8mm Forum: Stop Motion Super 8 Monsters

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Posted by Terry Lagler (Member # 1110) on September 28, 2009, 09:14 PM:

I'm sure many of us were introduced to the wonders of super 8 through our parents shooting home movies - I certainly was - and how many aspiring "Ray Harryausen's" took dads camera to shoot their monster epics - I certainly did!
Whenever I saved enough money to buy a roll of kodachrome 40 my pile of plastacine, cut up fake fur and model railroad would be utilized for my "monster movies"
The typical plot would be - Monster arrives - monster wreaks havoc - monster destroyed - the end.

So, from my archives (around 1982)
1. Forbidden World
Carboard spaceship lands on planet, destroys monster, goes home!
The color hasn't actually faded I just cheaped out and bought the K-mart brand film for some reason.

2. Beast From The Beginning Of Time / It Came From Outer Space Double Feature
Ok, not to original on the plots!

Man did I shoot alot of these - I can't beleive it's coming close to 30 years ago!!

Cheers
Terry

Posted by John Clancy (Member # 49) on September 29, 2009, 02:47 AM:

Very good Mr. Laglerhausen!

Recommended viewing for all home movie buffs.

Posted by Michael O'Regan (Member # 938) on September 29, 2009, 03:12 AM:

Excellent stuff, sir.
[Big Grin]

Posted by David Kilderry (Member # 549) on September 29, 2009, 03:32 AM:

Terry, I notice that your adress is wrong, too far north, it should say Hollywood!

Excellent films.

My first serious ones in the late 70's early 80's were a school project on the media and a skateboard film. There was of course plenty of stuff of us on our bikes, at the park, in the street etc.

How my dad let me out at 15 with a brand new Sankyo 320XL sound camera is beyond me!

Posted by Maurizio Di Cintio (Member # 144) on September 29, 2009, 04:12 AM:

Hi.
I loved animated cartoons: I recall I loved drawing on thick note paper blocks to make flip books. My favourite topics were re-doings short sequences of sci-fi cinema classics like Star Wars. Eventually I ended up with quite a bunch of these and implemented the "story" with elements and charcaters from an animated TV show entitled "Star Blazers" (it must have been quite popular in the USA at some point, since it came to Italy through the American distributor: the original Japanese title was "Space Cruise Yamato" and needless to say today I own all the episodes of the first and second seasons).
At some point I unbound the flip books, made a registration system using some Lego bricks and filmed the stuff in stop-motion. (that was not full animation as each drawing was shot for three or four consecutive frames... Typical Japanes effect when projected at 24 fps)

The result was a 120 m long 'featurette' with sound: imagine creating all the effects with a mike, a food blender and a variable speed compact cassette tape deck (that was needed for the space craft engines). Imagine begging friends to lend their voices to the characters. And fixing everything on sound stripe directly through a Eumig 804, using one track at a time and (sometimes) sound-on-sound! [Mad]

Man, I can't think of all the difficulties I met (and overcame [Big Grin]

). Having at my disposal just the following equipment in addition to the above mentioned: a stereo cassette deck, a graphic equilizer, some leads to connect everything... That was a 'heroic' age - just think despite all the gear I have now and the (almost) endless possibilities, I'd never again embark in such a task!

Posted by Jean-Marc Toussaint (Member # 270) on September 29, 2009, 04:20 AM:

Very cool, Terry. [Smile]

Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on September 29, 2009, 04:37 PM:

Terry, those films are very good thanks for sharing them.

Graham. [Smile]

Posted by Claus Harding (Member # 702) on September 29, 2009, 06:23 PM:

Terry,
Very nice work and quite ambitious too (moves, night scenes....)
Takes me right back to age 15 when I was attempting to do the same thing. Now I have to dig out the old reels too.. [Big Grin]

Fun stuff.

Claus.

Posted by Joe Taffis (Member # 4) on October 01, 2009, 04:47 PM:

Terry, I really enjoyed your films. I know how much time and effort goes into producing one of these.

Posted by Terry Lagler (Member # 1110) on October 01, 2009, 09:14 PM:

Thanks for the kind words guys - those movies are fun memories from my youth.

Mr Laglerhausen - Ok that put a smile on my face.

Great story Maurizio. We did things the "hard" way, because there just was no other way!

Ok Claus now I'm eagerly waiting to see your films! It's great that you still have them. I have a couple of friends my age who also made their own films but sadley lost them along the way.

Cheers
Terry

Posted by John Skujins (Member # 1515) on October 01, 2009, 10:34 PM:

Those are great! I like the elaborate backgrounds & sets and the train crash. The monster models were impressive too, with a whole lotta movement! I can appreciate that. This gives me the idea to put my own early 80's animation on you tube. I did stuff with action figures, toy cars, clay, etc.

Great job!

Posted by Alan L. Hitchcox (Member # 598) on October 03, 2009, 07:25 PM:

Thanks for posting these, Terry. I really enjoyed them. I can't get over how similar some of the scenes are to a couple movies I had made. I had an almost identical monster-plane-crash sequence in mine.
Later, I spent an entire weekend making a bank robbery movie with clay guys. I was horrified to discover most of the film was black when it came black from the processor. Turns out you had to set the aperture manually for single-frame shooting. Must've bumped the setting, because almost none of the footage came out -- only the live sequences. Oh well, live and learn.
Anyway, you've given me added incentive to post a couple of my films. A good project for this winter.
Thanks again for sharing.
-Alan

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