By 1984 my obsession with movies was in full throttle. Indy, Superman, Rocky, Bond, they'd all gotten good hold of my attention. When 85 hit and movies like Back To The Future and The Goonies came out, my obsession exploded. So when the hits kept coming in 86 I was headed over the edge, right over the edge into the passions of moviemaking, a movie titled FX would put me there.
The story of a special fx artist hired by the government to help fake an assasination. Of course the fake assasination turns out to be a real assasination, and our fx guy hero is framed for the murder. Now on the run from the law, he must use his special fx genius to defend himself and get back at the people who set him up.
How the hell was I not going to love this movie.
By 86 I had already read Tom Savini's Grande Illusion front to back and had every fx diagram memorized, I had watched every ILM documentary I could find, I had created my earliest form of blood squibs (using ketchup, tylenol capsules, and a sling shot. Yes, it hurt), and was already working with latex and make up appliances (my parents were quite confused when I'd ask them for money so I could buy liquid latex and spirit gum, when other kids were buying action figures.) I was at the very beginning of learning how movie FX worked. So of course this movie was right up my alley.
I was propelled back into those old nostalgic feelings when I was flipping channels only to find that FX the Movie was playing. I caught the tail end. It all came rushing back to me. Everthing. The first time I saw this movie. How excited I was. How much cooler it made me feel wanting to work on fx and make movies. The thrill of learning how an fx shot worked. And the fun of learning the hard way how one 10 second shot is usually accomplished through hours and even days of tedious work.
A valuable lesson I learned when I was a kid, something that would prepare me for my work now. Today in fact.
Currently working on some fx stuff for a project. Learning new tricks everyday, every minute, aplying them to the old techniques. It's kind of a fun time right now. Feels like 85, 86, 87, all over again. And in the end that's kind of what I'm working towards. Achieving those old nostalgic feelings I felt when I was kid. Trying to capture that old magic, put it in my own work, and hopefully share it with the world.
OK enough delay. This blog was partially just to get a break from the long and tedious work of keyframes and compositing. 6 hours of work for a 5 second shot. Just like old times.
Back to work.
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