Cinemagic #17 (1982)

7/28/2019 Cinemagic #17 (1982)

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7/28/2019 Cinemagic #17 (1982)


Aigilt: John Jardine plays an Amencan soldier In Vlel NamIn Brandon Reynolds' film Quitting Tme. Reynolds wrote.directed and produced Ihe 2tJ minute S u p e r ~ him. 8elow;Brandon Reynolds plays a Vlel Cong soldier In Oulrtlflg Time,

which is one of the many Independent trims announced Inth iS ssue's Producers' Bulletin Boa rd sectron See page 16

Below: Film dips from The Deadly Spawn show actressEillua Nerl"s head berng savagely anacked and eaten by an

air en creature The film clip on the e ~ l r e m e left shows theactress With a atex appliance gash on her cheek .Hie othertwo clips are insens of a mechanrca l head created byArnold Garguilo. See page Z8

7/28/2019 Cinemagic #17 (1982)


CONTENTSEditor's Bench4

Scriptwriting,

Part 3

Davkl Houston tells you how to turn afilm treatment into a shooting script inthe final installment in his series on

scriptwriting.

How Low CanYou Go?

The fine art of production managing for

low budget films. By Larry Contino.

Filmmakers'Forum _ _ _

A regular department devoted to readers 'comments 'and correspondence about

fantasy filmmaking.

Super-8Spoofers _ 17

Chris Callaghan and Bob Griffith talkabout their many Super-S spoof films

that they show at science fiction conventions. By John Clayton.

Electronic

SpecialEffects

,Build your own light "chaser" circuit to

simulate computer banks, miniaturerunways and more with this flashing LED

circuit By Chris Stevens.

CINEMAGIC/8VAContestRules

Get an early jump on your competition

by knowing what's expected of this year'sentries in the CINEMAGIC/SVA Short

Film Search- I 982 .

Issue #1 7

Producers'BulletinBoard____26

-, '._ ...J

Secrets ofGraphicGore___ _ 28

How to tear of f a woman's face and leavenothing behind but a battered, smashed

bloody pulp clinging to skeletal remains.

By John Dods.

CinemagicMarketplace 34

Oassllied advertising and announce

ments.

ONEMAGJC #17 3

7/28/2019 Cinemagic #17 (1982)


Issue /I. 17

PubllahedbyO'QUINN STUDIOS, INC .

475 Park Ave. SouthNew York. NY 10016

PubUmen

Norman Jacobs/Kerry O'Quinn

....aod.te PubUsher

Rita Eisenstein

Clrcul.tlon DIrector

Richard Browne

EditorDavid Hutchison

Art DirectorSteven J. Plunkett

Managing EditorJohn Clayton

Senior De8lgnerNeil Holmes

E4Itorial ContributorsChris CallaghanLarry ConfinoJohn DodsBob Griffith

David HoustonChris E. Stevens

De.lgoersDiane CookShelly MarksLeah Rac hlis

Production ..... aunta

Joan Baetz.Eileen DempseyNorma GarciaCindy Levi ne

Sue Oster

Founder of CIKEMAGlCDon Dohler

Abou t the tover: John Doell! treated thisgrisly mutlll!ltlon d I!I woman's severedhead for the Fllmllne Communltatloollrelease. The Deadly Spawn, which wasproduced by Ted Bohus. See Dods' articleabout creallng graphic: gore makeup onpage 28. Cover photo by John Dods.

4 ONEMAG/C If.17

Editor's

BENCH

SNIPS & TRIMS

It seems one column every year is devoted to odd comments and remarks that I'vebeen saving up like scene trims stored on a spare reel. So now I can unwind a biL

After much intraoffice discussion we have decided to add an experimental videocategory to this year's film contest Obviously video is not the ideal format for thefantasy filmm1,lker who requires a lot of frame by frame animation--a situation I

discussed at some length last month. But effects do not make a fantasy film . . . theHOI)' does. So if you have a fantasy script (or SF or horror) thatdoesn't require effectsand you get over the editing hurdle (lml if you are working in video, you may enter thecontesL I think we will all be very curious to see what, if anything, is submitted.

I've mentioned before that the most asked question that comes across my desk is:

"Should I go to film school, or should I just get a job in the industry and work my wayup?" Well. now d new wrinkle has been added: "Should I learn on video or film?" At arecent film seminar at N.Y.U"lee Dicter (re-re cording engineer, OI'lIlhl/'{/p. Hol/m't'r.

FOllr Frjl'mll) suggests sticking to film. He believes that people who come up throughfilmmaking afe more disciplined and know much more about the art of image mak·ing than their video cousins.

In place of the usual Careers piece in this month's issue, there is an article fromLarry Confino ("How lo w Can You Go"'). whose experiences as a first·time-out pro,duction manager on a low·budget film will give you some idea of what the business islike when you are just starting out

David Houston concludes his 3'part series, "Everything There Is To Know AboutS<:riplwriting For Short Films In Three Virtually Impossible lessons:' by creating afinal shooting sc ript If you are a new reader. I urge you to acquire the first two parts of

this series. You simply won't find this information (l/Iy"IIl 'fe else and it will be a coupleof years before we return to the subject. S<:riptwriting always seems to be the thingthat a professional filmmaker learns. Unfortunately. a lot of film has gone through thecamera before the average filmmaker learns the basics of scriptwriting, so here's yourchance to get a good head start.

Among the interesting articles we have scheduled for the rest of this year is an

article on home computers and movie making. A few filmmakers have already startedto take advantage of the revolution in home computer hardware and are using thecomputers to control their Super.S cameras. These mini·Dykstraflexes produce somequite startling imagery and remove some of the drudgery from animation by au·tomatizing the mechanics of the craft. (Your editor is currenUy saving his free·lancenickels and dimes for an Apple 111.)

Even though. I rarely find the time to write individual replies to your letters, J

appreciate your comments about the magaz.ine and suggestions for articles, Many ofour readers have been making good use of Filmmakers ' Forum. Since names andaddresses are published. it is possible for aU of our readers to help each other withproblems, or suggest techniques. or just find out about other fantasy filmmakers intheir area. I get a lot of mail from people who claim that they are the only CINEMAGICfilmmaker within 100 miles. but CiNEMAGIC helps them stay in touch,

Good filmmaking!

-David Hutchison

ONEJoV.CilC 10 ~ bi • .-.IhIy I>yO'WNN STOOlOS.INC.•• Pe<lo;A_ Scull>. ~ V o r k . N V 10016. Thio10 IMue 117 I'o'<IIum< J. No. ContetII I I , 19821>y O'Q(JNN srUOlOS. INC. .... rIQI\IJ reoeJYed. Reprirol 0<

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ClN£.Mo',QIC 0«ep t I no ~ lor "'-;'od ~ pIw>I.os . "" Of Ol/>o, rr.IIt<'naI ~ f t t ~_ a r . ~ I > y o e I I " " " ' ~ ~ ~ ! h e y w l t ; . . , < : C I f > O k I e r e d a r > d . ~ _ " " " ' " ' Y " " " " " ' "Produclt _ are flOC _eIMIIIy by ONE,Y.AQC. and any """*'__ n _ CCIP)I . . . . flOC

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Mr:xi<:o. foreign ~ t12 .9B ifI u.s. Iunr:Io only. Ne'" Subtr:rlpdon", HIId dlrecdy to ONE,Y.AGIC. Cia O'QuInn~ In(.. Po<1o A.....,. Sou\h, ~ YorI<. NV 10016. f'IaIrlklllion oI . . . . QO ol .ddru. or ,.nt._ HIId toONE,Y.ACilC, ~ 0q>I. P.O. Box 142 , , . . . " . II. 61 ~ F'ootmlstcr. ~ lam ~ 7 9 t o ONEr'lACIC. P.O.eo. 1-42. /'It.- . . 61504 PrInIe<IIn US A

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7/28/2019 Cinemagic #17 (1982)


Everything There Is ToKnow About

Scriptwriting For Short FilmsIn Three Virtually Impossible Lessons

Lesson Three: Turning A Film Treatment Into A Shooting Script

Out of several young filmmakersbrought into existence in Lesson One (anima tors , makeup

and costume designers, etc.) weturned out, in Lesson Two, to be model

builders an d animators ;n search of a

script that will use to the hilt our special

talents.OUT starting po int. a battle in outer

space, went through thellumerous difficult

stages of the creative process, in lesson

One. to become a full -fledged story idea. In

a nutshell:Two planets are at war. Th e daughter of

the commander of one fleet loves the son

of the commander of the opposing fleet

and the kids have a plan: they will changeplaces and become hostages. compelling

their fathers to sit down and talk peace.

In Lesson Two. that single paragraph

was expanded into several pages that were,

in essence, a detailed description of a

movie that doesn'\ exist yet-much as

you'd describe one you've just seen to a

friend. That was the Film Treatment.It was written in third person and present

tense, the way the pros do it. and con

tained all the scenes. in order, roughly de

scribed, with much of the dialog approxi

mated, (There would be comparatively less

actual dialog in the treatment for a full -

6 CINEMAGIC # 17

By DAVID HOUSTON

length movie: ours is a low-budget 15-m inute extravaganza with post-dubbed

sound and consequently a minimu m of

dialog.)That Film Treatment must now be

transmuted into a Shooting Script--an

older term for which is "shot list," which is

what it really is: a list. in sequence, of every

separate time the camera equipment isturned on and off.

What follows is a blueprint for a "m aster

scene" type of shooting script of the sort

used (with minor variations) in the movieand TV industry all over America. Miracu

lously, if you adhere to this format. one

page of script will equal roughly one min

ute of running time of the finished, edited,picture-whether the page is mainly dia

log , description, camera directioM or

what (If by some happy circumstance you

find yourself doing a professional shooting

script for a certain production company.find out what peculiarities in format thatco mpany likes. Otherwise. consider the

blueprint here workable and average,)

Typing with pica, not eli te, type, set yourpage so thal the left edge is at zero on the

carriage gauge. Set margins and tabula

tions so that sequence (shot) numbers fall

at 20: directions are from IS to 75: dialog

falls between 30 and 60: parenthetical bus-

iness falls between 40 and 55: characternames are at 45; transitions are at 60; and

page numbers, at the top, are at 75. (These

terms will become clear later; just re

member where you saw these numbers;common as they are, you don't see them

in print very often.)

Vertical spacing is as follows: the page

number is 3 spaces down from the top of

the page (on the right so a binder won'thide it); the first line of script is 3 spaces

under the page number, Single space, as a

rule, but double-space after each shot or

sequence:between paragraphs of descrip

tion, between characte rs who speak within

a single shot or sequence, and after transi

tion instructions.A "master scene" script typically lumps

together IInder one shot nllmhN "n Ihf'little pieces of a dialog interchange, even

though there are numerous separate runs

of the camera. In this way, a "shot"number becomes a "sequence" number.

Under thai number, the separate camera

runs can be given letter designations--as

you would for a sub-category in any outline. There's no hard rule here; number

each shot as vou think best .

To clarify the jargon and gibberish in

those last few paragraphs, look at Figure 1.

which is page one from the non-existent

7/28/2019 Cinemagic #17 (1982)


script of our movie, which still has theawful working title: Romeo and Juliet in

Space. Below are notes keyed to elementsof that page:

A-Tit le appears only on page one.Other information such as author(s), production company, copyright. registrationwith writers' guild, and date of this revisionof the script. appear on a previous title

page.B-The only ~ that comes to mind

which does not " fade in" is Close Encoun-

ters of the Third Kind, which sort ofbumps in,

C-Shot number. Sequence number if

more than one run of the camera fallswithin it (10).

O-EXT. for exterior; INT. for interior.This refers to the look of the finished prod

uct. not actuality. Even though a streetscene Is filmed inside a sound stage, it Is

still EXT. You can't get more EXT. thanouter space.

E-Identiflcation of the setting.F-Normally, this is where one desig

nates DAY or NIGHT to indicate continuity

and lighting conditions; but outer spacehas neither. This parenthetical bit of infor

mation (SFX) is added to indicate the typeof footage involved: special effccts. Inci

dentally, FX is universally taken to mean

effects, but at some studios. SFX means

sound effects.

G-Camera instructions are empha ·sized by the use of all capitals. as are various other key words.

H-I f additional opening titles and credits are used. they are listed and describedeach as a separate mini·shot. with thebackground described between each one.

I-A line of directions (15 to 75).J -Character names. as they fall within

paragraphs of direction, are set in aU caps,

at least the first time they are mentioned. Inthis script. t would capitalize them always(because it's a short script and the characters have no proper names), and I wouldthink of the space ships as characters.

K-Transitions (60). This is where you

place descriptions of the editorial connectors: CUT, DISSOLVE. SW ISH ·PAN , WIPE.

L-The relative sizes of picture images,as determined by camera lenses. are set incaps. Generally. the basic deSignations areCLOSEUP. MEDIUM SHOT and LONGSHOT (sometimes WIDE SHOT), whichare qualified by the words extreme and

medium to produce sUe relative image des·ignations. These are often lIbbreviated:CU .MS. LS, ECU , MCU. and MLS,

M--Each setting is brieny described as it

is introduced, The characters who appear

,.

A. ti t le PAnES OUT , I n e nO r MO US AED COAHAND SIII P r ocket . I n t o,1 8 . ,

CUT TO , -@2 EXT. OUT KR SPACE ~ SPX)

An oUMr &I">!le , 'l"w o . . . ft PIGIM'ERS 10011 I nt o t he .e eno,qu i ckl y r o l o .. d by three "", re . The r i ve c ~ n C U r i ne: upont he • • • • Iv . RED COMMAND SIII P, wh ic h r l re . br i gh t I l le r bl • • t ,in r e t . ll ,t lon , A re y . t r i ke . .n d c ri pple . • WHITE PIG IIT:>!! ,..hl ch t .... b l . . t o. . . d th e .u r r . c. o r t he AJil) C:OlOllJiD SIIlP ,

CUT '1"0 ,

) EX't . Out"ER SPA CK (8 A1"TU SYX)

,

l'IEDI UM CLOD SIIOT or I W'r.ce Dr AED COIOl,\.BD SillP .. I I I T EP IOH'l'li:R i . . . .ctt an d ....porl , . In I c l oud c t n,..., .n d ep l l nw r , .

Ct;':' TO ,

UT . COKlWlD CIDi 'rli:R , RED CO lOWil O SH lP _ DAY (AR'!'ll'lClAL)

SeU i, . . It ..11dly technolo&lcel , colo r fu l but I"UncU . . . . . 1I. lnI cc en t co lo r 11 Rill), whi ch I ndlv l du l t e , COl t . . . - , " .. . 11 . SI-.ot11 MBDI OM LOIIO, wt t.h RED CO IOUJl DER . nd nlO .& 1t/&$ (. . r u ) Inr OJ' l&r<>Wl d , Si tt i ng . I br.t ... d lurchol .. th Io'lIl'l"E 1'1GtrrKR l oopl c t .~ RED CO HM.&B DER etudl .. h i ' In l trullent ' n t 1 7 ~

RRD COlUWl D&A - ' tp \( . lo . ly , ve ry wor r i e d) ~

rR\. Ke..p u, on cour.e . Re l dl' t he r>eJlt - tQ\~ Ittlc k r " r c.. . - - - . . : : : : ;

CAMERA d o i l i e l (Dr &00• • ) p • • t th e RRD ~ D E R and ,l ngl . ,ou t I c l blne t __ou e o r 0I .n Y- - 11ollE an ou t - o f - t he- .. . )" . . .11 . '!"hec a b l n , t door ope n . r . d u . 1 1 7 . th e h and o f t he OI RL I l i p . In t od g h t .

DISSOLVE 'rD .

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7/28/2019 Cinemagic #17 (1982)


II;

(t'..11'!ays belQl1 you r

within the shot are listed with the description.

N---A new paragraph for acto(s direc

tions.O--Character name (45 ), in all caps.P-Parenthetical business (40 to 55). If

this is more extensive than two or threewords, it should be set in paragraph form

as directions, as was done with line N.

Q-Dialog (30 to 60). It keeps this narrow 30-character line even if the speechgoes on for pages.R-These words should have been capi-

talized.

S -T ansition to the shot that begins thenext page. IF a shot is continued on thenext page. this is where the word CON

TINUED appears. On the next page, the

shot number is repeated. followed by theword CONTINUED.)

What follows now are extraneous tidbitsand tips that have not I1t into the natural

flow of things as th is series of articlesdeveloped.

8 ONEMAG/C # 17

RULE TWELVE: Always be preparedto kill your children. Giving birth to ideasis rather like giving birth to babies: once

fully formed, you lend to love them nomatter how rotten they are, Be critical! If. at

any stage. you find yourself trying to wedge

a square brainstorm into a round hole in

the story-don't! Dump it no matter howmuch it hurts if you can' t justify its contri

bution to your scripLThis rule is nowhere more applicable

than at the editing stage. when you'll be

tempted to include every inch of film that

isn't damaged by fire or flood---:iust be-

cause you made it Be selective! Better to

kill several hundred feet of redundant footage than to kill your audience's involvement in the film,

When selecting typography for your

credits, choosing music, deSigning sets, or

anything else. and you feel stumped-try

anything. but never lose sight of Rule Nine:

see what's suggested by what you've al

ready got: don't go shopping in some

other story. Only Ru le Nine (in Lesson

One) insures the integrity of your work, de

termines that every tiny piece of it belongsin that story and no other,

There are probably hundreds of bookson scriptwriting. The best I've found is FilmScriplwriting by Dwight V, Swain, pub

lished by Hastings House in 1976. Industry

practices have changed a trifle since then,here and there. but the book is awesomely

complete.

The best book on dramatic structure I've

ever read is Lajos Egrfs The Art. o( Dramatic Writing, Simon and Schuster. origi.

nally published in 1946. bu t the information is timeless,

(The stories developed in this series arenot copyrighted. Help you rself. In fact,ClNEJ.\.A.GIC would love to see any films

using ideas from them. For that matter, let

us know if you find a better title for Romeoand Juliet in Space.)

Enough said_ Why fritter away your valu

able time reading magazines? Get to work

on that screenplay!

This concludes ClNEJ.\.A.GIC's three part

series on scriptwriting for short films, Lesson One appeared in issue # 15 and Lesson Two appeared in issue # 16. If you do

not have these issues we strongly urge youto refer to the back issue order form elsewhere in this issue. (J f

David Houston was STARLOGmagazines first editor-in-chief. and latera frequent conlributor. He is author 0(numerous nouels including AlienPerspective, Gods in a Vortex and the sixTales of Tomorrow books (rom LeisurePublications. He has turned novels intToscreenplays and screenplays Inlo novels,

an d was story COI1Suluml (or seueralrecent (Ums. He wrote and directed theTV special They Went to the Stars, aboul

liue science fiction on early television.His screenplay Invaders at Ground Zero Isin preproducUon for filming in 1982. Hisfirsl "exhibited" movie was an Bmmsuper-extrauaganza made eons ago in

high school.

7/28/2019 Cinemagic #17 (1982)


HOW LOW CAN YOU GO?

Production Managing a Low Budget

Non-Union Feature Film For Fun and Profit .

"Look, / can't stand it anymore. rue been workingfor 36 hours straight; without a break./ really can't

keep going like this. I'm going to drop . . "

After a long period of hard physical

labor without sleep. I found myselfappealing to the human side of a

hard-nosed unit production man·

ager. I felt abused and overworked. but the

production manager was faced with adeadline to complete a horror picture thai

was already problem ridden, over time andover budgel Naturally. his dilemma took

precedence over my petty lack of stamina.ReludanUy.1 went back to work. As I left his

office. the production manager stopped

me and protested compassionately. "Hey!

What do you want, this is low budget!"

By LARRY CON FINO

Although I was angered by this answer. I

knew there was some truth to what he wassaying. At the same time, I realized that

many of the hardships I had experiencedworking as a production assistant. such as;

lack of sleep, overwork and doublework.were the result of inadequate and unreal

istic pre-planning.

Taking into account past experiences. I

find that as a production manager J am

now better able to deal realistically with the

limitations of Jow-budget production. The

best way to start organizing is to breakdown the variables of production into two

basic categories--<ontrollable and uncon

trollable. To understand how these factors

work separately (and how they interact) isthe almost impossible task of the produc

tion organization staff-unit manager.

production manager. location manager

and the production assistants.

Budget?The mechanics of budgeting are basi

cally the same for low budget as they arefor big Hollywood productions. In sim plest

terms: How much can be done for X

number of dollars? s u a l l y when a produc-

Assistant Cameramall M l c h a ~ Barley does a scratch lest and checks the film ga te a k e s on the set of Ihe low budget horror film. Sp/8ner.

ClNEMAG/C 1117 9

iII

7/28/2019 Cinemagic #17 (1982)


Gnps loading up equIpment 10 lake to a locallon shont lor the low budget IIGno! film, Spl,tter. Theauthor s e f ~ e d as production manager on the film . Even a small production requires a ot 01 olgal'll18bon

tion budget 15 prepared, all costs are over-estimated slightly in order to leave roomfor a reasonable margin of error. Then a

certain percentage of the initial budget. \often called the con tingency fund, is tackedon to cover the inevitable cost overruns.

Unfortunately, in the low budget situation

the production manager does not have theluxury of this type of "loose" budgeting.Less money to work with dictates a nar-

rower marg in for error. The absolute most

must be squeezed from every availabledollar. This entails reducing the size of the

con tingency fund. and shaving muchmore closely to the pres<:ribed budget The

task of not going overbudget becomesnothing less than 1I fine art.

In other words, study th e budget and getwhatever you can abSOlutely free. Re-member. money not spent for props, loca·tions and equipment can be used for moreimportant things like: film stock and lunchfor the crew.

Priced conservatively at ten dollars a roll.it is not inconceivable for a production touse up three hundred dollars worth of gaffer's tape alone. Multiply this by the largenumber of seemingly insignificant ex·

pendable items used during production,and it adds up to a substantial budget con·

sideration. Keep strict account of miscel·laneous e)(penses. or e)(pendable itemsbought with petty cash. These include: gas.oil. tolls. vehicle repairs, light bulbs, cam-

should mandate that everyone work at /I

nat weekJy rale for the length of the shooting schedule. Additional shoot days andreshoots remain the primary troublespotsfor salary and other types of cost overruns.Keep on schedule, and these costs can beeliminated also.

A good basic budgeting form can be obtained from Fe-B CECQ, 315 West 43rd

St., N,V.C., 10036. Request form #101

PICTURE BUDGET DETAIL, and send

$1.50 with an additional $1.00 for postageand handling.

The Murphy ShuffleBasically, scheduling is a matter of un

derstanding how much a crew is capableof dolng in X amount of time-taking intoaccount talent and location availability.Uke budgeting. scheduling must be estimated conservatively. Ughting, preparingsets, and blocking out action burn up most

of a film's actual production time, And although a realistically conceived stripboardand shooting schedule are the most im

portanl basis for a production's organization, scheduling seems deceptively con·

trollable in the preprodUction stages.There are always unforeseen elements

era tape. makeup. office supplies, bat- ileries, etc. Detailed cost projections forthese items can help to avoid any mid- •production overbudget surprises. !

Assuming the film has been contracted Ias a strictly non·union production, overtime payments to cast and crew are not afactor which will send the budget out of

control. To keep salaries at a fi)(ed con- Boomman Mike CunOlngham dips hiS pole on location for Spll"", Note that the outdoor location makestroll able cost. employm ent contracts It necessary to put 8 wlndscrelln on the microphone and It also protects the mic against damage

10 ONEMAG/C *17

7/28/2019 Cinemagic #17 (1982)


which can throw off even the most well

thought out plans. Certain shots are com

pleted ahead of schedule and others be

hind. The camera is rolling and a crucialspecial effect fails after hours of concen

trated pretesting. At the last second loca

tions fall through, at talent arrives late on

set. As a result, the production scheduleremains in a permanent state of change.

Everything hinges on the organizational

staffs ability to shutne the production

schedule with rapid accuracy.

Too MUCh JUiCeIn regard to shaving costs, the difference

between a good production manager anda great one lies somewhere in between alittle money and absolutely free, When se

curing locations, the production manager

as slick salesman/freebie hound , mustconvince property owners of the distinct

advantages of having a ntm shol on theirpremises, Occasiona lly. creative sales

pitches are enough to open the necessarydoors. "Did you know that In homes where

movies have been shot, property values

usually rise between ten and fifteen percent." Or, "In the past. business establish

ments used as locations Immediatelybegin attracting droves of customers, andare instantly declared local landmarks," If

this doesn't work, the best approach is to

sell location owners on the mythical

glamour of making a movie. Tell them

about the lights, the cameras, the excite

ment. the starlets and the wild wrap partyyou intend on inviting them to. Appeal to

their very real sense of vanity and ego, In

other words, get the locations.

The problem Is, that when people hearthe term "movie crew"' they automatically

big money is Involved. Dollar

to roll around in their heads.

So unfortunately, palms and doors open

simultaneously. Outside the big cities andCalifornia, a simple honest explanation of

the Umited funds available should make iteasier to obtain most locations cost free.

When scouting locations, take inlo con

sideratioo aU factors, Even details as mi

nute as where the sun enters a room at any

given time of day ca n be va luable bits of

information.

There is a film industry legend about an

electrician who accidentally blew out an

entire community. Once, outside an old

suburban residence, a large exterior location was set and ready to go, The electri·

cian signaled ready, and the order wasgiven to throw the main power switch, All

the lights went on, and then immediately

off, along with every light on the block. Apparently the midsummer drain from ai rconditioner use, comb ined with the elec

trician 's attempt to tap too much juice, setof f a series of power outages that blacked

the entire town of New Haven, Connec- Actress Noel Slllphen is "splattered" and di s.

IJcut for two hours. Needless to say, the emboweled In thiS sCleemng 01 dailies 01 Splatta"

electrician should always make sure that -----==-=c-c==,-------power boxes have sufficient output, when Get An Image

ever a tie-in is to be attempted . The undisputed king of low budget pic-

By touring the various locations during tures, Roger Corman, has in the past adpre-production, the image people (direc- vised his first-time directors to ask threetor, cameraman, gaffers and art director) simple questions of a IIIm's cameraman:

can get an overall sense of the picture as it "How long to make it beautiful? How longrelates to their respective jobs, In this way, to make it good? And how long to get an

visualization begins before a foot of film is image?" Although this is a slight exaggera

shot instead of on the set. which is where tion, Corman generally suggests to go withmost low budget projects are realized. the image when you are dealing in low

Thus, cameraman, director and gaffers budget

discuss how scenes are to be lit and The cameraman on low budget pictures

blocked well in advance. This type of pre- must understand the concept of what lowvisualization helps the image staff to better budget really means. Ideally, the camera

understand exactly what they need. and in man should be relatively free from clock

lum enables organizational staff to work pressure, but in Ii restrictions interms of time It neees-

- . . : r . ~ " " : '

Soundman Nick O'ella, Nagra allhe ready, t l l ~ e s II shOll b r e a ~ between t a ~ e as he walt510r the cameraman 10 Set up the next shot lor [he film, SplattBr.

ClNEMAGIC #17 11

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sary to work within very strict parllmeters. lfthe shooting schedule dictates thllt a shotshould take one hour to complete, the thecamerllman must get the best possibleimage within that time limit This is unlikebig budget situations where if need be,money can be obtained for days, Of evenweeks of overtime shooting.

Imagine; Talent and location are avail·

lIble for one day only. The color temperll'

lure is shifting rap idly as the sun nears thehorizon. Yet there is still one important

shot to complete before the end of the day.A tired low budget cameraman loses con·centration and drifts momentarily. Off inthe distance. an imaginary Hollywooddirector of photography shouts. "'Don 'tworry we 'lI shoot it six months from now."

The weary cameraman smiles. Then sud·denly he is roused from his daydream by ascreaming low budget director. The lowbudget cameraman quickly snaps back toreality. whe re he is faced with either gettinga mediocre shot. or not getting the shot atall. He regains his composure. and thecamerll rolls just before the sun goes overthe horizon.

From a production manager's standpoint. it is of course important for thecameraman to be concerned with imagequali ty. but when fighting against the clockand the bank. certain sacrifices have to be

made in terms of quality. The more wellplanned the production, the less sacrificeshave to be made. A solid organizationalbase enables the director to then feel com·

fortable improvising creatively . Strongguidance from the director. along with adecisive cameraman and a fast. accurategaffer facilitate the kind of rapid crewmovement (RCM) that can really make aproduction happen.

Creative ParanoiaWe now enter the grey area of a produc·

tion's uncontrollable variables such as:equipment breakdown. weather (acts of

god), and human nature. Although theseproblems are a factor in any type of production, they must be paid particular attention when there is a lack of time, moneyand expertise to fix things in the event thi!ltproblems occur.

In accordance with Murphy's Law: If anything can go wrong. it will. Given the com-

pleXIty of coordinating a film production.mlx·ups. screw·ups. and plain old ordinarymess·ups have more than ample oppor

tunity to surface. Murphy is always on set,working especially hard on a production 'suncontrollable variables. The most potentweapons In the war against Murphy are;

checking all plans that hllve been made. Ifsomething goes wrong. what are the alter·natives? How can problems be compen·sated for without losing vllluable time andmoney? Answers to these questions andcontingency plans must be available onstandby for every facet of production.

WeatherNear the end of a recent production

schedule. we had se t up a night exterio r

shoot at a drive·ln movie theatre. The mas

ter shot was lit and completed when itsuddenly began to rain. All equipment waswrapped quickly and stored. while wecrossed our fingers and waited for thestorm to pass. Even if the rain did stop inan hour or so. we realized we would have

to squeeze eight hours of shooting into thefour hours of darkness available until sunrise. With the knowledge that both talentand location might not be available again.we decided to try another alternative. Luck·ily. a building on the grounds of the drive·in was available for our use. Its large. openhigh-ceiting structure made it perfect foruse as a soundstage. We realized that with

a slight modification of the shooting plan,the rest of the scene could be shot indoors.By duplicating the mllster lighting set·up.and shooting tighter shots. we created theillusion that the whole scene was filmedoutdoors . Quick thinking enabled us to

complete a key scene with a minimum of

sacrifice.

Even with forecasts. the uncertainty of

weather conditions make it advisable tocomplete all exterior locations early in theshooting schedule. This allows ample timeto rearrange the schedule in the event thatan exterior is rained ou t Also. while shooting exteriors it is essential to have an interior rain set on standby. Gaffers shouldbe aware. in advance. how this set Is to be

IiI. So that cast and crew can move there

quickly and shool With proper preplan.ning, RCM is possible.

Equipment MalfunctionsAny piece of equipment which has mov·

Ing parts has a tendency to break down.Camera, sound. grip and lighting equip·ment. i!lnd even production vehides are all

susceptible to problems during production. if th ey have no t been properly

checked in the preproduction stages. Thehead people in each of their respective departments should be available to check out

all the equipment before it is all rented.Camera preproduction is especially cru·

cial. At least a week before principal

photography begins. the cameraman or

assistant cameraman should go to therental house and shoot 100ft. of test footage. with the lIctual c"mera and lenses thatare to be used on location. On a recentfeature project. the camera crew did nothave the time to run tests on the equip·ment. As a resUlt . it was not until three daysinto production (while screening dailies),

Planning and Anticipation.

If all phases of production are plannedwith the assumption that everythifl9 will

go wrong. you will find yourself Just a !'couple of steps ahead of almost everyproblem that could pOSSibly arise. AI· •though this does not mean you have to be !completely paranoid. a certain level of tcreative paranoia can only help.

Production staff must maintain a con· Makeup amsl AmodiO Giordano attaches ablood pump 10 actless Kathy lacommare 101 mUldel scenestant vigil. continuously checking and reo

12 ON£MAG/C # 17

7/28/2019 Cinemagic #17 (1982)


that a defective zoom lens was detected. At

least a whole day of work was out of focus

and had to be reshot.

To avoid this: scratch tests, registration,collimnation. focus. sync, speed, acces

sories. batteries and chargers must all be

checked thoroughly beforehand. Without

this the production is left wide open for

disasters. Apologies and new equipmentfrom the rental house cannot possibly

compensate for the loss of time and

money.

I cannot stress this enough: No oneshould handle camera equipment except

for the camera crew. This rule wa s unfor

tunately proved recently when an assistant

cameraman was not available on the set

Wishing to be helpful. a member of the

crew ran off to the camera truck to retrieve

what he th ought to be an empty film

magazine. Not seeing any rilm hanging

from the magazine, he assumed it wasempty. and therefore available for reload

ing. He proceeded to con firm his assumption by opening the rear chamber of the

magazine in broad daylight. Of courseMurphy was on set at the time, and the rear

chamber of the magazine contained awhole roll of exposed footage. A complete

day of hard work was again ready for the

garbage.

AmodiO Giordano Ileft) and lIis assistant Aalpll Cordero IlIglIl) p!opa!e a prosthetic appliance

The over·eager crew member. however.is not the only one to blame in this in

stance. The assistant cameraman shouldhave immediately recanned the exposed

footage and stored it away; making it im·

possible for such a mistake to be made.

AVOId Crew MutinyThe production manager as diplomat

must consider a number of things that will

aid in the running of a smooth shoot Oneof the biggest problems of attempting a

kamikaze production schedule is that

there is a tendency to neglect bask human

needs. Simple requirements of the Crew Id

such as food, shelter and clean clothingseem unimportant when considering the

crew's ultimate mission to complete thefilm. Nevertheless, ignore these needs and

you will have a mutiny on your hands, even

without a union leader to come down and

slap you on the wrist Planning crew com·

fort is a controllable aspect that can make

uncontrollable human nature much more

manageable.FOOD:Do not skimp. Hire a cook. Cut a

big dance number from the film if neces·

sary. but do not expect a crew to workwhen they suffer from malnutrition. BoI·

ogna sandwiches for lunch, and peanutbutter and jelly sandwiches for dinner have

a way of putting a damper on everyone's

taste for hard work. Serve three solid meals

locations are too far away from home basefor everyone to commute. I learned the

hard way that even the most gracious of

hosts can get nasty when they are forcedto deal with the crazy hours and habits of a

film cre .... in production.

CLEAN CLOTHES: Arrange for a laun

dry service to pick up once or twice a week.No one has the time or the Inclination to

wash dirty clothes during precious hours

off.llME OFF: On one film we attempted to

shoot for twenty-four days straight. without

a break. I would not recommend trying

this. no matter how low the budget is. Aday of f per .....eek is absolutely necessary for

the cast and crew to be alone. relax andwind down. Without some sort of leisure

time things get very claustrophobic. andthe crew begins to go for each other's

throats.

These simple suggestions might seemobvious. but ignore them and you .....ill pay

for i t

PAY: Pay Cllst and crew on lime, and in

cash if they wish. Money in people's hands

reconfirms the faith that they are not work·

ing for nothing, and assures them thaI they

have no need to fear thaI the production

might go under at any minute leavingthem with nothing but a worthless rubber

check. In very low budget situations it is

sometimes necessary to pay the crew less

than they actually deserve. In these cases itis recommended to draw up a standard

deferment contract which will guarantee

them additional monies when the film is

sold. Deferment contracts can sometimes

make the difference between an enthuslas-

a day. along with nutritious in between tic crew and an apathetic one.

meal snacks that can be consumed quick-ly. Cheeses. bread. raw vC:getables. and cut The Most Hated Person On se tup fruit are better than junk food for keep- Arguments. yelling and conflicts crop up

ing up stamina. And coffee by the gallon ali the time under intense production pres

should never be far away. sure. Arguing openly not only breeds more

SLEEP: Make su re everyone is able to antagonism and slows up production, but

sleep comfortably. even the production as- it brings an air of contagious unprofessistants. Rent a large house or motel if the , sionalism to the project. If daily meetings

are held and l ines of communication

among the crew are kept open. many p0-

tential conflicts can be diffused before they

have a chance to explode. But sometimesconflicts continue to the point where only

the intervention of the production man

ager can settle differences. And since it is

hard to bring down the level ofantagonismwithout antagonizing people. the produc

tion manager as labor mediator is con

stantly walking the tight line between force

fulness and diplomacy. In the battle to

keep the production in economic order

and at peace at the same time, it's a real

challenge for the production manager notto earn the title of "Most Hated Person OnSet "

"Mise· En -se t "Cast and crew must feel that they are

part of a production that is worthwhile.

Since they are not really being compen·sated for it monetarily , they should at least

feel that they are involved in a project that

will enhance their careers. Of cou rse it

helps if the script is phenomenal and the

acting even better. But most important is acrew's positive sense that they are working

as a team. and learning things from oneanother that will be of value in the future.

When the cre .... is enthusiastlc, the cast

gets enthusiastic; and this is ultimately re

flected in what you actually see on screen

in the finished film.The lack of experience, money and time

that low budget crews have to work with

must be compensated for by talent. inge·nuity and energy. Talent must compensate

for lack of experience. Ingenuity is needed!3t make the best use of the small amount

of money and resources available. And

energy (RCM) is necessary to utilize the

limited time for production most eco-

nomically. With the right preplannlng theseingredients can come together to form a

very impressive low budget effort. If it's truethat hardships teach. then the low budget

experience is the best tea cher of all. at

ClNEMAGfC 11/7 13

7/28/2019 Cinemagic #17 (1982)


Filmmakers'

EORUMLatex Appliance Hazards.• . l'm an avid SCi-fi enthuslIIst /lnd

I ne-ed some answers to /I couple ofquestions. F1rst. is there an

1 I 1 ~ r n . ! l t i v e to using spirit gum lor

applying latex appliances? It tends

to mllke some people break out.Second, i$ $lush mokIliltex tht!~ m e M the F1ex Resh sold in Rick

&ker's makeup kits found Instores? I'd lIppreciate II reply.

Todd Henry42 8 Powell Ave.

Erie . PA 16505

. . . People who ltaue allergic

reactions to spirit gum which

causes fJJelf skin 10 bleak out

should .see a dermatologisl.

before applying anylhing ID/heir face. 'I's possible dUll an y

.sort of latex appliance adhesioecould Cltt.tSe an allergic skin

reactiOfl an d il s best to gel III

professional opinion about

what mlJy {)( may nol be safe 10

apply to your face. To ou r

knowledge, Flex Flesh is the

name {or /he material found InDick Smiths makeup kit We

have no knowledge 0{ any

makeup ki t markeled by Rick

&tker. The Flex Flesh ma/erial

found In Smith's ki t Is

gelatine-noll/quid ialex

which is II {air substitute for

liquid la/ex except !hal it doesn '/hold up under hoi. lights and

yoo can'r gel il wet because il

will dissolve. Sec Q-aig

Reardon's artlde about

slush-molding .farex appllanccsIn CINEMAG/C ' 12.

Scratch·on Lasers

••• I"m planning my first film,

caned StUpe!". about a man who

steals a laser pistol and goes

MOUnd the rounlty blasting pe0-

ple. The I"I"KMe requires !hat I~ h o w tldd the effects of the

laser fire coming from the gun. 1"m

working with Smm Kodachrome

40 film. I"m wondering if anyonecan tell me how 10 creale theeffect. I'm on /I vt:fY low budget

and I C/ln' , really afford to spendany extra money 10 create the

effect. I'd appreciate suggestions.

Steve Walson23635 L Drive Horth

Marshall. MI 49068

Sounds like the only Ihing youcan do Is Ihe ol d "scratch rhefilm technique. Desptle the (act

thaI II doesn 'l cost an extra

penny. it can be quite e/feclil)(!.

An y readers wilh O(her sugges·lions who would like 10 help

StCrJe are Inuiled /0 wrile 10 him.

14 c/NEMAGIC # /7

JIIIode1logTip.. . . For those invollled in detailinga scratch-buill model. r....e found

that 3/ 16" or l / S" slIip$ of balsawood and an X«:to knife are

excellent for producing tiny deu.ils

and may be used as a substitutefor Itore bought model pam. Theyare much I1'lOI"e realisitc and can

be cut to any size or shape.Do any ~ know of an

Alternative Releasing

Agent fo r Foam.

Rubber

.. . I Nrve ruined many a fOl:lm

rubber applience or animationmodel using castor oil as a moldsepanltor. Having tried many

substitutes. I finally came up (by

trtal and error) with the onedescribed below. I believe it....;11

save many young make-up IIrtisls

lind iII1lmators II lot. d heartbreaksand repoir lime.

Using a cut-short model bn..Ish,l

paint the n e g a ~ mold interior

and joining filCes thoroughly.....;thDUPONTS RN..LEY UQ(.JID CARW/'IX. The ~ " " ; [ 1 dry .....;thin onehalf hour. and you can inject f()llm

rubber ....;thOUI fear of chemical

cOfTOSion.

Nter baking, gently PlY the moldaptlrt with a rocking motion.Patience. not force. does the tr1ck.Brush off IIny dusty residue on the

IIppllance/rlQure with a sci!toothbrush. The foam will lIIIke verywell to acrylic latex coIofs.

Using this _ on your plaster

mokb "";U yield extreme detllil

without ripping the foam. liS often

happens with II castor oil$epill"lltor. The molds PfY open

very easily with even elIcessfIiIshlng coming ou l intact.

DavId P. OeGooyer

4074 Central A....e • Apt. "4

SIIn DIego, CA 92105

Inexpensive technique by which Ican photograph my rrodeI within afew Inches (in focus. d C"OtJf"Se) tostress the modeI's deteiI and supposed lmenslty?

Clip Bfooksh_7338 Rustic: VII1!ey Or.Dallas. TX 7542S

T'!J using Ihe technique des·

cribed by Judith and Ron Miller

on page 28 0{ ONEMAG/C '15.

Lousy Phasers

. . . I am i n ~ t e d in finding a

rellsonable replica of the phaser

Prop lind the communicator prop.both used on the Star Trek lV

series. I have a good method for

producing lllser effects but hllvenothing for the effects 10 come ou t

of. Don't suggest building them

mysell, because I've tried thllt and

they come out awful!

Steven GllrlInkd

S054 Tee!ldale Ave.North Hollywood. CA 91605

.. . The whole purpose 0{

ONEMAGIC magazine 15 to help

young fiImmakers learn IIhouI

special effec15 techniques. ThI5philosophy denwnds thai you be

willing /0 build prop:; yourself. or

try 10 rcoch someone wh o canbuild rhem foryou al a reasonable(.:(.I:>L W t ! " ' <T /iUle di:.co<,r"fje<l

/lUll so many fi/mmllkers wan! /0

copy /heir favorite sc ience tid/OIl

mouies and N shows Instead 0{

altemp(ing /0 create an original

swry 0{ /heir 0UN1. Try using /he

ilf1/c/e on making a ray gu n froma detergenl bottle in ONEMAG/C

'1 2 as a guide (but tr y 10 ad d

your own lillie /Ouchcs). You'lX!

got. 10 be originall(you 'regoing /0

succeed. An y readers who"d like

/0 help Sleuen out by building

props kx him are inuited /0 write

/0 him.

Explosion and Stunt FX· .. In mllny Issues of ONEMACiIC

fellow filmmakers have beenplagued with questions conceming

the Issue of pyrotechnics l ind find

ing II suillllble subslitu\.e. M.y solution: real fireworks. Crazy] No.

1 ook along my Super-6 camefil

to II local falr last laU. When It .... ,,5

time for the fireworks. put on by H·

n ~ professionills. I just set. up

my tripod lind shot. I used ." roll of

sllent Super-S type Ci EktiIchrome.The results were great. The black

background would be great for

backwlnding. I had origillllily In·

tended 10 use the fOOlilQe for anann"nation study. but later reahed

thai I CQUId rotoscope the expiI>

sions onto eels with li n IIlrbrush.From these eels I GIn extract."ny

parts to composite onto lIny desired footage.

Another matter that Nil raised II

101 ofinterest is stunt work. Here's a

technique worth uying. FIlm thefirst ptlrt of a fall sequence. then

shoot the actor or actress exe<:uting

the SlIIIrt of the fall. perhaps II foot or

two off the ground. Now for the

chanenging part. Build the set in

mln.ature and dress an articulatedfigure in the SlIme clothes lIS the

actor. TIle fall can now be filmed in

mlnillllLlre using stop-motion. Your

miniature figure can execute an

incredible fall, kicking and nailingall the way. With good editmg you

clln get li n effect similar to the Nul

staff cllr cnlshlng oyer the cliff in

Rltldcrs of /he Lost Ark.

In short. your l"Iealth Is IlOthing 10

roo/around ....;th. With a little optIclll

work you can get professional·look

Ing explosion effects without therI$k d blasting yourself Into II fioe

red mist, and get spectacular fall,

without heving 11 sick attrib·

uted to powdered bones..When people see your film they

may see an effect that does'nt lookI ~ true-to-life. but they'll reali!e

thai the director was being Intelli·

gent and respectful of other pe0-ples' well·being and they will reo~ you for

Kelly Fuller

Milrlposa Rd.

DeRuyter. NY 13052

Grounded Hero• .. I"m doing a spinoff rTICIYIe on

The Greatest American Hero l ind 1~ Ideas for flying effects. Arty.body got ideas? I"d IIPPfeciate any

~ g g e s t i o n s .Adam lebowitz

22045 67th Ave.

Sayside. NY I 136 4

· .. An y relIders ClJre. /0 helpAdam

7/28/2019 Cinemagic #17 (1982)


Quest for CavemanMakeup

.. • M.y friend and I are planning to

make a movie on the life of acaveman. We have everything

planned ou t except for the makeup.

We want the makeup to look like

the makeup in Quest (o r Fire. themovie about three Neanderthals on

a search for fire for their tribe. Wewant to reproduce the following fea

tures of theQuesl fex Fire makeup;

the ape-like mouth, the protruding

eyebrows, and the fur that grO\llS

out of the face, We would greatly"PP,pci"'e "n y hetp you can giv<!-.

Roger SlInte1004 16th Ave.

COnllville. IA 52241.. , You can create /he .same kind

o(makeup effects lhal you saw in

Quest for Are with latex appliances. See ClNEMAGIC 112 (orCraig Reardon's ankle on slushmolding latex appliances. Youcan glue o-epe wool to the appliances and your face /{) create /hefur growing on the face. Also see

Ed Nahas enllgfltening article

aboulthe making o(Quest for FIreIn St.arlog 155.

Pac Man Fever

, . , I'm going to make a Pac Man

movie this summer and I WIlS won

dering if I would be breaking anycopyright laws.

Bany Cooperrider845 Arrowhead

Bucyrus, OH 44820

Matte Magic

.. Being a new subscriber, 1am

truly fasonated with the lIssistance

thllt CINEMAGIC gives to us young

Ci nematographers. LMng In the

Silverton. Oregon (where. you

say?) lIrea. there is little if any

exposure to the filmmaking scene,Though it is hllrd to find fellow

filmmakers among the pine trees,they lire !here-If you look. Thllt"s

just what rYe done.Now, along with two others {the

search wasn't In vain). I am striving

to make a small part of my dre3m

" reillily.I read in Issue -10. the article on

'MaStering Mattes." it was very

interesting. but will it work fo r skyscenes through trees? Second, ou r

film. which is In pre-production.

utilizes ~ s e r effects, starscreensand animation. there any way to

do these without any expensive

equipment? We don't have li n

optical printer and couldn't evenhope to buy one. Any suggestionswill be appreciated.

John F.K. Pllrenteau

2955 Spring Wla Rd, S,E.Silverton, OR 97381

.. . Any suggesliom; from ou r

readers?

Fort WorthAim Club

. I am delighted to say that

response to my letter prin ted inissue I- 15 came almost imme·

diately from a young filmmaker

named Jon Hale In my own cily!This says a lot for the circulation ofyour magazine. May its readership

increase!We would like 10 know if there are

IIny other young, Inexperienced

filmmakers in the Fort Worth areawho would like to pool their talents

lind resources together in an

omoteur production company. If so.write me. Each correspondentshould l ist his experience, strengths

and weaknesses.Thank yOl.l for yOl.lr emphasis on

storyboarding and script writing in

the last two issues.lt"s understandable that a filmmaker Is so

enthused l lbout special effects thaI

the plot often becomes secondary.

The chief concern of IIny filmmaker. however. shOl.lld be to enle!"

tain or to make a point--and

special effects should be looked

upon as a means to that end, no

ma tter how exciting the specialeffects are

It is my belief that every filmmaker should a)so be a student of

Correction photography. drama. art emd litera·. . . Due to a typogr<lphicaJ error in ture as well as film. Critics have

an editorial reply to a letter in the rightly described many of the

Almmakers' Forum section In recent blockbusters (such as Starissue 1 15 (S tock Elcplosion FX Trek TMP) as ·'big·budget B

Wanted). the address for Rf.O movies."' We need to depend more

L:!tex was mis·spelled. The COffect on the content of our films and less

address appears below: on technology.

., You will ceftainly be txooking R&D Latex I hope CJNEMAGIC will be fea-a copyrighl/aW by making II Pac 590 1 Telegraph Rd, turing m ore articles on art design,

Man mooie if you plan to exhibit Com merce, CA 90040 acting and directing in the future.

the nfm fO(" a paying audience al I - - - - - -- - - - - - -L- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - lan y lime In the future. Hotuever,you Ciln make J Pac Man nfm fO("

your own pleasure without worry-ing about copyright laws. Ama

teur filmmakers frequently ulolalecopyright laws when /hey use

proteclt:d material In their scripts0(" as props, but no map corpora

lion will come a{ter you fex using/heir copyrlgflled material In afilm Intended only (0(" flame use

by /he filmmaker--especially If

they neuer find oul aboul it!

3D Creature Aim. . . I have II new film project in the

works caJled The Creature from /heThird Planet-which I am filming

in 301 Through the marvel of 3Dcinematography you can actuallybe there as the creature mysteri

ously appears and goes on a

rampage. Is he the forerunner of lin

alien invasion? Director! Writer:

Rick Panero. Cast: Dee De<e Panero,Nina Panero. Super-8, color. sound.

Aimed entirely in PaneroDepth

StereoVislon (engineered by RickPanero.)

Rick Panero

3309 l ewis Ave,

long Such, CA 90807

.. , Let's see your 3D syslem, Rick.

Dave Allen at age 19 WIth a s t o ~ m o t l O n dragon model.

Annature Preservation have It n the mold before you spray

.• . I recently talked to stop-motion

animator Dave Allen llbout II cou pleof problems I had been hllving with

my stop motion technique. He told

me about a method for preservingmy armatures that is chellp and

works very well. If you can't nfford

or don't have time to get yourarmlltures chrome or nickel plated,

you clln use Krylon grey primer.Position the lIfffi8ture as you would

It down , then give it a good coat all

over. Let dly. It might be stiff after Itdries. but given time the paint wiU

be broken up at the Jointed areas. I

recommend loosening the paintalong the joints before you put it In

the mold. This method is very

ecooomicni and easy to do.

Pat Steele

127 Mercator Dr.

Greenwood, IN 46142

George Edward3437E W, 5th St,

Fort Worth, TX 76107

.. Good luck with your {11m club.ClNEMAGfC will be featuringarticles on the subjects you men·

lioned In the noor Alture.

Severed Head

, .• I'm a long lime CINEMAGIC

reader and I recently won first placein the three dimensional division of

the art con test at the Creation

Convention at New York City's

Sheraton Hotel. Here's II photo of

the severed head I created that won

me the prize, It is mado 01 slushmol ded liquid latex. painted with a

mixture of rubber cement anduniversal coloring. I learned the

coloring technique from Kirk

Brady's artide on mask making In

CiNEMAGIC 16. The hair is wighair that I snipped of f a wig lind

attached to the head with contact

cement. ONEMAGIC has been of

great value to me (and so has

FANGORIA!) in my search for new

and useful makeup techniques.

Keep up the good work!

Tom LautenP,O, Box 878

New Paltz, NY 12561

InterstellarDust

. . . I have recently acquired a

Super·8 camera and while testingits special dfects limits. my friend

and I thought up some new andChellp effects for those of us with

very limited budgets.First. we developed an ··interstel·

lar dust cloud"' effect. For this. I

took II cardboard frame I made.

about 30" x 30", lind dnlped ordi·

nary celophane over It. To makethe ··cloud." take a dull white or

grey spray paint and hold It about

16 inches from the celophaneNow sprny the desired pattem,

adding other metallic colors as a

highlight. Spray cans are prefera·ble over airbrushes because they

"splotch:' creating "stars:'

AnOl:her effect we created is a"nova" effect. First, take a camera

nash I Ind-f i lming-nash it behind

a chosen "star"' by putting a holein your k g r o u n d . l l len stop

filming and put a brighter light

behind the star and film some

more. If your camera can pick it

up. you'lI see a nash and semi.fadeof a "nova." Good ..uck.

David Kramer

5263 Carriage Lane

Santa Rosa, CA 95401

ClNEMAGIC #- 17 15

7/28/2019 Cinemagic #17 (1982)


Filmmakers'

EORUMSecret Panels

SECRET PANEL DIAGRAM

. . . While over at 11 friend's house, Iquestioned him about some

destruction scenes in 11 short film

he had made. In II brief clip. I

watched a sc::ratch-built fighter gel

scuttled in deep space, yi?I. the

N1--&ckwinding Super-8AIm; ForegrouncfMlniature

Techniqua : AOfial BracoConstruction.

*,Z-Spaceship Model·making; Blood Makeup:Smoke G_retor: Light

Beam Eflects; Making 811SF Logo.

*,3-flobo! Construction:Doveloping an AnlmalionStyle; Fluid Art Animation;Electronic SpecIal Effects.

spaceship sat (perfectly intact) on

display In his room. When asked

how this was possible. he lilted theship from its resting place and

removed an inconspicuous piKe of

stacked detail, revealing the gapingwound in the ship's hull that

appeared in the film. The hole hadbeen built-in during construction

,md could be displayed or hidden almy friend's whim. I've enclosed II

diagram of the constructiontechnique fOf the benefit of other

ONEMAGIC model builders.

HMH Productionseto Ed Halbig

612 Alhambra Ave.Altamonte Springs, FL 3270 I

Flz.zled Explosion FX

. . . In ClNEMAGIC ·5 . Berton

Anderson of Las Vegas claimed Inthe Filmmakef5' Forum section

thaI he had created an inexpensive

way to achieve explosions the

ones seen In Star Wars. According

to Mr. AIlderSOrl, he used flashpowdef, nash paper !lnd regular

!lluminum foil. After one week oftrying 1111 tiM! combifllltions Icould

think 0(, I still have no t been ableto do what he clllims he did. In

f!5ct, I have come to the conclusionIhat such an el(pIosion 15 Impossl·

ble to lIChieve In this manner. A

note to others who try to lICnieve

explosions FX with this technique:

If you like a 101 of smoke. this

method is alright. but you will not

get !In explosion !lnd you will end

up with !I slightly melted mOOeI!lnd lots of useless smoke

David L Kern

Galaxy Productions173 3 Huy Rd •

Columbus. OH 43224

CINEMAGIC BACK ISSUES

Open Call fo r NY-AreaActor

. . . I'm presently looking for !lctors

to fill the Cllst of my production.

Dream Factory. If you're

interested write me at the address

below, or call (312) 473-16!l9.Adam Rabin

3 Washington PI. , 4th Floor

New YOI'k, NY 10003

Address al l COfI'f!5POI1dence /0:

ONCMAOIC-Filmmakers'

Forum. c/o O'Quinn Studios,Inc • 475 Park Ave. So., New York.NY 10016

Due /0 /he enormous ooJwne 0(

mall received. the editor regretsjndioiduaf replies are Impossible.

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Slop Malion Models . Techniquos; Invisible Ma n nucci; Clash 01 the TitansEffects. Preview.

INEMAGIC Dept.C 17 c/o O'Oulnn Studios, Inc. I475 PSOt Ave. South, New YOOt , NY 10016 IAdd poslage and handling 10 your order: S.80 forone Issue; SI. 14 fo r two ; Sl .6O fo r Ihree; S2.00 for

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" f l - - A n i m a ~ n g Pogo: *,1O--MastOfing M a t t ~ ; . , 1 1--Glass Shots; Minia· # 12-4.1al<.eup Magic-UthoQraphIe TltWng Effects; Zero BudQet Sals; CINE · ture ~ s ; FlQura Latex ADoIianoas; Rota-

"Sets on e SI'io&stt1ng: MAGICISIIA Awards Night; AnImation; BIoodV tlalt smping: t8ro Budget RayProfile: The Langley Punks. BuiIdinQ a Super Sound- Huri(s; Profile: Koch an d Gun; Profile : Barnes and

II 1 - S ~ t Sean: CreatingUFO "lightships"; ModelInleriors: More Electronic

$weial Eflacts; The SalumMachine: Profile: Borucki.

track: Pen Set BaIl·allO- lohr. Gilger.Socket At'matures.

., 14-Storyboarding: N15-Script Writing; ., 16--Scriptwritin. Part 2;Sound Eflacts Generator; Miniature lighting: EIee- CINeMAGICI'SVA ftlm

Minlat"re Devastated Ironic SpOCIaI Eflacts: Sollrcn WlIln&rS: EIeettonk:Cioos: Charles Jones' Careers; Super Depltlln Special Effacts: LEO

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I/an der Veer: 8uild YourOwn Camera Crane:

Profile: Parady al'\d RudoW .

7/28/2019 Cinemagic #17 (1982)


EROFILESuper-B Super Spoofers

orThe Convention Connection

Chris Callaghan and Bob Griffith

are two young east coast filmakers who have been churning ou t

Super-B films for about threeyears under the name of Calgriffics Productions. Chris and Bob are making their

mark by showing their f1Ims at local sci

ence fiction conventions. They are best

known for their parodies of famous science fiction films such as Supennan. StarWars and the James Bond films. Aftermeeting a few years back at a science fic

tion convention in New York. Chris and

Bob formed Calgriffith Productions withsome other friends who shared their en

thusiasm for filmmaking.

"I started making films when I was thirteen," Chris begins "T he first film that I

consider worth mentioning is called Day

of (he Inuaders. Is was a shoot 'em up with

lasers type of film, I originally shot it as a

By JOHN CLAYTON

serious film, but I ran ou t of money andhad to stop filming, About two years later I

decided to re-editthe film and write a new

story around the footage I had already

shot. I figured thaI I had enough shol 10

make a film, even if il wasn't what I had

originally planned. II lurned out as a 15

minute spoof of the 50's type science fiction movies that have green aliens attack

ing innocent Earthlings, After Day of theInvaders I made a ten-minute spoof called

Slar Wars on Earth ,which was a parody of

Star Wars. My next film after that was

Superman. The SPOOf. I consider Super-man, Tile Spoof to be my first good film.

Irs a half hour long takeoff on Superman. I

also made several animated shorts, Bob

and I got together right after I finished mak

ing Superman. The spoor:'"My first film was a Billy Jack spoof

called Billy Jack's Revenge," Bob exp-

lains, "I t was a fifteen minute action filmfilled with motorcycle riding and stunts,

After that I made a film called And Now aWord From Our Sponsor, which was a

parody of tv commericals that ran about

fifteen minutes. Ch ris and [ got togetherafter that and OUT first collaboration was aspoof called Trailer, which parodies the

trailers you see in movies thea tres an d on

TV. II was a takeoff on the trailers you'd see

in the theatres for Bruce Lee movies. withlots of bungled karate kicks.

"We divide up the production among

the members of Calgrjffics according toeveryone's particular talents and interests,"

Bob continues. "Chris does the artwork or

ar t related work, I do the stunt choreog

raphy and the other memberS'Of the group

do what they do best or enjoy the most. Wedecide who directs a particular sequence

according to who shelled out the most

Ihe Calgofhcs producuon team recentlV showed up al the Creation ConventIOn at the Sheraton H01elm New York City From left to fight th ey are Bob

Goffilh, ChriS CaJiaghan, Phil Metcalf and Ulesses CampbeJi The Calgrl fllCS folks ale a hit al sCience fiction conventIOns wJ!h their Super..JJ films

ClNEMAGfC # 17 17

7/28/2019 Cinemagic #17 (1982)


PunCipal members of

the Calgrlfflcs aCTing

troupe, back row (leI! 10

"lIht! Bob Gnlhlh, ChfiSCallaghan. Ph!1 Metcalf.(liont row, left to flghllMauo Bra\hw8!lhe and

Paul Hendrix.

cash to produce it. We always try to keepone person who's good with a camera out

of the scene so we'll have a competentcameraman,"

"We never nlm with sound," Chris reve als. "We've found that of the cameras we

have 10 work with, the silent cameras havemote features and generally hlwe superioroptics. We film with the silent camera and

then foley the sound later. We take the filmto Magnastripe in New York City and haveit striped and then we have a foley sessionafter we've edited the film. If s fun to workthat way because our sound recordingsessions are like parties. Sometimes wehave to re·record the dialog several timeson the sound projector in order to get itinto acceptable sync, We put the music

track down first and then dub over that. We

have a lot of fun dubbing the voices. Wesometimes throw comments over thedialog for a comic effect. We also enjoymaking weird sound effects to add hurT'K)(

to the scene,"We've limited in what we can do by the

Super,8 format," Chris confides. "We haveto put the entire soundtrack onto one

track. I think that if you can make a goodnlm in Super,a, you can work in any format because Super·8 is so limiting com

pared to the other film formats. You're put

to the test if you have to produce spectacular results with limited equipment andfunds,"

ChuS Callaghan plays Broadway m theCalgullics production, Children of the AftermBth,

18 CINEMAG/C 1117

Bob elaborates on Chris' statement withan analogy. " ll"s like driving," Bob explains."If you can drive In New York City you candrive anywhere, If you can make a film inSuper-8 that has the look and feel of

35mm--at least on a small screen-than Ithink you're ready for the more sophisti·cated equipment of the larger formats."

Bob talks about acting. ''The members

of our acting troupe are so stereotypedthat it isn't even funny. We're fortunate inthat each member of our troupe Is

stereotyped for a certain kind of part andthere are enough of us that we havesomeone who can fill any ethnic or character type role. I think we have all bases covered for the different characters thatmight appear in any script.··

"The problem of casting a film reallyonly arises when we need lots of extras forcrowd scenes," Chris exposes. "We hadabout thirty extras for Trailer. We had tocoordinate all the extras in a scene we shotin a gym at the YMCA.. People would wander off between takes and start playingbasketball. We had to go round them upeverytime we were set up to shoot the nextscene."

"You can't yell at them because they·renot getting paid," Bob interjects. "If youyell at the extras for not giving their fullcooperation, they·re liable to just walk of f

the set and not return. That can cause severe continuity problems if you've already

James Bond, plaVed bV Phil Metcalf, gets athrashmg In Your Eyes Only Uvs Twice.

used the person in a couple of shots, SO

you have to try to get them so enthusedabout being in the film fOf" free that they·U

be willing to hang around for hours and beavailable for shooting the minute you·reready for them,"

"We don 't bother to get permission to

use Icx:ations:' Chris confesses, "We justshoot and run, When we shot Children of

Ihe Mermalh we used allot of derelict old

buildings as locations because the story isabout mutaled gangs in the inner city after

an atomic war. We didn't ripoff the Ideafrom Escape From New York, we madethe film before Escape from New Yorkwas released We also had to shoot In

downtown Manhattan around dawn on aSunday morning so we could get a fightscene that takes place in the desolatedinner dty after the atomic war.

"We filmed under Madison Square Gar·den for two weeks without getting permission," Bob confides. 'We had tried to getpermiSSion from the people who run theplace. but they kept passing the buck and

no one gave us permission. We just wentin and acted like we had permission. No

one challenged our right to film. We cameaway with some very good footage of whatwe considered a perfect location:'

"Children 0( Ihe Nlennalh is our mostprofessional film to date," Chris proclaims."We brought it in for under S300. Super·man theSpoor cost over five hundred. We

hardly had to reshooot anything for Chll·dren of heN/ermalh, and there are some

pretty complex Slunts in the movie. Bobcoordinated the stunts and the stuntmenwere all very good. There's a lot of karatecombat in the film which had to bechoreographed very carefully before we

filmed it, and we were professional enoughin our approach to take the time to workout every move before we picked up thecamera and started filming:·

·'One of the stuntmen broke his arm in abad faU" Chris reveals. 'That was the onlyacddent we had on the set He was su p'posed to jump about fifteen feet off II fireescape and land on Bob's back and knockBob down to the ground. Bob would hllYebroken his fall, but the guy missed Bob

Chus Callaghan ammated the sllort Star Warsspoof. Jom the Empire Bnd See the SIBrs,

7/28/2019 Cinemagic #17 (1982)


when he jumped and he landed on concrete. Fortunately the guy was our friendand he didn't hold anything against us orhold us liable fOf his injury. We .lilt felt badabout what happened. You should alwaysbe very careful when you do any kind of

stunt. no matter how safe you think it is.Accidents can happen-especially If youdon't take precautions-and people canget hurt When we watched the rushes of

that day we all felt very bad because wecould see how much it hurt when our

friend landed wrong and broke his wrist Itwas very unsettling to see his moment ofanguish played back on film: '

"We had to keep on a tight schedulewith Chlldren 0( the Nt.ermath because Iwanted to finish the film for the World Conscience fiction convention:' Chris con·

tinues. "There were a couple of timeswhen some of the main actors couldn'tmake a shoot. so instead of reschedulingthe shoot 1changed the script to do with·out those actors In those scenes. When Iedited the rought cut I realised that therewere too many plot convolutions that de·tracted from the excitement of the fightscenes. so I cu t the dialog to a bearminimum and just kept the most essentialfootage. The film races along at breakneck speed and is totally action packed.although if s shorter than I had originallyintended. I'd rather have a short, fast·paced film than a longer film that wouldput my audience in a coma."

"'We foleyed the soundtrack for Chil·

dren 0( /he A[lerma/h the day before we

showed it at the World Can, "Chris ad·mits. "' I got the cast together in my livingroom and we had a big party while wedubbed the soundtrack. We were throwingchairs all around the room to make thesound effects for the fight S(:enes."

"'When you're foleying sound you cannever take your eyes of f the screen be·cause you'd lose your place: ' Bob explains. "'We were all throwing one another allover the room to make the contact soundsfor the fight scenes, but we all had to con·centrate all our attention on the action taking place on the screen. We had a greattime doing it. It's like having a good excuse

Achilles. plaved bv Bob Gntfnh, lakes a nastybeating In Children of the Aftermslh.

to act totally crazy and let it all hang out.

You can accomplish something artisticand have a good time simultaneously."

After Children of the Aftermath wemade a film called Three the StereotypedWay ." Chris explains. "It·s a nine minutespoof on exploitation films like Shaft andChuck Norris" films. It's full of ethnic andracial humor that parodies the black

exploitation films of the ear ly 70's. Peopledon't object to the humor because it's bas

ically realistic and it's also very funny. In

Three the Stef! >otyped Way three guys ob·literate a white facist organization that's ou tkill all the black people in the world Wehappen to know a guy who has dozens ofarmy unifOfms and enough weapons tostart a swat team. He supplied the costumes for the entire production and savedus a bundle. If we each had had to buy,rent or make our own costumes andweapons it would have taken a lot of extra

time and energy to organize the production. It's nine minutes of extreme violence.but it's all meant In good fun and it's full ofgags.

"'There 's one stunt that we used a littlecamera trickery on in Three theSlerotyped Way :' Bob recalls. '"We singleframed a moving car driving straight atChris so that the car would appear to be

going really fast. The car was actuallygoing about five or ten miles an hour, andit was going up a hill so that Chris couldeasily jump on the hood and roll over theroof when the car got to him. It looks likeChris realty gets hit by a speeding car. Thedriver then gets out of the car (shot at regular camera speed) and grabs Chris andsays, 'Now talk or 1"11 hurt you: Then thereis another character who shoots a guy sixtimes. Mer he 's finished shooting the guy.the gunman's accomplice asks him why

he shot the poor dead slob six times. Hereplies. 'That's aU the bullets 1 had: Themovie is non-s top action and gags of thattype of humor. It goes over very well withthe convention audiences and we're start·ing to get a following of fans who requestto see our films at every convention.'"

"After Three /he Slerotyped Way wemade another spoof called The Empire

Palll Hendlll and Bob Gn!flth arll members 01 asavage gang 1M ChIldren of /he Aftermath.

TIRED

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Fora limirl-dlimeOfJI). " ~ 3 r e m a k i l l i a n o f f e rIlO living or dead persoo can r!.'Sist. Orand newsubscribers and Ihose rene ...ing lheir sub<; win

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CINEMAGIC 1117 J9

7/28/2019 Cinemagic #17 (1982)


Cracks Back," Chris illuminates. "It took

about three months to make the film,which has a TUning time of about 18 or 20minutes. We only spent about $200 tomake the Empire spoof, mainly becausewe already had most of the costumes andprops we needed from previous movies.We called the people we know who makecostumes for the costume contests at theconventions and asked them to be in the

film wearing their homemade Star Wars

costumes:'

.. We made up si tuations that we wouldhave liked to see in The Empire StrikesBack and filmed them" Bob explains. ". A

good example of this would be our decision to use a Kermilthe Frog hand puppetas Yoda. We figured that since both Kermitand Yoda are muppets, it wouldn't matter ifwe switched things around a little bit.There's another scene in Empire whereC-3PO is bothering Han Sola and Soloturns around and gives him a dirty look.We thought Solo should have knockedC-3PO's head off. so in our film he does."

"After The Empire Cracks Back wemade a spoof of the James Bond films

called Your Eyes Only Live Twice:' Chriscontinues. "There are a lo t of in-jokes thatyou'd probably only get if you were aJames Bond fan, but there are also Jots of

gags that anyone would get. The film is

only about nine minutes long and we did itstrictly for fun.

"Right now we're in preproduction forRaiders of he Lost Whalever which is ob-

viouslya spoof ofRaideTS o(/heLosfArk,"

Bob explains. ~ ' R a i d e T S of tile Lost Whaf

ever will probably be our last spoof beca use we're more interested in branchingout into 16mm and doing totally Originalmaterial. It will probably be our funniest

spoof because we've gotten better witheach film we've made. The guy who provided the uniforms for Three lhe

Slerc.>olyped Way has Nazi uniforms that

he's letting us use for the RaideTS spoof.He even has Irainian costumes that we 're

going to use for the Arabs in the film. Irsour last Super-S film. so it's our way of

bidding a fond farewell to Super-S spoofsand gearing up for our first feature.

"We plan on starting to shoot our firstfeature in 16mm this May: ' Bob continues."We 've been working simultaneously onpreproduction for the feature as we'vebeen making the Raiders spoof. The nameof the feature is No Holes Barred. I go toJersey City Sa te college in New Jersey andthey've agreed to allow us to use theirequipment to shoot Ule film and edit iLThat will save us a ton of money and actu

?Illy make it possible for us to make the

film. We figure we can do it for about$12,000. since we won't have to rent anyequipment. We have several investorslined up and hopefully they ' ll come

through and we'lI get to make the film.Jersey City State has a very extensivemedia arts program that I'm enrolled inand I think that it's probably one of the bestmedia programs on the east coast I'm re-

ally grateful for all the cooperation that I'vereceived from the school. Everyone in ourfilmmaking group is very serious about acareer in movies. Hopefully No Holes Bar-red will open up some doors for us andperhaps help launch our careers."

Chris Callaghan and Bob Griffith are ob

vious very serious about their flImmaking,even though the subject matter they coveris light hearted, They're developed a follow

ing by exhibiting their films at science fiction conventions, and they may get to play

to larger audiences. Other (lNENMAGICfilmmakers who are desperately trying tofind audiences for their films should consider what Chris and Bob have done. Mostof the science fiction conventions in thecountry have openings in their programsfor amateur films. You might find yoursel f,as Chris and Bob have. with an audience of

several hundred people fOf your films.There's nothing more rewarding for afilmmaker than sitting in a large audienceof people who are enjoying your work.Celebrities usually drop in at many of theseconventions and it could lead to a hot contact that could start the ball rolling for you.

It's a great way for you to get exposure foryour films and for yourself and you might

even become a minor cult herO on theconvention circuitll"s a good place to startpromoting yourself. We 'd like to hear fromany other ClNEMAGIC filmmakers who'veexhibited at conventions who have opinions an the benefits of es tablishing yourse l f with the convention connection, (J f

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I hallway, the napping of balwlngs at your "indow. a hornfymg, half- . PEWTER WHITE METAL

•human ho " I! You fed an ic )'g rip in around your neck as you lunge . OTHE WOLFMAN OTHE WOLFMAN S 5 . ~ ... SI.50 postage •ou t or bed an d nip on the light. Alld Ihcrt Ihey arc- lhe Wolfman, . OOR.ACULAS2• . D D A A C U L A $ 5 . ~ ... SI .50pO.l,ge •

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Dra cula, FrallkcnstCIn an I u m m ~ . . I OTHE M Y S 2 ~ 95 OTHE MUMMY 55 .95 " 51 .50 pos1ali'! •• T h ~ ' S C beautifully crafted miniatures ~ t a n d O\'cr 2 1/1 Inches [:lll (aClual OSE ND ME ALL. PEWTEfI II size show n) an d are moldcd in durable pewter, For only $24.95 caeh (and I MINIATURES FOR S19,951 TOTAL AMOUNT ENCLOSED -----

Ihis p r i ~ includes postage) you can ad d Illesc fincly dClaik'd calk-clOrs' I •• ilems 10 your privat e cOllc(:lion. . I• Or . for only $5.98 (plus $1,50 pmlage and handling) )'ou can gCI Ihc ~ A M E •

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7/28/2019 Cinemagic #17 (1982)


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ~Electronic

SPECIAL FXCHASING UGHT

By CHR IS E. STEVENS

The completed light chaser With four sets of miniature Xmas lightsattached, The cables are \led together in a 11.3,4 ,11.3.4, sequence

The completed light chaser Without any lights anached_ NQe Ihe

brightness and speed conlrols. The LEOs on the box ale sequenceIndicators

The prOlect box of Ihe light chaser IS opened,revealing the PC board In Ihe background and

power supply board in the foreground

Before I get started on this project I'd

like to make a few comments. I'vereceived a 101 of communication

on the "Box Full of Sound" project

(CINEMAG IC *14) and to all of you who

took the time to write. thanks. "OK. you

say, bu t what are you ganna do about it?"Well, if s really a long. long story. But to

keep it short. here's the answer: r m gonnado it again.

The next issue will have a new sound

effects unit, with quite a few improvements. In the meanwhile. carefully removeall of the parts from the circuit board andsave them. We are going to use most of

them again. What it all amounts to. is thefact that this Electronic SFX series is newto me and CINEAAGIC. Over the last year,there has been a lot of discussion betweenmyself and the editors of CINEAAGIC onmaking the projects easier to build and

Left : The mlm chaselIS the Simples! prOlectto bUild The POI IS a

speed conuol TheLEOs are of the t i l '

Colored type Po1alllydetermines the color

01 the LEOs. The

power supply is Simplya 9 battery

understand . . . and cheaper. As I ga therinformation and improve my techniques,I'm sure that you will see the improvements made with each forthcoming issue.After reading your letters and comments.I'm beginning to get a good idea of the

type of information you need. and I'm se tting about to supply iL

1call this project a light "chaser"' for lacko f a better name. In essence. it is a box thatcontrols a light cable, which, when pro

grammed in sequence, will give the illusionof lights travelling down a long row "chasIng" the others. This is done with the 555limer circuit that was used in the last project, but with one addition: a speed-limitingresistor in se ries with the speed control.This helps to prevent the unit from Oashing

so rapidly that the lights appear to be continually "on". After this. things start to differ.

ClNEMAG/Cfl I

7 2 1

7/28/2019 Cinemagic #17 (1982)


LED CHASER CIRCUIT

,'"

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THE CIRCUIT DESIGN

..

"

"

There are two separa te projects on thelayout. These consist of boards A 1 and A2.,

plus Bland B2. which is the smaller project. The "A" boards are for the A.e. current

operated light chaser. This has a capability

of three hundred watts p6/" channel. Start

ing at pin #3 of the timer IC. there's a .01

uf capacitor to ground to smooth out the

clock pu lses. and also from the output tothe 4017 Ie. coupling them capacitively.

The output is also fed to the base of a2N2222 transistor as a lamp driver for the

speed indicator LED. There's a resistor between the LE D and B+ to limit the current

through the lamp. The 40 J7 IC is a five

stage decade counter with all the inputslow. with the exception of one at a time.

sequentially. being high. It counts 0 to g

and can be programmed by a B+ input 211

pin 13. This can be a manual operation. or

it can be arrived from a + pulse from one

of the output pins. From the outputs. Ihepulses are fed to a transistor through a

dropping resistor and in conjunction with a

collector resistor. switches from B+ to B -.

POWER SUPPLY

-"--,. . .. ...001:----- 10 ~ , , , ~ , , M,-;'c IN

II .'-____ .. c 'OO • • ' ., ••

22 ClNEMAGfC # f 7

,RU I)TO"S .....11 ... _ . ~ " ' U T

LED CHASER LAMP PANEL

" -

,

1Ni.n'i

Th e four sequenced ou tputs are fed

through swi tches which determine the finalflash sequence. Through some blocking

diodes and dropping resistors 10 the toggle

switch for a normal (all lights off. with one

at a time turning on) or inverted (all lightson. one off) mode. Take note on the lay

out. that the E.B.C. connections in that

area are tied together with fine lines. indi

cating the trio for each transistor. After you

go through the normal/invert matriJI. you

have an LED with a limiting resistor tied toB+ and an optocoupler IC with a diac out

put, for driving triacs.

CONSTRUCTION HINTS

There are a few changes that you shouldbe aware of. The prototype that appears

in the photos had the AC power sw itch

located on the fronl panel. and a bright·

ness control on the top. The brightnesscontrol didn't work all that well. so I just

decided to mount the AC switch there in

stead. On the power supply board (A2)just

run the switch leads directly to the switch

contacts.

••In 0. '

" . ,L I " O TIII'-/;'o(D" LEO's

! " o L " ' I \ i,,::r£/tMIIoIt"1 tOt-OR

The dotted lines for R·12·27 are there toshow you where the leads of the resistors

go. Since they are all the same value. I

didn't see the need to show them individu·

ally. The same for diodes 01 - J6. I used adouble sided PC board because I wanted

to experiment a little with the cosmetic as

pects as well. I weni to the off1ce supply

store. and picked up some press·apply let

tering. Following the same procedure asthat for mak ing the printed circuits. I used

it for the lettering on the opposite side.

After the board was done and dry after

clean-up. I sprayed a thin layer of lacquerover the front to keep the air from oxidizingthe copper and causing it to tarnish. This

seems to work so far.Board A2. the power supply board. dif

fers only in the fact that it is more like theconventional type of PC board. Wherever

you See a white do t in the center of a circle.

etc . drill a hole. The exception of course isthe main board of the chaser itself. The

only holes drilled in it are for the mounting

SERIES LAMP SETS

..,«.........

.... I.",' '........ .

4017 OUTPUT ORDER /

0"'

"

.-•"

, • • 0 0,,

,.••"

PARALLEL WIRED SETS, , " ,..... ..-.

0

7/28/2019 Cinemagic #17 (1982)


ho les, the switch (power) and speed con

trol and the LED 's. Also for the switches

(computer type) and for the normal/inverttoggles. After you get your board etched,tin the entire pa ttern so that it ta kes solderwhen you install the parts. Take the time to

ca refully bend all of the lea ds on the partsso that they fit comfortably, and securely.

Use the photos as a guide.

MOVING COLORS

The second project is a mini-chaser.usi ng the three colored LED that we used

in the last projecL Since the outputs of theIC are either B+ or B- , I had to set up a Y2voltage point, or more commonly. V2VCC.

With the use of an NPN and a PNP transistO f with a couple of resistors this was easilydone. This allows the LED to switch colorsback and forth as the outputs of the 4017change state. The letters A through J onthe 4017 of Board 2 are the outputs innumerical sequence. These correspondwith the letters on the board marked B1.

The small "c" on both boards is the Y2VCC

point, Of in this case common. Depending

on the polarity you choose to keep your

LEOs in, will determine the base color of

the mini-chaser. One way. and they'lI all bered with a green light chasing. or you canhook them up for an all green wi th a red

chaser. The only holes that you want todrill in board BI are just those for the

LEOs. Mount the resistors on the rea r of

the board at the solder pads.

A BIONIC XMAS TREE?As for the light cables. the way Jhey went

together was relatively simple. I picked up

on a doseout of those mini Christmas treelights, buying four sets. Since they were all

wired in series, I snipped of f the plug and

untwisted the cable forming an individualling strand. Then I tied the cables togetherin a 1,2.3.4,1.2.3 .4 . sequence. spacing

them about three inches apart. Wi th everyfourth lamp lit, the illusion could be easilymainta ined. At the end of the cable, I tiedall four cables together and soldered them

all toa single "return" lead . making a cablepa ir of five wires--one common and four

light strands. After deciding which pins ofthe ca ble connector were to be what. all I

d id was solder the connector onto thecable so that it corresponded to the output

seq uence of the four triacs in the chaser.Also as a construction hint, the wire that

con nects to the o utput of the optoc:ouplersshould be coated with epoxy cement as anadded insulator and to help keep the wires

from breaking away from the circuit board.Also for the toggle switches. there are dot

ted lines that show which pin to conned towhat. Drill the center hole to fit eachswitch. but not the two smaller adjacentpoints. These are for graphic purposes.Just run a small gauge wire (#22 solid is

ok) from the appropriate pad to the connecting pin.

Quite frankly, I can't wait for Christmas.

This is really going to look weird on thetree. (J (

PARTS LISTAll of the parts are available at your local Aadio Shack Store. The catalognumbers are Inserted in italic for your convenience.

AC POWER SUPPLY

Circuit Board A-2T-l transformer, 117 VAC primary, 6.3 V!300 rna.C-l capacitor, 4700 ul electrolytic: , 35 VDe

VM08 Bridge Rectifier

5 V. Ie voltage regulatorBarrier Terminal Strip

CHASER

Circuit Board A-IR-1-7 1 K-ohm, V-Watt resistorsR-8-11 1.8 K-ohm , V-Watt resistors

A-12-31 10 K-chm, V -Watt resistors0 · 1-13 2N2222 transistorsSW-l-4 Mini-dip Quad switchSW-5-8 DPOr toggle switch. center "off"0-1-20 switching diodesL-1 -5 LED's package assortedVR-l 1 Megohm variable resistorA·32 , 34, 36 ,

38R-33, 35, 37 ,39 , 44

A-40, 41 , 42

43SW-g

1C-11C-2

TC · l-41C-3 , 4, 5, 6C-2 , 3C4

47-ohm, Vz-Watt resistor

330' ohm, l7-Watt resistor

tBO-ohm, 1f2-Wall resistorSPST switch555 timer Ie4017 decade counter Ie

6-amp., 400 V. triacsOptocoupler, triac output,01 uf disc ceramic capacitor4.7 uf electrolytic capacitor

MINI LIGHT CHASER

Circuit Board B-1 , Display BoardL-6-15 Tn-color lEOA-45-54 1 K-ohm Y2-wall resistors

Circuit Board B-2 Control UnitA-55 1.5 K-ohm Y:z-watt resistorA-56 1 K-ohm 1h-watt resistor

IC·7 555 timer IeIe-a 4017 decade counter IeC-S , 6 .01 uf disc ceramic capacitorC-7 4.7 uf electrolytic capacitorR-57 5.6 K-ohm Y2-watt resistorR·58 33 K-ohm Y2-watt resistor0-15 2N2222 transistorQ· 16 2SC945transistor

Miscellaneous Parts:Project BoxA.C. Line CordFuseFuseholderPC BoardElchantBarrier StripKnobsCable Connector

Box ConnectorDry TransfersFour strands of mini Xmas tree lights, series wired.18 gauge stranded hook-Up wiresolder

#-273-1384#272· 1022

#276-1161#276-1770

#274-657

#271-1321#271 -1324#271-1335#276· 1617#275·1304

#275-1545#276-1620

#276· 1622#271 ·211

#271-009

#271-017

#271-014

#275-324#276· 1723#-276-2417#276-1000

#276· 134#272-131#272-1024

#276-035#271 -023

#271-025

#-271-023

#276-1723#276-2417#272-131#272-1024

#271 -031

#271 -7341#276-1617#276-2051

*270-253#278-1255#-270-1277

#270-365

#276-1590

#276-1535#274-679#274-423#274-207

#274-209

#-276-1577

ClNEMAG/C # 17 2

7/28/2019 Cinemagic #17 (1982)


CINEMAGIC/SVA

SHORT FILM SEARCH

CONTEST RULES

CINEMAGIC and New York's prestigious School of

Visual Arts announce the fourth annual competition

for science fiction, horror and fantasy filmmakers.

EUGIBIUTY-Anyone can submi t an

original film. no matter what their de-

gree of experience or professionality.

Independent groups, school classes

and semi-pros are encouraged to en

ter, but only olle film can be entered

from any group or individual- s o pick

your best. The film must have been

completed within the past three yea rs('80, '81. '82).

TECHNICAL REQ(JJREMENTS

Super-S or 16mm film formats

only-using live action, animation or

any comb ination of special effects

techniques -s ilent or sound (obvi

ously sound is desirable, .....ia op tica l or

magnetic track on film , or separate

cassette with clear sync marks and

instructions}--projection speeds of 18

or 24 frames per second-co lor or

black and white. Films shot originallyin Regular-B should be blown-up to

Super-B. Producers usin g special

lenses (such as anamorphic) must be

prepared to supply a screening lens

for the judges. if requested. Any other

technical questions that arise should

be submitted to CINEMAGIC. Your

film should be no longer than 15

minutes.

YJDEO-A special category for origi

nal video productions is being offered

this year as an experiment to determine interest in the medium. Original

video productions no longer than 15

minutes in length will be acceptable.

One prize will be awarded for Best

Original Video Production. Format is

limited to VHS or Beta II.

SUBJECT REQUIREMENTS-AII en

tries must deal with science fiction,

fantasy or horror su bjects , or any

combination of these catagories ,

24 ClNEMAG/C # 17

•

Sleven Spielberg al age 15 dOing hiS fI miniaturewa ll is lo l llld vol,lng Splelbergs onlhelf waV up and promole their lalents, 11 I winningCINEMAGIC/SVA Shun Film Search. Iwo filmmakers have been Signed 10 developmclII deals

RIGHTS AND CLEARANCES-For you can. The use of unoriginal mate

judging purposes, the more original rial will not affect prize eligibility at all,

the elements of your film. the better. but it could affect follow-up uses of

We are searching to discover new ta- your film in comme rcial outlets.

lent on the way up-not just those

who can sn ip an d lift elements from PROTECTING VOURSElF-A11 en-

1V and other sources. Which is not to tries should display a copyright notice

say that you cannot use, for exa m ple, (e .g. © 19B2 Overclutch Films) in the

library music. stock film dips, etc.- end title frame. PRIZES AND

7/28/2019 Cinemagic #17 (1982)


Right IlM ammato f Phil

TipPit ana' Acaa'emyAward winning makeupartist Rid Baker lake a

lunch break on location inthen early days In l!IiB.

when they were working

on Dave Allen's Raiders of

the Stone Ring.

AWARDS -Unique Short Film SearchTroph ies will be awarded to prize

winners-one per Fi lm- in both

Super--8 and 16mm categories as

well as merchandise prizes donated by

film service companies and manufac

turers. You should be aware that pro

fessional producers and other working

tilmmakers will be viewing your film

both during the judging process and.if selected, during the awards cere

monies. As a direct result of past sc

reenings. two ClNEMAGIC/SVA win

ners have been signed to development deals by area producers. Ad

ditionaly. winning films will be featured

in special articles in CINEMAGIC

magazine, as welt as other possible

outlets receiving nationwide exposure.

Prizes awarded in 16mm and Super-8

will be Grand Prize. First Prize. Second

Prize and Third Prize. At their discre

tion the judges may award Honorable

Mention prizes for outstanding creativ

ity.

JUDGING-AII films will be screenedand pre-judged by a panel from the

Film Department of the School of Vis-

ual Arts. This panel will select the

finalists, which then will be re

screened for a second panel of udges.

The finalist judges will select the win

ners that will be announced during the

Awards Presentation and Screening.

Each film will receive a rating card in

the prelimina ry screening and will be

DenniS Muren takes a light readmg on loca ti on In

1!IiB forDave Allen's Raiders

ofrhe Slone Ring

.

Muren IS now a SPFX cameraman at ILM

DEADLINE FOR FILM ENTRIES: Friday, October I, 1962

,FILM CONTEST SCHEDULE,Preliminary Screening and Scoring ........................................ October 6, 1982

Finalist Judging .......................................................................... October I I . 1982

Finalist Notifications .................................................................. October 13 , 1982

Awards Presentation and Screening .................................. November 1. 1982

Non-finalist films and score cards returned ....................November 8. 1982

Finalists entries returned with prizes ................................. December 3, 1982

scored in the following catagories: 1)

Script. 2) Direction and Technique, 3)

Visuals 4) Sound and Music, 5) Imagi

nation (, Originality, 6) Overall impact.

This rating card will be returned with

film after the Awards Night Sc reening.

AWARDS PRESENTATION-A special sc reening of selected award win

ners and presentation of trophies willbe held at the Bay Cinema theatre, lo

cated on the corner of 34th S1. an d2nd Ave. in Manhattan on Monday,November I , 1982. Admiss ion is free

of charge. Science fiction and fantasyfi lmmaking celebrities will be on handto greet the winners, but filmmakersneed not be present in ord er to win. Allfinalists wi ll be notified in advance andpersonally invited to attend.

ENTERING YOUR FILM-A $5.00 fee

is required for each entry and should

be sent via check or money order(drawn to SVA /Search) along with

you r film. sound track cassette (ifseparate) and official entry form-all

in one package. Everything should be

securely packed in a padded mailingenvelope Of fiber film case and in-

sured for your own protection, Mark

each reel. can and box wi th the official

name and address of the entering

producer. pl us the name of the f i lmto avoid our misplacing a piece of

your package amid what will no doubt

be a pile of entries. Your entry fee willcover costs of return packing. postage

and insurance from SVA. We suggest

your film be shipped either via UPS or

Priority Mail.

Send film entries to:

SVNSearch209 East 23rd St.

New York. NY 10010

AIT: Susan Levine

Send correspondence to:

ClNEMAGIC/Search475 Park Avenue South

New York. NY 10016

For Entry FormsFor your copy of the offical rules and the

official entry form. which musl accompany

your film. send a self·addressed stamped

enve lope (business 'i o size) to:

ClNE.M.AGIC/SVA Short Film Search

'982

475 Park Avenue South

New York. NY 10016

ClN£MAGfC #- 17 25

7/28/2019 Cinemagic #17 (1982)


Producers '

BULLETIN BOARDPlease forward annOW1Cements 0( 11m projects in current

produc!lon or near completion /0 ; QNEMAO/C clo

Q<Quinn Studios. Inc., 475 PlIrk Avenue South. New Yor!t,

NY 10016. Please include tI photograph of some phase ofthe produdlon if possible.

Prehisterra. A group of teenagers discover a lost world in

another dimension. An old magician helps them to find a trea

sure with his super powers in this prehistoric land inhabited bydinosaurs. Producer: Multimagic Productions. Director/Writer/

FX: Frederic Dl Nardo. FX include: stop-motion animation with

live action, front projection, rear projection. miniature sets, eel

animation, matte paintings. perspective effects and double

exposures. Super-B. color, stereophonic sound. Running time:85 minutes. (Frooeric Oi Nardo. 54 Avenue de la Uberte,94700 Maisons-Alfort. France.)

Hel l Sp awn . A creature from the depths of hell comes to the

surface and creates murder and mayhem. A lone man sets out

to destroy the creature after his wife. among others. is brutally

and graphically murdered. He tracks the creature through the

woods and succeeds in immobilizing it with a firebomb. Asdawn breaks and the man is walking home a thought occurs to

him: Are there any more such creatures? Surprise ending.

Producer/Director/WriterJFX; Larry Heffer. FX include: ex·

ploding head, guttings, blood effects and mattes. Super-B,

color. sound. Running time: 15 minutes. (Dragon Film Studios.c/ o Larry Heffer. 2501 Corning Ave. #1. Fort Washington. MD

20774.)

Starbattle: 2580. The year is 2580. The inhabitants of Earth

discover a galaxy that is being subjugated by the Armagons. arace of terrible militaristic creatures. The people of Earth form

the Intergalactic Guardian Force to help free the Galaxy's

people from the iron rule of the Armagons. but are they strongenough? Producer/Director: Phil Longhi. Writer: Keith

O·Connell. FX: Joe Cook. FX include: lasers. explosions. animplosion and several original spacecraft designs. Super.B,color. narration on separate cassette. Running time: not estab

lished. In preproduction. (LO.C. Studios. clo Phillip Longhi.259 Standish Ave . Plymouth. MA 02360.)

The Den. Four young men, wrongfully

accused of many crimes on an unjustworld. steal a spaceship and escape the

system's defenses. Forced down be·cause of mechanical failure, the men

discover a planet of killer plants. harsh

elements and savage creatures with a

taste for human flesh. Producer:Gemini Film Productions. Director/Writer!FX: Gary Stafford. FX

include: mattes. space battle sequences. double exposures.slop·motion animation. miniature sets and gore makeupeffects. Super.a. color. sound. Running time: 20-25 minutes.

(Gemini Film Productions. c/o Gary Stafford. 13503 E. Nevada

Ave . Aurora. CO 800 12.)

BaJtaT's Reveng e. Based on the popular Baltiestar

GalacUca series. Baltar develops a faster reacting. more

intelligent Cylon to wreck havoc on the Galactica. Producer!

Director! FX: Kevin Jones, assisted by Bill Sullivan and

George M·sadoques. Writer: Bill Sullivan. Cast: GeorgeM'sadoques, Bill Sullivan and Brian Snider. Regular-B. color

separate soundtrack on tape. Running time: 20-25 minutes.

(Galactic Enterprises. % Kevin Jones. B Shirley St,

Naugatuc. cr 06770.)

26 ClNEMAG/C # 17

The Wo nderful World of Nature. A comedyl fantasy!

surrealistic potpourri of everything you always wanted to seein a movie bu t were afraid to pay for: sketches. commercials,

vignettes, blackouts and a poorly synchronized soundtrack.

No plot to speak of. but rather a rambling, sweeping,

seemingly never·ending look at this modern wor ld of ours.Producers! Directors! Writers! Setsl Props! Costumes! FX/

Sound ' Cast: The Insane Society-Ned Davis, John Kugeand Nabil Tamer. FX include: stop-motion and cel animation,

pixilation. rotoscoping. stationary mattes. double exposures.explosions. miniatures, smoke FX, blood FX, subliminal

shots. full size sets, props, costumes and the Mormon

Tabemacle Choir in a glove compartment Super.B. color,

stereo cassette soundtrack. Running time: 25 minutes.Filmed on location in London, England. New York City.Washington, D.C. and in and around Miami, Aorida. (Ned

Davis. 6320 S.W. 50th St . Miami. FL 33155.)

400 Power. Fantasy adventure. Two

alien creatures battle for life and

death-<mly to be watched undemeath amicroscope by a human. Producer!Director! Writer/FX: Jeff Bloomer. FX

include: Ball and socket latex animation

models. double exposures and mattes.16mm. color. sound. Running time: 4

minutes. (Jeff Bloomer. 10359 Grafton,

Carleton, MI4BII7.)

The Gamblers . Comedy/Fantasy. The Da Rancho boys round

up some trouble when they enter a saloon for monkeys only.Producer: Cinema 22 Films. Director! Writer! FX: John

Manginaro. Cast: Yacco Lopez. A Montanez. F. Maginaro, D.

Montinez and Rebecca the Wonder Chimp. Super-B. B£:,W,

music soundtrack. (John Maginaro, 23-30 31 Rd., LI . City. NY

11106.)

Space: 1979 . Based on the lV series. Space: 1999, this film

- actually a pilot for a TV series. deals with the adventures of

the crew of Earth·s research base. Ariel. The base is located on

Triton. Neptune's largest moon. A strange ball of light shoots a

beam at Triton. hurling it out of orbit and the adventure begins!

Producerl Director! Writer! FX: Jeff Ruble. Costumes: Marjor ie

Ruble. Casting: Marjorie Ruble and Angela Buford. Technical

Advisor; Alan Tuskes. Cast: G.I. Joe dolls. Barbie dolls andR2·D2·s. FX include: Miniature Command Center and Eagle

interior sets, miniature of Ariel base. launch pad, launch bay,

Eagles and other ships. stop motion animation, laser FX. fades,

multiple exposures and mu ch more. Regular-B, co lor. musical

soundtrack. Running time: approximately 20 minutes. (Kent

Pictures Corp., % Jeff Ruble. 1293 Chelton Dr.. Kent, OH44240.)

Night of the Trees. Horror. A criminal from a distant

dimension who has hidden on Earth for many years disguised

as a teenager faces a problem: a murderous bounty hunter who

lives in the trees is closing in on him. How many more will die

before the hunter catches his game? And will he? Producer/

Director! Writer: Ramiel Sosa. Cameramen; Jose Sanchez and

Ramiel Sosa. Cast: Alex Lopez, Irving Sosa, Miguel Lopez. John

Augustine. Jesus "'Aaco" Veras. Edwin Tal/eras, Angela

Orerjuela and Carolyne Reyes. Makeup: Fernando Coronel.SFX and Stunt Coordinators: Karl Fransisco and Miguel Perez.

Running time: 15 minutes. (Fantasy Productions. clo Ramiel

Sosa. 104-23 3Bth Ave . Corona, NY 11368.)

7/28/2019 Cinemagic #17 (1982)


Destruction Factor. Koenig and Decker must race againsttime to destroy an uninhabited planet before it collides with aninhabited planel The mission goes like clockwork until amalfunction of Koenig's atomic explosive tums him into ablood thirsty mutant intent on killing his comrade. Producer:Cosmos Productions. Director/FX: Robert Johnston. CastRobert Johnston and Brian Jones. Super-B, color, silentRunning time; 15-20 minutes. (Robert Johnston, BuchansJunction, Newfoundland, AOH 1HO. Canada.)

Powers of th e SINe!" Mask. Museum curator Gary Marks

asks One Eye Johnson, a local adventurer, for help in findingthe fabled Silver Mask. Supposedly, the Silver Mask appears onan altar in the Sheridan Forest once every three years. Beforethey leave in search of it, One Eye Johnson explains to Markwhy he is called Une t:.ye , and tells of his earlier search for theancient artifact (the telling of this tale is done in flashbacks).Later. after finding the mask. Johnson and Marks realize thetruth about the powers of the Silver Mask. Producer: Carl Luthjohan for LB . Films. Director{Writer/FX/Editor: Don Smith, Jr.

Cameraman: Bruce Taggart. Props and Mask by: Carl Luthjohan. Cast; Don Smith, Carl Luthjohan, Mike Luthjohan, MarkColley and Bruce Taggart. FX include: scratched-on laser effects, mutilated corpse. laser blast hit to an eye (causing the eyeto fall out), gunshots and blood makeup. Based on Episode

One of the Amazing Adventures of One Eye Johnson. by DonSmith. Jr. Super-B. color, music soundtrack. Running time: 15minutes. (LB. Films, c/o Don Smith. Jr., 405 N. Front. Dowa·

giac, MI 49047.)

Starstruc::k. A sci · fi comedy spoof. Journey with CapL Owat AJerk and the rest of the crew of the starship "Boobyprize" asthey encounter the weirdest aliens ever assembled on thescreen. Producer/Director{Writer: Carlos Garcia. Cast; PeterCoston, Scott Silvani, Charlie Gross and Conrad Webley. FXinclude: starfield, miniatures, laser blasts and space sound ef·fects. Super-8. color, double track sound. Running time:

approximately 6 minutes. (Carlos Garcia. 162-59th St. Apl

#B5, West New York. NJ 07093.)

Bad Beach. Roberto Martinez portraysunknown horror to sunbathers and

beach co rnbers. Producer/Director/Writer/CameramanlFX : Brandon Rey-nolds. Cast: Roberto f.\artinez. Alan Wiley,

Annette Borba, Ron Chaffee, DaveBorba, Brandon Reynolds. FX include:smoke, false limbs, explosions, squib effects. underwa ter cinematography andslow motion. Super-B, color, sound.(Brandon Reynolds, 38771 Bell St, Apt

#29, Fremont 0 . 94536.)

The: Dream Factory. A young film student whose goal in life isto make the perfect film falls and goes crazy, and tries totake-over the air waves in New York City.

Producer!Dlrector{Writer: Adam B. Rabin. Animator: FuturoTram. Aaron Pinche!. Music: The Sirens and The DZ·s. EX

Inelude: animation with live action, dream sequences. 16mm,color, sync sound. Running time; 95 minutes. (Fly by NightProductions,c/o Adam Rab in,3 Washington PI., 4th Floor, NewYork. NY 10003.)

Grot Strikes Back, Grot, the spawn of intergalactic spacescum returns to Earth to destroy the humans who defeated i t

But an unseen occurrence changes its plans! Producer/Director! FX: Todd Miller. Models by Ross Miller. Cast of idiots!FX include: rear projection, stop motion. multiple exposures,miniatures and cockpit sequences. 16mm, color, silenLRunning time: 10 minutes. (Todd Miller, 914 Pinecrest,Richardson, TX 75080.)

The: PlL A strange and terrifying pit appears in a meadow. Agroup of young people descend into the depths of the pi t andencounter a horrifying ancient deity. Producer! Director: MikeMeteger. Writers: Mike Meteger and Bobby Shelden. Cast:

Bobby Shelden, Todd Drewry, Megan Meteger and EricGilmartin. FX include: Full size underground cavem sets,

mechanical and pyrotechnical effects. Super.8, color, sound.Running time: 15 minutes. (Mike Meteger. 650 Burtis. Sa nta

Barbara, CA 93111.)

The Dead. The film depicts the effect of George Romero'sZombie invasion on Sonoma County and one man's attempt to

survive. Producer! Director/ Writer! FX: Sean Mick. Cast: PeterPozniakoff, Mike T ant, Carl Darity and others. FX include: Latexappliances. Make-up and squib effects. Super-8, color, musicsoundtrack. RUnning time: lB minutes. (SM Productions, %Sean Mick, 626 Racquet Club Ct., Rohnert Park, CA 94928.)

Escape from Taravella, The Year is1993. J.P. Ta rave lla High School ha sbecome a maximum security prison forAmerica 's juvenile delinquents. Theentire complex is enclosed by a 15 ft.electrified fence. The grounds outsidethe school are mined. Incoming prisonerSpike Cobra is given an ultimatum: eitherstop the planned breakout or be killed by

the explosive devices planted in his body.A "serious" parody of Escape From New

York. Producer! Director/Writer: CharlesS. Vignola. Jr. Cast: Charlie Vignola, Jr .Cathy Cortez. Randy Sekula, Da'Jt Hays,

Frank Marando and Susan. Super-8, color, cassette sound.Running time: 18-20 minutes. (Fantasy f i lm Productions, c/oCharlie Vignola, p.o. Box 9135. Coral Spring, FL 33065.)

Quitting TIme:, John Jardine portrays a lone G.I. in the VietNam War. After being taken for dead by the enemy, he dreamsof his World War II experiences. Producer/Director{Writer:Brandon Reynolds. Cast: John Jardine and Brandon Reynolds.Cameramen: John Jardine and Brandon Reynolds. FX include:blood makeup. smoke FX and explOSions. Super-8, color,

sound. Running time: 20 minutes. (Brandon Reynolds, 3B771Bell St . Fremont, CA 94536. )

The Monsters Are: Coming. Six jolting tales of things thatgo bump in the night Producer: R.M.R. Productions. Director/Writer: Rodney Belle. Story ideas by Reggie Allen and MarkBelle. Uncast FX include: blood, gore FX, transformationsequences. special makeup fX and more. Looking for amakeup artist, contact me if you're interested. Super.8, color,sound. Running time: 90 minutes. (Rodney Belle. 1032Prospect S1.. Westfield, NJ 07090.)

The Severed Head. Satirical look at a low-budget moviecompany manned by various low-lifes who stumble upon asure-fi re box office bonanza and exploit it to the hill

Producer: MHFX Studios. Director: Mike Hutchison. Cast:John Morris. Tom Woodruff Jr . Mike Hutchison. Ron Morris.Paul Roman and Ed Morris. Super-B. color. sound. Runningtime: 20 minutes. (Mike Hutchison, 7620 N. EI Dorado St

I2B, Stockton. CA 95207.)

Checkmate, Hondol After a promotion, two space generalsare separated by political interests, but after dischargementthey come around full-cride. in an unexpected way.

Producer! Director/ Writer! FX: Clive Young. Cast: CliveYoung, James Smith, Keith Young and extras. fX include:miniatures, ex.plosions and space warp effects. In preproduction. Super-8, color, sound. Running time: 7-8 minutes.(Clive Young, 2 Detmer Ave . Tarrytown. NY 10591.) (Jf

CINEMAOIC #, 7 27

7/28/2019 Cinemagic #17 (1982)


COVER STOR Y

SECRETS OFGRAPHIC GORE

By JOHN DODS

Jolin DMS and [ ompanlOn prepare 10 slaftllle blood pumPIng lor The Deadly Spawn. Head cons11ucuon by A l n ~ d GargUilo

Ihope you've got a strong stamach

this article 's not for the squeamish, Wehad a tough job to do. Our victim was

actress EUssa Neil. Our assignment: rip her

face oU, decapitate her, and tear the fleshof f her skull. See what I mean?

Of course the blood was Karo syrup withvegetable dye and the flesh was plasti -soI-lo mention just three of the materillisused to create a woman's grisly demise forThe De<tdly Spawn, This article will tellyou how we did it and other stomachwrenching effects and illustrate how a sev-ered head construction was mi!llde (for amere $30.00),

28 ONEMAGIC /I 17

This is wha t we had to shoot; A womandescends the stairs to hcr b a ~ m c n l Shcis looking for her husband (the audienceknows that he has been viciously attackedby a large creature but doesn't know if heis dead) . The woman sees nothing, Shemoves through an archway to the dark

side of the basement There is a gurgUngsound at her feet and she looks down tosee a dark red liquid sucked up by the floordrain. As she takes a s1ep back a handcomes down on her shoulder. Startled , she

jerks her head to see that it is only herhusband's hand. Her relief turns to honoras she turns to discover that It is indeed

only her husband 's hand-and a r m ~ xtcn ding from thc mouth of a terrifying

monster, She backs away screaming andthe monster follows her-gulping downthe hand as it approaches, The woman

backs against the wall; there is nowhereelse for her to go. The monster comescloser-its jaws opening wide_The womanscreams as the weight of the creaturesmashes her head against the brick wall,The thing bites her face. She frantica lly hitsat it and the monster pulls back; it takeshalf of her fa ce with i t The monster at·tacks again. As blood pours down thewoman's body we hear one final sc ream.

7/28/2019 Cinemagic #17 (1982)


/

Actress Elissa NElli was chosen to portray the mother In The Deadly Spawnlor her good looks and kna:ck for naturalistic acting Her beauty lasts nolonger than Ihe !i1m's first reel, however, as she becomes one of the mother

spawns first meals on Ealll!

Her lace has become snaclc food for an allen. Ihe mothel sneams for herlife. Hele. Elissa Nell displays Arnold GargUilo's m a ~ e u p - h o l d i l l g helmouth open to aVl)d wrinkling 01 the foam appliance.

tn a taler scene the dead woman's

son-suspecting nothing-sneaks to the

basement intending to scare the electri-

cian with a scary mask. The electrician is

found dead-half ea ten by dozens of new-born baby monsters. In the jaws of the

molherspawn the boy sees a large hairybal!; it falls from the creature"s mouth androlls to the boy's feet-face up. It is his

mother's head; blood stil! flows from the

nose and mouth. The baby monsters feast.

pulling chunks of flesh from the head until

soon only a gory skull remains.In still another of The Deadly Spawn's

graphic moments the uncle in the film Is

diS(o¥ered to be a victim of the spawnhunger for human flesh. He is found as ahollow shell-eaten away inside; babyspawns are eating their way out through

his eyes-another emerges from thestomach,

Makeup MasteryThe tearing of the woman's face was an

elaborate makeup effect devised bySpawn makeup supervisor Arnold Gar-guilo, What the mother monster was rip-ping away was foam rubber skin to revealyet another foam appliance beneath-rep

resenting bloody muscle and tissue. Ar-nold made a cast of the head of the actressusing alginate and plaster, This technique

is described in detail by Kirk Brady in

ClNEMAGIC #6 and by Craig Reardon in

Elissa NllIllsn't eallng her lunch as Arnold GargUilo does hiS best to make her look her worst The

olange In MISS Nell's mouth IS for her comforl; her mouth must remain open while Ihe foam apphance

IS applied The apphance was crealed In an open mouth POSition and could become creased andunstuck With Jaw movement

CJNEMAGIC # 17 29

II

I

7/28/2019 Cinemagic #17 (1982)


Top left: lhe mold lor the eyeball is made by pressing a I" diameter plastic ball Into Sculpey matenal. The ball IS removed and a hnger smooths themtellorsuffaCe With a 1!llIe cold cream. Top Right: Glass "moun ta in lion" puptls sell for about S5 per set (or les51 and are relatively human In appearance AbOll'I : Apupil IS pressed about ¥. of the way Into the deepest part 01 the Sculpey mold

ONEMAGIC II 12. From this negative im

pression Arnold produced a positive

head-the actress· stand-in. so 10

speak-uslng Ultracal (30%) and plaster(70%). It was on this duplicate head that

Arnold sculpted the gorey hole left by the

monster. (Arnold uses Roma Plastilina clayIn the softer grades-#'s I and 2- for hissculpture work.) Arnold cast the finished

sculpture twice-once in Hydrocal and

once in alginate. The Hydrocal mold was

filled WIth foam rubber to produce the finished "hole in the face·· appliance that was

applied to the actress. The alginate mold

was used to help produce the false skin

that would be ripped from the hole in the

face appliance.

Taking the alginate impression he had

made of his sc ulpture (and the surrounding facial area) Arnold filled it with hydrocal

to produce a hard duplicate of the clay

30 ClNEMAGIC 11/7

sculpture. On this he fiUed in the gashes

with clay till the face was restored

smooth and unblemished. This rest()(ation

was cast in Hydrocal. Arnold then had twoHydrocal molds pertaining to the "normal

face ·' appliance: a positive of the slashed

face sculpture and a negative of the normal face S('ulp turp. HI' W'lnriwlrilf'd these

together after filling them with foam rubber

to produce the finished appliance; one with

a smooth topside and with an underside

that fi t exactly onto the gorey face

appliance that would be beneath it.Arnold attached the bottom layer

appliance using spirit gum. Tiny plastic

tubes from an aquarium supply were used

to pump stage blood on cue to the surface

of the appliance: the tubes were concealedin the actress' hair and run down her back

and out of frame where they were con

trolled by Arnold. The top layer appll.

ance-the normal skin layer-was at

tached With Duo Surgical Adhesive: this

was sele<:ted because it made a bond that

was not diff icult to tear apart. The

appliance was colored with rubber mask

grease paint

When the time came for Arnold to con·struct an artificial head of Elissa Neil. hefound some of his work already done; he

was able to utilize the plasterlhydrocal bust

once again as a stand-in for the actress.

But before the needed molds were made.the bust had to be modified. Wrth day. Ar·

nold carefully SCUlpted open lids around

the eyes (which of necessity were closed

when the original alginate mold was

made.) Also. detail inside the (open)

mouth was added and clarified and plaster

ears were replaced with clay ones to avoid

prob lems with "undercuts'· (this problem

is discussed In Kirk Brady 's article In

7/28/2019 Cinemagic #17 (1982)


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)'OUr copes 01 CINE MAGtC '"-<1nd-()O.J\ mdrvldually.while the melal rod binders hold your oopoes 01

CINEMAGIC together. 11I1aCI. Irlte a large book,

allowlng)'OU 10 re.af throug" ISSUe aller 'SSI.Ie III

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i SUBSCRIBER SERVICES

! Mi ss ing copies? Moving? Renewa ls?Receiving duplicate issues? Ques

ti ons about your subscript ion? Writedirectl y to :

CINEMAGICTop : Clear plastic reSin (by IASCO Co.lls cDior ed white with a lew drops 01 IASCO's DlgmentHardener is added per instructions before Ihe liquid IS poured slowly InlO the mold. Abll'll: Severalhours laler Ihe eye can be removed NO! a bad result for only a few dollars and a few hours

SubacrtberServices,P.O. Box 142Mt. Moms,I L 61054iNEMAGiC #6.) Thus altered. the bust

was coated with a releasing agent and cast

in ultracal-a very hard setting plaster-like

material. Arnold chose to produce the

positive head using a 3 layer construction:a thin coat of liquid latex was followed

(when dry) by a V4" layer of R&D foamla tex (cooked in an oven). IASCO's flexible

"Polyfoam" (self curing) filled the remain·

der of the cavity. The head was colored

with acrylic paint mixed with a plastisizer

(about I 02. of "$antidzer B· 16" by Monsanto Chemicals with 20 drops of plas

ticizer.) The plasticizer makes the acrylicmore flexible. Uquid latex can also be used

for this (and is perhaps better) though it

affects the color somewhat.For the shots where blood still trickles

through the mouth and nose of the dismembered head. plastic tubing (from the

local hardware store) was channeled

through the head's interior to desired

points near the surface. Blood flow was

controlled out of camera range by manu

ally pumping the liquid through small drug

store "ear syringes." The syringes thatwork best are the one piece kind; the type

with a removable nozzle tend to leak bloodat the point of attachment

Rubber may/ook like skin. but it doesn't

move or lear like skin--rt stretches too

much. However, IASCO's Plastisol does

tear very much like skin. So, using Arnold 'sUltraca! mold of Elissa Neil's face, I beganconstruction of what was to be a fairly

elaborate construction--one that would

withstand the camera's close scrutiny duro

NEWSUB SC RIBER SO NL Y:

Do not send

money and orderto the abo'le ad·d ress. Seesubscription adelsewhare Inttlls ISSUB .

LabelGo,,,Here

Subsc ript ion inqumes add ressed to

the edi torial o ff ices will only delay your

r request.

ing the shot in which the baby monsters I NAME

pull and tear the flesh off the severed head., :Plastisol comes as a white liquid. It is : ADDRESS

heated for about 15 minutes on a stovetop i ITY STATE

at low heat or until it turns clear. Plastisol L ________________________________ _

CiNEMAGIC flI7 3 1

7/28/2019 Cinemagic #17 (1982)


Top : Firs t make a container l or the atgma te matenal OUt 01 hin cardboard and maskng tape The container must cOffespon d to the shape 01 he tee th to bemolded AbO'l'e Lett : Alginate IS mixed With cold water (warm makes II se t too last) according to the ins tructions and immedia telv poured Into the containerAbO'l'I Righi: Set the contatner InlO the mOUlh and bite do wn. Don'l be alrald---lt's cheffy !Javo/ed (olher t1avors available) The alglna le tahs only twO 01

three rranutes to sel

pigments are added at thi s point and therap idly thickening liq u id is then im mediately poured into the well -greased(with castor oil) mold. When the Plastisol iscool. it is set and can be carefully removedfrom the mold . Cooling can be greatlyspeeded up by running cold water over thePlastisol (i ' the mold is open fa ced) or

sticking it into the freezer. Both these procedures do incorporate some risk of crack

ing 10 porous (p las ter-type) molds.Plastisol pigment se lection is very lim·

ited. 1was unable to get a good flesh color.so I se ttled for pink (white plus a tiny bit ofred) and went over the finished face cast

ing with theatrical makeup (rubber maskgrease paint seemed necessary to coverproperly). The soft grade Plastisol I usedtears very easily and occasional repairshad to be made. 1 ound " Crazy Glue" to bea good bonding agent and the Plas tisol

32 QNEMAG/C # 17

distributor teUs me; that their vinyl bondingcement should also work.

The basis for this construction wa s aninexpensive ($6.00) hobby sh op plasticskull. The teeth on the model were too irregular and monster-like to represent

those of a normlll person. I made molds ofmy own teeth and gums in alginate material and produced plastic positives in JetAcrylic dental resin. These were glued intothe plastic Jaw with 5 minute epoxy. Thin

foam rubber sheeting added a little goreybulk to the plastic bone. Acrylic pain t(mostly red) colored the gore and thegums. Veins were fashioned out of Sculpey

material . baked in the oven. painted purpleand attached with crazy gtue. A realisticeye (Schoepfer Eyes. 138 West 31 st St .New York Ci ty 10001 selling for about$100.00 pair) made it a successful illusion.

Glass eye s are expensive. but there is a

low budget alternative that looks good. For

about $5 .00 per pair you can make yourown eye s utilizing the glass pupils sold bytaxidermist suppliers (like J.W. ElwoodSupply Co . 1202 Howard. Box 3507.

Omaha. Nebraska 6 8 1 0 3 ~ A mold is created by press ing a ] -inch l'liamfOter plasticball into Sc ulpey material (hard day canalso be used ): the glass pupil (I have used"mountai n lion" size 16) is pressed into

the mold and the mold is fi lled wi th plasticresin tinted white (resin and pigments fromIASCD Co.). In a few hours the eye CiO be

removed from the mold. Glass animal eyesare hand painted and their quality will vary

greatly with the ability of the artist--a difference not ne<:essarily connected to the

price of the eye . So shop aroundl

The spawn-in fested human shell that isdiscovered by 1I group of horrified teenagers was another Garguilo creation. At -

7/28/2019 Cinemagic #17 (1982)


Top lift : Alginate 1 $ l a l g ~ y water and starts \0 shunk la lrly soon, so the posItive must be made Immediately Top Righi : Denial acrylic (a twO pan krill! m l ~ e daccording to the direct!ons and poured Into the alglnale mold. The acrylic Slans TO thicken very rapidly Above : The resull can be removed in several hours,ready to be Installed In Ihe plasue skull WIth five-rmnute epoxy

nold produced It hollow, hard plastic

duplicllte of actor John 5<;hmirling's front

torso through the back of which spawnpuppeteers controlled baby monsters inthe eyes and stomach. Arnold made alginate castings of Schmlrling's upper fronthalf (which is all the camera was going tosee) in separate sections for the chest,face. and arms. Plaster positives were im

mediately made from the molds; whenthese positive body sections were done,

Arnold pieced them logether using mO(e

plaster to produce a duplicate Schmirling.This was only the actor's double for theremaining casting procedure and was not

seen in the film. Arnold covered the plaster

double with many layers of iquid latex untile thickness of about Y." was achieved(this took several days.) The dried latexcovering was given a "mother mold" made

out of Pariscraft plaster bandages. When

the mother mold was hard It was temporarily removed from the rubber in Ofder tofacilitate removal of the rubber from the

duplicate Schmirling. Once the rubbermold was off it was placed back in the rigidmother mold. Finally. the plastic Schmirling was made using D-A Monzini 4555with 3254 hardener by Adhesive ProductsCorp. The hardener and plastic resin are

mixed together and then the thick mixtureis applied to the interior surface of the rub

ber mold. It takes 10 minutes to harden.

Arnold finished the plastic cast with acry

lic paint. makeup. and hair matched to theactor's color.

Tricks Of The TradeIn our quest to send audiences scream

Ing from movie theaters, we stumbled on a

few things that may be useful to those withsimilar ambitions.

As long as horror film victims bleedthere will be a use for the Black and Decker hand pump--or as we called it- ' "The

Blood Pump:' This is a compact unit designed for use in siphoning gas tanks andauto radiators. We used it to make peopleand monsters bleed. It comes with 2V4-

inch hoses attached to the pump. Wewould put one hose into a gallon of stageblood: the other one went wherever wewanted blood to come ou t of. A hand

crank governs the blood f low-faster

cranking for more, slower for less. The

Black and DKker pump sells for abouts 15.00. I got mine at a Channel Lumber

store--automotive supply department

You can find as many recipes fO( making blood as you can for baking cake. We

had different mixtures for different pur

l'QSes---a1l of them based on our idea that

Tile Deadly Spawn was a show. not a

ONEMAGfC If 17 33

7/28/2019 Cinemagic #17 (1982)


An inexpensIVe hobby store plastrc skull 0 I J ~was the basrs for the severed head construction

The teet l l - jagged and deforme d-couldn't be

those of a beautrf ul woman and had to be

replaced

CineMagic

Te elh . eVes and verns In place. V",,, ",,,,of Sculpey ma t erial. Sculpev was 1

then f ormed Int o ··road map·· shapes before

berng baked In an oven to halden Su per glue

was the adhesive Patches of foam rubber were

added flesh to the skull

documentary. Accordingly, strict realismgave way to dramatic exaggeration; our

blood was darker; thicker, and redder (notto mention more abundant) than it wouldhave been had we been making a seriousdrama . To make a thick blood-as if

somewhat cDagulated-blood that tendsto stay where you put it---heat water on thestove to below boiling. Mix separately cornstarch with cold water (it won't mix into hot

water---it just lumps up.) When the cornstarch and water are thoroughly blended.

add the mixture to the hot water and stirslowly till it thickens. Use roughly I cup of

corn starch per quart of water. If it gets too

thick just water it down. Add red vegetabledye at any point in this process. If you continue to add starch solution eventually theblood will thicken into chucky "gore ··- in

itself a useful thing to have on hand whenyou 're shooting with graphic gore. (J/

L.ook for effects artist John Dods in thenext issue of ClNEMAGIC where he reveals what sort of a creature created all thisgruesome gore in ·'Making Monsters "·

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7/28/2019 Cinemagic #17 (1982)


7/28/2019 Cinemagic #17 (1982)


SPEC IAL EFFECTS. Vol. 1See the -amazing world of miniatures and model

animation-from King Kong to Ray Harryhausen and TV'sLand Of The Lost. Spedal blueprint section includes: the

Nautilus from 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, Robby theRobot, the C-57D flying saucer from Forbidden Planet.Behind-the-scenes color photos from Battlester:Ga/aetica, Space: 1999, The Lost Saucer and SF classicslike Close Encounters, Flight To Mars, Thunderbirds, Warof the Worlds, Star Trek . .. more!

SPECIA L EFFECTS, Vol. 2Exclusive interviews with masters of matte painting.

effects, make-up and cel anima tion . A festival of effectsfilms from space epics to splaner movies-pictured in

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Cinemagic #17 (1982)