CineSavant Column
Hello, and Happy D-Day!
Anybody out there hiding old home movies in their closet, from when we were teenagers and were convinced we’d all become film directors?
This link to a disc release on the way was circulated by Joe Dante, who added the cogent comment, “I sure hope nobody uncovers MY student films!”
The link is to a Blu-ray offering of The Adam Rifkin Film Festival, the director’s compilation of his own potentially humiliating teen-amateur pix, all preserved for posterity. Either he’s just honest and forthcoming, or this is part of a restitution deal he’s made to get into heaven . . . that’s what it would take to get me to show everything I filmed back in the Bad Teen Home Movie capital of the world, San Bernardino, California. Hey, no fair, I made a film called ‘Armageddon’ too … The website has an amusing video sampler attached.
I’ve begun digitizing my old 8mm and Super 8 pix; the biggest problem is when the 60 year-old tape splices, not done very well to begin with, fall apart in the digitizer. But hey, there were a couple of images I wasn’t ashamed of, that I posted here — although the film in question was really from my college dorm, not my teen years. ↓
Way back in 2005 I reviewed a DVD release called Monster Kid Home Movies, a compilation of 8mm fun from the likes of Bob Burns, Gary Gammill, Frank Dietz and (gasp) Tom Weaver. Who says that All You Need to Make a Movie is a Girl and a Gun? The subject matter here is rubber monster masks and claymation dinosaurs, filmed mostly in back yards. The disc producer was Joe Busam, who afterwards invited me to send in one of MY home movies. Boy, did that throw a scare into me — you’d think I was going to be sent to prison. These guys have more nerve than me.
And we follow up with what at the CineSavant Column passes for a gala photo feature!
Researcher & Advisor Gary Teetzel sent along these images from the Monsterpalooza convention over the weekend. He always comes back with interesting items, and the most fun is seeing him pose with every celebrity on the planet — any actress that takes her picture with him, goes up a few notches in my esteem. They all seem to be having as much fun as Gary, too.
← Anyway, this time around one of Gary’s snaps was of a Monsterpalooza display with an Invaders from Mars theme. That of course got my attention . . . I love those big velour Mutants, that always looked as if they could have been called The Invasion of the Pajama People, from the planet Sleepytime. I rather expected this bruiser to be more greenish in color, but who’s complaining?
→ Number two is not a miniature of the ancient Aurora Frankenstein plastic model kit, but a full-sized figure with giant props, like the oversized Testors paint bottle and glue tube. Fooled me; I kind of wish that something normal-sized was in the photo, to show its real scale.
← Number three is a pair of Cosplay folk, their theme being Creepshow. They look great to me; Gary has a whole history of bizarre outfits, makeups, etc., in his convention Cosplay photo history.
↓ According to Gary’s notes the last photo is a full diorama in bronze, of Ray Harryhausen directing the Cyclops & Dragon fight from 7th Voyage of Sinbad.
All 4 of these photos can be enlarged quite a bit, either zoomed or opened in a new window.
Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson