Michael Heagle

For all my friends who have made films, thought about making films, or been interested in how action films are made, you should really check out director John Herzfeld’s feature-length documentary on the making of Stallone’s film EXPENDABLES, now streaming on Netflix. It’s also part of the elaborate Blu Ray release of the film, along with another good 25 minute documentary on the post production. Yes, I know, Stallone is no Scorcese, and Expendables is no classic, but here’s a guy who’s been up to it for thirty years talking about the philosophy of shooting, directing, acting, and writing on an average workaday picture that just happens to star a butt-load of screen heroes. Lots of interesting things here from Stallone, a guy who takes his work seriously (sometimes too seriously, he can come off a bit full of himself), and who really gives himself physically on this picture, suffering a host of injuries that would incapacitate guys half his age. Some funny bits with Terry Crews, and what Stallone says to his daughter upon entering an MRI at an hour and sixteen minutes is just about worth the wait. Want to see how a medium-budgeted action picture is made? Here it is in loving if not technical detail. And watching it does not spoil the film in any way, so if  you’re uncommitted to the movie itself this makes a good introduction. The film itself? Well, it’s the cinematic equivalent of Mountain Dew Throwback, if you’re pining for the “good old days,” this is just like them. Not as good as you remember them, but pretty fun.

To sum up: is a two hour making-of documentary about an aging action star a good thing, even one about a film that’s only 103 minutes? I think it’s worth getting the disc for, myself, and you’ll learn some stuff in the process.

The TVTV Real Meanin of Halloween Special Show, a one-hour love letter to horror movies, 80′s movies, and TV specials, debuted this week on Twin Cities television. But what if you want to see this show and you’re not in the Twin Cities? We recommend contacting your local stations, possibly by e-mail, but it’s even better to call or write a snail-mail letter to the nearest low-rent station (or big one, we don’t discriminate).

TVTV Real Meanin of Halloween Special Show — TRAILER from Transylvania Television on Vimeo.

As a challenge to myself, and taking full advantage of what my DVD collection has to offer, I have been programming double bills at home that are a lot of fun. Using services like Netflix, you too can recreate what it must have been like to attend America’s many drive-in theaters during their heyday. I try to always create the kind of pairings that are feasible (Disney pics and gore pics never on the same ticket, although I remember going to a theater in Wisconsin that had something like four screens all playing a different line-up, and if you sat on top of the car you could watch (but not listen to) any number of different theatrical ratings at once!).

Tourist Trap came out in 1979, and Caddyshack in 1980, so the point spread is close on this one. I believe they’re both R-rated pics, which puts them in the right camp. Start with Caddyshack. The DVD quality is very good but has enough grunge to remind you how old the pic truly is. A note to viewers — John Dykstra, the visual effects wizard behind Star Wars and Spiderman, was the special effects coordinator, which means he had a hand in the creation of the now-infamous gopher, as well as the magnificent matte painting of the final destruction wreaked by Carl the groundskeeper. Rodney

Dangerfield is as disgusting as possible and Ted Knight is a wonderfully cartoonish character in the classic comedy, so it’s a great warm up for the even-more-adult horror film at the top of the line-up.

Tourist Trap is a creepy blast. As a horror fan growing up in the 70′s and 80′s, there were rich pickings for people who wanted low-budget thrill rides, a genre that is all but gone today. Trap is no exception, providing low-rent chills and atmosphere the type of which is rare in today’s horror scene. Chuck Connors stars as the proprietor of a run-down, well-off-the-main-drag tourist attraction with lifelike dummies. You can guess the rest. I’m sure Tourist Trap was the not first, but the idea of turning people into dummies a la House of Wax is a great horror sub genre. Maybe there’s a double bill in it. The dummies are usually conventional store mannequins, but the “hero” dummies and masks here are uniquely creepy and undoubtedly are Texas Chainsaw-inspired. Famed makeup artist Ve Neill was one of the model makers on this, and she would go on to be Johnny Depp’s makeup artist on the Pirates trilogy. Light on the nudity (unfortunately — Tanya Roberts is in this and is a total stunner in cut off jeans — hooray for the 1970′s…) and gore and a bit slow when it should be faster, Tourist Trap has some dialog that will leave you giggling and still, some imagery that will stick with you.

I was digging around some old folders and found a paper I had written for college, probably while the great show Max Headroom was still on the air. Though it reeks of academia, you gotta love a school paper that manages to tie Max Headroom’s blipverts to Marshall McLuhan and theories of post modern simulacrum. Have a read, perhaps on a rainy Sunday over coffee.

Good news from TVTV — the Halloween Special is set to launch on June 18 2010. We begin shooting that weekend, thanks to all those folks who donated as part of our Kickstarter.com pledge drive. Way to go!

Throughout the coming months, I hope to post about the production, and talk about how we are accomplishing some of the tasks ahead. I’ll begin by teasing you a bit here with some images — in the script, The Vampire Le Shoc finds out that he is cursed and every Halloween something bad happens. Apparently this stems from his brief stay on the RMS Titanic. The first image is one of the few photos taken of the B Deck Promenade.

The second is the computer model I assembled for the show. Since we need a couple of angles for the short sequence, as VFX Supervisor on the show I determined that the best solution for the “set” was a computer model. My partner Gordon Smuder is an accomplished miniature builder, so that was always on the docket, but he has become swamped with the tasks that are also suited to his abilities. So,  Autodesk Maya to the rescue. There are some changes but I think the spirit of the great ship is captured here.

Unfortunately we won’t get to see much of the floor, as our characters have no legs. But there’s a chance it may be seen in the long shots, so I put it in. It’s one of the only things with a photo-based texture on it, the rest is procedural.

There’s a chance it will appear from this longer view as well. Can’t wait to see it with the puppets in action! Stay tuned for more on the making of this elaborate a desperately underfunded independent television spectacular!

Record setting weekend of shooting on TVTV. By the end of today we will have done 28 pages of puppet comedy in three days. And they weren’t deadly days, either, a few hours on Friday, a nine-to-fiver on Saturday… If this were our full-time job, we could obviously deliver the goods.

There’s still a few days left to add to the coffers on our Kickstarter pledge, as shown in this week’s BlipTV reruns…

There’s always been some confusion on the difference between the Visual Effects Program at Art Institutes International, Minnesota (where I am one of the faculty) and the “other” programs of Media Arts and Animation and Digital Film and Video Production. In the interest of channeling the right folks to the right program, I have created this video to explain it. In an effort to boost the enrollment in a program I feel strongly about, I also explore why the Visual Effects and Motion Graphics program is the one for serious go-getters with an interest in film and television post production.

My first legitimate animation in Maya, done for a beginning (!) modeling class at Academy of Art University online as part of my Master’s degree. We were to build a robot, give it a walk cycle, and put it into a still photograph background. Per usual, I found ways to complicate it. Steampunk has since become sort of ubiquitous, so my enthusiasm for doing a whole movie in this genre has waned. Besides, you can’t do Victorian on no budget. Stay tuned to this site to find out what I will be doing with no budget for the proposed Robert E. Howard-inspired film, SKULL FACE.

Here’s a quickie how-to tutorial on using the crop tool in Adobe Photoshop to adjust photographic perspective on an image destined for computer graphics textures. Whipped this up for a class I am taking online. They added this feature a long time ago, but if you don’t know it’s there it does you no good!

In case you missed my post of this in November of 2008, I thought I’d include it here. As part of Darkness Radio’s big Halloween event at the haunted Palmer House Hotel in Sauk Centre, members of the Twin Cities Paranormal Society investigated the active basement of the hotel. Some downright terrifying sounds are heard via EVP, electronic voice phenomenon. Tricia, Troy, and I went to present some TVTV material at the party and stuck around to participate in the “ghost hunt.” I have not altered the audio or video in any way, except to condense what was a long night at an old hotel that is purported to be haunted. It was a blast, and I like to keep my mind open to the possibility that life is not as easily explained as we think.

I haven’t found a good place to post this somewhat hilarious song that my long-time friend and collaborator Tim Curtis and I wrote for the Jobbers Movie. I hit upon the lyrics and melody for the chorus in the shower one day, we knocked out the rest on one cold night in Waukesha Wisconsin later. Tim added extensive editing and instrumentation, quite wisely burying my rusty bass track in the mix and featuring some very funny 80′s flourishes. Mostly it was accomplished on vintage gear too, something that Timothy is somewhat reknowned for. I told him we needed to go “Eye of the Tiger” on this one without being a complete carbon copy. Oops. It’s called You’re a Fighter (You’re a Winner). Click through or download with caution. Here’s a pic of some of Tim’s gear on the night of the initial tracking.