Wednesday, May 31, 2023

SLIPSTREAM (2005) -- movie review by porfle


 

(NOTE: This was one of my first reviews from back in 2005 when I loved recapping the plots to movies in detail,  so there are a lot of spoilers here.)

 

There are plenty of time-travel stories about people going back hundreds, even thousands of years into the past.  But ten minutes?  If you think about it, this could come in quite handy in a wide range of day-to-day situations. 

You could win arguments, say just the right things to people you want to impress, avoid a variety of mishaps, missteps, and mistakes, or -- as Stuart Conway, inventor of The Slipstream Device, seems to have noticed -- you could cash the same paycheck over and over.

Stuart (Sean Astin, LORD OF THE RINGS) doesn't seem like a particularly dishonest person, but as SLIPSTREAM (2005) begins, we find that the beyond-top-secret government research agency that this beyond-intelligent-physicist is working for has cut the funding on his pet project and stuck him in a back room out of everyone's way. 

So, well, he's feeling a bit underappreciated lately, and decides to prove the validity of his theories on time travel by using his new invention, a "poly-dimensional translocation device" (which looks a lot like a cell phone) to cash his latest paycheck as many times as he wants to. 

So there he is, standing at the teller's window at the bank, trying in his worst beyond-super-geek way to sweet-talk the bank clerk he has a crush on, when a particular observation he makes about the highly distracting properties of her low-cut blouse prompts her to pick up the decaf, non-fat, soy concoction she's been sipping and hurl it right at his face. 

Reflexively, he whips out his Slipstream Device and pushes a button.  The liquid slows to a snail's pace and then freezes in mid-air.  Then it begins to retrace its path back into her cup.  Time suddenly zips backward ten minutes -- and their encounter is now at its starting point again.  Cool! he thinks giddily.  While she's counting out my money again, I'll have another chance to shower her with suave witticisms!

Suddenly the doors to the bank fly open and in bursts a band of armed bank robbers, a motley assortment of scruffy, lower-class Brits led by Winston Briggs (Vinnie Jones) and his punky fiancee of twelve years, Gillian (Victoria Bartlett), who are extreme movie fans and fancy themselves as either Bonnie and Clyde or Butch and Sundance according to the situation.  And the situation gets a lot tenser when two FBI agents who have been keeping Stuart under surveillance whip out their guns. 

At first it's a standoff, but in no time there's a heap o' lead flying around, and one of the slugs catches Stuart right in the chest.  The robbers take the money and run.  Agent Sarah Tanner (Ivana Milicevic, CASINO ROYALE) rushes to Stuart's aid.  He tells her to pick up the device and press the button, which she does. 

In a flash, it's ten minutes earlier and Sarah is back standing with her partner Jake (Kevin Otto) before the robbery.  Since she was holding the device when it was activated, she is aware of the time-jump and is understandably flabbergasted.  She looks at Stuart, then at the clock, and realizes that a bank robbery is about to occur.

Or reoccur, that is.  This time there's even more shooting, and things go even more wrong.  Jake runs outside in pursuit of the fleeing bank robbers, and is shot dead as they escape.  Sarah is stricken with grief because she's in love with Jake -- they've even been perusing the classifieds for a nice house to move into together -- and it dawns on her that if Stuart is able to turn back the clock ten minutes, he can save Jake's life. 

One problem, though -- the bank robbers have The Slipstream Device!  And if she and Stuart don't get it back within ten minutes, they won't be able to go back in time far enough to save Jake!

And that's just the start of it!  (Pardon me while I catch my breath.)  Briggs and his gang have a freeway crack-up in their van and end up taking a busload of people hostage.  Sarah and Stuart try to get on the bus, but Briggs shoots Stuart -- again.  So Sarah has to tell him about the device in order to be able to use it to save Stuart.  Briggs thinks this would be a great way to rob the same bank over and over.  When the chopper he's demanded arrives, he and Gillian rig the bus to explode and take off with their gang and Stuart in tow. 

Fast-forward a bit (we can do that, even if Stuart can't) and we find Briggs and Stuart on an airplane headed out of the country.  Sarah has managed to board the same plane.  She gets The Slipstream Device away from Briggs, but it is broken in the struggle.  Briggs would rather die than be caught, so he shoots out a window, and the sudden decompression causes the plane to go into a dive. 

The pilots try their best to pull out, but there's a really big mountain in their windscreen, and it's getting bigger and bigger.  To make things worse, a stewardess whacks Briggs over the head with a fire extinguisher while he's pointing his gun at Sarah, causing him to shoot her at point blank range.  Sarah goes down, dead.  The plane hits the mountain.

As you can see, a lot happens in this movie, and most of it is pretty entertaining.  It's a bit derivative at times -- the bank sequence reminded me a lot of an old OUTER LIMITS episode with Barry Morse, Grace Lee Whitney, and Carroll O'Connor called "Controlled Experiment", in which a woman shoots her husband in a fit of jealousy and a Martian who has come to Earth to study the act of murder uses a device to replay the event backwards, forwards, in slow-motion, etc., and the climax owes a bit to 1964's THE TIME TRAVELERS, although I have no idea whether or not the filmmakers have seen it. 

But there's also a great deal of inventiveness going on here.  David van Eyssen throws everything but the kitchen sink into his directing style at times, especially in the bank shoot-outs that get wilder and more dizzyingly cinematic (though a bit overdone) with every ten-minute replay.  The final moments aboard the airplane are nice -- time stands still, or is slowed down and extended so that we're able to appreciate the effects that certain actions or events have on the characters at crucial instances, and then images begin to flash by and become almost subliminal impressions rushing toward the inevitable conclusion. 

The actors are all very good in their roles, so much so that you even begin to care about the bad guys (Vinnie Jones and Victoria Bartlett make a lovely couple).  Sean Astin and Ivana Milicevic are appealing leads.  The musical score by Rob Lord is outstanding. 

This isn't a great film by any means, but it's definitely a thought-provoking, action-packed good time.  Ten minutes after it was over, I pressed the button on my poly-dimensional translocation device (okay, my DVD player) and watched it again.



Tuesday, May 30, 2023

THE CHRISTINE CONRADT INTERVIEW

 

(This interview originally appeared online in 2005 at Bumscorner.com.)

 

When she's not playing a flesh-eating ghoul as in the upcoming zombiefest LAST RITES, she turns out screenplays for wicked flicks such as GHETTO DAWG 2:OUT OF THE PITS and A KILLER UPSTAIRS. She's the talented and prolific CHRISTINE CONRADT, and she just gave us the lowdown on all sorts of cool movie-type stuff!

Christine Conradt has won the Marguerite Roberts Screenwriting Award and placed seventh in the internationally recognized Writer's Digest Writing Competition. In addition to working as a reader and consultant, covering more than 200 screenplays and novels for small production and distribution companies, she also finds time to write numerous screenplays of her own, many of which have been turned into feature films. Two of these, GHETTO DAWG 2:OUT OF THE PITS (one of my favorite films of the year) and A KILLER UPSTAIRS, have just been released on DVD.

Christine recently made some time in her busy schedule to sit down and talk to us Bums about ghetto dawgs, serial killers, zombies...all sorts of neat stuff!


porfle: What led you to explore the subject matter of GHETTO DAWG 2?

Christine: I was actually approached by a friend of mine who was attached to direct GD2. Integration Entertainment wanted him to write the script and direct the film, but he was in the middle of another project and didn't have time to write the script, so he called me and asked me to meet with the producers.
I hit it off with them and wrote a draft. As it turned out, some things changed, and my friend didn't end up directing it... but I was impressed with what the Crook Brothers did. When I saw the rough cut, I emailed the producers at Integration and told them that I thought the directors -- and the cast-- did a really good job.


porfle: How did you achieve such realism in the dialogue and overall atmosphere?

Christine: I wasn't on the set when it shot in New York, but I can tell you that the most of the dialogue was changed by the actors and/or directors. They took what was on the page and really made it their own. I don't know how much was ad-libbed and how much direction the actors were given, but that gritty, realistic feel comes from them taking lines on a page and saying them the way they would say them -- or the way they feel their characters would say them.



porfle: So the filmmakers didn't always stick that closely to the script?

Christine: There was a lot of improvisation. The amount of improvisation is really up to a director and the producers... I've worked with other directors and producers that go over dialogue so closely before shooting that if the actor changes a line, they do another take and ask the actor to say the line as written. Some don't operate that way... On a low budget like this too, a lot of times the dialogue needs to change based on locations that you don't anticipate having during the writing phase, or the lack of locations you thought you'd get.



porfle: Were you directly involved in the making of the film?

Christine: No.



porfle: The original title was CHERRY. What does this refer to?

Christine: For a brief amount of time, it looked like funding for GD2 wasn't going to happen. At that point, the producers and I worked out a deal where I could shop the script myself to other production companies as a spec. So I retitled it 'Cherry' since
GD2 was a title Integration had. Before it could sell, funding came through and Integration ended up making it as GD2. It's not in the movie, but the dog's name was 'Cherry.' It was also a double entendre... Donte was cherry (a virgin) until he finally brought himself to pull the trigger.



porfle: Was this a spec script that was seen as a potential sequel to GHETTO DAWG? Or did you write it specifically as a sequel to that film?

Christine: When the producers at Integration and I sat down to talk about the project... they told me they wanted a sequel to Ghetto Dawg but they wanted entirely new actors, a new story, and no relation to the original-- except the title of course, and the same "feel." So I watched Ghetto Dawg to get a sense of what kind of film it was, and then wrote from scratch.


porfle: Certain scenes have a Martin Scorcese vibe to them.  Were you influenced by his films while writing GD2?

Christine: I wasn't specifically influenced by Scorsese during the writing... I think much of the scenes you refer to are a product of what the directors did with the script. That comes much more from the Crook brothers than it does from me.



porfle: (SPOILER) I love the last shot before the fade-out -- Big Daddy shoots an index finger at the unfortunate Donte with a self-satisfied smirk as Tyrone's dog sits beside him, and life in the pits goes on. Did you ever have an alternate, less downbeat ending in mind?

Christine: Actually, the end of the movie is different from what I put in the script. In the script, Cherry actually dies, Donte is arrested (like he is now), and Brynn doesn't get away. Angel's thug finds her and kills her. So the ending you see in the movie -- while still a downer -- is much more uplifting than the one I came up with.



porfle: Do you see yourself exploring this territory again in the future? Or is GD2 your final word on the subject?

Christine: Actually, I'm in negotiations right now to do a theatrical feature that is also a gang drama. I can't talk about it yet, but it's being directed and produced by an extremely talented music video director named Geo Santini. I would love to talk to you more about it once all the deals are in place and I am allowed to speak about it publicly. It has a very gritty, dirty RESERVOIR DOGS feel to it and I think it will be a terrific film.



porfle: When not writing urban dramas, you specialize in thrillers. What got you interested in the genre?

Christine: I actually love thrillers and horrors most... I am a big fan of the Law & Order series and Ann Rule books. I'm fascinated by the psychology of serial killers, so I think it was natural I would gravitate toward that genre.



porfle: Do you miss the days of the thriller anthology series on television ("Alfred Hitchcock Presents", "The Twilight Zone", etc.), as an outlet for talented writers?

Christine: I grew up on those shows and can attribute many sleepless nights as a child to Alfred Hitchock!
I do miss them... but I think there's much more opportunity now for talented writers to showcase themselves. With 200 television channels and the ability to make movies for so much cheaper on digital, if you have a great thriller with an original twist, there is definitely a way to get it in front of an audience.


porfle: You wrote A KILLER UPSTAIRS, which was just released on DVD, for the Lifetime Channel. Did the finished product turn out as you envisioned it?

Christine: Yes... actually AKU was my first project for Lifetime although I worked with the same producers on A Perfect Nanny for USA a few years back. The producers are very involved in the development process and we spend hours hashing out every detail from dialogue changes to blocking as the script is being written, so there are no surprises on those films.

It's always a thrill for me to see the finished product though... because even when you see photos of the location and meet the actors and all of that, it's still never quite the same as you envision it in your head.


porfle: How did you end up playing a zombie in the upcoming horror film LAST RITES, in which two rival street gangs must join forces against an army of flesh-eating ghouls?

Christine: Well... a fellow USC Film School grad and very good friend of mine (Todd Ocvirk-- who co-directed a film titled KOLOBOS which is somewhat of a cult classic now) is co-producing LAST RITES. In film school, there were only 5 girls in my class, so when it came time for everyone to find actors for their student films, there weren't many female leads to choose from so I got asked a lot. During our sophomore year, Todd made a kick-ass zombie movie and I was one of the zombies. When he was getting ready to shoot LAST RITES, he called me and asked me if I wanted to play a zombie 'for real' this time. I told him I'd love to and I showed up on the set and let the make up artists do their thing. I was in the middle of my own projects, so I was only on set for one day, but it was so much fun to stumble around in torn up clothes and spit up black gunk... I hope there's a sequel to LAST RITES so I can do it again!



porfle: Was this your first time in front of the camera?

Christine: No... I'd done several student films and I was actually an extra on The Bold & the Beautiful for a little while during the time I was in college. I enjoy acting. I'm a completely different person as soon as a camera is on me!



porfle: What was the makeup process like?

Christine: Wow. Crazy. The make up artists were so good, you'd think you were on the set of a studio film. It took about 2 hours to do hair and make up.
One make up artist spray painted my neck and hands and arms green while another one worked on applying make up on my face. Some of the other zombies are much more mutiliated than I was... I think they kind of wanted to keep the female zombies with a little bit of sex appeal (in a twisted way), so the guys ended up with the crazy teeth and holes in their faces. My hair is pretty long and when I sat down, the girl doing hair said, "I'm going to ruin your hair today."
And I told her to go for it. I ended up with the biggest, teased out hair style I've ever seen. It took me forever to get all the spray and stuff washed out.



porfle: One of the stars of LAST RITES is fan-favorite Reggie Bannister of the PHANTASM series. What was it like working with him?

Christine: Unfortunately because of my limited time on the set, I didn't have the chance to really get a sense of the leads and how they worked. Most of the time while they were blocking, the zombies were all refilling their mouths with what we called "zombie juice."



porfle: Can you give us a preview of some of your upcoming projects?

Christine: I have several coming on Lifetime. A LOVER'S REVENGE just aired and may still be airing off and on. The one after that is called MURDER IN MY HOUSE starring Barbara Niven and Gary Hudson. I was actually invited to set in Canada as that one was filming, so I got to spend quite a bit of time getting to know the cast and crew. I think it will be really good, so I'm looking forward to that one coming out in early 2006. The one after that (A PERFECT MARRIAGE) is shooting right now and then I have two more in the works. I'm really excited about the upcoming gang drama which will hopefully go into production in Feb.
2006. I'm also working on a couple of spec scripts that I would like to co-produce myself.



porfle: What advice would you give to someone who aspires to writing screenplays for a living?

Christine: Well, my best advice would be to stick with it. I actually wrote an entire article for Tailslate.com about this very subject. Writing for film and T.V. is an extremely competitive industry, and it's easy to get discouraged. You have to really love what you're doing, and not care about the money, and I think that is key. People who get into it for the money, get out as soon as they realize that you can spend years starving while you're trying to sell that first script. I've been there... I actually took out a loan to live on for six months so that I could have time to write every day. That's a huge gamble, but in my case, it paid off. The script I wrote during that time never sold, but it got me A KILLER UPSTAIRS. Every writer has a different story of what worked for them, so you just have to find what works for you.



porfle: Thank you very much for speaking with us. We'll definitely be on the lookout for future films that feature your name in the credits!

Christine: You're very welcome.


Some of Christine Conradt's films that we've reviewed:

GHETTO DAWG 2: OUT OF THE PITS
A LOVER'S REVENGE
CHRISTIE'S REVENGE
HOTEL CALIFORNIA

Monday, May 29, 2023

THE MIKE CONWAY INTERVIEW, part two


[Note: this interview was originally done in June 2006.]

In part one of our interview, jack-of-all-trades indie filmmaker
MIKE CONWAY filled us in on the making of his sci-fi film, TERRARIUM (aka WAR OF THE PLANETS). This time, we get to find out what went on behind the scenes of his latest production about a genetically-engineered superwoman gone nuts, THE AWAKENING, which cost roughly one-fifth of the budget it took to film TERRARIUM while surpassing it in just about every way. How does this low-budget auteur do it? Let's find out!


porfle: How did you get involved in THE AWAKENING?

MIKE: Producer Kelly Johnston, bought a copy of my previous movie, TERRARIUM. He then emailed me and we hooked up. He told me about the story by Erik Manion and I liked it enough to collaborate.

porfle: What changes or additions did you make to the existing story?

MIKE: I told Kelly that I would do the project if I could make some alterations. He and Erik were very cool about this. I took out all but one of the narrations. It was better to just show. I added the scenes with Lara's mom and the doctor. With a lot of Kelly's ideas, we added a number of military scenes, including the Sergeant Benson character. I added in the SUV scene, where Lara throws it. The original ending was not a cliffhanger, so I added those final shots to spice it up a bit.


Erik's story nailed the characters and their attitudes, as well as the story's scope. A lot of dialogue got cut. It made my job easier, to have more than enough material. There was also a scene where Lara hovers off the ground, as well as some scenes where she shoots lasers out of her eyes. I got rid of that stuff, because I thought it went a bit too far, or wasn't as easily explained, like the radioactive super strength was. Some people might prefer that, but I wanted to keep it just outside the realm of feasibility.

porfle: What can you tell us about Tamra Ericson Frame, the statuesque blonde who plays superwoman Lara Andrade in the film?

MIKE: She is a part-time model and has been Kelly's business partner for several years. Kelly always had her in mind for the story. They did a 25-minute short, called GIRL OF STEELE. That was her only acting previous experience, so this was a tall order for her. I think she has the right kind of blond, sassy attitude, that plays well into the character's more confident moments.

porfle: What about the 6'4" (in heels) Heather Lei Guzzetta as the sinister mastermind behind the film's "Project Gladiator"? She makes quite an impression.

MIKE: Heather was actually a last minute replacement, when the previous actress got pregnant. She was in Greg Parker's indie movie, BLADE OF DEATH. Kelly and I met her at the premiere of that movie and never forgot about her. I'm not sure of the extent of Heather's acting background, but she's really good. She took that sinister part and just ran with it. Yes, being tall really added to her character's presence.


porfle: Did you enjoy playing a lead role ("David Andrade") this time? How challenging was it to do this in addition to directing the film?

MIKE: On this movie, I would have never suggested myself, but I'm glad that Kelly thought that I would fit. I really do love acting and who knows if I'll get the chance to play a leading character again, so I jumped at the opportunity. It was even better to play the husband of a pretty character, like Tamra's.

It did make some things challenging, especially since we didn't have a director of photography to shoot the scenes that I was in. It would have helped to have that critical eye, when I wasn't shooting. You probably noticed some of the whacky headroom in a few of those shots, eh?

On the flipside, our lead male actor was always available. When the role is that prominent, that is a good thing. I hope that I get that chance again.

porfle: How were the digital effects in THE AWAKENING accomplished? Some of them--replicating extras, Lara tossing an SUV--were pretty impressive considering the budget.

MIKE: The SUV toss was a model that was shot against a greenscreen. It was added into the real shot of Lara and the street. As for cloning extras, once I saw some of Kelly's practice footage, in After Effects, I understood what we could get away with. We bought 6 Black Ops uniforms and 6 Marine uniforms. Some of those shots show 12 actors! It was always the same 6 guys, put in different positions and shot a second or third time. When the footage was composited, you couldn't tell.

Our budget was so cheap that we only had one labcoat for a while. There is a scene with Donald and I, where I'm standing over a crate and he is talking to me. We are wearing the same labcoat! We shot the scene with me wearing it, then I handed it to him. Again, no one knows!

The other main effects were gunfire and blood, which Kelly became quite efficient at. To make a guy look like he was torn in half, Kelly would just erase his legs and use the mask of the real floor. It's really incredible.

porfle: The explosive climax of the film was done using greenscreen. Didn't you shoot that in your livingroom?


MIKE: Yes, I've got Tamra on my shoulder and the building blows up behind us. We set up a greenscreen behind us, then put a queen-sized mattress on the livingroom floor and fell onto that. In the final shot, it looks like we're outside, almost getting blown up.

porfle: One of the most memorable scenes is the one in which Lara backhands a Black Ops guy's head off--the body stumbles to the floor, while the still-living head continues to observe the rest of the scene. How was this done?

MIKE: We shot a plate shot of the empty corridor. Then, we had the actors stand in the corridor. Keith Ford had a mouthful of fake blood. When Tamra hit him, Keith started drooling the blood, staggering, then falling. Kelly took the two shots (empty corridor/actors) and simply masked out Keith's head. He used the drooling blood as a mask point, because that was easiest to follow. When you see the final shot, it looks like Keith has no head, but he still has a neck and chin!

As far as the head watching from the floor, we threw a dummy head, which rolls into place. We did the same thing as the corridor; we took a plate shot of the empty floor, then had Keith lay down into the shot. Kelly masked out his body, so all you see is Keith's head, with the blinking eyes.

porfle: In an earlier scene, Lara turns over a van in front of her house and then struts away--it's a beautiful shot. Was that a first take? Where was it done?

MIKE: For the overturned van shot, we moved from the street, where the rest of the scene was shot, into my backyard. Kelly tied a towstrap to the back of his truck and connected it to the roof rails of the van. Tamra put her hand against it and pushed, while Kelly's truck pulled it over. Yes, that was one take.

porfle: What about Lara's barfight scene? It looked to me as though someone had a really nice bar/poolroom in their basement that was dressed to look like an actual bar.

MIKE: Actually, that was a 2 level bar, called Jose Hogs. For some reason, the bottom level is closed, so we were able to shoot there, without having to close the place down. A couple of the extras at the bar doubled for Black Ops. The bartender, Shae Wilson, was Dena from TERRARIUM. Also, the pool player with the bandana, George Miklos, was one of the actors who played the monster in that movie.


porfle: What was the location used for the government research complex where your character, David Andrade, works?

MIKE: That was a combination of several different places, including a storage facility, an office building, a warehouse, my garage and my friend Mike Rick's house. All of these locations are several miles apart from each other.

porfle: Which sets were actually constructed and shot in your garage?

MIKE: We shot the truck scene, with David, the captain and sergeant, in there. We used a greenscreen and had people shaking the truck. We also built the Laboratory, Radiation room, Autopsy room and a mock version of one of the storage facility hallways. That last one was because we needed to get a little bloody.

porfle: Where did you get all those cool-looking military weapons used in the shootouts between the Marines and the bad guys?

MIKE: Most of those weapons belong to a Las Vegas Airsoft club. A lot of these guys are former vets who like to get together for wargames, on the weekends. Some of the guns, with modifications, can cost up to $1,300 or more.

Airsoft is the name of the company that makes the weapons. The guns are near perfect replicas of the real thing. Most of the rifles are electric, while many pistols use gas. This allows the guns to display realistic blowback action. Kelly would add the muzzle flashes with After Effects. Kelly also had a real M4 rifle and I had some Collector's Armoury blank firing pistols.

porfle: As I've mentioned before, Timothy S. Daley ("Capt. Harris") makes a great action-hero Marine. He also played the main authority figure in TERRARIUM. Is he anything like these characters in real life?

MIKE: I love that Tim really got a chance to shine, with this movie. I would have to say that his real-life persona is pretty close to his characters. The haircut stays the same and that low, authoritative voice can stop people in their tracks. That was why I picked him.


porfle: You had two extra crewmembers on the set this time. Do the Conway kids, Shawn and Carmen, appear to be picking up your interest in filmmaking?

MIKE: Supposedly, Carmen wants to be a veterinarian and a filmmaker! Shawn definitely likes being on a set. As you saw in the documentary [GUNS, GIRLS, & CLONES, which is included on the DVD], he gets very upset when we don't take him to a shoot.

porfle: Was the budget for THE AWAKENING really $5,000?

MIKE: We finally added up the receipts and it was $5,900. A good portion of that was taking the actors to T-Bird's restaurants! One of the reasons that the producer, Kelly, wanted me for this movie, was because I already had the camera, lights, mics, greenscreen, motorhome (with generator), etc. Because of that, the Steele Productions' equipment cost was pretty much just DV tape.

Production money went to Lara's costume ($300), 6 Black Ops and 6 Marine Uniforms ($1,100). $600 was "incentive" to a warehouse manager and staff. There was also 3 paid cast days (after which, we ran out of money), props and food.

porfle: How long did it take to complete principal photography and post-production?

MIKE: Usually, we shot very short days, 5 - 6 hours, because a lot of the cast was unpaid and Tamra couldn't be away from her kids for more than a few hours. Shooting days totalled up to 43, spread out over an 8-month period. I usually can't get weekends off, so we would shoot on a Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on what everyone's schedule was.

There was about 6 months of post-production, including the documentary. It got spread out more than that, because Lionsgate wanted a lot of fixes on TERRARIUM. That meant shutting down THE AWAKENING for most of that summer.

porfle: As a personal accomplishment, how does THE AWAKENING compare with TERRARIUM and your earlier efforts?

MIKE: I think that THE AWAKENING is an awesome improvement and is my best movie yet. But, I still have some people tell me that they prefer TERRARIUM, because of the story and scope of that project. A lot of that has to do with the huge ship set and 16mm film.

THE AWAKENING has the edge with the action and much more realistic FX. The story is big, there are 40 actors and the locations are numerous. Unlike the dubbed TERRARIUM, THE AWAKENING is sync sound, so the acting comes off much, much stronger, particularly Tim Daley's.

porfle: I'm interested in seeing what you have in store for us in the future--where do you go from here? Oh, and any chance we'll ever get to see that "superchick" battle that's hinted at in the final shot?

MIKE: Though the movie ends with that superchick cliffhanger, there are no plans for a sequel. I kind of threw the cliffhanger in, because the original story ended with David and Lara in their home, getting away scot free. After all of the carnage that resulted from their doings, I couldn't settle for that. I didn't have "sequel" in mind, as much as "what comes around, goes around."

As for where I go from here, my main goal is to improve my filmmaking skills with each new feature. After being so stretched out on the massive TERRARIUM project, my last thought was to take on a 40-actor project, which was as ambitious as THE AWAKENING's script was! I feel that we pulled it off about as good as we could for the near zero budget. My goal is to go "smaller." I want more technical control and less people to deal with. What you'll see, next, is something a lot more polished and tight.

I have another pet sci-fi project that I want to get off of the ground. I also have a horror idea about a reptilian/human hybrid. There is also the possibility of doing a hitman type of movie. It just depends on finances. If I had my wish, I could leave my day job and make all 3 of these movies, in the next 12 -18 months. I like horror, sci-fi and suspense themes.

porfle: Mike, thanks for speaking with us today! It's been a real pleasure.

MIKE: Thank you!


http://www.midnightsunent.com

 

Sunday, May 28, 2023

THE MIKE CONWAY INTERVIEW, part one


[Note: This interview was originally done in June 2006.]

His backyard is an alien landscape where you might find a crashed spaceship. His garage is the nerve center for genetic experiments and sinister government conspiracies. He's independent filmmaker
MIKE CONWAY, and the world is his soundstage.

Director, screenwriter, actor, editor, composer--Mike does it all, with the help of a dedicated stock company of friends and family caught up in his infectious enthusiasm for making movies. And he does it with less money than most directors spend on coffee and doughnuts.

I recently got Mike to stand still long enough to tell us a little about, among other things, the making of the sci-fi/horror thriller TERRARIUM (released by Lionsgate as WAR OF THE PLANETS) and his latest low-budget epic THE AWAKENING.



porfle: What kind of home movies did you make when you were growing up, and how did this experience help you later on?

MIKE: I made Super 8mm sound movies, which covered a lot of genres - horror, sci-fi, comedy, western, etc. The biggest help was learning how to achieve physical effects, by cutting away and editing certain shots together. You learn that you can achieve an awful lot, just through editing. For instance, a man changes into a werewolf, so you show his face with stubble, then cut to hair on his hand, then back to his face with even more fur on it. You can achieve gunshots, without needing squib effects. A simple shot of the shooter, then a closeup of the gun firing, then a shot of the victim grabbing his chest and falling. If you cut it right, you can imply anything. That carries over to future work.

porfle: How did you first get into independent filmmaking?

MIKE: Those Super 8mm shorts turn into 16mm shorts, which in turn flame the desire to do a whole feature.

porfle: I haven't seen your first feature, THE BLACK CRYSTAL. I know from the trailer that it stars TERRARIUM's Lily Santoro ("Kim"), though her character here appears rather more, well, "wanton." What can you tell us about it?

MIKE: I shot THE BLACK CRYSTAL as a Super 8mm feature. I transferred the film to broadcast video and then got picked up by Rae Don Entertainment. The movie got some U.S. and overseas release, back in 1991.

Lili Santoro plays a witch in that movie, named Daphne. She has lost respect for most men and won't hesitate killing someone for crossing the line. It's not a very good movie, but the idea and characters are pretty good. I play the main character, Will Harper, who finds the Black Crystal (a power channeler) and falls for the witch. Unfortunately, her ex-lover, Daniel, is a powerful warlock. He will stop at nothing to get the Black Crystal. The fact that Will is lovenesting with Daphne is motivating him to do harm.
After Rae Don's bankruptcy, I eventually got THE BLACK CRYSTAL back. Someday, I may find a place to transfer the 1" tape reels. Being that it was shot on Super 8mm, as well as being my first feature, I'm not in a particular hurry for people to see it, again. [laughs]


porfle: Where did the idea for TERRARIUM come from?


MIKE: TERRARIUM must be a good concept, because people keep asking me that. I took care of a friend's tarantula, for about 5 months. I would put crickets inside its terrarium and it would just let them crawl around. A week later, all of those crickets had been sucked dry. I imagined the crickets as people, so I made them into the astronauts of the movie. Nothing as twisted as real life, eh?

porfle: What was it like designing and building a spaceship in your backyard? Is this where most of your $27,000 budget went?

MIKE: $8,000 went into the 64' long, lifesize spaceship. Another 12K was for buying film, processing and transfer. Also in the budget was the 16mm camera and a Sony Vaio computer. That left 3K to buy uniforms, props, food and just make the movie.

I designed it, kind of like you would a space station. Though it was a long fuselage, it was made up of 3 modules - the Storage module, the Cryo module and the Control module. I was thinking of an octagonal shape, with the angles of the ceiling, wall and floors. When it came to actually building it, my stepdad, Arley Steinbrink, framed it like a house. He also figured out a way to curve the outside shell, instead of the octagonal shape. Arley was the main builder, assisted by my then roommate, Paul Folger and myself.

porfle: What was the reaction of your neighbors and city officials to this rather unusual structure?

MIKE: Considering you could see it from a mile away, it's no wonder that the city ordered us to tear it down. The neighbors were pretty cool. They would come over and I would give them a tour of the ship.

porfle: Like many independent filmmakers, you have a day job--you're a banquet waiter in a Las Vegas hotel. Did you cast TERRARIUM chiefly with coworkers?

MIKE: Yes, our bartender, Tim Daley, played the captain. My supervisor, Jim Hendrickson, played Robert, the architect. Our Audio Visual tech, Jason Hall, played Leonard, the engineer, etc., etc. The other half of the cast was actually made up of actors from STAR TREK: THE EXPERIENCE, at the Hilton. I didn't have money to pay them, so it was all volunteer. So far, we have broke even on the costs. I'm hoping for a few more territory sales, so that I could actually pay something.

porfle: Where did you film the press conference scene at the beginning of the movie? It obviously wasn't in your garage.

MIKE: That was on the ballroom stage of the hotel that we work at.

porfle: Speaking of your garage, which scenes in TERRARIUM were filmed there?

MIKE: The alien lair, where the human autopsy was.


porfle: What was it like filming the scenes in the spaceship's interior?

MIKE: Usually, it was pretty hot, since it was August, in Nevada. I did have an airconditioner in there, but that was a big structure to try and cool down. The experience was pretty authentic, because the switches would light up and all of the cryochambers had their own lights. We had sliding doors. It was awesome.

porfle: Your wife, Sheila, is perhaps the most talented actress in your stock company. Has she had any actual training in this area?

MIKE: None. She is a natural.

porfle: How did you manage to shoot around her very obvious pregnancy at the time?

MIKE: We put her in a baggy cryosuit and flightsuit. I framed her from the chest up, or had her partially blocked by the other actors. For the sniper scenes, I dug a hole in the ground, big enough for her pregnant belly, so she could lay flat.

porfle: You write and perform all the music in your movies, which I find very effective. Could you give us an idea of how this is done?

MIKE: I have about a dozen synthesizers and samplers. I manage to get some huge layered sounds out of them. I'll come up with the themes and then lay tracks down with a sequencer. I tweak a lot of sounds to get the tone I want, for each movie. For example, I recorded a creaky, metal gate and transposed the pitch down. It sounds utterly eerie.

porfle: Most of your cast seem to double as crewmembers in your movies. In fact, judging from the documentary A SPACESHIP IN THE BACKYARD, as soon as you say "Cut!" they break character and immediately join in the behind-the-camera-type duties. Do you find this to be a good way to work?

MIKE: Some of the actors are fantastic about lending a hand. It's not the most effective way to work, though. I could really use a couple of production assistants and a director of photography.

The problem comes from my work schedule. I don't get weekends off and the shooting is sporadic. It's hard to have a dedicated crewmember around, so that's why you see the actors jumping in.

porfle: Are the gore effects and other SPFX a group effort as well? Or do you have an specialist in this area who handles such things?

MIKE: Usually, I handle physical effects, like squibs, blood or Brandon's head exploding onto the terrarium glass. With THE AWAKENING, Kelly Johnston created a lot of gore with After Effects. For scenes, like Lara pulling the guy's heart out, Sheila gave us a raw chicken breast! Food is always effective.

porfle: In hindsight, would you have done anything differently in the making of this film if you could?

MIKE: Because the city ordered the ship to be torn down, we were under pressure to get it done, quickly. I really wish I could have spent more time lighting and moving the camera. In hindsight, I would have built a smaller, more concealed set. I would change the alien to something more reptilian. There's a lot that could be different and better.

porfle: TERRARIUM had its premiere in a movie theater in Las Vegas. Can you tell us what this was like? Did you get the audience reaction you were hoping for?

MIKE: The audience reaction was good. Of course, it was louder and bigger in a theater. There are a lot of atmospheric sounds that really come off well, in a surround environment like that. When you get a crowd of 200 people together, they tend to feed off of each other. When the monster tried to grab Leonard through the half open door, everyone jumped! They were even jumping at little scenes, like some of the false scares with the captain.

porfle: How did you manage to get a deal with Lion's Gate to release TERRARIUM, and what led to the changes that were made in it before its DVD release, including the title change to WAR OF THE PLANETS?

MIKE: The main changes were urged by a different distributor, Silver Nitrate. Their representative wanted something happening on the planet, right away. That's when I contacted FX man, David Rosler, about adding a spaceship crash. The poor guy only had a couple of weeks to pull off about 20 FX shots. Then, the rep from Silver Nitrate switched jobs to another company and they didn't end up buying it.

I listened to a lot of suggestions and ended up cutting some key character scenes, as you saw in the TERRARIUM version. The whole backstory with the captain's wife, daughter and drinking problem was cut, as was most of the main character introductions in the longer press conference. I think you'll agree that substituting FX for those story scenes really hurts the narrative of the movie. The people who are watching the WAR OF THE PLANETS version are looking at some rushed FX and not getting the story that TERRARIUM viewers better responded to.

Anyway, my producer's rep, Darlene Cypser, sold TERRARIUM to Mainline/Lightning Ent. The people at Mainline had a brainstorm to change the title to WAR OF THE PLANETS, since the Steven Spielberg movie, WAR OF THE WORLDS was coming out. Once the movie had that title, Lionsgate bought it from Mainline/Lightning.

porfle: Some extra special effects were added to the film free of charge by veterans of STAR TREK:VOYAGER and BABYLON 5. How did this come about?

MIKE: Chuck Carter and Bart Anderson were in the audience, at the theatrical premiere. They got a hold of another artist, PJ Foley and invited me to lunch. They did 7 shots, including the moons over the ship shot, when the astronauts finally come out.

porfle: All in all, did you accomplish what you set out to do in the making of TERRARIUM?

MIKE: Yes and no. I think it's good that people don't realize that it's a dubbed movie. The sound editing was a success, even if it made the actors seem more cardboard. As I stated, there were things that should have been better, but I did finish a 16mm sci-fi feature. Good or bad, I'm grateful for the amazing exposure that it got. Like anything at this stage of my career, it was a learning experience.

Thanks to Mike Conway for giving us the inside scoop on the making of TERRARIUM (aka WAR OF THE PLANETS). Stay tuned for part two, which will cover the making of Mike's action-packed follow-up, THE AWAKENING.


Buy "War of the Planets" at Amazon.com

Saturday, May 27, 2023

RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM, INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE -- CD reviews by porfle

 

(Previously posted at time of CD's original release)

 

Among the outstanding film scores of master composer John Williams are his invaluable contributions to the Indiana Jones series. As director Steven Spielberg once said, "Sure, the whip, the hat, the jacket are part of the Indiana Jones iconography. But what really gives Indy his heart and spirit is John Williams' music."


Serving as highly convincing evidence of this comes three new CDs from Concord Records which contain the scores for RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM, and INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE. All are fully-remastered and augmented by previously-unreleased material, and each comes with an illustrated booklet with liner notes by Spielberg. Today I had the pleasure of listening to these CDs and would like to share my impressions of them with you.

The first thing I noticed is that, unlike many soundtrack recordings, these tracks are in the proper sequence as they appear in the movie. This is good because it helps the listener to better relive the movie in his or her mind while listening. The score for RAIDERS begins with that exotic, foreboding melody that accompanies the Paramount logo and our first view of the mysterious whip-wielding man in the fedora as he and his guide trudge through the jungle. The first four pieces--"In the Jungle", "The Idol Temple", "Escape From the Temple", and "Flight From Peru"--allow us to experience that entire opening sequence of the film in our minds. The rest of the score similarly serves as the backdrop to our own mental journey through the familiar story.

Most of this probably wouldn't appeal a whole lot to people who haven't seen the movies, because much of the music is very scene-specific, and is, in fact, almost what you might call "Mickey Mousing" (an often derogatory term used to describe music that parallels a film's action too closely). But John Williams is so good that even when he does this (as the never-sit-still nature of these movies often requires) it's still fully realized music that is exciting and intriguing to listen to.

"The Map Room: Dawn" builds dramatically to that breathtaking moment in which Indy pinpoints the location of the Ark. The sequence inside the Well of Souls and Indy's punishing fistfight on the flying wing are fast-moving tracks filled with musical variety. The longer, more cohesive pieces, such as the playful "Basket Game" or the robust "Desert Chase", are as stirring in their own right as an overture or a movement in a symphony and provide lengthy intervals of listening pleasure punctuated by moments of sheer grandeur.

While it's impossible for most of us to know exactly what images each passage of music is describing, there are those particular moments that stand out--the beam of light passing through Indy's staff and striking the map, Indy marching his horse down the mountain with grim determination in order to overtake the truck convoy, and the grand finale in which the terrifying power of the Ark is unleashed. These are the musical touchstones that bring our memories of the film to life and make the overall listening experience all the more rewarding.

This score never gets dull because it's just as kinetic and ever-changing as the movie's action. Williams uses the entire orchestra beautifully. Marion's theme is as romantic and exotic as ever, while the haunting "Ark" theme never ceases to elicit chills and evoke a strong feeling of ancient mysticism. And of course, Indy's theme ("Raiders March"), which we finally get to hear in all its glory at the end, is one of the most joyfully celebratory themes ever written for a movie character.


TEMPLE OF DOOM, as you might expect, begins on an entirely different note with a jaunty, Asian-flavored shuffle through Cole Porter's "Anything Goes", followed by a slow tension-building piece called "Indy Negotiates." Then it's off on another multi-track journey through non-stop action with "The Nightclub Brawl", "Fast Streets of Shanghai", "Map/Out of Fuel", and "Slalom on Mt. Humol", all frantic hyperkineticism filled with the familiar Williams touches, including frequent dashes of Indy's theme.

Then Short Round gets his own heroic theme worthy of an Arthurian knight, after which our journey toward the Temple of Doom begins. Again, much of the music is very scene-specific, but this time it often has a lush, orchestral openness that seems to describe vast panoramas of musical adventure ("The Scroll/To Pankot Palace"), with the occasional detour into romantic lyricism and frivolity ("Nocturnal Activities").

At this point the movie is off and running again, and so is Williams as he gives his orchestra quite a workout. The extended sequence inside the temple itself yields a number of exciting and often downright dissonant tracks ("Children in Chains", "The Temple of Doom", "Short Round Escapes", "Saving Willie") filled with pounding drums and the occasional chanting vocal chorus. In "Short Round Helps", Indy's theme bursts through the darkness for a welcome return, but is quickly pulled back into the maelstrom again. If you don't know quite what's going on in the story at any given time, just imagine Indy, Short Round, and Willie in big trouble and that really creepy bad guy and his minions trying to kill them, and the music will do the rest.

What I was waiting for mainly was "The Mine Car Chase." That's what I remember most about this movie, and the score here, as expected, is a mad dash of intensity that doesn't let up for a moment. (I can imagine the musicians all falling out of their chairs after the last note.) "Water", "Sword Trick", and "The Broken Bridge/British Relief" bring the action to a climax in similar style, finally giving way to the triumphant fadeout and another stirring end credits rendition of the "Raiders March", this time sprinkled with various TEMPLE OF DOOM-related themes. Overall, it's a difficult, almost exhausting score to listen to--the most nightmarish of Indy's adventures--but I found the experience rather invigorating and cathartic.


LAST CRUSADE has my favorite opening of all--a near 12-minute piece called "Indy's Very First Adventure" which starts out in a slow but inviting manner, builds ever so gradually, and finally blossoms into an exciting, delightfully humorous, and fairly self-contained composition that moves briskly and ends with a fanfare version of Indy's theme. I can see Williams conducting this at some formal event, like maybe the ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new Piggly Wiggly or something.

There must not have been much music for awhile after that, because we skip directly to "The Boat Scene", "X Marks the Spot", and "Ah, Rats!!!" (if you've seen the movie you'll no doubt recall those particular scenes) which continue the uncommonly lush orchestration of the opening piece. This sound will continue throughout the entire score, making it perhaps the most genuinely listenable of the three. There's a richness to the orchestrations and an abundance of melody that are almost intoxicating, at times given a religious-epic tone by the stately "Grail" theme which appears intermittently, and a noticeable lack of the harsh dissonance found throughout TEMPLE OF DOOM.

The score continues in this vein as Indy and his dad make their way into Austria and battle the Nazis. I have no idea just what's going on throughout much of this, but there's a lot of tension-building stuff mixed with passages of pure romanticism and the occasional action stings, all of which are a distinct pleasure to listen to. "Scherzo For Motorcycle and Orchestra" is especially invigorating and enjoyable, and is a great example of how much fun Williams seems to be having with this entire score.

"On the Tank" and "Belly of the Steel Beast" are just what they sound like--it's the action centerpiece of the film and the music drives it forward like a powerful engine. It's like classical music that's been working out at Gold's Gym every day for a few years. Then we proceed into "The Canyon of the Crescent Moon" to meet "The Keeper of the Grail", wherein the music takes on a solemn yet richly substantive elegance (with that "Grail" theme finally kicking in full-force) until the rip-roaring "Finale & End Credits." This reprise of the "Raiders March" and its recap of various themes from the film seems more joyous and triumphant than ever.

After a while I stopped keeping up with the track titles and just let the music carry me along. Even the most scene-specific passages seem to flow as though the composer were simply writing the grandest music he could think of for his own amusement, and it's never less than effortlessly entertaining on its own. I think Williams really improved a lot in the years between the first Indy film and this one--if it weren't for the sentimental attachment I have to RAIDERS and the feelings its music evokes in me, this score would easily be my favorite of the three. Maybe it is anyway.

I'll definitely be keeping these three Indiana Jones CDs handy for frequent background listening. Each has its own feel and its own strengths, perfect for whatever mood I may happen to be in at the time, and each is a splendid example of motion picture scoring at its absolute finest.

Friday, May 26, 2023

THE TED NEWSOM INTERVIEW


(NOTE: This interview originally appeared in May 2007. Mr. Newsom passed away on July 4, 2020, and will always be fondly remembered by his many friends and fans.)

Ted Newsom is a showbiz powerhouse--just check out his extensive credits on IMDb sometime--and to describe him requires scads of hyphens to separate words like producer, writer, director, and actor. He's worked with some of the greatest names in the horror/sci-fi genre, and his films include titles such as THE NAKED MONSTER and WHISPERS FROM A SHALLOW GRAVE.

With all this to his credit, I decided to interview him about his appearance as an extra in an episode of the Saturday morning TV series "Jason of Star Command" back in 1978, because I just watched and reviewed the entire series on DVD and there are certain things that I just "gots to know." Ted, being the gentleman that he is, asked, "You're who, now?" and then graciously offered his recollections of this and numerous other fascinating experiences for us to enjoy. Why, I remember it as though it were only yesterday...


porfle: How did you wind up as a space cadet? Were you familiar with the previous series, "Star Academy", from which "Jason" was spun off?

TED: I'd seen the previous show in passing, but I wasn't hugely interested. An over-the-hill Jonathan Harris was not my idea of something I gott-sta watch. However, I did think Pamela Ferdin was cute. She's big into animal rights now. I've never met her, but I've married her several times in my imagination. We have three kids and seven dogs. She was called Pamela Franklyn for a long time as a kid, you know, but when the English actress Pamela Franklyn started working in Hollywood, apparently she had a prior claim to the name or something. I've met her, but we don't have any kids or dogs.

Seriously, I didn't pay a great deal of attention to the show, though I liked the idea of having a wholesome live-action superhero kid's show on TV. That was the time when Filmation was doing Shazam and Dyna Girl and all that. I thought they shoulda, coulda done far more sophisticated shows, even on the level of the old SUPERMAN show, instead of writing down for kids. But times had changed. Networks had strict do's and don'ts. I have no direct experience with this vis a vis Filmation, but I did slide into it years later, very briefly. Wayne Berwick and I got a chance to go into Marvel Productions to pitch some stories for their animated show that was going to have Mandrake the Magician and a bunch of King Syndicate characters. The first question I had for the exec was, "Can we kill anybody?" "Oh, yeah," he said, "We're syndicated." Meaning they weren't limited by network restrictions on violence in kids' shows. But it turned out to be nonsense. They couldn't kill anybody, even in syndication.

Still, Filmation made the attempt to do some sort of quality work for a specific market, under restrictions of budget and censorship. If JASON is out on DVD twenty--no, thirty--years later, apparently they succeeded.

porfle: As a diehard Trekker, I have to ask about the beloved James "Scotty" Doohan (JASON's "Commander Canarvan"). Did you get to know him?

TED: Briefly interacted with him, and I wish I hadn't been so shy about it. When I started, I think they'd already been shooting for about a week or two, and most of Jimmy Doohan's stuff was done. Likewise, Sid Haig's stuff. But I did chat with Scotty, cadged cigarettes off him when I was out (I smoked Marlboros, but I settled for his Winstons). I was happy to see him working, and I got the idea he was happy about it, too.

The next year, before I learned I'd become persona non grata at Filmation, I briefly saw Doohan's replacement, John Russell, at Filmation. Unlike Doohan, he didn't look happy at ALL. I'm sure the thought ran through his head, "I used to be a star. I was at Warner Bros., for keeriist sake, and I'm at some rinky-dink little outfit in the Valley with my face painted blue." There was none of that attitude from Jimmy Doohan. But then, his face wasn't painted blue, either.

Understand, there's a hierarchy on a set, and you pick up the vibe quickly. Extras are on the bottom rung. Don't bother the actors. Don't bother the crew. Just listen to what the AD tells you and do it.

I just remembered that he'd said he had a job lined up after he wrapped JASON. And I think that may have been the STAR TREK movie, the first one...in one or the other of its incarnations.


porfle: It seems as though it would take a good sense of humor, collectively, to put this kind of stuff over--not to mention a healthy appreciation for the absurd. Was it a light-hearted set?

TED: It was business-like rather than a constant party. I can't remember any big gaffes or bloopers; I don't recall anyone busting up over blowing a line, nor any grand practical jokes or anything like that. The director (and, I believe, co-creator of the show) was a guy named Art Nadel, and I really wish I would've been able to talk to him. He did one of those dreadful latter-day Elvis films. But he was working and I was a space cadet.

porfle: What was the layout of that big warehouse where all of the sets were built? And how much of the post-production and visual effects were done there?

TED: Filmation's main offices were in the San Fernando Valley in, I think, Reseda, on Sherman Way, with a big ol' sign flashing that said "Filmation!" In contrast, the Filmation live-action studio was a rather smallish industrial building in Canoga Park, which is a suburb in the far west end of the San Fernando Valley. This particular area was industrial, with assorted nondescript office buildings with mid-sized companies. One, across the street from Filmation, was a cosmetic company which, I learned later, was where Gloria Jean worked as a receptionist. She was briefly a big kid star in the 1940s at Universal. NEVER GIVE A SUCKER AN EVEN BREAK is the only one anyone remembers. No, I never met her.

The front of the live-action place was a very anonymous, one-story block building. You'd never know they made sci-fi stuff in there. The front rooms of the building were offices: the reception area, an office for Lou Scheimer, probably one for Art Nadel (although I can't remember ever seeing him anywhere but on the floor).

The rear of the building was the production area. There were basically two sets when I was there, the Space Academy set (which I thought was pretty neat), which was just the main room and an adjoining L-shaped hallway. I don't think there was any "practical" equipment in the big control room. That is, none of the buttons and levers and switches worked; the blinking lights were operated by the FX guy or the gaffer.

The other set was the "planet" set. It was neat, although of course I never worked on that set, since I was a lowly peon space cadet and there was so much to do back at Space Academy, like walk down a hall or look at a clipboard. But the planet set was neat. It was probably thirty-five or forty feet long and about twenty feet deep. The cyclorama was changeable, and I seem to recall there were several, all hanging and semi-permanent. To change the planet, you changed the sky, from black to blue, or orange, or whatever. There were often phony rock pieces used there as well.

The effects department was Adjacent of Star Command...sorry...adjacent to the big stage. That's were they did the miniatures. It was a separate, and very small, production unit from the live-action crew. A great guy called Chuck Comisky was the head effects guy, and I liked him. I thought the miniatures were great. As I recall, I may've actually gone there originally to get a job on the FX crew rather than as an extra.

In the back of the building was a small scene dock and storage area. There were more prop boulders and things, some assorted sci-fi-ish things which I can't recall, and, I think, some unused flats.

On the south side of the building was the shuttle set. I think this may have actually had its own enclosure. THAT was cool. Leather seats. Neat chairs. Lots of switches and buttons. In retrospect, the interior looked and felt like a big RV. I remember I wished I had access to it to make a space movie. And it was a complete prop, inside and out. It wasn't as if the exterior was one thing and the control & passenger set was a separate deal.

It was probably very hot during that time, since it was summer in the San Fernando Valley, but I can't remember anybody passing out from prostration, or even complaining.

porfle: Can you remember any shots you were in that ended up on the cutting room floor?

TED: Yes, dag blast it. One and only one time, I was in a tight two-shot with Charlie Dell at a control panel. I think he was supposed to be looking below frame at a panel showing the Space Academy was being drawn into the Sun (or some other foolish melodramatic gimmick). Anyway, I actually was asked to do a silent bit, such as it was. We both looked at the screen seriously. I looked at him grimly and walked off, and he had some dialogue. And yes, they cut it out. I asked the editor if I could get a clip or a frame or something of the shot, but he didn't have it (I may've asked this the next year, actually, and all those trims would have been vaulted or tossed away long before).

The other thing that got cut out had nothing to do with me, but it happened while I was there, and boy did Scheimer raise a stink! Understand, Roseanne Katon had a couple of weeks on the show as a space princess. Beautiful girl, and that summer, she was PLAYBOY's Playmate of the Month. Apparently none of her people had bothered to tell Filmation that this was pending. Ol' Scheimer raised holy hell. He thought the network would cancel the show or something because of bad publicity.

So, there were these guys animating the stop-motion creature, a thing that looked kind of like a Harryhausen mooncalf. And to do this properly, you take photographic tests for exposure, running the camera for a few feet at one exposure, then another, then examining it to see what's best. Well, they had cut out a small photograph of an exquisitely nude Roseanne Katon from PLAYBOY and put it into the model set, standing by a rock where the live action would be inserted later by optical printing. So the test shot showed this multi-armed insectoid glop monster and this gorgeous young black woman, stark naked and smiling. Yeeeoowwee!

Scheimer raised hell again.

Oddly enough, I saw her years later on the set of a CBS nighttime soap opera where a friend of mine was doing extra work. I didn't say hi--there's a question of protocol, and here I wasn't even a space cadet, just a visitor. She was playing a "nice" girl who was revealed to be "bad" because she'd modeled nude. And I think they actually used the interior of the Playboy shoot inside a dummy generic men's magazine. Never saw her again, although, we've married several times and have five kids and three cats in my imagination.

porfle: What were the craft services like? Were you well-fed?

TED: The spread was generally pretty good. Again, there's a hierarchy. The main production people and the cast get fed first, but that just makes sense. But I don't remember that ever being an enforced rule. Lunch was picnic style, mostly sans tables. We'd all go outside where the catering people had set up the food line, then find a spot under a tree or something.

The most memorable lunch I had at Filmation was the next summer, when I was visiting. Julie Newmar was the guest villainess, evil queen of one thing or the other. I've always thought she was one of the sexiest beings with two or less legs, and whatever it was she had on showed a great deal of them. I admit to the old "drop the pencil on the ground and crane your neck to see" trick. Yes, sadly and memorably, she was wearing underwear. I can't remember what was served for lunch.

Susan O'Hanlon was nice, as I recall. I think she was pretty enough and well-built enough to have gotten far more work than she did. I didn't speak a lot to her, just a few minutes doing bits of interview for a story I was writing on spec for Starlog. I was smoking a pipe off and on during this time, trying unsuccessfully to stop smoking cigarettes. Late in the game, I noticed she'd taken up smoking a pipe, a corncob, of all things. She was far too young and pretty to be L'il Abner's Mammy. I think she was married, at the time, to the son of George O'Hanlon, who was the voice of George Jetson.

porfle: Did Charlie Dell, who portrayed "Professor E.J. Parsafoot", ever show up on the set drunk, or under the influence of powerful prescription medications?

TED: His colossal bouts with alcohol and drugs are Hollywood legend. Or San Fernando Valley legend. There was the time he tied two old ladies together to Johnny Weissmueller, using a half-hitch knot. The Las Vegas episode where he used a stolen Apache string-bow to fire a flaming arrow into the open mouth of the giant waving cowboy at the Frontier Hotel. Many's the time he would berate the director with language that would make a sailor blush. He and Brod Crawford used to hit each other in the face with shovels for fun while guzzling Sterno straight from the can. Throwing an epileptiform fit in front of the Viper Room. Vomiting on Hugh Hefner's carpet slippers.

No, that was all somebody else. Charlie Dell was a very sweet guy. It was a silly and stereotypical role, as I guess they all were on the show, but he was very polite and kind to me. In one of my more or less politic and sensible moments, I complimented him on a scene. I said something like, "Given the material you were working with, I thought that was a really nice performance." He said thanks. Actually, that may have been the scene in the show that I'm actually in (in the background, out of focus, of course). That seems to me about the longest single scene the "Parsafoot" character had.

I saw him in something else on TV a couple years later, a brief, rather Franklin Pangbornian role, and I remember thinking, "I'm glad he got some work. He's a good actor."

I hope it's not cause and effect, but doing a live-action series for Filmation seems to have been the kiss of death for anyone who ever did one, except Sid Haig, and even he spent about two decades in the wilderness. Ever see the guys who played Captain Marvel? Nope, except at autograph shows. Dyna Girl? And I think Les Tremayne's last notable gig was on SHAZAM. It's not a reflection on anyone's talent, it's just weirdly consistent.


I thought Craig Littler ["Jason"] did pretty well within the circumstances. They tried, on their little budget, within their limitations, to make an old-fashioned swashbuckling, Errol Flynn hero, a ready smile and (badly written) quips, stalwart, quick-witted. And I think he deserved more. The only other thing I know of that he starred in was a Filipino horror movie called SUPERBEAST, where he did a Jekyll & Hyde character. That, and a very long-running TV commercial for an upscale mustard. Two expensive limos are driving 'way out in the boonies, and one pulls along side the other. The windows roll down, and inside each is a millionaire, one old, one young. The young one was Craig Littler, who says, "I beg your pardon. Do you have any Grey Poupon?" That ran for years, nationally. I was happy for him, because an actor gets paid every time those things run. But other than that, nothing. I'd think he, and Charlie, and Susan, would probably do OK at autograph or sci-fi shows nowadays.

porfle: Does anyone ever come up to you and say, "Hey! You were the guy over Professor Parsafoot's shoulder in that one scene"?

TED: Oh, all the time. ALL the TIME. Sheesh. Fans. I have to beat them off with a stick. If that's your idea of a good time.

Heck, I don't even know if people ever went up to Littler or Dell and recognized them, even at the time, with or without the Parsafoot eyebrows. I'd see these guys on TV and recognize them, but the show had this little niche-quality, disregarded status. It was a Saturday morning kids' show. I'd imagine the very low profile of the show was what the guys involved in SUPERMAN in 1951 were imagining. People telling George Reeves or Jack Larson, "Oh, it's a kid's show, nobody'll ever see it. Take the money and run." In that case, of course, it turned out just the opposite. But also, in that case, it began with some meat to the scripts, which was not the case with JASON.

porfle: You weren't given much to do in that scene, but I noticed that in one shot you raised your right eyebrow. Was that scripted, or was it an ad-lib?

TED: My idea. That's acting. Seriously. I thought about picking my nose and flicking the booger onto the back of Charlie Dell's head, but he was too nice a guy.

I really did want to do SOMEthing, because I'd been acting on stage since I was about 15. But when you're an extra--"atmosphere" players, to use the more polite term--your job is to be anonymous. And I think it was a SAG show, which means if you give an extra something extra--like specific physical business, or heaven forbid, a line of dialogue--the person has the right to expect you apply to SAG for membership, or at the very least, expect a bump in pay. And that never happened once while I was there.

There was some question, by the way, about me shaving off my mustache. I was about 26 or 27, and someone questioned whether a "space cadet" would be old enough to shave, I guess. Like anyone would ever notice...

porfle: So, what's the story on that blonde space cadet? She's only shown in long shots, but as far as I can tell from my DVD player's zoom-in and frame-advance functions, she seems rather, as Mr. Spock would say, "fascinating."

TED: I noticed her, too, when a friend gave me a bootleg copy of the series a couple years back. Beats me. I do remember a girl named Noe, because I worked with her a couple of weeks. Vietnamese, petite, very quiet. Given when the series was shot, about 1978 I think, I'd expect she probably came over here with her parents after the war. Her name was pronounced "Know-ee." Well, my last name is Newsom, and invariably when people spell it, they spell it "Newsome," which has always annoyed me. I drove Noe home one night and said, "We really ought to get married. You'd make the perfect wife for me. When they asked you your name, you could say, 'Newsom, Noe.' And they'd spell it right for a change." I think she laughed. And I think, in that, she was being polite.

I was happily married at the time, by the way. My wife Marsha and I lived about six blocks from the Filmation studio, so I could walk to work. On the days I did work, anyway.

porfle: Is Sid Haig ("Dragos, Master of the Cosmos") really an evil megalomaniac in real life?

TED: He's really a certified hypno-therapist. Seriously. I loved him in SPIDER BABY. Really and truly, he's terrific. I met him years later at some con and told him I'd "worked with him", or at least on the same show, and said, in all seriousness, he's always been one of my favorite actors. I'm happy for his resurgence in popularity through the Rob Zombie films.

porfle: What was Filmation boss Lou Scheimer like?

TED: Nice to me...when he thought I was going to help him. While I was doing this extra work--which by the way was not every day, it was maybe two or three days a week, stretched out over a month or two--I got the idea to do an article on the show for a new magazine that'd come out, something called STARLOG. So he had me into his office, was very open and nice, showing me the storyboard sketches he'd done for one sequence (the stop-motion monster sequence, I think). And I believe it was he who actually drew the sketches. He seemed like a very nice man. Then. So I wrote a little five or six page article and made copies to give to him and a couple of the other actors as a courtesy. I think Susan O'Hanlon read it. In fact, I recall her puffing that corncob pipe while reading it. This was near the end of the shoot. The tone of the article reflected Scheimer's stated goals for the show, filtered through my on-set experience. It was generally fun and upbeat: gee whiz, here's a company that's going to try to bring the fun of a Saturday afternoon serial back to TV.

But there was one line, one lousy line, in the story that set him off. I wrote, "Though the science in the stories wouldn't fool a seven year old (floating down to the surface of a planet without being burned up on re-entry, for instance), the show looks like a promising return to the fun and excitement of CAPTAIN VIDEO and BUCK ROGERS." Apparently Scheimer went through the roof. "What's he trying to do! Ruin my show!?! I never want him anywhere near here again!!!" I didn't know this at the time. Only a year later, when they started up production on the second season, did FX guy Chuck Comisky explain to me that I was utterly unwanted around Filmation, on orders of Scheimer. I was the guy who tried to torpedo the show. Sheesh. And the irony was, the article never saw print, ever. I think Fred Clarke rejected it for CINEFANTASTIQUE as too minor a show to bother with, and I don't think I ever heard from STARLOG at all. So this guy had this great big hissy fit over nothing.

I saw the guy once, a few months later. I was working in a multiplex movie theater nearby, and he came in with his wife or something. I think he recognized me, because he glared at me. I've always thought that was incredibly petty. The one line was so innocuous--and not untrue--but he was furious. I'd needed the money, too.

I think they sold it. I know it doesn't exist anymore. Tough.


porfle: Have you run into any of the old cast or crew over the years?

TED: There was a guy named Berwick, I forget his first name. Tall, good looking, very polite. He was either one of the rare featured players on the show (like, one line every six shows or something), or whatever. He was engaged to Art Nadel's daughter, either then, or slightly later. I remember him, because he worked as an assistant director on a little film for Irv Berwick, who was a teacher of mine, and through Irv, I got to know Irv's son Wayne. Wayne's become a good friend forever; we co-directed THE NAKED MONSTER. But the JASON OF STAR COMMAND Berwick guy was no relation to Wayne and Irv, it was just a coincidence of names. Or maybe he was actually acting in the film for Irv. But that was the only person I've ever run into after the fact. Except Sid Haig. And I've already exhausted my one Sid Haig anecdote.

porfle: What were the immediate benefits of your appearance on the show?

TED: A much-needed check for anywhere from seventy to a couple hundred dollars. I was just married, living on the GI Bill while going to college, and my wife Marsha was working full-time. The fact that we had an apartment within six blocks of "work" was very nice, and I got such a kick out of "working in the business," even in such a minor and forgettable capacity.

I went down the next summer to see if I could continue in some capacity. That's when Chuck Comisky told me I was not wanted at all, not as a space cadet, not as a member of the FX crew, not as an air-breathing entity anywhere in the building. Elephants never forget, and neither did Lou Scheimer. I did get a job for my friend Ram Anand, though. He did a day or two as an extra (with a beard, for goodness' sake), and several days in a big hairy snow monster costume in the series of shows with Julie Newmar and Angelo Rossito. At least I got to meet with and speak with Little Angie. I asked him about working with Bela Lugosi, and he said, "Oh, Bela was nice. We did lotsa pitchures together. He said to me, 'Angie, from now on, I want you in all my pitchures. That way, when they see you on screen, they'll think of Lugosi!'" And he laughed.

Funny thing about that. Years later I interviewed a guy named Johnny Legend, who knew Tor Johnson. He said Tor recalled Bela saying to him, "Tor, from now on, I want you in all my pitchures. That way, when they see you on screen, they'll think of Lugosi!'" Lugosi's lucky he didn't work with Prince Randian or the Hilton Sisters.

porfle: This being early in your career, did you learn anything that helped you later on in your own film endeavors?

TED: Seriously? Yes. The very businesslike atmosphere on the set was impressive. Actors should know their lines (they all did on JASON); you can make something big look much grander if you've got talented people around you. And I learned not to give courtesy copies of articles to the subjects. I hope I learned NOT to be a big jerk if you're a producer.

From the sweat I saw pouring out of the monster costume when Ram did his snow-creature bit, I learned the obvious. Do not wear a rubber monster suit yourself when it's the middle of summer. That lesson held me in good stead when I shot the effects for THE NAKED MONSTER.

porfle: Did you have any idea whatsoever that, almost thirty years later, this little Saturday morning sci-fi show would even be remembered by anyone?

TED: Seriously, I am not surprised at all. My "part" in the show is so marvelously minor, I get a perverse kick out of even bringing it up. I thought the show had the potential to be more successful than it was. It was well-cast, they had some good writers (even working within the non-scientific children's fantasy restrictions), and it was competently directed. Some of the aspects were cheesy, like the limited amount of sets, but I thought what WAS there looked as good on screen as vintage STAR TREK. I think the chintzy synthesized music score makes it SOUND rinky-dink and very much of its era. They could have done better. If it were me, I'd have farmed the music out to somebody to record with an orchestra on the cheap in Europe, or just used stock library music to make it feel BIGGER.

Obviously the first incarnation of JASON was successful enough to spawn the second season, where they did a full half-hour. I'm not privy to the machinations of why this was re-cast. It was probably a question of availability and price negotiations. As you know, they only brought Charlie Dell and Craig Littler back, and Sid Haig, of course. I believe Jimmy Doohan, by that time, had already done the first STAR TREK movie, so price-wise he was probably out of the question, or disinterested in devaluing whatever cache his name had. I don't know if they asked Susan O'Hanlon back, but having watched these things, there was so little in the scripts for her to do as an actress, I wouldn't begrudge her taking a pass.

porfle: Since then, you've enjoyed a long and varied career on both sides of the camera. What are you working on now that we can look forward to?

TED: I've spent months re-editing and re-mixing FLESH & BLOOD, THE HAMMER HERITAGE OF HORROR for English release. This should dovetail with the recent (as of May 2007) purchase of Hammer. Other than the one broadcast in 1994, it's never been seen in England--or most of the world, for that matter.

I started a project about a year and a half ago called IDOL PURSUITS, a screwball comedy on a deceptively low budget, considering what kind of production value we've got so far on screen: action in Sedona, Arizona, with beautiful scenic backgrounds, sequences on a cruise ship at sea, locations in Cabo San Lucas and Mazatlan, a biplane, hang-gliding. It's sort of like THE LADY EVE. Brinke Stevens, whom I've always loved as a performer, does a sort of Barbara Stanwyck turn in a double role. She's always been wonderful in those, like TEENAGE EXORCIST (which we co-wrote) and NIGHTMARE SISTERS. I play the lead, a professorial nerd. I never expected anyone else to cast me in a Cary Grant role, so I figured I'd better do it myself. (Cary Grant in BRINGING UP BABY and MONKEY BUSINESS, that is.)

Last year I did a number of acting jobs for Fred Olen Ray, and he's a joy to work with. Acting is fun. Writing is, too, when you get paid. I still have a script I need to finish, a Sinbad adventure, which I'm writing with Ray Harryhausen and a partner as yet to be publicly announced. There's another very unique script I need to finish, too, but the past year or so has been frenzied.

porfle: If you were me, what would you have asked you that I neglected to ask?

TED: You covered everything.

porfle: Thanks for spending some quality time with us today, Ted! It's been a pleasure.

TED: Is that a question? Very hard to answer. But we got married several times and had three kids and four cats.