(This article originally only had 3 pictures with it, one each for Star Quest, Invader and Twilight Of The Dogs. More pictures have been added (the ones with bold captions), and this article has been modified slightly for accuracy and transparency. See you next year!)
John Ellis and Tim Sullivan don't let a low budget stand in the way of making silver screen magic
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| May 1994. |
Movies by Mike Mayo
Successful low budget SF film-making is itself an act of science fiction.
The world of low-budget science fiction movies isn't an easy place to make a living. Filmmakers who choose to work in it spend much of their time trying to spin straw into gold, creating visual miracles on microscopic budgets. There's never quite enough money, and efforts to raise more are virtually constant.
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| John Ellis between shots on Twilight Of The Dogs. |
With three films under his belt and a fourth in the planning stages, John Ellis is a low-budget veteran. When we sat down to talk about his work, he had just been sending out letters to investors in his most recent project, explaining what was happening. The fact that one of his backers had just gone into chapter 11 bankruptcy didn't make it any easier.
But then, nothing had been easy for Ellis recently. Even getting to the interview was tricky. On the day we'd arranged, there were quakes and aftershocks in California where his kids live, and painful record cold in the Washington, D.C. area had killed his car's battery. Add in an ice storm, snow, and impassable roads and you've got the interview that was not meant to be.
But we persevered and managed to find a restaurant we could both reach near the pentagon, an institution that Ellis had taken some liberties with in his most recent release, Invader.
But that's getting ahead of the story. His interest in science fiction films had, he admitted, a curious beginning - When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth. When that venerable Hammer B-movie was first released (in 1970), he saw it five times in 5 days. But it wasn't the leather bikinis that caught his interest; it was Jim Danforth’s stop-motion special effects.
Ellis went straight home and made a Tyrannosaurus rex out of metal and foam rubber. Today, he's 30-something, with long red hair and beard, and an earring dangling from his left lobe. And he still loves good special effects and science fiction.
After his T-rex, he said, “I started as an illustrator, sold my first freelance piece of artwork in 1970, did a lot of Science News Magazine cover artwork. That led to work in commercial television in Washington, D.C.
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| Science News Magazine cover by Ellis, September 22, 1979. |
“I did stuff for armed forces, network tv, shoes and toothpaste commercials, vacuum cleaners, both at Broadcast Arts and Taylor Made Images, both defunct now, sometimes as a flunky, sometimes the driving force.” The work involved animation, special effects and live action, and it gave him the skills he needed to consider moving into feature-length projects.
“When you're doing commercials, you get a sense of presentation because there is a product that is being sold - whether goods and services or a concept - and you learn to present it in a way that the audience identifies with it instantly. Sometimes you want somebody to say ‘What's that?’, but usually you want people to get it instantly.”
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| John Ellis at Broadcast Arts, animating part of a TV commercial for Baltimore's WMAR radio in 1984. |
In 1982, he and his associate Phil Cook decided to take the plunge. In Baltimore, they'd seen and worked on the ultra-low budget films Nightbeast and Galaxy Invader for Don Dohler and thought they could do better. "We both knew that we had the raw talent to do it. As an illustrator I knew I could design and make any props.”
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| In Star Quest: Beyond The Rising Moon, this elaborate miniature set designed by John Poreda is an atmosphere processing station on the poisonous planet Inisfree. |
Their first effort together was Star Quest which Cook wrote and directed and Ellis produced. “There was a total envelope on that film,” he said. “The whole look of it was put together by Phil Cook, myself and John Poreda, who did the majority of the design work. That film was pretty much Phil's vision. It was his original story, but we were feeling our way.
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| One of the bigger sets on Star Quest. |
“It was a combination of special effects to establish locations and clever lighting to interconnect our sets with the miniature effects. We tried to root it in reality. Whether we succeeded or not is not for me to say.”
Actually, they did pretty well. Science fiction readers will catch the influences of Robert Heinlein's Friday and Frederick Pohl’s Heechee novels in the story of Pentan (Tracy Davis), a genetically engineered hit woman who rebels against her corporate owners and searches for the wreck of an alien spacecraft.
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| Star Quest (originally titled Beyond The Rising Moon) early sales poster, art by John Poreda. |
The film was made in Northern Virginia. Live action scenes were done in a concrete tunnel at the Pentagon and on an interstate highway overpass. A barren field near the small town of Culpeper became the planet Elysium. But the most memorable moments were created in a 40-by-45-ft corner of a warehouse, where the sets were constructed and the special effects were photographed in Alexandria, Virginia.
Ellis and Cook used every trick they could come up with to save money (on a $152,000 budget). They scavenged lumber from a nearby dumpster to build their sets, and since they shared the warehouse with a juice distributor, the place stank of fetid oranges.
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| Star Quest in Japan (home video cover) 1989. |
Despite those handicaps, they got what they were after in visual terms. The interplanetary and aerial sequences look good. They move quickly without obvious trickery. The sound dubbing isn't as successful. Too often the voices sound like they come from a dubious Italian import.
Still, Star Quest does enough things right that Ellis and Cook screened a 35mm print at the Cannes film festival. From that, they got a fair review in Variety and made a smattering of sales. The special effects work they did on the film was described in detail in the May 1990 issue of Cinefantastique, and in the September 1989 issue of American Cinematographer.
More importantly, Star Quest also got them in touch with people working in the distribution end of the business. They put together another film package, but couldn't find studio backing for it.
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| In John Ellis's film, Invader, big Harvey is a 50 ft tall alien robot designed by John Poreda. |
Again, Ellis anAgain, Ellis and Cook decided to do it on their own. Though the project began with the title The Killing Edge, it finally became Invader. Reminiscent of a good 1950s B-movie, it's an imaginative story of UFOs and military cover-ups that's told with humor and some terrific stop-motion effects involving a robot called Big Harvey.
But their money problems wouldn't go away. They lost an investor in the stock market crash, and it took a last- minute infusion of cash from legendary low-budget movie producer Menahem Golan to finish the film. Given the reality of the home video market, where Invader made its debut in this country, they had to approach it differently.
“Phil and I wanted to make Star Quest entertaining but not offensive,” Ellis explained, “so it's pretty tame, PG or whatever. With Invader, the word came down that it was supposed to be R-rated. That would improve the money we made from it. So we put a lot of [strong] language in it. One guy gets shot in the Pentagon cafeteria and you actually see blood squirting out.”
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| John Cooke, Hans Bachmann and A. Thomas Smith Smith in Invader. |
The language and violence still are mild compared to many contemporary videos, and the films restraint did nothing to hurt it in the marketplace. Ellis said that Vidmark “sold 32,000 cassettes right out of the gate when they'd been expecting a demand for something like 12,000 tapes.
After Invader, Ellis and Cook thought it would be easier to get money to make another film, but once again found that was not the case. According to Ellis, the rules had been changing: “They say, now you have to make three films to be taken seriously in Hollywood.” So, they started out on their third film again spinning straw into gold from individual investors. But as they were beginning to put the film together, the industry's most famous bugaboo, “creative differences,” cropped up, and Ellis and Cook decided to work on separate projects. Ellis then found himself filling the role of both producer and director on Twilight Of The Dogs.
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| Line Producer Zaneta McGaha and Director Jhn Ellis going over production schedule for scenes coming up for the next few days |
The two jobs don't really compliment each other. “They’re two different hats,” Ellis said, “and they can conflict. The producer runs the show as far as money and setting it up until the director walks onto the set. The producer can be a bastard; the director can't be. When I yell at people on the set as director, they know I'm not mad. I'm just trying to get everything energized. The director can't afford to be a bad guy.”
In both roles, “you've got to juggle the money and juggle the people to get the movie made.”
In the world of low-budget film-making, those juggling acts are never easy. On the basic nuts-and-bolts level of daily work, Ellis expressed complete admiration for and dependence on the other people who do so much to make a movie happen but never get credit. The craft services person, for example, who makes sure that cold soft drinks and coffee are there when needed. And the first assistant director, who serves as a sort of Sergeant, making sure that things get done.
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| Switching hats to 1st Assistant Director, Zaneta McGaha on set after the dangerous "full-body burn" fire stunt was safely completed, with Phil Hayes who performed the stunt |
Ellis stressed how important that job is. “The first assistant directors set the pace during the shooting. They need to control everybody and not let people know they’re controlling them. It's not about directing; it's about organization.”
The hyphenated “producer-director” may sound impressive, but Ellis laughs at the stereotypes. “People think that the work involves posing and saying ‘action,’ then somebody's rolling the camera and somebody's putting the thing out there” - he makes the motion of a clapperboard with his hands- “and the actors say their lines and you paste it all together and people start wheelbarrowing money up to your front door. It's really not like that.”
With Twilight, the process began with a script written by Tim Sullivan (who also stars} for a “science fiction allegory and post-apocalypse adventure” with references to AIDS and cult religions. Ellis then worked out the logistics and shooting schedule and started raising funds.
The comparison Ellis makes is to a train. “Once the camera starts rolling on the first day, you're on a locomotive that's going someplace and you don't know where it's going to end up. Every day you're spending money. Inexorably, it's moving forward and after a certain point there's nothing you can do to stop it. You hope that the money's there and that the people are committed enough to you that they stay even if the money runs out.
“You have to shoot, and you have to shoot as fast as possible. You're spending money; you've got people with diverse points of view, weather, other variables. If you can plan everything down to the last little detail, that's great, but it's not always possible on low-budget science fiction. Obviously you have to have planned makeup, costumes, sets, etc., But there are certain things you just can't plan for, that you don't have the time and money to plan for.”
Certain things like bugs.
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| 1st Assistant Camera Gary Waxler (L) and actor Barry Sigismondi in the big sometimes mosquito-infested cathedral set. |
One of the buildings they filmed Twilight in turned out to be infested with mosquitoes and it almost crippled the production. “I’ve still got some scars on my legs,” Ellis said, “and so do others from the cast and crew. Swarms and swarms of mosquitoes would get into the building. Those bugs nearly drove us mad! You'd have tons of jungle juice on you and they were landing all over you. It was hideous.”
That phase of production is over. By January, almost all of the photography had been done. Ellis was editing the film at his place in a upscale apartment complex behind a majestically frozen fountain. He lives with a minimal amount of furniture in rooms that are dominated by professional film equipment. One corner of the living room is filled with stacks of video cassettes and promotional material. VCRs and a laser disc player sit directly on the wall to wall carpet.
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| Assistant To Producer Liz Heyd in the office/editing area (Mid-1994). |
A wide editing table is set up in his den. Within easy reach behind it are an Apple computer and fax machine. They’re flanked by racks holding strips of film ready to be edited. On his left is a set of industrial metal shelves holding heavy reels of 16mm film and tape. That's where he's putting the film together, frame by frame, shot by shot.
Maybe this isn't as bad as the mosquitoes, but it's just as tough. It's the real work, and after more than a year on the material, Ellis is so close to the story that he has no idea how good or bad it is. First he has to put together a rough cut about 2 hours long. That will be trimmed down to 100 minutes, and, he added, the special effects still have to be done.
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| John Ellis editing Twilight Of The Dogs (mid-1994). |
“For the first time, we'll be using computer technology for special effects from Silicon Graphics. We also have big spiders in the film. From leg tip to leg tip when standing, they’re are about 5 feet wide and 4 ft tall; black widows that are nasty. There stop - motion animation by Kent Burton who did Big Harvey.”
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| Liz Heyd doubles for lead actress Gage Sheridan, originally shot May 21 1994. Though it's taken 27 years, digital effects are finally being added to 'Twilight' by Peter Andrew Montgomery. |
Despite the rocky road that Twilight has traveled so far, Ellis is optimistic about its future, certainly on home video and perhaps even theaters. “I’m hoping that we can get an art house situation at least and maybe a regional release on it. We shot in a widescreen format so it could go into theaters. If it's anything like I imagine it to be, I think it would have the potential for that. It's such an odd bird.
“First and foremost, I wanted to make a good science fiction film, a film that people who read science fiction and people who watch science fiction on television and movies would look at and say, “This film has ideas. It has a different feel, a different psychology behind it.’ I like the mixture of the unknown and the nature of the universe and the nature of life and the eternal questions, why are we here, how are we here?
“The best science fiction-and there isn't much-challenges you and makes you think. When it's done well, you go to a totally different place, sometimes a different time, and it's not boring. When it's done well.”
And that's the catch-doing it well. Right now, Twilight is so rough and unfinished that it's impossible to say if it's done well. In it's finished form, it could be spun gold; it could be something less. But then, that's the risk that every filmmaker from Steven Spielberg to John Ellis runs with every movie.
Viewers will let him know how he did.
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TIM SULLIVAN: SF WRITER AND MOVIE MOGUL
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| Author/actor Tim Sullivan decks Randall Shepherd in Twilight Of The Dogs. |
TIM SULLIVAN LEADS A DOUBLE LIFE
Most science fiction fans know him only as a writer and editor. This makes sense, for in his 15 years as a professional in the print genres, he has been a visible presence, turning out seven well-received novels, including The Parasite War and Martian Viking, 30 short stories, and such theme anthologies as Tropical Chills and Cold Shocks.
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| The Martian Viking by Tim Sullivan (1991). |
But thanks to fellow SF writer S.P. Somtow, Sullivan has also found a second career as actor and screenwriter. Somtow, who himself has second careers as composer and filmmaker, put together a horror film titled The Laughing Dead. The movie, which featured Sullivan's acting debut as a maniacal priest, developed a cult following dueto the appearance of many SF luminaries. Aside from Sullivan, the film contained authors such as Ed Bryant, David Bischoff and Tim Powers whose characters were all fiendishly murdered.
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| Tim Sullivan as Father O'Sullivan in The Laughing Dead (1990). |
“I owe it all to Somtow in a way”, said Sullivan. “I’d done a little acting years ago. He called me up one day in ’88 or ’89 when I was living in Philadelphia. He said I want you to star in this movie. Somtow kept calling me. I thought he'd gone completely insane.”
After his role in The Laughing Dead, Sullivan remained in California not only because he'd been bitten by the acting bug, but because “on the pay I got, I couldn't afford to come back east so I stayed out here. My next film was called Angel Of Passion. I played a wealthy geek, a stupid rich guy whose girlfriend runs off with a muscle man. This was in ’90 or ’91. It was not a very rewarding experience. I've never actually seen the whole film. It's got a lot of breasts in it. Not mine, though.
“I then did a rewrite on a picture called In A Moment Of Passion, directed by the Zbigniev Kaminski. It was a suspense thriller and had Maxwell Caulfield, Jeff Conaway, and Martin Sheen's brother, Joe Estevez. Then I sold a script called Without A Thought. It's a suspense thriller about a woman torn between two guys, one of who's a good cop and one of who's a murderer. This was ’89. I never got paid. If any one of you readers would like to finance it....
“Then I was mucking about over at Disney, but it didn't work out. Most of my history in film is things that didn't work out. I tried to sell them a couple of different premises, one of which was based on my novel The Parasite War. There was some interest from Stuart Gordon on that, but not enough.”
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| Tim Sullivan as Sam Asgarde in Twilight Of The Dogs. |
Sullivan's film career turned around when he ran into John Ellis, whom he knew from SF fandom from the days when he had lived in Washington DC. “He was kind of on the outs with his partner,” said Sullivan, “and we talked about doing something, and after many long phone conversations about Mad Max, David Koresh, mutated spiders and alien super-science, we actually ended up doing it! I'm not too interested in going to 20th Century Fox and going through all the horror shows you've heard about. I'd rather work on the independent level. I just did a low-budget production of A Midsummer's Night Dream, called S.P. Somtow's "Ill Met By Moonlight", It's got Timothy Bottoms in it. I play Oberon as sort of a homeless version of Dracula. There's a lot of gothic punk to it. The pair of lovers are not a pair of ancient Athenians, they're really LA street punks, and then these supernatural creatures show up, Oberon and Titania. They're sort of homeless people, but they have this mystical quality to them.
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| Tim Sullivan as Oberon in Ill Met By Moonlight (1994). |
Even though Twilight Of The Dogs may mark Sullivan's big break he hasn't turned his back on fiction. I'm still writing prose. I had stories in the anthologies The Ultimate Witch and The Ultimate Dracula. I also had a novel out last year titled The Lords Of Creation, from AvoNova books. I did six books with them counting the two anthologies. "
But John Ellis is making sure that Sullivan doesn't stray too far from the silver screen. Their next project, Starfarer Jack, a space opera with a psionic twist, set on spaceships and alien planets, is now in the planning stages.
