Archive for the ‘Jim Danforth’ Category

Flesh Gordon – The Great God Porno (the Nesuahyrrah)

Saturday, November 10th, 2007

BlueSpill’s server logs show a lot of people searching for Flesh Gordon, so here’s another clip to compliment Jim Dansforth’s masterful Beetle Man sword fight: Flesh Gordon’s final stop-motion sequence, featuring the Great God Porno (also known as the Nesuahyrrah).

Like the Beetle Man swordfight, the armature for the Nesuahyrrah came from Pete Peterson, who built it for his test reel The Las Vegas Monster.

The Great God Porno is among the most inventive stop-motion characters from feature films of the era. Not just a lumbering monster, he’s one of the few stop-motion actors with dialogue and a distinct personality. That Flesh Gordon is an X-rated sex romp makes the talent that went into animating the Great God Porno even more remarkable.

Laine Liska sculpted the Nesuahyrrah puppet. David Allen, Jim Aupperle, and Robert Maine animated the Great God Porno, with Maine completing the bulk of the animation. Jim Danforth and Dennis Muren also assisted with setup and lighting.

The Great God Porno is never actually called “Nesuahyrrah” in the film, although it’s often refered to by that name in books. If anyone knows the story, I’m curious to learn where the nickname originated (but I do know what it means — just spell it backwards).

I originally posted the scene complete and unedited, but someone at YouTube actually found it offensive and yanked it. This edited version should prevent damage to impressionable minds.

Posted in David Allen, Dennis Muren, Jim Aupperle, Jim Danforth, Laine Liska, Pete Peterson, Robert Maine, stop motion | 2 Comments »

Flesh Gordon – Beetle Man Sword Fight

Tuesday, May 1st, 2007

Released in 1972 as a softcore pornographic send-up of the old Flash Gordon serials, Flesh Gordon features sfx scenes that are real gems. Master effects artists Jim Danforth, David Allen, Dennis Muren, Doug Beswick, James Aupperle and Steven Czerkas all contributed to the film’s look.

Go ahead and watch the whole movie. The story is silly and entertaining, and a bit of titillation is good for your soul.

A highlight of Flesh Gordon is the beetleman sword fight sequence, animated by Jim Danforth. You’ll recognize the character design from Pete Peterson’s bettlemen test reel. Danforth restored and upgraded one of Peterson’s stop-motion puppets, and it shines in Flesh Gordon (literally – it’s painted gold). His masterful animation of the sword fight outdoes even the sword-fighting skeleton from The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. I’m particularly impressed by the miniature staircase, which is more convincing than the corny plaster rocks that decorate the live-action set.

When I was eighteen I rented this movie from Captain Video on Market near Castro. I dubbed it onto a Betamax tape and (mostly) ignored everything except this scene.

Posted in David Allen, Dennis Muren, Doug Beswick, Jim Aupperle, Jim Danforth, Pete Peterson, Stephen Czerkas, stop motion | No Comments »

Pete Peterson – Beetlemen Test Reel

Monday, April 30th, 2007

Here’s another fantastic clip from Pete Peterson’s personal projects. This clip was discovered, along with The Las Vegas Monster, in a trunk from his former residence. Pete Peterson died in the 1960’s, before his work found much appreciation.

In his story for the film, the beetlemen are humans who mutated while hibernating in suspended animation.

Behind the scratches and damage to this short length of color footage lies an atmospheric scene that exceeds its simple concept. A lesser animator might approach this demo as a straightforward walk cycle, but Peterson evokes tremendous personality from each beetle-man. His long, evenly-paced style applies perfectly to the skulking mutants, and makes the appearance of an entire horde of bettlemen even more startling. This is a superior example of character animation.

Pete Peterson must have built several articulated puppets to support the multitude of characters in this short film. How many? I imagine that, when a puppet exited the frame to the left, Peterson immediately repositioned it to re-enter the frame from the right. I don’t believe it’s likely that Peterson optically composited puppets to create a crowd, especially considering that this is color film. Nevertheless I count four bettlemen on screen thirty seconds into the clip. I don’t know if Pete Peterson had assistance machining and skinning the armatures, but manufacturing four detailed, highly articulate stop-motion puppets is its own accomplishment.

At least one beetleman stop-motion puppet saw life in a feature film. A sword-fighting beetleman, animated by Jim Danforth, makes a strong impression in the 1972 feature Flesh Gordon.

Posted in Independent Cinema, Jim Danforth, Pete Peterson, stop motion | 1 Comment »

Equinox – Stop Motion Effects

Saturday, April 21st, 2007

Consider Equinox… A Journey into the Supernatural as the very watchable demo reel that launched the careers of Dennis Muren, David Allen, and Jim Danforth. Released theatrically in 1970 as The Equionox (padded with additional scenes), the original The Equinox… A Journey into the Supernatural is the superior picture. It manages a moderately darker tone and a natural pace in just over an hour, and doesn’t suffer from the feature’s diluting overdubbed dialog. It also boasts longer cuts of critical effects scenes.

The action starts in a short sequence with the destruction of Dr. Waterman’s cabin. A giant cephalopod crushes the building with four nicely articulated tentacles. The close-up of the watery yellow eye is a nice detail. The cabin is destroyed about as well as can be animated in a model of such small scale, and no one questions that the giant cephalopod, an ocean-dwelling monster, somehow wound up in a forest.

On the subject of miniature sets, a fantastic Kong island diorama makes an appearance as the middle eastern origin of the Necronomicon.

Cyclops’ cousin, the memorable bipedal monster Taurus, lacks the graceful form a more skilled sculptor may have fashioned: His shoulders are square, legs stumpy, and his patchy fur and multicolored skin prevent the eye from focusing on his performance. Taurus is nevertheless intimidating when he corners the kids in a chasm, and ingenious when he uproots a tree and uses it as a tool to reach for the Necronomicon. Taurus perishes in an elaborate death sequence after being poked by a sharp stick.

A red, horned, pitchfork-tailed demon is a more successful stop-motion puppet. Animating a flying creature is an ambitious undertaking, and my favorite example is the panning shot of the in-flight demon snatching Susan. It’s the kind of challenging, optically demanding effects shot that makes this amateur production worth watching, and visually it’s a success.

Dennis Muren refers to the effects in this film as “fossils.” That may be true, but they are no less interesting to watch.

Posted in David Allen, Dennis Muren, Jim Danforth, stop motion | No Comments »

Planet of Dinosaurs – Allosaurus Attack

Tuesday, April 10th, 2007

The team who put together Planet of Dinosaurs clearly loves dinosaur movies. This 1978 independent production pits a group of lost space tourists against some quality stop-motion dinosaurs. The scenes between the dinosaur confrontations are just time fillers. Planet of Dinosaurs is all about the dinosaurs.

The dinosaurs were animated by writer/producer James Aupperle, Doug Beswick, and Stephen Czerkas. Aupperle and Beswick have been active in the effects industry ever since. Stephen Czerkas now heads The Dinosaur Museum in Blanding, Utah. Jim Danforth provided some matte paintings.

This scene of a small Allosaurus attacking a spaceage damsel in distress represents the great quality of work that brought the film’s dinosaurs to life. This Allosaurus’ exaggerated scaly skin reads great on film, and a whole bag of stop-motion tricks was opened in this scene: Rear projection, static mattes, thrown sand, and impalement by a live-action spear. Its motions are smooth and natural.

This clip comes from a VHS tape I won on eBay.

Posted in Doug Beswick, Independent Cinema, Jim Aupperle, Jim Danforth, Stephen Czerkas, stop motion | No Comments »