Post #13 - TOTD VFX Update

 This is going to be a brief article...

Work continues fixing various bits and pieces of effects shots that (as I've said here before) "have always bothered me." There are about a dozen shots left to finish at this point, and the work is being done by Peter Andrew Montgomery and myself.

Progression of steps used by Peter Andrew Montgomery for a new optical effect (described below)

Peter Andrew Montgomery explains his process:

"Tech stuff in post for John Ellis movie Twilight of the Dogs that I'm finishing up effects enhancements for. I took the original shot, reduced contrast to obtain a jet black background. I then tinted the subject green, and added colour balance, pulling red and blue to zero and boosting yet more green. After this. I added another contrast and flattened the green in the image. I now have a green subject on pure black. Now to add an inversion turning the image negative before setting to green only, this flipped the matte to a black subject and green background. After render, I took this plate and placed it on top of the original contrast reduced image of the subject, applied Keylight and removed the green screen signal, cropped the black matte and feathered. This left an outline of the woman, that outline was then blurred and turned blue in tone and leveled up to be brighter. That layer was then further rendered and placed with a super imposition back onto the woman. I finally added a light burst to create the beam effect and a further turbulent displacement to cause the beams to move. That's basically the image in non motion on black, for the composite onto the stars, the black matte with green keyed out is placed onto the back-plate image of space, and finally the woman superimposed on top of that before parenting the matte layer to her before motion was applied. John wanted a chemical look for this so no light wrap. The black rope was matted using a garbage matte of another black layer".

 

Here's some more examples of Peter's exceptional work: 

 

Frame of the original effect from 1995

Peter Andrew Montgomery's new VFX

New optical effect by Peter Andrew Montgomery

New optical effect by Peter Andrew Montgomery

 

Matte Paintings by Ron Miller:

 

Famed astronomical artist Ron Miller has been involved with Twilight Of The Dogs from the beginning, for which I am forever grateful. He did a few key matte paintings for us back in 1994, and recently did another we needed for half a dozen spider shots.

The burnt brush in the background is a new replacement matte painting for 'Twilight' by Ron Miller.

 

Ron Miller's new painting was composited into multiple shots by Peter Andrew Montgomery. The miniature set, spider model and stop-motion animation are by Kent Burton.

Here's a matte painting created for 'Twilight' by Ron Miller in 1994:

 

Matte painting of disused nuclear weapons facility from Twilight Of The Dogs by Ron Miller

I recently discovered several snapshots I took of Ron working on this paintings:

Ron Miller working on matte painting of disused nuclear weapons facility for Twilight Of The Dogs

Matte painting for Twilight Of The Dogs by Ron Miller in 1995

 

1995 Animation cels for 'Twilight'

 

In 1995 I animated several dozen optical effects shot for Twilight of the Dogs, consisting of hundreds of animation cels. They were painted black by assistants Laura Barltrop and Elizabeth Heyd, who also cut black construction paper to cover the rest of the cels, leaving clear areas for the light to pass through

I finally found ALL of the cels, which solved a number of problems, where I wanted to re-do some of those shots. The following pictures show a little of what's involved:

Under-lit animation cels created in 1995

Ellis' under-lit setup to re-photograph the animation cels in 2022, using a light-box and cell-phone.

Unfinished test frame, one of the shots being re-done by me today

 

There's a lot more to talk about BUT we don't want to give EVERYTHING away before 'Twilight' is released late this spring, but this is just a small part of all the work being done. Over the next few months will share processes we had to deal with in 1995, and NEW technology we've been using to update the film today, as well as MORE articles and news clips from when the film was in production in the '90s.

I've been re-posting a lot of the incredible media coverage we got at the time for the film. It was unusual (in the Washington DC area) to have a full-blown homegrown science fiction action adventure picture made there, shot on film with stunts, weapons, trained animals, explosions, and a lot of special effects, including car sized black widow spiders!

That's all for now, so see you again in two weeks!

John Ellis
Hollywood, California 

-30-

 

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Post #12 - WAPO: Alien Film Director Lands In Arlington

John Ellis --- film director, special effects artist and the president of Arlington's Very Big Motion Picture Corporation Of America --- is looking back on the shooting of his last science fiction movie. It was, he says, hideous. Not to mention hot, humid and mosquito-plagued. Horrible. And, nevertheless, pretty wonderful.

Ellis, 38, is sitting in a blue plastic chair, about three yards from his editing desk. Which makes it about four yards from his bedroom. The meticulously clean one-bedroom apartment serves as the Very Big Motion Picture of America office, as well as editing studio and screening room-and home for him and his significant other, Lou Benzino.

Benzino, 47, who also serves as Ellis's assistant and makeup artist, sits on the floor, making beaded earrings-"to earn some spending money," she says. She speaks rarely on this day, and almost always asks for permission before making a comment.

"There's always an affair during shooting of the movie," Ellis is saying. "This time it was our director of photography and a tank driver."

"And us," Benzino reminds him quietly.

 

 The Sci-Fi Director

Both romances started last summer, during the shooting of Ellis's third picture, 'The Twilight of the Dogs," which should be available on home video or cable early next year. (The first two were "Beyond the Rising Moon" and "Invader," the latter of which begins airing on Cinemax tomorrow night at 9:30.) He shot it in an old tobacco house in Upper Marlboro. In fact, all of his pictures have been shot in this area.

He explains:
"I live here, for one thing. And then, here I'm unusual," says Ellis, gesturing with his hand and revealing the Mickey Mouse watch on his wrist. "In Hollywood there'd be hundreds of other guys just like me, waiting in line to get the money."

Not that it's such big money. Ellis's movies have all been shot on low budgets. "Twilight," the most expensive, is expected to come in for less than $500,000. ("But they look as if they cost millions," Ellis insists.)

He finds his investors mostly through personal contacts. They are doctors, lawyers, friends---in short, "people who have a few thousand dollars to play with." And a lot of people like to gamble, Ellis declares.

"It's amazing," he says. ''You say to them, 'lt's very risky---you could lose it all,' and their eyes grow big. They say 'Oh, really?' "

But, he says, it's not really so risky---it's possible to predict pretty well what the revenues will be overseas. "And if [a movie] takes off, the sky's the limit," say Ellis. He has high hopes for "Twilight." He will send it to the Cannes Film Festival. And, he says, maybe a major distribution company will pick it up for wider release. 

Ellis, who was born in Ohio, says he got his first 8mm camera when he was 14. But he got hooked on films even earlier. "I grew up on the farm," he says. "I have this vivid memory of running in the fields that were taller than I was.

...I remember that and I remember TV...Watching 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents,' 'The Twilight Zone' and some films that just scared me half to death."

And there also were "Rin-Tin-Tin" and 'The Lone Ranger." 'They show the difference between right and wrong," says Ellis. "A lot of what I'm trying to put into the films ... comes from that period ... I'm trying to set a good example."

Ellis gets his console ready for presentation of the first, incomplete version of "Twilight of the Dogs." He switches it on. Nothing happens--- the bulb has broken. Ellis the handyman dives under the console.

Finally the film starts to roll. There's still much to be done; special effects will be shot and added, the music hasn't been composed yet, and the sound seems rather artificial, but one can get some sense of what seems to be a rather eclectic story.

 Ellis stops the film. 

He says he makes science fiction movies because he has the right background for them. And he can create a lot of the special effects himself. "It's very easy to write in the script that you have a spaceship, and it lands, and people get out of it ... [But] how to do it,  how to make it exciting and interesting ... I can bring that to films."

And the science fiction market is strong now. "A year ago," he says, "if I'd called and said, 'I have a science fiction movie,' a lot of distribution companies would have said, 'Don't call us, we'll call you.' "He suspects it's partly due to a relaxation of the world political climate. "Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, and other things, people are maybe looking more towards the future."

Shooting "Twilight'' took 35 days last summer. "We had a heat wave," recalls Ellis with a shudder. 'The building wasn't air-conditioned." It was so bad, he says, the actors were fainting. And there was a plague of flies and mosquitoes. "We were covered with bites," he says. But then he turns to the bright side: "Nobody died. No one quit. No accidents to speak of ... Nobody really got hurt on the film. Well, a cow stepped on [lead actor) Tim Sullivan's foot. That's no fun."

And what was fun? "I climbed to the top of a hill, to pick an angle to shoot from. And I ... saw all those people: the main actors, and all those extras and support people, a Russian tank and a trailer for the animals, all that stuff just stretching out-almost as far as I could see. I said, 'Oh my God ... I caused this to happen! That was quite a moment for me. But it was scary."

Ellis hopes this movie will put him over the top. His previous one, "Invader," was a financial success---video sales worldwide totaled $6 million- and that has made a difference. 'I have more and more people come to me, saying, 'We will get the money, we want you to make the film.' Until just a few months ago this would never have happened."

If he ever makes it big, he says, he probably would move to California. His children live, there now with his ex-wife. But "even if I do go out there, it's more than likely I would still continue to make films here," he says. "It's better to be a big fish in small pond."

But even if 'Twilight' isn't a hit, he says, "as long as I can work with nice people, have a relatively good time and have projects I relieve in---I'd be happy doing this. I try hard to make sure I don't take myself too seriously. It's· a business.

And it consumes most of his time: editing, calling, dealing with film crews and various specialists. Meanwhile, Benzino works on her earrings and answers the phone. 

He works 12 hours a day, he says. At least, she interjects. 

Isn't it difficult, spending so much time in this tiny apartment with dozens of strips of film hanging on the wall, with the console and the press cuttings and the posters? Doesn't it ever get claustrophobic?

For a while it seems they don't have an answer. They exchange glances, and then Ellis begins to speak about being a workaholic and not being able to imagine doing anything else, and points out that they don't stay indoors all the time---they can't shoot a picture there.

Then Benzino says she doesn't really need to go out, she feels okay at home. Finally she casts him another glance. 

"The things that are making us happy," 'she says, "are right here." 

-30-

Originally published Saturday December 11, 1993 in STYLE (The Arts/Television/Leisure section of The Washington Post). Photographer Bill O'Leary was a friend, one of the members of the Washington film-making group The Langley Punks,  and it was a surprise to see him and chance to catch up. Actually, one of the Punks, Pat Carroll, appears in my film Invader!

To be honest, I really didn't like the article, my least-liked of all the press coverage over the years, but am presenting it for posterity. And though I wasn't fond of the article, many people at the time liked it and called me to congratulate me for its being in the Washington Post. So what do I know? Also note that Lou Benzino and I were close more than a decade before Twilight, and are still nearly 30 years later.

 

Here's an illustration of Lou Benzino I did in 1981, 12 years before Twilight Of The Dogs!

 

I'm moving posts about Twilight to every other Friday morning, to give more time to deal with the movie restoration itself, and also, Linda dislocated her hip replacement a second time in a week, and this time it was brutal, and have even more to deal with for the moment. Hopefully Friday January 28th's post will finally see the Visual Effects update I've been promising for the last few weeks, some really cool stuff! See you then!

 

John Ellis

Hollywood, California

#twilightdogs #longlostfilm

Twilight Of The Dogs is coming to BluRay and DVD, Spring 2022!

Subscribe below to the Twilight Of The Dogs Blog! Support our effort!!!

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No New Post This Week

Due to circumstances beyond my control, there's no new post this week. My domestic partner dislocated her 5 week old emergency hip replacement yesterday. It got fixed without surgery, but MANY hours later we are both worn out from the experience, so watch for a new post next Friday at the recular time!

John Ellis
Hollywood, California