Cinemagic #09 (1980)

Titles That Shine!

pg

.

16

TM

Animating

the Comics:

'POGO'

COMES

AI.IVE!

The

'Langley

Punks'

Exposed!

Special

Newspaper

Props

left: Par.dl~ International Pictures pres-ents Journey into Terror the I.ugest pro -duction ever to gr.ce the pilgeS of ONE -MAGIC's Producers' Bulledn 1l000rd. Shot ilt John Marsh-'ll High School In Portlolnd, Oregon, the production Is In black &. whhe Yideotape. The spedAi effecb opt! -ub were shot at Jefferson High School, .Iso In Portl.nd. The SO minute fantasy .. d"enture bo.sts. 20 person technlul crew .nd. u.st of 13. See Producers' Bul -letin 1I0.;urt on ~ge 26.

CINEMAGIC fe.tures the m.lklng of I Go Pogo. Stowm.r Enterprises' flrst fe.ture length production. Animator M.rc Chlnoy discusses his new anlmOldon technique, which he u.lls fledform. Abo"e: two Stom,u artlsb build. set for one of the scenes In I Go Pogo. left: A Stomar c.mer.m.n focuses In on Howland Owl .. nd Churchy laFemm .u.n Olnlm"'tor looks on. I Go Pogo Is the flrst feature length, COlor moYie to utilize the Flelll -form technlque,.n ."Im.tlon process that Incorporates sevoeral different .nlm.· tlon t«hnlques. The story begins on p.ge 6.

\

CONTENTS

Number 9

Editor's

4

FUmmakers'20 Sets

On

A

Bench

- -

Forum

Shoe-

28

Animating

the

Comics

Pogo comes to life in a

~ feature-length, color, stop-motion theatrical motion picture.

By David Hutchison.

6

A regular department devoted to readers' comments and correspondence about fantasy filmmaking.

ProfUe

_

22

Titles That

16

Shln,

.:

e

~~

:...:.:~

L-

odo

,

:l

I

~

;

~

\

~

\

"

.

A professiOfl.!lI technique for creating title

effe<:tS

using lithographic film. By James Caldwell.

The infamous "Langley Punks" lire! exposed as under ground comedy team working with

Travesty Aim Productions

.

"Spa..." of the Suburbs" by Michael

De

La Vildis.

Producers'

BuUetln

Board

Latest news of our readers' productions.

string

Almmaker Jeff

PoIIizzotto

describes his inexpensive method fO( SF set

construction.

Books

_

32

Books

for filmmakers-valuable sources of information and techniques for the filmmaker.

By John Oayton.

Clnemagic

Market-

33

place

Classified advertising and announcements.

Close-up

_

34

An

easy method for creating an old,

yellowed newspaper dipping as a prop

for your SF/fantasy epic.

vtr1R

Editor's

@'Iiv~--j

B-==E.::...::N--=C=---=-H

_ _

_

"'-Ioy>

O

'

G¥JINN STUDfOS,

INC.

475 Park .... venue South New York,

f"Iew

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Norman ~Iacobs/Keny O'Quinn

AMDd ... hen

Rita EiseNtein

_DII-.

ChehN.Low

DcelS:

er.

Robert Sefcik

.MOW«-

I.4IItot1

John

a.,.ton

... WIort

BobWOO<b

lcItoNI~

James

CGIdwd

Jeff PoIllzlotto

Marc Chlnoy MichDel De La Vildis Don Dottier

....

-Laura

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Brien

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Ci

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For Advertising Informallon: Rita Eiul'IStein t21216Ei9-2:830

AIHIMt .... cown CINIMAGIC pes MIIIIMI . . . 011 Go

Pogo.._.

... ~ . . III; .al_uIIw

___

... tro.5eD_

&1 . . . IIntIO . . . . . ~ ClllMy's ... • ... d_

... s.e ....

..

4 CINEMAGIC·9

Second Chance

T

he recent release (or re-release, de~nding upon your point of view) of Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind: The Special Edition, heralded livery unique opportunity for the professional filmmaker-a second chance. It certainly is veryunusulIl for e director or producer to be able to make significant changes in II film after it has been In release for a year or more.

In this "5pKilil Edition" of CE3KSpielberg has deleted entire scenes, extended scenes,

added scenes and shot new material to be used as inserts and entire scenes. Among the .several scenes and pieces deleted is the power station sequence with Neary (no loss, since

we don't need to introduce the character twice) and tl'H!! Air FOfCe press conference scene

in which Nearie tries to get answers from the military concerning the UFOs (also no loss, since the sub-plot of a military cover·up is never fully developed.>

Among the scenes inserted is a lengthening of the opening domestic sequence with Neary and his family, which now emphasize a bit more pointedly Neary's childlikequalities

that he has kept alive in his adulthood, Neary's complete lack of cynicism and his tendency to treat his children as equals makes the mashed·potatoes dinner sequence even more hearNeooering. It is followed by a not previously included sequence of Neill)' in near com~ mental breakdown crying In the bathtub, capped with business of Neary's son screaming "Cry Babyr at his father while slamming the bathroom door-complete!:; unable to deal with the anguish of his father.

And then for fun there are a couple of miniature tracking shots with Neary's truc~

speeding across the landscape chasing lights in the sky, one marvelous shot reveals hi~ truck being followed by the shadow of a large UFO.

Emphasizing the world·'W'ide aspects of the UFO incidents is the addition of a new!) filmed sequence depicting an ocean-going freighter lying on Its side in the Gobi desert." nicely done perspective shot of a miniature ship filmed at Dumont Dunes, adjacent k Death Valley, CA

Then, of course, there is thefinal sequence with Nearyinsidethe Mothership~aying tc

rest forever the original confusion about just who was selected by the friendly

E.

T.'s for tha historic trip. Unfortunately, also starts a new controversy, though on a much smaller scale

There are those who believe that the dazzling lights and glitter of the fo'lothership's inteno transform Nearyinto the Cark:l Rambaldi who comes out just before the lift.offto smileal'\(

wave hands at Truffaut. Frankly, I don't see it, but rye run into this story lit differen

screenings around the country from a few film-goers and SF fans of various ages. The one overriding quality that I continually sense throughout the film is an intenSt feeling oflove from the filmmaker for his subject-the scenes look as if they were lculngl!

crafted, intensely so. Perhaps my perception is too subjective, but just look at the faces 01

the people gathered forthe second night on Crescendo Summit to see the UFO's nash by

Unfortunately they are blinded and windblown by police helicopters instead; but look at the faces of the old couple made youthful and glowing as they stand against the wind and 'W'hite light with child·like hope and eagerness -one detects a sense of yearning that underscores the emotional theme of the film, "We are not alone ... "

Finally, during the: closing credits, John Williams' music segues very neatly into the

melody line of "'When You Wish Upon A Star" from Disney's Pinocchio. Before the 1977 original release Spielberg had considered including the original Cliff Edward's vocal part

as well, but dropped it entirely believing that it would destroy the sense of "reality" created and suggest fantasy orfairytaJe. But the melody so evokes the spirit that makes Roy Neary

a special person that Spielberg, apparently, went back to his first instincts and kept the

melody-line.

ClNEMAGIC filmmakers have the advantage ol working on their own free time-the

costliest element of theatrical motion picture production. I think it is, in part.. keeping with

the spirit of CE3Kthtlt Spielberg has gotten his second chance.

-David Hutchison

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Animating the Comics:

Pogo Comes Alive!

Animator Marc

Chinoy

discusses his philosophy

and technique

of

stop-motion animation which

he

caLLs

Flexiform

that

is

being

used

for

the

first time in

an aLL'stop motion, color,

feature length film

.

M

arc principals Chinoy of and Stowmar Enter· Kerry Stowell, prises, a small studio just out· side of Washington, D.C. spe-cializing in stop-motion animation, had been looking around for a little more than two years to find a project that would be a

good

initiation for their F1exiform animation

"",,",'.

"We had considered several different characters and types of projects," remem· bers M:lrc Chinoy. "J have been a fan of the Pogo comic; strip for many years, so

we

approached the estate, offered to buy the film rights and after speaking with Selby Kelly (Walt Kelly's widow)

we

ultimately reached an agreement to produce a 90 minute, color, fully animated (using the Flexiform process) theatrical motion picture:'

F1exiform, which is an advanced table top animation system, was developed by fv\arc Chinoy over the past 14 years. "I started experimenting with stop· motion animation when I was in college. At that time I created a group of experimental films in a very rudimentary form of what was to later become Flexiform. These films were seen by Jim Henson of the Muppetts which led to my working with the Muppetts prior to Sesame

St.

"I was Jim's assistant and began to produce a limited amount of animation. I was also learning puppeteering, fabricating and character building, When

Sesame

Sf..

came along, I was already on my own, since I had decided I wanted to pursue film in·

stead of puppettry, I rejoined Henson and the Muppetts, however, in a co·production to do some of the original letter films for Sesame

St

Those films were an early form of the f1exiform

process.

''These films used mostly day figures, but it was the first time lip.sync was used and several major technical advances had been made. That was in 1969, It became dear to me by that point that the prospects

of working with characters in stop·motion that had the fullness of movement of the best cel animation were very, very good. There really was no reason that it couldn't

6 ClNEMAGIC #9

By DAVID HUTCHISON

Howlol.nd Owl Is _mb~ with tolsteful..,d kMn, c.ve by the .nlm.ltors .nd

folbrluJors" Stowrrw.r. The Rexlform models.n:: ... de from _Ious motterlill$.

be done, but people just weren't trying to do it.

"I began to try to develop a system to do this. Because of my work on Sesame St., I was invited by ZDF, the German television network, to produce films for their own educational series. J had to go to Munich to do it, though, so I spent two years in Ger· many creating insert films.

But

J had the time to work on my animation technique, I found that it was necessary to treat

stop-motion animation in the same manner, technically, that eel animation is treated,

That is to say, it requires a proper produc

-tion system-good organiza-tion for fabri-cating and good organization for training,

As I trained animators, I began to develop a system to do volume material."

"Pogo" Comes Alive

The characters in Kelly's Pogo strips are ideal for stop-motion animation. Kelly

DeAcon, who Is YOked by Vincent Prtce, Sets .. gentle tAp on the hAt.

worked for

some

years as an animator for

Disney,

so

thinking in three dimensions

while drawing in two be<:ame permanently

part of his sty!e as an arti5l The Pbgocomic strip was created by Kelly In the late 1940"5 and ran for more than 20 years. It was one of the most successful and influential comic strips on the American scene.

Never

one to shy away from controversy, Kelty

found that. some newspapers banned his

strip while others put the same strip on the editorial page. fbgo WlIS primarily II hu· morous political and social satire which brought to an everyday level the madness

and frivolity that. often surround our

mega-governmenl Pogo"s influenc:e WlIS seen not

only in the popularity of the comic strip, but also in the adoption ofavarietyof Fbgo'isms

and Pogo phrases into the American Ian· guage, the most famous of which is, "We

have met the enemy and he is us!"

Not only did Kelly design his characters

in three dimensions. but ~ hlKl also sculpted them- figurines

of

all the charac· ters. "We found that the Kelly·sculpted char· acters could be adapted to

the

requirements

of

stop-motion animation quite easily," says

Chinoy. "

Also by the nature of our process,

'Ne have tremendous control over

the

look

of

the

characters

and

\lie

knew

that

we

could

do them justice. In fact

we could

take them

a step further and make them breathe!"

ne.xlfonn: A TotAl System

-'"

"

-.,.~"

Chinoy considers eel animation to be a fairly well developed art in comparison to stop-motion dimensional animation.

He

believes that the potential of the stop-mollon

film has not yet been realized. Certainly

there has been much work combining stop. melion effects with live action

as

in the classic King Ki;)ng, but little has been done to make the art stand on its own in a feature length film sans live action. The first feature

length eel animated feature was made

over

40

years

ago

and many have followed. Where are th~ dimensionally animated features?

"In eel animation all technical problems

are solved and

worked

through by taking the time. care and planning to make them look righl

We

start with the premise,"

be:-lieves Q\lnoy. "that stop-motion problems are solvable and we deal

with

them

.

There are times that we add effects graphically, after the fact, just as is done In live-action.

For instanc:e, smoke:

some

types

of

smoke

we

put·on mechanically on the set, but other times

we

do it optically.

"The possibilities for solving problems

in dimensional animation have only just

begun to be: developed. We have SCf!nes In water.

We

have splashes. We have shots in

the car chase scene in which cars leave the ground and fly over

the

camera-followed

by the reverse angle shot

ci

the car coming

do"Wll and hitting the river bank on

the other

"We start with the premise that move·

ment is multidirectional- that an ann

flexes

in a living creature; it doesn't just

bend

at a poinl The dimension

of

the arm has to change. If you

flex

your arm, your forearm changes its shape. That is II part

of

living movemenlln our system the

charac-teristics have to be resculpted to the m0ve-ment. So we are using a broad range of surfacing materials for our models, every·

thing from plasticene

to

some of

the

he<lt-set The set pleas.e deillned . . pleus thAt c.\n be used In sewer ... set-ups,

side, All of these are traditionally live,action techniques, There is a shot in the film look·

ing down in the water watching a fish swim· ming and

we

have a shot from underwater

looklng up at the boat, All these things can be done in stop-motion, And F1exiform

deals with them, but there is no single 'magic bullet' in the Flexiform process, It's a matter of treating each individual problem as it arises and building an inventory of

special effects techniques,"

Problem Xquences

"A car goes off the bank into the water,

there's a big splash,ln the nextshot two little bugs on the bank watching the cars

try

to protect themselves from a big wave that comes over them-one of them is holding an umbrella as the wave splashes over1hem, "Or, a character stares into the water and a fish spits in his eye, In the next shot the

character is standing there soaklng ...et:

talklng with another character as water drips off him, He slowly dries off as the

scene progresses,

The [yes

Ha~

It

In thecomk strip, Pogo's eyes are drawn as a white oval with a black pupil. "But there is one other critical feature," Chinoy points

out, "and that is that they have a highlight in

them-a glint. In traditional puppet anima· tion that's either left off completely so that you get a little flat black pupil or it's painted

on-a little white fleck of some sort, The

white fleck looks very unnatural when the

eye moves around or the head orientation changes.

"We go to great lengths to use shaped

pupils that are surfaced to pick·up a high· light And

we

light our stop-motion scenes with the same considerations as live action,

so that the glint works realistically. Our eye

systems are very sophisticated in order to

SpLlshes In stop-motlon.l1e not too SR"t. ch..lliense for tM .Anl_tlon .Artists .At Stowmu. Vulous sh.pes of .O'yllc pLutk ue .Anlm.lted to 5Ussest _ter,

gi\le the character a very life·like appearance

of focus and eye contact Even if the char·

acter goes cross-eyed," Chinoy laughs, "the

highlights in the eyes and the surface tex· ture should make it appear to be life-tike."

Ball and

Sodd:

A

Dud

End

The ball and socket armature is widely

hailed

by

animators as the principal means of obtaining precision animation. Marc Chinoy disagrees,

"Unless there is some type of major technical breakthrough," Chinoy affinns,

"the ball·and·socket armature is a dead end for certain types of movement You can't get

the precision shape change that you can

get with more flexible mediums. For one

thing, Flexiform, unlike a lot of experimental

systems that flourished in the 60's (and some people are still experimenting with)

has,as I have said. no one 'magic bullet: In

other words, some of our models have

socket armatures at certain points, i{lhat is

what will help the model at that point We

don't go about this thing religiously saying

that you have 10 use this one technique and

nothing else,

"Our models use upwards of 20different

materials and incorporate many different

technical advances in order to make them

work. No

two

models are constructed the

same, necessarily. If it is necessary to put

a latex piece in. we go right ahead and do it.

We wouldn't say that was cheating on an aesthetic. The only aesthetic that's impor· tant is the way the character looks on the

screen, how it moves and how much life we

can put into it

"The problem with using ball·joint arma·

tures extensively is the problem of precise incremental movements-the very small precise movements. fllemory and spring· back are problems inherent to the ball·and·

socket armature, If the tension ona balljoint

should change, the diffkulties of getting in there under the latex, doing surgery, mak· ing the correction and keeping the surface

unchanged in the process are substantial. "We are very well versed here in all the techniques. We do have many people here with ball-joint armature backgrounds, but ultimately, we came to the conclusion that

by

sticking rigidly to that one system, we would never get the klnd of motion and life·

like characteristics that would be possible

by

selecting from the full·range of technical possibilities. Flexiform is a total system,"

The Studio System

Porky, YOked by

Jonou .... n

Winters, b pn:poved b

shootins

by the StowmAr .nlmoAtor$.

Marc Chinoy believes that

the

secret to successful stop·motion production is stU' dio organization, He feels that properly organized stop·motion animation has III

production

advantage over eel animation. "There is.!IIn immediacy with AexifOffTl that you don't have with eel animation in a studio situo!lltion. Ifs more like a performance. At the peak

of

production our studio tumed

out

II minuted raw Pogo footage a day. Our animators could

see

their

footage within two days at the latest." Chinoy believes the immediacy comes from seeing the footage .!liS It is shot rather than merely being ableto view pencil tests in eel animation before e commitment is made. It is indeed

more

of.!ll performance, as he says.

"In our system no one shot, except for the very major production shots, should take more than half a day to

set

up in the studio, Generally, a shot in our system ceo

be: set

up and ready to roll in t'W'O hours, sometimes less. The actual animation of the shot can be completed in three to

frve

hours, though of course there are some quickie shots 'W"flich can be done in

45

minutes. We would

love

to heve e shot come out great thefirst time, butif it doesn't,

...-e look

at that first shot as e first ettempt -e t-est Our quick tum around time allows en animator to see a shot and i

f

necessary go beck to redo it and improve it. We take what WOI"ks .!lind go back and do it again.

"Long before 'oNe have rolled an inch

of

film on the script we have done many tests. We test the characters,

we

test the move-ments,

we

test the sets ... if

we

have any doubts about how things are going to work, we'll test it.

"For instance, we may have a swamp set·up In 'W"flich we are shooting two char· acters Sitting on the bank and to!IIlking.

We

know

that at the end of the

week

we

are

going to want to do a frog jumping Into the water, At the end of Monday's shot with the two characters talking,

we

'

ll

run a test

of

how the splash is going to look. We c on-sider that test and 'title might retest it Tuesday after some other shot. By the time Friday rolls around and we aaually .!IInimate the shot, we've got the system for the splash down cold, We just go ahead and do it."

The "studio system" for Chinoy does away with the one character to one animator system that has been the custom with some other studios on short features. "If)<lu are truly studio system oriented:' believes Chinoy, "and you have a regular production schedule that must be followed, then the one-character-one-anirn.!ttor relationship is e liability.

If

you lose that anil"Tlator

who

is the only one totally familiar with a given charaaer, if he gets sick or has to go out of town, then you have severe scheduling problems.

"So in our system, as many of the ani -mators, if not all, are as familiar with as many

of

the characters as possible, though some animators will never touch certain characters during the length

of

the produc-tion simpfy for logisoci!ll reasons, If s true though that certain animators will

develop

affinities for certain characters and you try to give preference to those animators. But I try to have at least several animators with

hands-on experience with any given

char-Ushd ...

tIM ... . . , Res I_ .. spec:L&I ut. It Is Impon..nt to.-stop-motion

pIIotosr.-ph,.

u..t

the lIahU malnt.Un klten_..,. .. nd coloc-temperolltuR; to.-10 ... hours.

acter, You always want to have the back·up capability of having other animators ...tIo can handle the character, if need be."

Surface Textur6

The Pogo characters present a wide

assortment of problems to the modeler, As

they are all denizens of the Okefenokee

Swamp in Georgia they are dad in fur,

feathers, scales, alligator hide and porcu·

pine quills as the case may be. After all,

there is Pogo Possum, Albert Alligator,

Howland Owl, Miz Beaver, etc, "Notice,

though, the way Walt Kellydrew Pogo in the comic strip. the body is not textured overall in fur. There is just a fringe outline suggest· ing fur," points out Chinoy. "Across broad areas there is just flat color, like any cartoon character. When the Disney artists draw an 0'Nt in eel animation every feather isn't there, When they draw a furred creature. like Pluto the dog, the bodyis just flat color. It's a con,

vention of cartooning that audiences have

come to accept.

The slotted tAble ,l.llows,l. VAriety of C.l.mer,l. ,l.ngles.uK! e.uy ,l.ccess for the ,l.nlm,l.lors. "For us, working in three dimensions, it's a question of developing acceptable con·

I Go Pogo is fUmed In 35mm usJns: the full frilJDe-.... IowIns: ftexJblllty for optIQII fX.

,

ventions, so that when the audience sees a stop-motion animated cat it's not justa fluff· ball that moves. They should come away with the idea that they saw a furred creature

although perhaps they didn't. They get the

impression of the fur. This is one of the things that we work very hard for-creating

workable three-dimensional impressions in

the mind of the audience-the illusion of the thing.

"We have a variety of systems for textur· ing the models. In some instances we can use a variety of texturing tools that very quickly and easily lay on the various textures that we are looking for.

., Let" s say we have a character that's sup· posed to have a feathered surface and you have to bend its arm. You have a texturing tool that puts on the feather texture. Now, the problem traditionally has been with the surface breathing-that the surface you touch to bend the character's arm is going

to change from frame to frame (remember Kong's 'traveling' fur), If it breathes in the area of the bend-that's normal and natural, because that's what happens when the arm that's bending changes its shape,

&>

try to

see that when a character moves, the breath·

ing takes place at the right point" ,and only

that point"

Stop~motlon

Vs

.

Cel

"I don't think that dimensional animation

requires a stricter adherence to reality than

cel animation. It's a question of developing the proper conventions or acceptable con· ventions, You know that when Disneyartists were painting the characters on the cels, that they developed all sorts of systems to maintain consistency in the paint from cel

to cel. However, the convention went by the boards as the economics of cel animation became more difficult. If you compare suc-cessful cel animation that

1980 audiences

accept with Disney animation of the 40's you would notice great differences. You might become suddenly aware of the fact

that the surfaces of the recent animation

are all over the place, that It breathes, it stutters. you see cel noise. There are prob· lems with the line itself.

"In the beginning Disney did everything with a brushed line that was hard and even,

ArtIsts spend long hours p.lnsLUIngly detoI.lllng tt.e models for the 35mm form.\t.

RepLKement .... Imiltlon un be used for so_ w .... k cydes,.s shown here

with the

a.ts.

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....

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but wnen the industry turned to Xerography to transfer the drawings to eels, suddenly the line fluttered. People accept that today. The same thing is true to a degree with stop-motion. The industry accepts certain stan· dards and certain acceptable modes. But it really hasn't begun to go far enough to lay down those modes and conventions for stop-motion animation."

Strobing

A common criticism of stop-motion ani·

mation is that fast actions appear to strobe or move jerkily. This is because in live·action photography fast movements are captured frame·by·frame with a certain degree ofblur. W'hen you are animating frame·by.frame with still models blurring the action is a dif. ficult and time<onsuming process. Some· times the animator's moves are stagger printed to smooth out the apparent action, other times motors are rigged to move the model during the exposure to blur the action on a frame·by·frame basis, Both of

these methods cost money.

Marc Chinoy expresses his opinion of the strobing problem. "It's a mixed bag.

Sometimes we move the model during the

exposure to eliminate strobing during a fast action sequence, but

we

treat it scene by scene, It's not that difficult to do if you really need to, In a fast action sequence, you are going to have very few increments, the

space

between them will be pretty big so you don't have to worry as much about registration and location.

"l've found that if the calibration and

WolIk cyde legs used In ~pIilu:ment .nlrnAtton Me lAid CHIt In order,

positioning of the movement is precise enough, the strobing disappears or is di· minished. Sometimes strobing is just bad animation. In some

ways

though it isa bitof

a mystery, rm sure it could be worked out

mathematically to determine precisdywhat

is going to strobe and what isn't, since there

are a Jot of technkal factors invotved in the

strobing effect. It has to do with the shutter

position, the width of the fteld in relation to

the degree of movement.

"We find that we can shoot two frames

per position for certain types of movement

We don't shoot that way a lot but it helps in

certain situations. But when it comes to

making a consistent move, a car rolling, a

character sliding along or a camera move

of any sort it cannot be double framed ...

automatic strobing, guaranteed, you have

to single frame it

A WbIetop tntfflor!let with HowlAnd Owl And Churchy being ilnlrn.Ued.

12 ClNEMAG/C #9

>

I

Go

Pogo

:

The Story

I

na dank and evil cave the sinister Molester

P.

Mole and his self.righteous associate conspire to take control of the Presidency. They plan to run a candidate who is

appealing but hopelessly stupid ... in other words, one who is sure to be elected.

They

also plan to dupe the opposition into running a candidate

who

is certain to lose, one who

will never receive a vote because he is fair·minded, open and honest The dupe they

want

is

Pogo.

Pogo is a genuine reJuctantcandidate ... he honestly does not want to run. His friends

Albert, Howland and Churchy are seduced into running him by visions of grandeur,

gloty and free meals at the \lJhite House. With boundless energy they embroil them· selves in fund raising, developing an image for Pogo and polling the populace. The entire process is one of misadventure.

TIley are taken by a con man who first helps them extract campaign funds from the swamp critters but ultimately walks off with all the contributions himself, They set

off to

the convention minus their own candidate and bungle an attempt at convincing Mamzelle Hepzibah to become Pogo's first Lady. Despite all of this Pogo wins the nomination and his popularity rises.

The Mole becomes alarmed, believing that his plan may be backfiring. His worst fears are realized when Pogo, like a true candidate, does not show upfor his own benefit dinner. Mole's own candidate, Fremount Bug, falls into a pot of swamp brew which renders him rationa! and therefore unsuitable for the election.

Mole and Deacon decide to eliminate Pogo from the race, They seek out an evil specter in the form of Wiley Catt, a villain long since thought dead from the American scene, As with an major evils orx:e he is tumed loose Catt runs out of control, assumes dominance over the lesser villains, and sets about hunting down Pogo.

A car chase ensues involving all of Pogo's campaign workers but not Pogo himself. The chase ends in

a

spectacular crash which leaves Wiley Catt molassed, feathered and hung out in the corn field as a scarecrow. All other chasers and chasees are similarly served their due while Pogo and his true friend Porky walk off into the sunset contem· plating the fact that none of

them

will get elected. It is a comforting thought.

Vow Charaderlzatlons

Jonathan Winters •. , , . . . , , . , , .. , .. , .. Mole. Porky and Wiley Catt Vincent Price . " . " . , .. , ... , ... ,." .... " .. , .. , .. " .. , .. ,. Deacon Ruth Buzzi .. . .. , ..•....• ' , . . . .. Miz Beaver and Mamzelle Hepzibah

Alnold Stang .. , . " . " .•....•... " .. , .. , .. , .. , .. " .. , .. , Churchy Stan Freberg .. , . " . , . , ••..•••.•.... , ... , .. , .. , ... ,." .. , .. " . Albert Jimmy Breslin " . " .. , •••.. , •. , ... , ... , .. , .. " . " .. ,

P. T.

Bridgeport

Skip Hinnant . . . , .• , ...• ', ... , .. , ... ,." .. , .. ,.. Pogo Bob McFadden . , •...•... , , ' ... , , . , .. Howland Owl and Bothered the Bat Len fY\axweU , .. , •• , .. , .•..• , ... ,." .. ,... Bewitched the Bat Bob KaHban , .. , . " . , .•••.•••••.. " . " .. , .. , .. , ... ,. Bewildered the Bat

tv'Iarcia Savella .. , • , , ....••...•.... , .. , ... , .• ' ... , . , , .. ,. Miz Beetle

Mike Schultz, ...•... , , .• ' .. , • ' , . . . . . . Cliffmount

"Also if you are shooting a scene and the camera move is too fast, but the shot was single framed, you can't double frame it in the optical printer to slow it down .. ,strobing again. These are the fundamentals we live with."

Table Top Sets

Pogo was shot using three custom· designed shooting tables that incorporate rear screen capability. "We also have an 8-foot by 10·foot glass top table which is structured so that there are no supports except at three sides, It's half·inch thick float glass. All of our tables are steel pipe with heary cast aluminum fittings and everything is modular. We've builtsetsthatare 15by25 feetand we can pull it down and rebuild the matrix in a couple of hours. The rear pro.

jection capability is used to create projected skies. We do not use painted flats. All the skies in

Pogo

are specially created.

that

is they are not photographs of real skies, we've made some rather broad palette skies,

"Flexibility is at the core of almost every· thing the studio does, even to the models of the characters using every type of flexible and non·flexible system to create the de-sired effect Whether ball·and·socket or replacement animation is called for for a walk cycle or whatever, we use what works

be>L

"If I had one piece of advice for beginning stop-motion animators it would be to totally open their minds to the effect they want on the screen. You should never be tied to a technique-you should be tied to the visual effect on th~ screen. That's the secretf' (If

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TIRES THAT SHINE

Creating Stunning Titling Effects with Lithographic Film

By JAMES

F.

CALDWELL

I

thas been SlIidyou can't judge a book by its cover-or maybe a film by its title? You can. however, tell how much care 21 filmmaker put into his film by the

film'

5

titles.

Sloppy

titles

can leave a

bad

impression 'W'ith lin audience.

A major portion of the professional films

and commerciaJsyou see use

high

contrast

negatives for their titles. These titles <:Ire not all that expensive and are well within the

lIahtl Some of the ruen· tW ,.,.uvt.ah for -.ldnJ Idto dUes <Aft pkturtd

I'tere. You wlU need litho film And Ittho dew:loper, dew:lopins u"ys, opaque

solution .. nd .. c.ontut

pt1ntlns fr.-. TheR m4l'

tuVls should be .. ..wI· able In most _l-stocked

pftoco supply 5tofts.. You

un make your own conUd prIntInJ fr.une wItI'I .. she« of

pus

oiUId SOrM

m4lttn!11 fo.am m .. teNI.

16

ONEMA-GIC·9

realm of the amateur filmmaker.

A normal bli!ICk lind white negative

con-tains areas that 8fe very dense and areas that are relatively clear. In between these

extremes are areas that

would

fall into

the

classirlCation of gray. A high contrast neg&-tive is one that contains only the dense and

dear areas.

There life no gray areas.

There-fore, they make an ideal material for titles.

You may have to shop around to find

litho material In your town, but here are some hints: camera stores may carry it, office supply stores, printer's supplies, or

check with lin

off·set

printer. Two popular trade names are Kodalith and Polychrome

CML

Both of these are used in

the

printing

industry to allow photographs to

be

pub-lished in newspapers and magazlnes. In

f&ct, the photographs in this magazine were

screened and photographed onto litho ne·

gatives. The reasons for this are not impor·

tant in this discussion.

In

addition to the

negative

material.

you

will

also

need

aa::ess to a darkroom.

A

bathroom

that can be dafi(ened will do

fine.

You will need some trays to process the

lithos, running (or fresh) water, a contact

printing frame and the proper developing

chemicals. Utho film is orthochromatic, or

l.dt: The first Ikp In preputnSIIdIo dtieI II to Afn" your.artwoftl to ~ .. cet;ate.ln thll CASe, rub-on lettflrl .. re

.. fftxed to .. sheet of ~ ufltAte to.-c.ont.\d pt1ndns onto the IIdIo film. Cont.\ct prindns Is me euJes( method for

m.ddns lctIo tides, but

enIarPns

smAkr foonAt poshtYres (35mm, 110, etc.)

In .vi enL.uJcr II AlIo poHibIe.

•

insensitive to .certain wavelengths of red

light, so an ordinary red safeUght will be

needed so

you

can see 'W'hat you are doing.

If

you

don't wish to buy a contact printing

frame, you can make one easily enough

with a sheet of plain glass and some mat·

tress foam material. Simply lay the glass

over the negative sandwich on the foam. I

will get into this more later and the process

will become self-evidenl

You cannot use ordinary d~loper for

litho film and achieve the desirable high·

contrast results. A special two-part devel·

oper is usually used although I have also

seen one·part litho developer. You should

be able to purchase this at the same place

you buy the litho film. Ordinary photogra·

phic fixer can be used and stop bath is

optional, though recommended.

Rlsht: The c:om~d op.lI

-que:d nes .. tIve should kH)k like: thb. BLl.dr. C.lpe W.l5

used to op.lIque the wse

.... eu .... ound the tide,

The: sm.tJI pin ho6es .. round the dde- too doH to the Idft:rtnS fw C.lpe to be .. n effklent w .. yof

bkKldnS out me IIp

t-.are p.llnkd wIdI opAque

sotudon. The ~ b

umet" .. -~dy. rt.u your ReS.lttw. on " IISht 00 •• tf you an b.lc:kwlnd. you un super dM: ddes ewer

your fUm'

One final word before I commence with

the procedure. Utho film contains a lot of

silver and is a victim of the recent silver

price hike. In quantity, an 81h .II: II·inch

piece of litho negative costs about sixty to

seventy-five cents. You rM)' be able to talk a

printer into selling you individual sheets for

a dollar or so each, and a sheet may be cut

in half. or into quarters to stretch it a bit

further. Litho film is also available in 35mm

size, so if you have macro capability to

focus onto a 35mm slide,

you

may wish to

try a roll of this. A 36 exposure roll should

run around five dollars.

Although there are many ways to pro-duce a litho title, one of the simplest Is a

contact method. You need a sheet of clear

acetate (like an animation eel). A thin piece

of glass or clear plastic can also be used,

but put the letters on the backofthe glass in

reverse so that they will be pressed flat

against the litho and still read correctly. The

desired title can be produced USing

press-type letters, hand-drawing, clf·out letters, or

whatever suits you and the film

you

are

making.

In the darkroom, place the cel (letters

reading correctly) on the emulsion side of the litho film. If you place a comer of the

negative into your mouth, the emulsion

side is the side that sticks to your lip. Now,

Rash a light on and off as quickly as you

can. This exposure is very important to get

a good density in the final negative and may

require some experimentation to get good

results. You may try bouncing a strobe light

for one flash off of the ceiling. If you have an

enlarger, you can use that for the light

left, Onc:e you tw..~ .:on-C.la prln~d )'OtIr.artwork

onto the litho fllm .. nd

cte*.1oped

me

Ittho

nes-.. rive, you ~ rudy to

op.lque ttte nq;.uM. """ die _So'ihe on .. tight

&01.1* ()'OIl an Inilke OM

yourseW) "nd Insped to.-.. ny unw .. nlflt Mpln hofe5-M U.e opAque: sokItlon to flIlln dM: pin holes "nd

odIer b~mkhH'" the

~. You an opAque

LJ.rse .uu.s of Ihe ~

with b..u tilpc:.

5OUrce.

Finlllly, develop the film according to the developer Instructions. Proper development

is very importllnt for II good, dense nega· tive. The development time should be two

to three minutes and

the

tray should be

rocked back lind forth slightly 10 assure

even

development When the time is up,

put the film in slop bath for a

few

seconds lind then into the fucer. When the film has fixed fO( a couple of minutes, the lights can be tumed on. After five to ten minutes, rinse the film in fresh water for

15

minutes. and

hang up to dry. You should now have II dense blKk neglitiVI!;, with clear letters.

By holding the completed negative up to a strong light. you may notice small "pin

holes" in the dense luell. These clear spots

are caused by dust, Improper or uneven

development. or even defects in the emul·

sian. Actually, there is little

you

can do to

prevent them. Therefore. you will need opaque solution which is available from the

same source as the litho negatives.

Place your negative on a light box.

You may use this same light box for

shooting your titles.

With a fine paint brush, paint over the undesired "pin holes" with the op6que solution, If you have large areas that aren't

dense enough or contain a lot

of

"holes,"

you may use black tape such as electri·

cian's tape to

hold

back the light in those areas.

Now all that remains is 10 put your crea· tion onto movie film. If shot on a light box. you can shoot it just as it is. Or, if you have a

backwinder or backwlnding capability, you

may wish to superimpose the title over

pre-viously filmed footage. The dense area should hold back. all stray light from hitting

the film and so the title themselves will be "burned·in" over the background footage.

The SlIme technique can be used for laser blasts, lightning, or rocket effects, etc.

Aiming the negative may require some trial and error to achieve a proper eJtPOSure.

so don't be afraid

to

experiment Once you

have found an exposure ~al gives you good results, use the manual exposure dial on the camera so that the electric eye isn't

fooled

by aJi that

darkness

surrounding

the

title. With Kodachrome, I have been shoot· ing about 7/5.6, but the slze of the title, the distance to the camera, and the character' istics of your light box will probably alter the proper exposure for your set up.

Once you hAwe detennlned die proper exposure by trW .... nct.elTor. set your umer. on _nu..! And shoot die tides .I"nlt. "Iht boll., You an dd em. pIu.uE 10 )'OiIrdtfes by plAdnl. colored lei behind the nltl"thoit (whktl adds color to Ihe dUe but

whkho1.lso requires exposure compenw.don),1,J\d shoodnSlhl"<KlSh • UO$S-SLV nlter,1,S seen here.

18 ClNEMAGIC #9

(

I

I

1

I

\

J

1

!

It is also recommended that you shoot

the title in B darkened room. The litho is

quite glossy and may pick up stray images,

such as a reflection of the camera. If the camera reflection still proves to be a prob-lem, you may have to mask the shiny por"

lions of the camera with black tape.

A Msic black and white title may not

seem too appealing. Well then, add some

color! By placing colored gels or filters over

the title, you can turn it into a rainbow. However, when using caTored gels, it is

important that the density of the gels match.

To correct mismatches (e.g.,. a medium

blue and a light yellow), use neutral density

filters or gels to bring down the density of

the lighter areas or colors. Again. you will

need to experiment to determine correct exposure for the title.

If the titles are still too bland for your

taste,

you

can further experiment with filters on the camera. A good place to start is fog

and cross-star filters. A fog filter will cause the title to "bleed" over the boundary lines-as if it were shot through a fog! A cross·star causes numerous parallel lines,

or rays to flare out from the letters. By rotat· ing the filter, the rays can be made to move. You can also combine these two filters for unique effects. The new Cokin and similar

filter systems can give you unlimited effects. By masking letters with tape and with·

drawing

the

tape

while

filming,

a

title can be made to wipe on. This effect can also be animated, or several consecutive tiUes can

be made as a sequence and animated

under the camera.

By this point. should you decide you

would like to try filming a negative litho title, but lack the resources to do it yourself, all is not losl Make up your title on a clean sheet of typewriter paper and take it to an offset printer. Ask him to make a litho negative of the title for you. He will charge you more

than if you did it yourself, but you will havea litho title. If you opaque it yourself. you can

save several dollars.

Don't be afraid to experiment. These

negatives are perfect for slit·scan filming and strobe title effects. They also have uses beyond titles. I have already mentioned

laser blasts, but how about using pieces for

lighting effects on the control panels for your next model or live action set. Back·

lighted tithos can also be made to represent

computer screens. Your imagination is the

limit. (J/

Left; b.lmple of • litho poslttve. You u.n _ke.

Ittho posith-e by either

tontAct prtndng or enl.u

-glng. blAtk &. white nes.·

dYe. The high tontl"uC of

Itho positives II'Io\kes them Hlitablc: tor c.ertAin spe

-ta.t effects e:thnlques,

though their use Is Umhed

In ftlmm.ldng (the IImh. of tourse.ls the ftlmlNlker's

lnw.gln.Adon.)

One tU.ssk e.ump&e of

Ittho tides tlYt should

be famlla.r to.tll aNE·

MAGIC. r«der'S Is the cover

of the I.ut IHUf!.

Photo-gr.pher Mlth.ael SulllWln

used the Ittflo titling

technique to nw.ke the

tov-er lines on a NEMAGIC #8

~shlne.~ DIfferent tolored gels were pa.ced behind the

litho neg .. dYe.

Filmmakers'

EORUM

A. nIIgalar department devoted to readers' com menu about rlimmaJdag. their proble ... d solution..

Polllzzotto', stu fighter w.\S bulk for.A plo\nned SF film.

Spaceship Modeler

"fir.; interest in modeling and

film-making dates back to the days of

store bought 'PI/Movie model kits when I 'olIOUId build the kits and film my 0'NI1 2Y.z minute Sf "Epics."

tllany of the ~Irno; contain my own Sf)( (, (to the neighbors dismay) explosion effects.

I am roow involved with

Ffioto"

graphing my own SFX pro;ects and together with some filmmaker

frieods.1 am designing and buik.1Jng the models (pictured above) for 11 16mm 51·A thriller."

Jeff PoIIzzotto

11 I Jefferson Ave.

Mineola, NY 1 ISO 1

.kff helped design and build Ihc

sets and buill Ihe minia/ures for

The Fantocinni

Follies-ClNEMAGIC #8"s Filmmaker

Pr0-file. He is alS() Ihe author 0{ Sets on 11 Shoestring, which ajJpedrs in Ihis issue.

Regular-8 Ba.ckwlndlng

A friend and I have been making science fiction films in Regular-8 for

two years and we Mve noticed that ONEMAGIC has neglected to fea-ture Regular-8 backwinding. We

ha...e pelfected the technique and

have decided to share it with fella.v

ClNE..MAGIC readers.

First, remove the cover of the camera in II very dark room or in 11

changing bag, so as not to expose the film. Next., pull the feed and take· up reels outward until both can turn

freely in ethel" direction. To com· pIete this action, you may have to pull back the catch. Now rotate the 20 ClNEMAGI( 119

top reel until you have backwound as much as you desire. RernerrtJer that. 'Nhe11 you are ~ng, do

so slowly and CllIefully so as not to scratch the film. We hope you are

liS successful in using this technique as we have been.

""'" KR~ 5263 Carriage late Santa Rosa, C\ 9540 1

Alrbu rsh Alternative

... For modelrnakers who don't have (or can't afford) an airbrush. there is an inexpensive way to weather your spacecraft and other models. Start by painting the

model the color of the highlights

with nat plIints. Ught gray automo· tive primer (enamel based) is very

good for this. Take about a half

cup of water and add about four

drops of dish washing detergent to it. Add to this mixture some dark gray acrylic paint. You have a proper coosistency when the mill· lure is barely visible when painted onto the surface of the model. Use a wide, soft brush and apply the

solution to the surface of the mode!. It will spread out-setUing

into crevices and seams of the body. This accentuates these

areas. Do one surface of the ship, upper or lower, at.a time. You can use a blow dryer set on low heat to

speed the drying. This method will give you shadow detail resembling the surface of the Balliest.ar Galactica. You can create nash

bums, laser hits, etc., simply by building up the costs in the desired areas. The way the detergent

spreads will <illiow the edges of successive coats to blend into each other. If the paint beads. add a few more drops of detergent. The primary advantage of this method is that the acrylic color is

fairly permanent, but because of its

water base it will

riot.

attack the paint under it Ifs not lIS good as an airbrush, but It is an excellent

altemative.

Jerry M. Conner Rt. 5 Box 367< Bluefield, WV 24701

Miniature Snow

... If you need snowfall for a mini· ature set, try using spray foam upholstery deaner (\ use Woolite.J

Just angle the can up and spray. A

small fan some distance aWillj can

tum it into a blizzard. Be warned: the "snow" disappears after a few moments, so cover the ground with white sand Of flour.

Cody Michael 229 Stanley Morton. IL 61550

Shooting TIps

.. _ Here afe a few filming tips I"ve discovered through my e1(perien·

ces in f,jmmaking, When story· boarding Of pacing out dimen· sional space-model animation sequences make sure IhaI you keep the effect within the capacity of your camera lens. Since most Super·8 cameras have poor depth· of·field quality, you will nee<! to keep the camera as faf back from the scene as allowable. If you don't, you will find that stars and other background will be out of focus.

Though I have developed more dramatic explosion effects, none

are more safe and simple than this: Place a large amount of glitter of various colors in a cone-shaped

pile just below the vision of the camera frame. Place strong light· ing HOOve the pile. When ready to film. run the camera Ht 36 fps and shoot a short burst of air from a blow dryer out of frame. Good filming.

Rip Russell 14 GlenJake Rd.

Columbia, SC 29204

ject will ~ done In stop lTI(ltion and optical and visual FX. In the final planning stage, looking for people inlerested in working on SF and fantasy films. The Mdroid

Cruiser and other space hardware

will be featured in this film. Anyone

interested in working on this pro· ject can contact me by letter at the address below. JV\ark Belle 1032 Prospect St. Westfield, NJ 07090

Houston SFX Artist

Seeks Same

... 1 am planning a science fiction . movie, but I have a big problem. I do not have eflO1.lgh equipment to do adequate special effects. If any CINEMAGIC reeKIers (about 10 to 12 years old) who ~ve in the Hous· ton, Texas area have a fairly good SFX studio. I would like to corres· pond wlth them. Please write to me at my address below.

Hall Houston 4623 Beech St. Bellaire. TX 77401

Allen

Designs

Wanted

. __ Any readers who enjoy design

-ing aliens and who would like to

contribute some designs to my film, 5qoum. are asked to send their designs to me. I will greatly appreciate all contributions, The film requires many different types of aliens and I have run oul of design ideas. I am especially fond

of tentacled creatures. but I will accept anything intriguing. Scien· tific plausability is appreciated . Please make your aliens as weird

and original as possible. I am especially interested in a very mys. terious and powerful leader. Draw your ideas on typing paper and color with colored pencils Of what· ever your prefer. Send to my

address below. All designs used will be credited.

Paul Leitzel

11742 Lakeview Rd.

Newbury, Ohio 44065

Gadget Paralysis

I"m passing along a bit of eKlvice to my fellow CINEMAGIC readers

---1

conceming the dangers of equip-ment. Not physical dangers, but the danger of becoming so

obsessed with buying all the latest gadgets that you don't make any films. l"m afraid I speak from expe-rience. If you continually put off yor

productions until you can afford

Production

Company

Seeks

FX ArtIsts

.. The Newland and Belle com·

panies are co-producing a special movie. Currently titled The Jour· ney 0{ Shandor, this special

pro-•

,