The Facebook Movie Challenge.

This was one of those challenge/excercises that pop up occasionally on Facebook, for engagement and sharing. I actually enjoyed this one because it was a nice change of pace from the usual bullshit that is being shared across various Social Media platforms. It wasn't about politics or religion or sharing insipid memes for likes, it was simply about movies and requesting a friend to join in on the fun. The way it starts, is you are 'challenged' by a friend, and then you challenge a friend with each post:

Every day I select an image from a film that has had a big impact on me (for any number of reasons) and post it without a single explanation, and nominate somebody to take the challenge. That’s 10 days, 10 films, 10 nominations and 0 explanations.

With the hope of being exposed to a film or two that you've never seen before, and watching it OR discover  how weird or lame your friend(s) taste in films may be!

SO, because this is my BLARRG!, I will repost the images I posted on Facebook, but I will also include the theatrical one sheet poster and a short explanation as to why I chose the film...

Film #1

I started with THE WIZARD OF OZ-1939, because it's my FAVORITE film of all time..stop laughing. This film hit me at the right time, I was about 5 or 6 years old. It used to air on television (NBC) during the Easter holiday season circa 1971. I would look forward to watching it every year until I went to college and finally purchased a VHS copy of it, so I could watch whenever I wanted...which was quite excessive, I have to admit. My worn out VHS copy was eventually replaced by Special Edition DVD/Blu-ray copies, where I can replay and freeze, the scene that freaked me out and scared the shit out of me as a little kid, over and over again-when the Scarecrow gets attacked by the Flying Monkeys in the Haunted Forest, and they stomp the shit out of him, causing his straw to be scattered all over the place. They scene freaked me out so much, I never looked at scarecrows the same way again.

Film #2

The film; FREAKS-1932 has had a profound effect on my life in many ways. My fascination with Circus Sideshows and 'Freaks' started at an early age, but REALLY escalated when I received a book called 'Very Special People the Struggles, Loves and Triumphs of Human Oddities' by Frederick Drimmer, when I was 13 years old. This book rocked my world. It was filled with what seemed like a hundred photographs of famous 'freaks' and short biographies. It was in THIS book that I first learned of an old film from the 1930's called FREAKS, that actually had some of these people in it! Unfortunately, I'd have to wait until I was in college and working at a Video store to actually see this wonderful film. Directed by Tod Browning, it was everything I hoped it would be and more. This is when I fell in love with Schlitzie, and someone who would inspire me AND launch my professional career in the toy/collectible world. Schlitzie is my Muse, and for better or worse is the reason why I do, what I do to this day. I will go into more depth in a later post, if you're interested. 

Film #3

FRANKENSTEIN-1931, what can I say-I'm a 'Monster Kid' and in 1970's New England, I got my dose of classic Universal Monster, Sci-Fi and Japanese Kaiju movies on a show called: Creature Double Feature on channel 56, out of Boston. Needless to say, my ass was planted in front of the television EVERY Saturday watching 2 Monster movies in a row. I would watch it religiously and as a result it helped to feed my insatiable lust for ANY kind of monster related item including but not limited to: magazines, comics, books, model kits, games, posters, toys etc. My Monster Mania was/is so inherent, that when I co-founded Sideshow Toy/Collectibles, I made sure we got the license to produce Classic Universal Monster toys and statues. It was a dream come true for 11 year old me. 

Film #4

 NOSFERATU-1922 REALLY fucked me up when I was a kid...let me explain. I saw this film at a very young age, I wanna say 5 or 6 years old-I'll have to double check with my mom...because it was her fault. I would watch a lot of horror films with my mom when I was younger. She would let me stay up late if there was one on, and watch it with her as long as I didn't tell/wake up my younger brother, with the understanding that I had to be in bed before my Dad got home from work when he was working 2nd shift (which meant 12am) So, my mom and I would search for horror films to watch, and one night on PBS they were going to show Noseferatu, which is a silent film. No biggie, I used to watch the silent films on PBS all the time-Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd etc. but NEVER a silent horror film. Boy, was I in for a treat. There was something about that film that gave me the creeps as soon as it started and only got worse as it went on.Let's just say that seeing Count Orlok/Nosferatu for the first time as a 6 year old can really fucked with your head, and the scene that scared the shit out of me the most was when his shadow is seen creeping up the stairs and then reaching for the door. At the time, my bedroom was at the top of the stairs and since my bedroom door was never closed all the way, it was always cracked open slightly, I always saw the shadows of my parents reflected on the wall leading upstairs. You can see where I'm going with this, right? The imagery from this film gave me nightmares for YEARS! It is the only film to ever give me nightmares to this very day! Thanx Ma. Needless to say, a few decades later, I made dolls of him...and yess, that film still gives me the creeps...and I love it.

Film #5

Young Frankenstein-1974 I saw this with my Uncle when I was 8 years old and I loved it! We saw it at our small run down movie theater called: the United Theater, and we sat 4 or 5 rows from the screen on the right side with my popcorn and milk duds. Being a fledgling 'Monster Kid' I understood all the classic monster references and being only 8 years old, MOST of the sexual innuendos/jokes went over my head. But that didn't matter because I was only focused on Marty Feldman's character; 'Eyegor' I was fixated on him whenever he was on screen and laughed so hard at times, I was wheezing. I'll never forget that night....and yes, I made dolls from this film as well.

Film #6

MONTY PYTHON & THE HOLY GRAIL-1975 I was a huge fan of Monty Python since I was a little kid when I used to watch them (and Benny Hill) religiously with my grandfather when I was a little kid. But it wasn't until the early 1980's when we got our first VCR, that I discovered they also made films! The first python film I ever saw was the 'Holy Grail' and it blew my mind on many levels.

I loved the look and feel of the film, Terry Gilliam's animations scattered throughout and the fact that they played multiple characters throughout. Cleverly written and funny as hell. I loved this movie so much, I pitched really hard to secure the rights to make 12"dolls, that I created a Holy Grail pitch book that we sent to the guys basically pleading with them to allow us to do it...and they did! Another one of my dreams that came true.

Film #7

SPINAL TAP-1984 This one certainly went to 11! I first saw this in 1984 when I saw it on VHS. This was another one of those instances when you walked into your local video store and rented a tape based on the box cover, this time being a Red Guitar with a knotted neck. I was intrigued and after reading the summary on the back, I was sold! I must have watched that video about 4 or 5 times before I returned it. I laughed my ass off through the entire thing never realizing at that time, they weren't a 'real band'. You have to remember, back in the 80's there was no internet or social media-I got all my 'news' via magazines, newspaper articles or fanzines; so, needless to say accurate information about this film was hard to come by at this time, which helped to blur the lines between 'reality' and spoof. AND more importantly, if you were to tell me that 20 years later I would be sitting with my business partner in a studio with Nigel Tufnel, David St. Hubbins & Derek Smalls discussing how to immortalize them as 12" dolls-I would have told you to put down the bong and come up for air.  NEVER in my wildest dreams did I think that would ever happen...but it did, and I'm forever grateful. I'm a lucky prick.

Film #8

ROLLERBALL-1975 I saw this film at the drive-in with my parents, as part of a double bill that included; Walking Tall Part II. I think my dad wanted to see it and thought my brother and I would fall asleep after an hour or so of unsupervised playground shenanigans and eventual sugar crash that would follow. Unfortunately, that only worked for one of us...and it wasn't me. I just sat there, kept my mouth shut and marveled at the spectacle of violence that flashed before me on that giant screen. I didn't care about the story in the slightest. All I cared about was Jonathan beating the shit out his opponents and getting that chrome metal ball into the goal. I was so engrossed in the carnage, all I could think of was how I was going  to tell my gang of friends from the neighborhood a way to play Rollerball using our bikes and roller-skates. We eventually came up with a bastardized version to play that resulted in plenty of scrapes, cuts, bumps, bruises and one broken finger. Great memories.

Film #9

PINK FLAMINGOS-1972 Once again, it wasn't until I was in college that I got to see this classic film. Since I grew up in a small New England beach town, and access to the midnight movie scene was nearly impossible for a weirdo like me, I was the kid in High School who loved ANY type of bizarre and tasteless film I could get my hands on...and this one was no exception. I saw it for the first time at home by myself, and was immediately spellbound AND bummed that I had no one one to share this mind blowing experience...Once again, I would have to wait until I went to college to experience it the way it was meant to be seen, at midnight in a packed theater surrounded by weirdos like myself, thank God for Art School! Anyway, this film rocked my world in many strange ways, I fell in love with the infamous drag queen-Divine, and read/viewed everything I could get my hands on by John Waters. I'm a fan for life.

Film #10

BLUE VELVET-1986 Here's another film that knocked me out when I was in college, mainly because it turned into an almost religious experience for me and my friend Bill. We would watch this film over and over....and over to the point where I think the the videotape became transparent. We would turn it on and my girlfriend (now my wife), would immediately leave the room or the house because she was so disturbed by this film OR the two weirdos on the couch giggling like imbeciles and repeating lines from the film. I was a HUGE David Lynch fan ever since I saw Eraserhead at a midnight showing in 1984 and all his other films from that one to the present, so this one naturally captured my interest immediately. So luckily for me, I knew another like-minded weirdo to share in this little ritual, we seriously watched this film so many times the tape became unwatchable...and THAT was a sad day. BUT, all is not lost, thank God, DVDs came along, allowing me the ability to watch it again and think of Bill, the tiny brownstone I rented in Philadelphia, the vast amounts of beer we would drink while reciting lines from the film...and laughing like mental patients during the most inappropriate times. 

Great memories.

Well, that was the list of the 10 Facebook films that I chose for the challenge. They were the first ones that came to mind and not necessarily my favorites in any order...except for THE WIZARD OF OZ,

I'm serious when I say it's my favorite film of all time. 

I should have used this image instead...oh, well.

So, maybe I'll do another BLARRG! post and add another batch of films that had a major influence on me either personally or professionally. It was a lot of fun to choose  films and think about them in a different way and enjoy the memories that would pop up.

YES!, Batman Returns is a Christmas Movie.

Let me explain...

My Batman Returns - Teaser Poster  27" x 41"

1991 was a pretty eventful year for yours truly. My daughter Zoe was born in August and I was set to start a new job in California at Disney Imagineering (my dream job), September 16th. My wife and I had recently relocated from Philadelphia to Rhode Island and moved in with the in-laws while we awaited the arrival of our little bundle of joy; who was due any moment. The plan was, to drive out to California the end of August, get situated with the new job, while crashing on the sofa of my best friend from college, Dan Platt, and THEN make arrangements for the family to come to California and start our lives in beautiful California.

Well, as Robert Burns once said, "The best laid plans of mice and men go awry." couldn't have been more true for me. I arrived in the San Fernando Valley Tuesday, September 3rd at around 10:30-11:00pm at Dan's front door, with a mutual friend -Tony Corso. We had driven like fucking maniacs the entire 3000 miles, and as a result,  did it in 2 1/2 days...which is a story for another time. Needless to say, I was excited as hell to start my dream job in two weeks. Tony & I spent the next week and a half being chauffeured around LA and the surrounding area by our gracious host, seeing all the sights etc. Dan even drove me to Burbank & Glendale and showed me where the Disney Studio & Imagineering complex was located, so I would be able to find it when it was time to show up for work.

The Hallowed Halls of Disney Imagineering - 1401 Flower Street, Glendale, California

Well, to make a really long and boring story short (for your sake), I showed up for my first day of work, dressed in my finest 'professional attire', notebook & lunch in hand, vibrating in my shoes because I was so damn excited AND nervous as shit -eager to begin my career as a Disney Imagineer! Well, my bubble was soon to be burst when the expression on the receptionist's face suddenly changed from pleasant to confused...and then she said, "I'm sorry, didn't anyone contact you? There was a freeze placed on ALL new hires across the entire company (Imagineering) and that I should have been contacted in writing AND phone call, prior to today. Well, I kindly explained (without losing my shit) that I had NOT been notified of this information since my last phone conversation that took place on Aug.14, when it was confirmed that my start date was Sept.16, and that I was in the process of moving from Rhode Island to California! She appeared to be a little uncomfortable with the conversation and wanted it to end as soon as possible...imagine if you will, the scene in Trains, Planes &Automobiles, where Steve Martin loses his shit in the airport at the car rental desk...and that pretty much sums up the scene/vibe of my conversation...minus the expletives - because I was at Disney and was still hoping it was all a misunderstanding. But it wasn't. So I sat in my car for about 30 minutes dry heaving, wanting to die and trying to figure out-how in the hell I was going to explain this to my wife. I was fucked. ROYALLY. I was in pure panic mode. So I went back to Dan's place, told him what happened and he said not to worry, we'd figure something out...and HE did. I don't know how the hell he did it, but he fucking did. 

Let me explain, Dan came out to California, immediately after college to pursue a career in Special Effects makeup and had established himself as the guy who sculpted stop-motion puppets for various films: Terminator-2, Army of Darkness etc. and was currently working on Batman Returns in the model shop sculpting all sorts of detailed scaled items for the miniature Gotham City set. I don't know how, but he was able to convince somebody there to hire me as a painter, even though I had ZERO experience in the film industry-which proves, as long as you know someone in this God-forsaken industry AND you're not a total dick, someone will give you a shot to prove yourself...now I had to prove myself.

The Boss Films, Batman Returns Model Shop Crew, 1991.

So, instead of a career as a Disney Imagineer, I began a new and unexpected career in Hollywood Special Effects! It officially began one early morning, the first week of October, in the old Douglas Trumbull's Entertainment Effects Group facilities (renamed Boss Film Studios) down in Marina del Rey. I walked into the sound stage with Dan (and his girlfriend, Paula, who was also a painter) and was immediately blown away by what was being created by this team of talented artisans, mouth open and wide-eyed - I immediately felt intimidated and like a total fraud. But once Dan had introduced me to everyone, the nerves/jitters seemed to go away. We were all film/art nerds that spoke a similar language and that helped to put my mind at ease, now all I needed was a project to focus on and I'd be fine.

Well it seemed my very first project was going to be painting bricks (in 3 different shades of brick red) complete with weathering...fucking kill me now. So I spent the first few days on a ladder with my shitty Utrecht Acrylic brushes #0, #1 painting bricks on the infamous Leaning building, that was held up by a metal 'crutch' and was located next door to the Shrek Department store building. Evidently, there was going to be a camera 'fly-by' so the details had to be pumped up for clarity. So that meant everything on the rooftop had to be sharp and crisp...so, I was going to be busy for awhile.

Me, pretending to be Michelangelo, painting the Sistine Chapel

Once I completed that projected, I was tasked with painting a few other buildings of various  background importance.

Then I helped paint a few figures for the crowd scene in front of Shrek's Department Store

Then I got to paint a small part of a major piece- Max Shrek's office that held the giant revolving 'Cat' Head (I forget who got to paint that...I REALLY wanted to paint that one, but I was low man on the totem pole so it went to someone else, unfortunately, I think Paula may have painted that.) But I was glad to be off painting figures-Paula banged the rest of them out and then went on to the church.  

Here I am concentrating like a preschooler while Dan busted my balls and took the photo. While this was happening, I remember John Eaves kit bashing a small Zamboni-type snowplow that he ended up hiding on the miniature set-behind the Batman merchandise store that was located next to the church...it was fucking amazing, and you never see it in the film, unfortunately.

Doing some touch up work on the office after installation.

Early test with the revolving head mounted and lit up.

One fun little detail  I got do, was to add the Shrek Logo decals and snow, to the awnings that Selina Kyle crashes through, when she becomes Catwoman....but I don't think you ever see any of this in the film...

I also learned that almost everyone was hiding little details on the models...so I did too. You never see any of them on film, but that didn't matter-I know they were there, and it would be something I could tell my wife and daughter (when she was older). There was assorted graffiti and messages hidden in the snow etc.

All I can say is that it was a pretty exciting experience, I worked my ass off and put in long hours and met someone at the wrap party who happened to work at Mattel Toys. We spent a great deal of time talking about toys, like a couple of nerds and he asked if I ever thought of doing that for a living. He told me they were looking for a designer for their Disney Preschool department, as if I was interested-he'd give me a name to contact...I told him, HELL YES!! and the rest is history. A few weeks later I found myself at Mattel in an interview, and you can read about that in an earlier post.

...Oh yeah, I want to thank Dan for: 1) Getting me the gig when I needed it the most 2) Introducing me to some incredibly talented people which resulted in my future career as a toy designer AND 3) taking all these photos so I have a record of this memorable experience...you have to remember, this was a time before 'phones' with cameras included, so if you didn't have a camera with film-you were shit out of luck.

...and SEE, Batman Returns IS a Christmas Movie, there's a friggin' Christmas tree in it!

Here's my poster that I had Tim Burton & Danny Elfman sign at an event that took place at the Shrine Auditorium in LA after the film wrapped. I ended up being a total fanboy and started collecting all kinds of crap, as a result of my involvement with this film.

Batman Returns Lobby Cards 11" x 14"

After the premier of the film, Dan had taken me to this movie memorabilia store in downtown Burbank (I forgot the name) that was FILLED with rows of metal filing cabinets and various racks of drawers that contained THOUSANDS of film photographs, lobby cards and movie posters. It was there, where I purchased two sealed sets of Batman Returns Lobby Cards-one which I opened, and one that I kept sealed. I also bought a set of mini Lobby Cards, a few posters AND bunch of B&W stills for my personal scrapbook/binder. What can I say...I'm a total movie geek/fanboy.

Batman Returns Mini Lobby Cards 8" x 10"

Batman Returns B&W 8" x 10"

Batman Returns - Oswald Cobblepot for Mayor Campaign Poster 29.5" x 63"