SKIP AHEAD TO FILM PROJECTS “AFTER” PARAGONS PARAGON

A series of serendipitous events lead to many years of  fun projects. I am not writing about them now, but rather just tossing them out as a

PREVIEW OF SOME COMING ATTRACTIONS

Paragons’ Paragon got a color spread in the Detroit News Sunday magazine section. It is archived in the Main Detroit library downtown by Wayne State University. The library has a Star Trek section and I’m included there. That is and was a neat surprise.

In 1974 ( I think ?)A gentleman in Michigan sent the article to Cinemagic magazine in Baltimore Maryland. Next thing I knew I was writing how to do it articles on super-8mm film making.  Set building, special effects, back winding film, etc.

LOTS OF SCAREY STUFF ( At least it was back then?)

(Two merged issues)

The Paragon movie and articles lead to phone conversations with other Cinemagic writers.  We would talk late at night on a three or four way phone conversation connection done by one of Cinemagics reader/writers named Ted. One night we said “Let’s make a real move and we’ll all be driving  Trans-Ams.  Well it didn’t quite happen that easily. However  I did eventually get a Trans-Am,  but not because of the  movie. The movie was called The Allien Factor. That’s a “Zagatile” in the above photo, made by me for the movie and worn by me in the movie. It was about seven feet tall. “Never rilea Zagatile”! Some was written and filmed by me in Michigan but the majority was in Baltimore Maryland where I spent a month doing make-up and special effects.  I had to phone home to check on my carpet business and try to postpone customers wanting carpet stretching or installations.

NOTE: IT IS THESE FILM PROJECT OPPORTUNITIES THAT PARAGON BROUGHT ABOUT, THAT KEEP IT FROM GETTING FINISHED FOR 10 YEARS.

I spent my time writing, and doing other film projects instead of finishing the special effects for Paragon. All the filming was done and edited but no effects.

 
 
 
                                      (Famous Monsters covers was a dream come true)

It is now about 1975. However to digress in time for a moment. When I was a kid I took a photo of a wearwolf person I made up lifting my brother in the air, and my brother had a copy of Famous Monsters magazine in his hands. My thoughts when I took the photo were ” Gee , I wish that some day one of my creature creations could be on the cover of this Forest Ackerman magazine”. Guess what it happened. It happened! It’s amazing how ideas can be alive and dormant just needing the right amount of tender loving care to bloom.

A friend of mine suggested I mail the Zagatile to Ackerman. I did just that and when my friend visited him he saw it stored with other not so big-budget left over creatures. But it still is neat to have it with Ackerman.

This above photo was taken on location in a back yard in Baltimore Maryland. We had to notify the police department that we were going to shoot blanks in a gun so they would know that no one was getting killed for real. They came by and visited for a little while.

Britt and I built the miniature space ship and scenery at his home in Washington D.C. area. We used Celluclay for the snow ground area. In order to speed things up we put it in his moms oven . She was not home at the time. Guess what happened? We went downstairs to develop and print some lobby card photos for the movie in Britts darkroom and next thing we knew smoke was creeping downstairs to the darkroom. The  models landscape was on fire inside the oven. We forgot about it.  Luckily we putthe fire  out , opened the windows, and all was good in the world distracted young movie maker men.

The space ship was the back end of an electric tooth brush holder and miscellaneous model parts. A forced perspective shot made it look big.  Britt and I collaborated on its design.

Skip ahead to about 1985. What do you do with left over monster parts. What else but make another creature. The big guy on the left (above) is a reshaped Galaxy Invader. The Karate creature on the right was from left over Inner Man parts.  The Inner Man is the Alien that I made for The Alien Factor movie. The guy in the middle is my brother Rick, who was our Captain Richard Kirk in Paragons Paragon.

Above is the Captain Tony (Patent Attorney in real life, and Wanda his first officer) of a Star Trek club that I joined during the time that I attempted to make my own package of motion pictures. The head is the result of a Maru creatures bite. The Interloper project also kept me from spending time doing carpet repairs, but I managed to take care of them.

The above sketch is of a growing Maru for the movie Interloper. It was designed by Rod, and Mel i IL  Below is the remote controlled eyes for the full scale creatures head. They were constructed by a gentleman that was retired from the NASA space program.

I took up ballroom dancing and they used to call me “Disco John” in the middle 80’s. I was pretty darn good. There was a tall guy that was at the same dance places Jan and I went to. So I approached him to be our ‘Interloper”. I made the suit and head that is shown below. Jan is standing beside him in his socks.  When he wore the creature costume he stood almost 8 feet tall.

This is the Interloper head piece. I t had 8  facial bladders, and cable controls for mouth, eyebrows, eye movement, nose sniffing, snarling, etc. It was quite an accomplishment. There were also chest breathing bladders.

JUST A SAMPLING ( More details later)

I am looking for responses on this site, and  if  my other non-Star Trek  projects are interesting to you? I have two other sites. One is http://www.carpetrepairnow.com, and the other is http://www.cosentinocarpet.com. In the carpet repair now blog I tell what I hope are interesting stories or facts related to my business and how I sometimes use its skills in Paragon or film projects. If you browse please look at more than one page because it helps  my internet presence , but if you look at only one page can lower my presence. Hope my sites interest you and supply fun.