from the journals of Jeff Ulmer:

As the planning for the debut album progressed, I decided that there was going to be an interior shot of the band just after landing their interstellar craft, The Orclarze. A suitable location needed to be found, which I had in mind as a part of the University of British Columbia Endowment Lands, in an area known as Cathedral Forest (which would become the title of an instrumental on the second album). I knew this area well, as I regularly cycled through the forests in my spare time.

Early test shot with cropping and typsetting guidelines. Jeff's girlfriend stands in while he composes the shot.

After several test shots with the band in place to set the shot up and check the composition for the placement of lyrics, it was time to prepare for the final shot.

The next part involved getting The Orclarze to the location. Since the real vehicle wasn't currently accessable, we built a scale version of the ship for the shot (which the band also used as a drum riser in its headlining shows), a 16 foot high, 10 foot wide two by four and plywood construction weighing about 900 lbs. The problem involved getting this structure the mile and a half into the forest to the shot location, along with the various pieces of equipment and artifacts that also had to appear in the shot.

hi ho, hi ho, off to the woods we go...
After renting an electrical generator, a fog machine and loading a truck with all the pieces of the ship and various other equipment, the band and several of its crew drove to the load-in site on the outskirts of the forest. After four hours of carrying everything down the narrow forest trail leading to the location, and another two hours setting up the shot (including the erection of the Orclarze), a few rolls of film were shot. By this time the light conditions were failing, so it was decided that the band would camp overnight with the gear and shooting would resume the following morning. Various people left the site to get the tent, sleeping bags, food and other accessories for the overnight stay. Drummer Paul Davis and I decided we would guard everything overnight as the forest festivities (actually an impromptu party as we were joined by several crew members) closed late in the evening.

The following morning we were awakened by a forest ranger, who was investigating reports of something queer going on in the woods. He advised us to remove all the gear immediately, as we didn't have a permit for the shoot. After some negotiation, he agreed to let us get the gear out by the end of the day.

Paul left for a few errands as I began to rebuild the shot, which had been partially broken down the night before. As I was peering through the camera lens a member of our finest RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) approached, saying he had gotten a report of someone setting up a tee pee in the forest. I told him what we were doing, and relayed the permission of the forest ranger to have us shoot that afternoon. At the time I didn't realize how strange it must have looked to him for this lone guy to be setting up all this stuff in the middle of the forest; he must have thought I was nuts!

A few hours later the rest of the band and crew returned and we spent a few hours shooting many more rolls of film. We broke everything down, and packed it back to our truck. A few hours later we had everything back at our rehearsal space. We took the film in for developing the next day and anxiously waited for the shots to come back.

not out of the woods yet...
Two days later I picked up fourteen developed rolls of film. Every shot was black! The battery in the camera must have died while we were setting up. There were no photos.

The following weekend, permit in hand, we again trekked into the forest with our parade of helpers. The shot was once again set up (this time we checked the battery!) A few hours later (with return visits from the RCMP and several bewildered horse back riders), we packed everything out again, and fortunately this time we got the shot that appears on the debut album. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again!