The FAT MONSTER FILMS thread ...

Ok, I've got a motion-tracking file processing so I'm hanging out drinking scotch and watching DVDs. I'll relate an interesting little story for what it's worth:

When I was 6 years old my brother, who was two years older than me, got to go to his first monster movie. Now, it should be noted that this was in the tiny town of Ellinwood, Kansas in 1959. We had a movie theater that was pretty much of the Cinema Paradiso mold. My folks felt we were not mature enough to see "scary" movies until at least 8 or 9 so this was a big deal and I recall vividly how my brother returned from the Saturday Matinee with a couple other big kids to regale us small fry as to the wonders they had seen.

I was transfixed beyond measure. I made my brother tell the story over and over again. Interestingly, I never asked him the title of the damn film (or at least don't recall I did). My brother was a really crappy artist but I had him draw scenes of the film on scrap pieces of seismology paper from my dad's office (he was a geologist).

I was very impressionable and envied my brother so much that I committed his crude drawings and verbal descriptions to heart. The film involved an invading robot from outer space that telescoped up in a series of boxes until it was taller than a skyscraper. He drew crappy helicopters and planes flying around it and put those little stars and bars symbols all of us kids associated with the air force in the 50s and 60s.

Well, my brother is not a sci-fi aficionado so that by the time he was 10 he had forgotten (or at least didn't want to remember) anything about the movie in spite of my entreaties to discuss the film. So, I went through the next half-century of my life with the image of my first monster movie seen only through my imagination based on the description of my brother. Occasionally I would describe the plot to people to see if they knew what the film was, but I never got anywhere. I eventually figured my brother had made most of it up or I had elaborated or exaggerated the story beyond recognition.

So, imagine my surprise and delight about 3 years ago when I was at a lawyer-client's office in Pasadena who happened to mention that his father was an early special effects artist in the 50's. He described one film that his father was most proud of and I immediately recognized it as the film my brother saw. It's a classic 50's B-sci-fi flick called "KRONOS" and you can see the trailer on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ErOqYD-i3Q

I finally got around to ordering it on NetFlix and today I'm watching it. As best I can reconstruct, this is almost exactly 50 years from the date my brother saw it in Ellinwood, Kansas. It's amazing how much the film resembles the one I've had in my mind based on his re-telling of the story and his crude drawings.

It really is a classic of the genre and is a ton of fun to watch.
 
Fine, good to hear- Blaine is back. I remember that his comments to other films in previous filmfests were often about sound. So it seems to me that your soundman is back :)

Is also Scooby back? And what kind of hat has Blaine got on his head? It seems a mix of a hat for to going under the shower for old ladies or a modern version of an old hat for a pilot. These ones who flew the old douple-decker-two-seats-aeroplanes.

Mark, sweetheart - I like your little nostalgic family story - very warm hearted. It is enjoyable to see this old Trailer and very amusing seeing a slogan like 'shock proof' - it let me smile!

Now - what is the plan for your film. Will it be an adaption of 'KRONOS'?

Susanne
 
Mark Johnson said:
....It's a classic 50's B-sci-fi flick called "KRONOS" and you can see the trailer on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ErOqYD-i3Q

I finally got around to ordering it on NetFlix and today I'm watching it. As best I can reconstruct, this is almost exactly 50 years from the date my brother saw it in Ellinwood, Kansas. It's amazing how much the film resembles the one I've had in my mind based on his re-telling of the story and his crude drawings.

It really is a classic of the genre and is a ton of fun to watch.
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They're remaking this classic.... ok, they might not be, but you just gave a producer a swell idea.
 
It's official. The title of our entry is .....

DirtyWorldPoster01.jpg
 
jasonthewho said:
Just dropping by to say that I'm glad to see you guys back, and I'm glad I'm not entering this time.
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Thanks for stopping by here in the wee hours of the morning Jason.

This will be the last competition entry for Fat Monster, although we do hope and expect to occasionally return with an exhibition piece or two. We all enjoyed shooting O2 so much and with the theme being "MonsterFest" we felt it would be a good opportunity to build a monster crew one more time.

Here's some of the locations we've been scouting for interior scenes:

LocationScouting.jpg
 
Yeah, in a hospital genetically modified monsters hanging around in the cellar and planing a dark bad end of the world :Drogar-Love(DBG):

This is my interpretation from the photos of the location. It seems that you 'has caught fire' for this project. Excuse me, this is a german expression - I don't know how to say it in english. However, you really started with this film. So I am looking very much forward to it.

Susanne
 
Susanne G. said:
It seems that you 'has caught fire' for this project. Excuse me, this is a german expression - I don't know how to say it in english. However, you really started with this film. So I am looking very much forward to it.
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Susanne, that phrase applies here as well and we're definitely feeling the burn. We've been shooting so much stuff for clients and other production houses in the past year so that it feels damn good to put together a "pure" monster project again.

You are always so positive and enthusiastic. I sincerely hope we can please you this time around.


Brandon Rice said:
Looks rad Mark!
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Brandon, there's definitely some "rad" stuff going on with this story. We may be shooting part of this in your neck of the woods and, if so, hopefully you can stop by the set.
 
Dear Mark,

It isn't that important if you can me or all the others please this time around or if 'Dirty World' will have the success as '02'. For me it is more important that you are around here this time and can make this fest richer with your motivating and positive present. And then, if you are enthusiastic and it feels good to make a 'pure' monster project again is still better :)

Susanne
 
Brandon, there's definitely some "rad" stuff going on with this story. We may be shooting part of this in your neck of the woods and, if so, hopefully you can stop by the set.
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Do let me know Mark!:beer:
 
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