cameras hidden
inside lifelike remoras (top) will capture all the chummy action.
Los Angeles Times • February 1, 2004
Cousteau to Get Inside Shark's Head
A replica designed by a prop maker will allow scientist's grandson
to swim with the fish.
by David Pierson, Times Staff Writer
Eddie Paul is so certain that great white sharks aren't
ruthless killers, he's willing to bet Jacques Cousteau's grandson's
life on it.
The industrial mechanic and Hollywood prop maker, responsible for
the hot rods in the movie "Grease" and the blazing import
cars in "The Fast and the Furious," is building what he
calls the world's most realistic mechanical shark for Fabien Cousteau
to climb into and study the animal's behavior.
Cousteau, a New York antiques appraiser, wants to follow his famous
grandfather's marine biology footsteps and dispel some of the fears
associated with sharks, Paul said.
To do it, Cousteau, 36, enlisted Paul, who had made a remote-controlled
shark for his father, Jean-Michel Cousteau, in the 1980s. That one
wasn't nearly as sophisticated as the current contraption, which was
showcased and fine-tuned Saturday at the Loyola Marymount University
swimming pool.
Discovery Channel plans to broadcast a two-part documentary
on the project this summer.
"Sharks aren't mindless eating machines," said Mike Hoover,
a filmmaker for the Discovery Channel. "They have no hands, so
the only way to check things out is with their mouth. … The
problem is, they're not warm and cuddly."
The mechanical shark is believed to be the first to be controlled
from the inside. Cousteau will be protected by a stainless steel skeleton
and followed at all times by a mini-submarine.
The fins are made of bulletproof plastic. Its eyes are cameras that
project the open ocean onto two waterproof screens in the head for
Cousteau to see. The 14-foot, 700-pound replica will then be covered
in a rubber-like skin detailed with scars.
"Nobody has ever made a fish like this without using a propeller
to move it," said Paul, 55. "We're using the tail. It's
basically going to move like a real shark would."
The challenge is finding enough power to move at a realistic pace.
"It will take a quarter of a horsepower to move
the speed of a shark, about 2 mph," said Joe Valencic, a professor
of marine science and technology for the Scripps Institute of Oceanography
and Saddleback College. "A prime Olympic athlete can put down
a maximum of one horsepower for 15 to 30 seconds."
Paul is experimenting with hand and foot pedals. But air-powered
pistons or electricity may be required to generate enough speed.
Once complete, the shark will test the waters off Catalina Island
before heading off the coast of San Diego and Australia. If successful,
it may change the way some people look at the species.
Paul said he'll probably provoke a dramatic end to his creation,
as he has done with his previous two models he has made while working
with the younger Cousteau.
"The first one got eaten," Paul said. "The
second one: We got bored with it after the third day. So we pumped
blood into the water. Then we weighted it to one side. As soon as
it started swimming erratically, the sharks turned around and attacked.
I think they thought it was injured, so it was like a mercy killing."
The latest one, which is paid for by both Paul and the Discovery
Channel, is nicknamed "Sushi 1."
"We're almost positive it's going to be attacked," Paul
said.
Daily Breeze • February 1, 2004
Inventor hopes pool shark fools real thing:
El Segundo man's mechanical fish gets a test run Saturday to prepare
it for a close encounter on a Discovery Channel program.
by Dennis Johnson
Little is known about the nature of the great white
shark, an animal whose lore of violence exceeds its mysterious reality.
So, what's the best way to investigate this animal's unseen marine
world?
Would you believe dressing up in a shark costume and mingling with
them?
Farfetched, maybe, but the truth nonetheless. And if you're going
to crawl into the insides of a 14-foot great white, you'd likely prefer
the one built by El Segundo inventor Eddie Paul.
Paul has constructed a stainless steel beast that will go tooth-to-tooth
with the real thing for a Discovery Channel special featuring the
oddest commingling of creatures since a wolf slipped on a wool coat
to spend time with a flock of sheep.
The self-taught engineer behind the hot rods in the "Fast and
the Furious" movies and a crew of diving and technical experts
gave the mechanical shark a test spin Saturday through the shallow
end of the swimming pool at Loyola Marymount University in Westchester.
"Starting with 'Jaws,' the great white shark has pretty much
been labeled a mindless eating machine, but in fact ... for a big
animal like that, it seems to be pretty intelligent," said Mike
Hoover, a documentary filmmaker who helped establish the series that
studies shark behavior.
For the July television special, Jacques Cousteau's grandson, Fabian,
will don the cage-like shark suit and pilot it, using cameras mounted
inside its eyes and in attached, ersatz remoras to guide the way,
mix into a school of great whites to study their reaction.
The idea, Hoover said, is to see how sharks treat the mechanical
beast and, if they attack, study their mannerisms and catch the whole
thing on video. To do so, and ensure that Cousteau's skin and limbs
stay intact, Paul constructed a shark-shaped cage from stainless steel
tubing.
During Saturday's test run, Paul piloted the shark from the inside,
using a pulley system to power its flexible caudal fin to propel it
the width of the pool.
The stainless steel tubing is filled with air to help with buoyancy,
something inflatable air bladders also helped control.
In designing the creature, Paul said they studied the biomechanics
of how a shark swims and moves and tried to build it to replicate
these motions.
This isn't the first time the inventor has been involved with studying
great whites.
For an IMAX film, he built a 10-foot remote control shark that carried
two cameras and lighting.
"It finally got attacked and torn to pieces by a great white,"
he said.
Paul said he predicts the mechanical shark will be ready in about
three weeks, after which time it will be loaded on a large boat along
with another small submarine and taken out to sea for further testing.
From there, the traveling crew will likely go to shark-infested waters
off Australia or Baja California.
There they'll see if they can find out just how intelligent the creatures
are.
Easy Reader • June 26, 2003
2Fast 2Furious 4Real
by Robb Fulcher
As the major motion picture 2Fast 2Furious continues to tear a rubber-squealing
roadway through America’s box offices, Eddie Paul, the man behind
about 150 of the 2Fast hotrod cars, barely gets a rush out of it.
Well, forgive him. Paul’s real life rivals any big screen depiction
of things fast and furious.
So far, the 55-year old El Segundo resident has worked as a Hollywood
stuntman, breaking his neck, back and everything else in the process.
He has developed a lightweight plastic shark-proof suit and tested
it by enduring an underwater attack from a dozen of the giant beasts.
He has fallen 350 feet from a hang glider at Torrance Beach and lived
to tell about it. He has piloted a motorcycle from LA to Vegas without
touching the handlebars.
He has designed and created life-size mechanical sharks for TV and
film. He’s built autos, life-size horses and other special effect
elements for movies such as E. T., Mask of Zorro and Nightmare on
Elm Street V. He’s developed foam-shooting vests for soldiers
in Iraq and better ways to shoot laser beams for the military. He’s
invented a portable pump used by firefighters, and a deceptively simple
“4-D” movie camera that makes images appear in 3-D layers
that retreat back into the screen.
He has fought off truly hostile attempts to take over his various
companies, which turn his various projects and inventions into money.
He has authored his second book.
In short, he is a stunt-driving, sky-riding, entrepreneurial inventor,
author and underwater shark handler who has defied death, broken bones
the length and breadth of his frame, and who likes to relax by driving
a fleet of cars and motorcycles that seem to accrue to his El Segundo
workshops that total 17,000 square-feet.
So when he sees a movie, even one with fast cars he’s customized,
he doesn’t exactly experience an adrenalin spike.
“The movie’s doing pretty well, isn’t it?”
Paul said in a low-key, almost drowsy way, as he sat in an office
surrounded by diving bells and inventor stuff, including the firefighting
pump, which is used on remote brushfires and the like and runs on
gas, diesel, a 12-volt battery or windmill power.
For 2Fast, 2Furious, Paul modified and customized about 150 cars,
many of them special stunt vehicles. His cars were used in every race
scene. He also shot the photos and wrote the text for 2Fast 2Furious
the book, which is laden with pictures of the cars.
The publisher, Motorbooks International, says Paul’s glossy,
127-page volume quickly became its hottest seller ever in the few
brief weeks it’s been out. The book’s early sales have
outstripped its printings.
“They were going to fly me to Athens, Greece for a book signing
but they couldn’t get any books to sign because they were all
sold out,” Paul said. The Athens trip had to be postponed.
The 2Fast cars needed little internal souping up, Paul said.
“A stock car can go as fast as you need for any scene in a
movie,” he said. “And the nitrous you see on them? That’s
just Hollywood magic.”
Buckle up
One possible effect of the movie that Paul hopes he won’t see
is a thrill-seeking audience that leaves the theater and then tries
to stunt-drive in Hollywood-style street races. Some public concern
has been expressed about that, and the Los Angeles City Council has
taken the precautionary step of authorizing police to seize autos
used in street racing.
“I want people to enjoy the racing and understand that it’s
entertainment, and leave it in the theater building,” Paul said.
He pointed to a study that found male theatergoers “pumped up”
upon leaving an Arnold Schwarzennegger movie.
“This is the same thing, and they should know if they act on
it they’re going to kill people,” he said.
‘Euphoric’ pain
“When I was a stunt driver on Dukes of Hazard I was a nice
guy. I’d smash up a car and get paid, and then get in my own
car and drive away nice and slow,” he said.
He performed stunts for movies and TV, both inside and outside of
cars, for the money rather than the thrills, Paul said. But in the
process he’s broken everything that can be broken on a human
body.
When he plunged from a hang glider onto a dirt yard adjoining Torrance
Beach in 1970, narrowly missing a chain-link fence, the result was
a year in a hospital and then six months in a wheelchair.
“I should have been killed,” he said. “Some paramedics
were out there watching a surf contest and they saw me crash.”
He chalked up the incident to being “young and dumb,”
and careless with his aircraft.
Once out of the hospital, Paul began to modify his wheelchair to
reach high speeds.
“My dad caught me and put an end to that,” Paul said.
Paul figures his physical pain threshold must be higher than that
of most other people.
“It’s hard to compare because I don’t know what
it’s like to be another person,” he said. “But I’ve
pulled a [surgical] pin out of my shoulder myself, and it didn’t
hurt. And I slit my thumb open with a saw one time and it didn’t
hurt.”
But he now suffers from a seasonal, osteoporosis-like condition called
“bone crusher’s disease.” It attacks his entire
body every year around his birthday, each bout becoming less incapacitating
with time. His condition was finally diagnosed at the Mayo Center.
“The first time it happened I thought I had Lou Gehrig’s
disease,” he said. “It was scary. I thought I was going
to die. Just rolling over in bed was the worst.”
His wife Renee has forbidden further stunt work, and Paul seems to
accept that.
“There’s a saying that when you hurt yourself and it
starts to feel good, it’s time to quit,” he said. That
time came for Paul during a stunt for a fight scene in the movie Mask,
when he fell rolling down a hill with a 350-pound man landing atop
him.
“I separated my shoulder, I ripped everything out, and I felt
no pain,” he said. “It’s almost euphoric to get
hurt that bad. It’s hard to explain. It’s beyond pain.”
It took 50 stitches, seven pins and five surgeries to repair his
shoulder.
Shark Bites
Paul took time out of a busy Friday morning to give a tour of his
E.P. Industries plant, pausing to commune with the massive head of
one of his artificial sharks. Paul has made a few of them, including
one he used in a documentary for the Jacques Cousteau outfit, for
which he used to dive.
It was for Cousteau that Paul designed and created a plastic, shark-proof
suit for divers, after seeing a man struggling underwater in much
heavier chain mail. Paul paused at a monitor and showed a video clip
of him under water, in a standing position, dressed in white plastic
gear and surrounded by circling sharks.
“I thought if I designed it I should test it,” Paul said.
“It would be kind of cowardly to say ‘Here, I made it,
you try it out.’”
He returned his gaze to the screen in time to see a shark strike
from behind.
“Ooh! That one bit me in the butt” he said.
Paul showed a red and silver motorcycle he customized for a Power
Rangers movie, and showed how the chassis folds open into wings so
the bike can fly like an aircraft, on the screen at least.
“I could have made it actually fly,” he said. “Anything’s
possible for enough money.”
Paul strolled by cars, bikes, and some jeeps that were used in the
action packed film XXX.
Fourth dimension
Back at a monitor, he gave a look at some video shot in the “Circlescan
4-D” he invented. With special eyeglasses the video looked sharply
3-D, with the layers of images retreating into the screen, rather
than popping out from the screen.
Paul said the invention was a simple one. Approached with a challenge
by another inventor who was trying, and not quite succeeding, with
his own 3-D idea, Paul was driving away from the meeting when he struck
on his idea. He mounted a couple of mirrors on an ordinary camera,
causing it to capture slightly overlapping images of each shot.
A pair of his 4-D glasses have one clear frame and one that’s
like a mild sunglass frame, weakening the vision in one eye and “causing
you to think” you’re seeing in 3-D, he said.
Circlescan is being used by Lobo & Associates for a documentary
called Islands: Worlds Within Our Worlds, and another called The Story
of Saudi Arabia.
Aid for Iraq
Turning a corner downstairs, Paul almost stumbled upon a pile of
vests he developed for soldiers in Iraq. The vests hold decontamination
foam that can be sprayed using a standard DeWalt drill as a nozzle.
Lightweight and portable, the vests carry the foamy liquid throughout
their bulk, spreading the weight in front of the soldier and behind,
making the load easier to carry than a pack on the back.
Another corner turned, and we come upon some metal tubes he’s
using to develop a better laser muzzle for the U.S. military. The
device, he said, will be used to stun rather than hurt or kill people.
Paul likes to work, and if Friday wasn’t date night with Renee
he would remain at E.P. Industries almost around the clock. His employees
seem to feel the same way.
“We’re trying to go to a four-day week, but when we come
in here on Saturday we find people in here working. They’re
not supposed to,” Paul said.
“This is the kind of job where you jump out of bed in the morning
to get here,” said artist and animator Dave Mansfield, who was
sitting at a monitor beside a dry-erase board with a to-do list of
items such as “XXX car,” “IMAX camera,” “hotrod
Mustang” and “The Tarantula.”
“And I’m not even a morning person,” Mansfield
added.
Daily Breeze • Tuesday June 17,2003
The Flash and the Curious:
Eddie Paul customizes cars for Hollywood and invents unusual things
by Dennis Lim
El Segundo resident Eddie Paul may be best known for customizing
cars for flashy Hollywood blockbusters ranging from "2 Fast 2
Furious" to the classic "Grease," but his most important
work reaches well beyond the realm of Hollywood. From his garage in
the Smokey Hollow district of this South Bay city the self-taught
inventor develops sensitive gadgets to bolster the nation's defenses
and scientific advancement. For the recent war in Iraq he developed
a lightweight decontamination unit worn on the back that can spew
out a thick paste of liquid and foam to suppress any potential biological
danger. The gun portion that shoots out the white goo is a modified
DeWalt drill, a relatively common tool. He created a larger version
of the same invention that is transported via ATV and can be dropped
by parachute from a plane to any location around the world. Paul,
55, has begun working on a two-man submarine for use by SOCOM. The
design is a revamped version of a machine he created for use in filming
underwater.
Paul has developed a series of lasers to be used to destroy land
mines before a car drives over them. His engines have been used in
a project for Raytheon to develop lasers that would fire from the
Earth to incinerate enemy satellites or incoming missles. "For
me it's all the same, I just love tinkering around with all this stuff,"
Paul said as he thumbed through a copy of a book he wrote about his
experience making the cars for "The Fast and the Furious."
The book has sold out at most locations. Wal-Mart is in talks to begin
selling the book with a DVD filled with interviews and video of the
car work being done. For the original flick, "The Fast and the
Furious," Paul had to custon1ize 80 import cars in a month's
time. For the sequel he customized 120 cars within two months. "I've
always just loved inventing things," he said. "I feel most
natural in the garage welding things together and digging into some
grease. There's a diversity when you're inventing things that's much
better than the monotony of being stuck in the office all day. No
two days are alike for me. I never know what I’m going to work
on next." Paul's fascination with machinery and tools began when
he was a child. His father, an inventor himself, encouraged him to
fiddle with tools and mechanics. His toys often fell victim to his
creative experiments as he mixed engines and parts.
By the time he turned 11, he even had a car that his father bought
him to work on. A forbidden joyride, however, slammed the brakes on
that activity. His father poured concrete, over the two-door 1950
Chevrolet and converted the customized vehicle into a waterfall in
their back yard. A high school dropout, Paul never received any advanced
education in engineering. For most of his life, he bounced around
from job to job, working as a stuntman, auto shop owner and at one
time almost joined the El Segundo Police Department. He picked up
most of his know-how through reading books and on-the-job training,
an experience that influences his hiring practices today. "I'm
looking for personality more than anything when I hire someone,"
Paul said. "I don't care if they have talent or not. You can
teach someone that." The future seems bright for Paul and his
company, E.P. Industries. Currently they are working on creating a
two-man submarine that will look like a shark to help scientists better
study shark attacks. Jacques Cousteau's grandson, Fabian, will pilot
the mechanical wonder amid a group of sharks. He will then try to
be attacked. The Discovery Channel plans to document the entire process
from the creation of the submarine to its use off the coast of Catalina
Island. "I might have to get into that thing and get attacked
if (Cousteau) backs out," Paul laments. But he added with a smile:
"Well that might be fun."
Hollywood Reporter
Convergence
New dimension in filmmaking for inventor
August 3, 2001
by Paul Bond
Eddie Paul is so high on his latest brainchild that he's building
a production company around it.
Paul heads E.P. Industries.com in El Segundo, Calif. One of his inventions
is a portable pump for fighting brush fires. The product runs on gas,
diesel, a 12-volt battery or even power supplied by windmills.
He has been selling the pump for seven years at $12,000 a pop to
fire departments worldwide, earning enough money that he can concentrate
again on the industry he loves: moviemaking. "The pump has been
funding a whole lot of development," Paul said.
One development is something he calls Circlescan 4D, a camera or
tripod attachment that transforms film or video footage into an all-encompassing,
four-dimensional moviegoing experience, he explains while showing
some impressive underwater footage on a television screen.
"3-D is gimmicky," Paul said. The 4-D effect he describes
while showing off his underwater demo tape: "It looks like there's
a big hole in the wall with fish in it. They're right there in the
room with you. Everything is in layers. If you try to touch the screen,
it's difficult, because you don't know where it is."
Special glasses are required for the full effect, but without the
glasses, images appear just fine --even sharper, Paul said, than footage
shot without the attachment.
The first couple of projects from Circlescan 4D Prods. are "The
Story of Saudi Arabia" and "Dream of Flight," the story
of early aviator Otto Lilienthal.
"I realize we're a small pawn in the film business," Wolfe
said. "But this device really has some great applications. People
have to see it for themselves."
The plan is to make the bulk of profits from selling the odd paper
spectacles, which will be distributed to video stores, theater chains,
museums and any other outlet featuring Circlescan films. They also
will sell ad space on the glasses.
The Circlescan attachment consists of a series of strategically placed
mirrors that rotate in front of a camera lens at 1 rpm. That creates
a depth of field in a manner similar to the way a cat or a dolphin
must sway its head back and forth to gauge depth accurately, Paul
said.
The first few Circlescans cost Paul about $20,000 each to build,
but that figure will come down. Eventually, he intends to create an
inexpensive, plastic model for home use.
Paul said production of a 3-D film can triple regular production
costs. But to film in Circlescan, the cost is minimal. In fact, he
intends to lease the equipment to moviemakers and charge only 5% of
a film's production budget.
Paul is no stranger to the entertainment industry .In addition to
inventing fire pumps --not to mention anti missile laser devices for
the military --he has constructed mechanical sharks for Jacques Cousteau,
custom cars for such movies as "The Fast and the Furious"
and "Grease" and produced special effects for such movies
as "Nightmare on Elm Street V" and "Wild at Heart."
Not bad for a self-taught engineer who never got past 11 th grade.
"I like the challenge of moviemaking," Paul said. "Just
about everything they give us is impossible. You can't think about;
you just break it apart and do it."
CIRCLESCAN 4D RELEASE
July 25, 2001
BIG CHANGES FOR LARGE FORMAT FILMS
Santa Barbara, CA - Reality entertainment has come to large format
films in a very big way with the introduction of a revolutionary new
technology, Circlescan 4D. The amazingly simple, single camera/single
projector process far surpasses current 3D technology and brings ultra-realistic
depth to 2D theaters. The process works with any type of film or television
project, but when it's combined with a large format film, the results
are breathtaking.
Mal Wolfe, CEO of Lobo & Associates of Santa Barbara, is a veteran
large format producer. He was searching for a better way to convey
the magnificent beauty and mystery of seldom-visited islands in the
South Pacific for his latest film, Islands: Worlds Within Our World.
He considered using traditional 3D technology to make the majestic
island images even more dramatic, but realized that the limitations
of 3D projection would prohibit about 2/3 of the 418 worldwide large-screen
theaters from showing the film.
About the same time Mal was trying to solve the 2D/3D dilemma, a
longtime friend and associate, Eddie Paul (founder and president of
E.P. Industries in El Segundo, CA) called and told Mal about his latest
invention, Circlescan 4D. Wolfe recounted, After meeting with Eddie
and reviewing some test footage, I was so excited that I knew Circlescan
4D would revolutionize the industry and would be perfect for Islands.
Suddenly, Islands could be shown in 3D from the standard large format
2D projector and the results would be superior to any existing 3D
technology.
According to Eddie Paul, whose 30+ years experience in the entertainment
industry and in-depth optics research, resulted in the patents for
Circlescan 4D, A film shot in Circlescan 4D can be appreciated without
special viewing glasses. Unlike traditional 3D productions, viewers
do not have to wear the special dark/light glasses to see a clear,
high-resolution picture with enhanced depth. Optical technicians at
Universal Studios and Eastman Kodak have analyzed the quality of the
images delivered by film shot in Circlescan 4D and compared them to
the images delivered by standard filming methods. Independently, the
technicians estimated that the picture filmed in Circlescan 4D was
20% clearer than the standard picture with a greater depth of field.
The tests were performed using normal cameras with the Circlescan
4D lens attachment. The test footage was viewed on an ordinary television
using an average VCR. What is notable here is that these results were
achieved without the special viewing glasses. But, once the Circlescan
4D glasses are on, viewers experience an incredible new level of realism.
Although an audience can enjoy a noticeably clearer picture without
special glasses, we still recommend that viewers wear the glasses
to get the full effect. The image is just as clear without the glasses,
but the real difference is that the glasses offer substantial depth-enhancement
from any angle. Most of our test audiences preferred to experience
Circlescan 4D productions with the aid of the viewing glasses. However,
many people claim that after a few minutes they didn’t need
the glasses to enjoy the depth and realism that Circlescan 4D produces.
Large-screen theaters, with flat screens up to 8 stories tall and
dome screens 99 feet in diameter surround audiences with viewing angles
that approach those encountered in real life. With the added depth
and reality provided by Circlescan 4D, the future of large-format
movies is very, very big. And, Circlescan 4D has tremendous potential
for all film and video formats.
Wolfe and Paul have formed Circlescan 4D Productions to continue
advancing the technology and bring to market the countless possibilities
and applications that are rapidly emerging for this cutting edge technology.
Additional information about Circlescan 4D can be obtained by contacting
Circlescan 4D Productions at 310-322-8515.
Easy Reader • July 19, 2001
Inventor works "Fast and Furious" for hit film
by Laylan Connely
In E. T. he built the Ford van for the rescue scene. For the Mask
of Zorro he constructed two full-size horses to jump off of bridges.
In Nightmare on Elm Street V, his special effects left viewers terrorized
for months.
So when the producers of Fast and Furious needed cars for their movie,
they contacted Eddie Paul right away. In two months of sleepless nights,
he modified and created over 58 cars for the hit film that brought
street racing to audiences throughout the nation. Paul and his crew
turned out a car a day for the film.
"I always look for challenges," Paul said.
All of the race scenes in the movie featured cars that were modified
by Paul. He bought most of the cars from "Auto Traders,"
then redesigned them for the film in a 10,000 sq. ft. El Segundo factory.
For at least 20 years, Paul, 52, has worked behind the scenes, usually
under demanding deadlines, with special effects and unique props.
"I always try to find something that no one else has done,"
Paul said, as he stro1led through his factory, filled with his own
inventions.
During the six years he worked on the Cousteau Series he built a
mechanical 10-foot Great White Shark that even sharks couldn't tell
was a fake. The mechanical shark was accepted as the group leader
for three days, before its followers chewed it up.
With over 23 films, 7 documentaries, 15 commercials, and 24 television
series, he has much to look back on.
One of his most memorable car recreations was for Grease, where he
customized approximately 30 cars in two weeks out of his auto body
shop.
"A man came in, back in the days when people would just leave
a suitcase full of money, and asked us if we could pull it off,"
he said. "We finished five minutes to deadline. Word got out
that we weren't the cheapest, but we were definitely the fastest."
For Paul, who had at least 15 other projects in the works, some of
which hold patents; it was just another day on the job. "Just
like most other things, it was just a business deal."
What he does feel the most pride from is the inspiration he has given
his nine-year-old daughter.
Runs in the family
His father was an inventor, now his nine-year-old daughter Ariel
is an inventor.
When Paul didn't finish high school, he had no idea he would one
day hold 15 solo patents.
"My father was an inventor; he created about a dozen items,"
he said.
The inventor gene in his daughter came to light on a vacation with
friends when their car started sliding on ice.
"She came up with the idea of how to stop cars on ice. I did
a patent search and there is currently nothing available," Paul
said.
They are working on an air system with a bag that has spikes that
come out as a car slides. The bag deflates when it is finished. It
will be her first patented product.
"I am extremely proud of her," he said. During a recent
tour of his El Segundo facility, Paul shared a few of the patented
products that are in the making.
A whole new perspective
Although Paul's customized works have provided viewers with memorable
on screen appearances, it is the thrill of creation that keeps him
going.
"Even though we work with some of the most famous people in
the world, it is developing new technologies that keep us motivated,"
Paul said.
One of Paul's most ambitious projects is the creation of a whole
new film viewing system. 3D will be a thing of the past, he said,
after he brings his patented 4D, or Circlescan, to the movies.
3D comes out of the screen. 4D goes into the screen, creating depth.
It works with only one camera, shooting the scene from different points
in a circle.
"We are the only ones with this camera," he said, as he
looked as his prototype with pride. "This really is breakthrough
technology."
He wants to introduce the Circlescan with a film that he and his
family are making.
"A Dream of Flight," which will document Otto Lilienthal,
one of the pioneers of flight, is being researched and developed using
the 4D cameras.
The fire fighting solution
Several years ago he recognized a problem with the pumping equipment
used by many fire departments. That resulted in the CFX Compressed
Air-Foam System, which is about 80 percent lighter and smaller than
the other pumps currently used on the field.
The design, which mixes water, air, and soap within one pump, gives
the system the ability to handle the tasks of three separate units.
It also saves on the amount of water being used to extinguish fires,
he said.
"We are hoping this will be the new technology," Paul said.
"It is definitely safer and smaller, it is simple enough for
anyone to use it."
The CFX is currently being sold to fire departments around the nation.
It is more convenient for firefighters, according to Paul, because
it can be attached to electrical golf carts and is small enough to
mount on a pickup truck, and can go off road, something that current
fire trucks cannot do. He is also looking into having the CFX Compressed
Air-Foam System mounted onto helicopters.
This product has only been on the market for about a year, and Paul
hopes that it will soon become mainstream for fire stations throughout
the nation.
As his products reach mainstream markets, Paul said he is motivated
each time he thinks of a new product to bring into society.
"I love when someone tells me I can't do something," he
said. "Because nothing is impossible." ER
Daily Breeze July 11, 2001
A Fast and Furious pace
El Segundo inventor had a key role in
racing film's success
By Ian Gregor STAFF WRITER
Eddie Paul has squeezed himself into a new-age suit of plastic armor
and encouraged bull sharks to gnaw on him to test his homemade device.
The El Segundo resident has broken his neck working as a Hollywood
stuntman. He spent six months in a hospital and a year in a wheelchair
after his hang glider broke apart 300 feet above Torrance beach.
So, Paul didn't blink when his movie industry pal, Dave Marder, asked
if he was interested in building cars for the top-grossing movie "The
Fast and the Furious."
Fifty-eight customized street racers.
In two short months.
"It isn't really complicated," said Paul, 52, running his
fingers over a model shark in an office of the Sierra Street headquarters
of his company, E.P. Industries. "It's mainly in the organization."
From some people this would come across as false modesty. From Paul
it comes across as a simple statement of fact gleaned from years of
accomplishing things that most people never even dream of.
Paul, a high school dropout, is an adventurer whose exploits with
sharks have been chronicled by the Discovery Channel, among other
media. He is a stuntman who quit the business three years ago when
he broke his neck filming a car commercial. He is an inventor who
has patented a dozen devices, including an ultra-light-weight water
pump that has been bought by fire departments worldwide, and a device
he calls "Circlescan 4D," which he said greatly lowers the
cost of filming three-dimensional movies while producing a more realistic
image.
Paul's wife, Renee, and 9- year-old daughter Ariel, are in on the
act, too. Renee Paul patented a mascara applicator and Eddie Paul
said he is preparing a patent application for a device his daughter
invented that stops cars from sliding on icy surfaces.
"It's the inventing that's fun," Paul said as he whizzed
from his headquarters to his nearby body shop in a new, apple red
BMW convertible.
"Cars are nothing -- that's just what I do for a living."
Cars always seem to ram their way into Paul's life. In fact, they're
responsible for his start in business.
Paul said he opened a body shop in 1970 while waiting to become an
El Segundo police officer. But after a month, he said, he realized
he was earning more as a businessman than he would in law enforcement.
The door to the movie world blew open a few years later when Marder
stumbled across Paul's shop while filming a TV show nearby and asked
if he could repair a wrecked car that was needed for shooting the
next day.
"That's how I met him and it all went downhill from there,"
joked Marder, 60.
Bodywork flowed into stunt work, and Paul's resume now includes 27
movies, 15 television shows, and countless commercials. For "Grease,"
he restored and customized 30 vintage cars in two weeks. For "Gone
in 60 Seconds," he leaped from cars and helicopters onto motorcycles,
and vice versa. For the TV show "Rescue 911," he built two
mechanical barracudas that were used in a recreation of an attack
on a human and he filmed all the underwater scenes, with Renee acting
as his safety diver to ensure that none of the live, toothy fish harmed
him.
So, it was no surprise that Marder came knocking when he was hired
as the transportation coordinator for "The Fast and the Furious,"
which blasted its way to the top when it opened three weekends ago
and has raked in more than $80 million to date.
"I knew he could do it," Marder said.
Paul immersed himself in the project, establishing a "war room"
at his Sierra Street offices and directing six of his employees to
scour classified advertisements in search of specific years and models
of Ronda Civics, Toyota Supras, Mitsubishi Eclipses, Mazda RX-7s,
VW Jettas, and Acura Integras. He acquired all 58 vehicles in two
weeks, streamlining the process by promising sellers a trip home in
a limousine if they drove their cars to his shop.
Marder hired mechanics to soup up the cars' innards; Paul modified
the interiors and exteriors.
In his cavernous, 10,000-square-foot shop on Oregon Street in El
Segundo, he toiled furiously to- build meticulously detailed car interiors
from panels with Velcro backings that were installed and removed so
interiors could be quickly changed around to save shooting time. He
contracted out the paintwork, but installed all the custom wheels,
flares, hoods and exterior fiberglass accessories, and repaired vehicles
that were damaged during filming. "His piece de resistance is
'The Fast and the Furious,'" Marder said. "The cars had
to look like $100,000 and cost 12 cents.
"We fought like hell to get enough cars to shoot the first day."
Delivering the cars wasn't a problem because many of the street racing
scenes were filmed in El Segundo and on Hawthorne Boulevard near Hawthorne
Municipal Airport. Shooting wrapped up last September, and the movie
opened last month to positive reviews, including from real-world street
racers impressed with the realism of the cars and the racing scenes.
Paul said he hopes to work on a sequel that the movie's producers
are planning. In the meantime, he launched a new project -- filming
and producing a movie he wrote about Otto Lilienthal, a German who
built and flew hang gliders in the late 19th century.
Shaped aluminum rods are laid out on a patch of smooth concrete floor
in his Oregon Street shop. They'll serve as the prototype for his
hang glider, which he aims to test himself, despite his near- death
experience at Torrance beach three decades ago. The actual machine
will be crafted from willow wood, just like Lilienthal's.
He doesn't know what's in store once he completes this project.
"If it ever gets boring, I'll do something else," he said.
ENSDORSEMENTS
Sheffield
Plastics, Inc. • Makrolon Hygard • Bullet-resistant plastics
BF Goodrich
• High Performance Tires
Eastwood Company •
Tools, books, tools, videos and tools
Jaz Products • Auto Seats
and Fuel Cells
Stewart Warner • Instrumentation
and monitoring systems
Tenneco Automotive •
Emissions and Ride control products
4 Wheel Parts • Parts
and accessories for trucks, jeeps and SUVs
