Some stand-up comedy and some cartoons are in this week’s DVD column.

Inspector Gadget: The Original Series

One of the signs of success for an animated cartoon is whether or not someone wants to make a live-action version of the property. By that standard, the Inspector Gadget series has been quite successful, as there have been two live-action comedies based on the 1980s television staple.

This four-disc set features the first 22 Inspector Gadget episodes, as well as a short documentary on the genesis of the show. The series started in 1983 and was a huge international success – eventually it was seen in 55 countries and in 24 languages.

Gadget himself never was thoroughly explained – all we knew is that he was a bumbling secret agent with robotic parts who was aided by his niece and her dog. He fought a never-ending fight against Dr. Claw, the leader of an evil secret organization. The show emphasized slapstick over violence and seemed to be an ideal action show for younger children.

With a voice supplied by Don Adams, it was easy for adults to see Gadget as an extension of Adams’ famous Maxwell Smart character. Like Smart, gadget was always unaware just how incompetent he was.

Besides the documentary, the set includes the pilot episode in which Gadget sports a bushy mustache. He dropped the facial hair when MGM threatened to sue. The company thought Gadget looked too close to Inspector Clouseau!

Gadget remains a fun cartoon for the younger crowd even after more than 20 years after his debut.

For more information, log onto www.shoutfactory.com.

Aeon Flux

Generally, when a studio doesn’t schedule advance screenings for critics, the impression is the film embarrasses them and that it’s a dog.

Aeon Flux didn’t have advance screenings and didn’t make a great impression with the critics and theatrical audiences.

Frankly, I’m not sure why. The film is competently made and has a tone and look that is quite commercial.

It’s not the greatest science fiction/action movie ever made, but it certainly isn’t the worst. If you’re into the genre, it’s a diverting way to spend 92 minutes.

Charlize Theron stars in this adaptation of the somewhat inscrutable MTV animated series of over a decade ago. The cartoon series was overly sexual and violent, but this live action version substitutes those elements with plot and characterization in an effort to tell a real story.

Theron is Aeon Flux, a revolutionary trying to end the dictatorial reign of Trevor Goodchild in what is believed to be the last human city on earth. Things, however, are not as they seem, and Goodchild is hiding a very big secret from his people.

Loaded with extra features including five featurettes, the DVD also features a commentary from the star and Oscar-winner herself.

For more information, log onto www.paramount.com/homeentertainment.

Jeff Dunham: Arguing with Myself

Ventriloquist Dunham is a western Massachusetts favorite, having appeared many times at the Comedy Connection at the Hu Ke Lau in Chicopee. His first DVD has just been released which is a comedy concert featuring Dunham and, well, Dunham, Dunham, Dunham and Dunham with different voices.

I’m a sucker for this kind of entertainment. Paul Winchell, Edgar Bergen, and Senor Wences were all childhood favorites of mine and Dunham stands up with those stars of yesteryear.

Not only is he a technically proficient performer, he is just plain funny.
I had never caught his act live, but now that I’ve seen him captured on video, I will make sure to see him the next time he is in the area.

The DVD features both a “bleeped” and “unbleeped” versions of the performance as well as outtakes and bonus clips.

If you’ve seen Dunham perform, you’ll want to see this DVD.

For more information, log onto www.image-entertainment.com

Dave Attell’s Insomniac Tour Uncensored!

I’ve interviewed Dave Attell three times now and I’m a huge fan of his off-kilter, self-deprecating and sometimes very adult humor. Needless to say, I was curious about this DVD which is an uncensored version of a Comedy Central special that aired earlier this year.

The show is basically a comedy concert and has little of the Insomniac elements (interacting with every day people and seeing what’s happening at 3 a.m.) that I enjoy so much.

As a concert goes there are high and lows. Atell is the host and is in great form, but I can’t say the same about some of his fellow comics. Sean Rouse is simply boring and Dane Cook ends his set with a disturbingly dirty tale of adolescent lust. Greg Giraldo is quite good, though.

For the right crowd, this is a fine party DVD. If you have to make a sandwich, do it when Rouse is on.

For more information, log onto www.paramount.com/homeentertainment.

Garbage Pail Kids: The Complete Series

In the 1990s I edited and published two nationally distributed magazines on animation. I have seen hundreds of animated productions – movies, theatrical shorts and television series. Seldom have I sat through something so hideous that it just might be the worst animated series ever made for American television.

And until now it was safely in a vault someplace.

Those folks who grew up in the 1980s will remember the Garbage Pail Kids, a card set from Topps that parodied the then popular Cabbage Patch Kids. The cards featured illustrations of disgusting “children” that emphasized mucus, vomit and physical deformity.

Kids loved the grossness of the cards and they have remained in print on and off up to today. Their popularity inspired a 1987 live action movie, which bombed, and this 1989 cartoon series that was commissioned by CBS and never aired.

In true 1980s television animation fashion, there is no set-up for what we are about to watch. Only by inflicting multiple episodes upon yourself do you learn the show is actually a sort of superhero parody with five “normal” kids who are able to become trash heroes and fight crime or adults or someone. It’s not really clear.

The show is repulsive, but obviously the network didn’t want to go as far as the original trading cards did.

Thank goodness.

For more information, log onto www.paramount.com/homeentertainment.

You know the drill. Don't blame anyone but me for what's here.

Hey, cartoons hit the C-barrier!

This is from the ASIFA-Hollywood blog:


Animation Celebrates Its Centenary

"The first examples of animation fascinated and delighted audiences and that appeal has never waned in the past hundred years. Animators continue to explore and develop new technology, but the goal of entertaining an audience hasn't changed very much since the days of J. Stuart Blackton." -Leonard Maltin, Film Historian

The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive is celebrating Animation's 100th Birthday on April 6th. From its humble beginnings with J. Stuart Blackton's film, "Humorous Phases of Funny Faces" first released on April 6th, 1906, animation has gone on to become one of the greatest American creative contributions to the arts, second only to Jazz.

The Director of ASIFA-Hollywood's Animation Archive, Stephen Worth explains, "Although there were many early films that experimented with stop motion and other techniques related to animation, Blackton was the first to create 'drawings that live'... sequential drawings of characters acting and reacting to each other. The word 'animate' literally means 'to give life to'. Blackton gave life to a whole new artform with his pioneering efforts."

James Stuart Blackton was a "Lightning Sketch Artist" in Vaudeville billed as "The Komikal Kartoonist". Inspired by Thomas Edison's recent invention of moving pictures, Blackton teamed with Albert E. Smith to form the first movie studio, Vitagraph Films. Smith and Blackton created what were then called "trick films"... the camera was stopped for a moment while the scene was changed, making objects and people magically appear and disappear; images dissolved from one to another; and shots were double exposed to create ghostly images. In 1900, Blackton experimented with putting his lightning sketch act on film in a movie called "The Enchanted Drawing", but it was in April of 1906 when he made his most important breakthrough. With a trick film titled "Humorous Phases of Funny Faces" Blackton created what is widely regarded as the first American animated film.

Now if we could get more classic animation out there on DVD for new generatiosn of fans to appreciate!

Standard disclaimer: These are my words alone.

If you're a comics fan, then put this event on your calendar!

In a medium crowded with vengeance, villains and violence, Williamsburg cartoonist Mark Martin is putting the “comic” back into “comic book.”

Martin will be signing the first edition of his new Runaway Comic from1 to 4 p.m. on April 15 at Modern Myths at 34 Bridge St., Northampton. Runaway Comic has been recently released by Fantagraphics Books, the company that publishes such alternative comics stars such as Dan Clowes and Peter Bagge.

Although no stranger to comic books – he has produced highly acclaimed parodies of Batman, Daredevil and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, among other projects – Martin is re-entering the comic book field after a long stint as a freelance cartoonist at Nickelodeon Magazine, Boy’s Life and Disney Adventures Magazine.

Martin’s star is no crime-fighting, angst-ridden superhero, but instead a young frog named Montgomery Wart who possesses an active imagination and a proclivity for trouble. Wart appeared in Tantalizing Stories, a collaboration between Martin and fellow cartoonist Jim Woodring.

The Wart stories are full of artistic detail, slapstick action, playful language – Martin has an ear for dialect – and many pop culture references.

Ask Martin who has influenced his work and there’s a long list: “Bill Elder, George Herriman, Walt Kelly, Marie Severin, Zap, Arcade, Raw, Weirdo, Monty Python, the Usual Gang of Idiots [MAD magazine], Salvador Dali, just about any old children's comic from the ‘40s, just about any old magazine from the 40s, Al Capp, Johnny Hart, Jack Benny, Fred Allen, Johnson Smith catalogs, National Lampoon in its hayday, my dad, my Aunt Jane, Mr. Rogers, Captain Kangaroo, Friendly Giant, Melvin Monster, Sugar and Spike, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Dalton Trumbo, Fleischer Studios, Disney Studios, on and on and on.”

Martin’s new book also features stories and strips that comment on politics and history as well as his own life. Anyone who has undertaken a major home renovation should appreciate his autobiographical “Hectic Grueling Torture Vision: Summer Remodeling” story.

Another influence is his Southern roots. Although he has made his home in western Massachusetts for over a decade, Martin is a native of Alabama and attentive readers might catch references to everything from Piggly Wiggly supermarkets to comedian Jerry Clower.

Drawing isn’t just a career for Martin – it’s a way of life. Martin has loved cartooning since he was a child.

“I can remember liking comic strips as far back as I can remember. I always loved comics, especially the Sunday Comics of course. I studied them before I could read. My real passion was coloring books. I think I had a pretty impressive collection, and I was an obsessive collector type even back then. I can remember hoarding them and wallowing in them like Scrooge McDuck in his money bin,” he said.

“Drawing, same thing, I remember loving to draw as far back as I can remember,” he added.

Having worked for Kevin Eastman, one half of the creative pair behind the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle phenomena, Martin has seen what can happen when success strikes, but that isn’t his motivation.

“Money, fame, and glory are nice perks, but I was drawing comics when I had no conscious ambition of actually being a published cartoonist. I always loved art, and I always thought I would try to have some kind of art career, but I did not always think I had what it takes to be a comic artist.

“In fact, I was sure I did not have what it takes the first few times I sat down and seriously tried to actually draw a publishable comic story. The first thing I tried was a Pink Panther comic. The second thing was a Harlan Ellison story. I can't remember the name of the story, but it's the one where a girl purposely bashes her head into a wall at the beginning of the story. If I still had these two laughable attempts at cartooning, I would show them to you, but they are long gone,” he said.

Martin is currently working on the second issue of Runaway Comics as well as writing a daily blog at www.jabberous.blogspot.com.

Standard disclaimer applies here: There are my words alone.

It was my privilege last week to take part in a discussion on censorship as part of the programming for the One Book, One Springfield [MA] event sponsored by the City Library.

The subject of censorship plays a large part in this year’s featured book, Fahrenheit 451. Ray Bradbury’s classic science fiction novel is set in a future where books are illegal and, when found, are burned.

Accompanying me on the panel were Daniel Russell, professor of social sciences at Springfield College, Rabbi Robert Sternberg, executive director of the Hatikvah Holocaust Education Center and Reven Jajjow Hedo, Fulbright Scholar in translation studies at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Our moderator was Louis Battalen, director of the Arms Library in Shelburne Falls.

The questions were discussed revolved around our own experiences with censorship and self-censorship and whether or not efforts to institute elements of censorship were inevitable in a free society.

The comments were thought provoking and we probably could have stayed much longer into the night discussing the subject.

The best comments came from Hedo. He is an Iraqi citizen who had a career under the Saddam Hussein regime as a translator, specializing in Arabic and English. He has been studying in this country for the past two years and has not seen his family during that time.

A soft-spoken young man, he recounted a time before the war when a government official, prior to a translation assignment, briefed him and other translators. The official made it clear that the translators had to put the most positive spin they could on what Iraqi citizens were telling a Western inspection team. Fabricating a false statement was not out of the question.

He also said if a group wanted to speak freely about the government, doors and windows would be shut in fear that someone passing by might hear something that could land someone in prison.

He told his stories without dramatic flourishes. These were the facts of life for the people of Iraq. He said that because of his experiences he didn’t know too much about freedom of speech.

On the contrary, I told the audience, I thought he knew more about freedom of speech than any of us.

There are too many nations in which people lose their lives and their liberty simply by expressing what they think. I think many of us understand what this means on an intellectual level, but we can’t actually know what that society is like unless we experience it.

Hedo’s quiet words gave us all much food for thought.

***
The One Book, One Springfield programming will continue on April 12 with a lecture by Bill Yousman at 7 p.m. in the Community Room of the Central Library. Yousman is the managing director of the media Education Foundation and he will speak on the impact of mass media and media manipulation.

On April 26, there will be another panel discussion on the impact of the USA PATRIOT Act on libraries. It will also be at 7 p.m. in the Central Library’s Community Room.

The One Book, One Springfield program is a great resource for anyone who is interested in civil liberties, the media and our society today.

For more information, log onto www.springfieldlibrary.org/onebook.html

Standard disclaimer: If you don't like what I wrote, blame me and no one else.

Three new CDs have made their way to my desk and two are welcomed, while one is fairly inexplicable.

Howard Tate Live
Although I love classic soul music from the 1960s and ‘70s, I have to admit I had never heard of Howard Tate. Tate has a string of hits in the late 1960s that included “Ain’t Nobody Home,” “Stop,” and “Get it While You Can.”

He left music in the late 1970s and was re-discovered in 2003 after a life of considerable hard-ship. He was re-united with his former collaborator, producer and writer Jerry Ragovoy, in 2003. The team cut a new album, Rediscovered that year.

This new album was recorded in 2004 at the Tuno Island Music Festival in Denmark. Backed by an eight-piece band, Tate is in fine form as he performs some of his hits from the past as well as new material.

Tate’s music is tinged with both blues and gospel influences and every cut has that big full sound of horns that is so rare to hear today.

If you’re like me and love the rich sincere sound of classic soul, check out Howard Tate Live.

For more information, log onto www.shoutfactory.com.

Have You Heard Jim Croce Live
Jim Croce had a short time at the top of the music world in the 1970s. His three major label albums produced singles that popped up with regularity on the charts. Croce’s biggest hits included “Photographs and Memories,” “Bad Bad Leroy Brown,” “Operator,” and “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim.”

Croce’s considerable career was cut short in 1973 when at the age of 30 he died in a plane crash while on tour.

It’s tribute to Croce’s working class sound that his albums have stayed in print and that his music is still being heard.

This new album is far more than a re-packaging of greatest. This is a chance for modern audiences to experience a live Jim Croce performance. The 19 tracks were taken primarily from the soundtracks of television shows where Croce played “unplugged” with his collaborator Maury Muehliesen.

Some of the songs include Croce’s introductions that explain his inspirations for the tunes.

This is a great compilation of old favorites.

For more information, log onto www.shoutfactory.com.

Dev2.0
The group Devo was part band, part art movement and part pop culture commentary. Anyone who followed music in the 1970s and ‘80s remember at least one Devo song – probably the band’s biggest hit, “Whip It” – as well as their trademark yellow jumpsuits and inverted flower pot hats.

Now Devo member Gerald Casale has produced new versions of classic Devo tunes for the Disney Sound label featured a group of cheer well scrubbed tweens belting out “Peek A Boo,” “Beautiful World,” and, of course, “Whip It.”

The result is perhaps the biggest Devo prank the group has ever pulled off. To create a tween band aimed at selling records to kids to watch the Disney Channel or listen to Radio Disney is pretty typical of the Disney media juggernaut. To have the material come from one of the most non-typical rock band ever is either a huge commercial sell-out or a delicious bit of irony.

What’s next? A Disney version of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention?

This two-disc set has the music on one and music videos and extras on another.

Frankly I don’t know exactly to make of it, but I’m going to have my 11 year-old granddaughter give a listen to it and see what she thinks.

For more information, go to www.DEVO2-0.com.

Standard disclaimer apples: These are my words . Period.

Hello all...back from vacation and my first week back to work and I feel that I've been beat with a ball-pean hammer. Will be back to posting later this weekend.

Standard disclaimer applies: The opinions expressed on this blog are my own. Period.

This blog represents my opinions alone; not my employers nor my staff. IT NEVER HAS.

I will be on vacation and probably will not post much in the next few days.

I sincerely believe in taking a break from such habits when on vacation, even if you're sitting at home!


Adios amigos!

I had the opportunity of interviewing Ray Bradbury last week for a story about our city of Springfield choosing his book Fahrenheit 451 for a "one city, one book" program.

Bradbury was great to chat with and if I had more time I would have branched into other subjects.

I did ask him about his reactions to Peter Jackson's King Kong and he said that "ten minutes into the picture I began crying because I knew Kong was in the hands of a lover."

He beleived the Academcy snubbed Kong and that it should have been nominated for "Best Picture."

When I told this to my Kong loving friend Steve Bissette, he instantly chided me for my lack of critical assessment.

Bradbury is seeking a deal to make a new film based on The Martian Chronciles and would like Jackson to direct it.

From the article I wrote:

Ray Bradbury didn’t have censorship on his mind when he wrote the novel. In a telephone interview from his Los Angeles home, Bradbury said that an incident with a police officer and his love of libraries provided the inspiration for the novel.

Bradbury recounted an incident in 1949 in which a police officer questioned why he and a friend were walking through a fairly deserted area after a meal. They were doing nothing more suspicious than walking on a sidewalk.

The incident led to the short story “The Pedestrian.”

“The Pedestrian got me started,” he said.

A year later, he added, he “took the character out for a walk.” The revisiting led to his writing of Fahrenheit 451, first as a short story and later as a novel. The novel took him just nine days to complete.

Bradbury described himself as a “library educated person.” He never attended college, but went two to three times a week to a library from his childhood through his late twenties to read and learn.

He said that “it broke my heart” to learn that the ancient library of Alexandria in Egypt had been burned three times – twice on purpose, and once by accident. He also spoke of his horror of how the Nazis burned books that they viewed as harmful to their regime.

“You can’t touch libraries,” he said.

Fahrenheit 451 was published in 1953, a time in which there was growing fear about the menace posed by the Soviet Union. Bradbury said, though, at the time he wrote the novel there wasn’t any threat of censorship. He said the earliest casualties of the Red Scare were people in the motion picture industry who were blacklisted for alleged Communist ties.

“They were easy marks,” he said.

Bradbury maintained that a society such as the one described in Fahrenheit 451 could never happen in the United States today.

“We’ve got to consider we have a very healthy society,” he said.
He said that censorship would be “impossible” because all aspects of society are watching one another.

Speaking on the 1966 film adaptation of Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury said he was “80 percent pleased” with the movie directed by Francois Truffaut. His main complaint is that the famed French director cast British actress Julie Christie in two roles, which Bradbury believed confused audiences.

Although he had written screenplays – one of his most notable was adapting Herman Melville’s Moby Dick for director John Huston – Bradbury was not involved with the script of Fahrenheit 451. He said that Truffaut’s first script “was so bad he couldn’t get any one to star in it.”

Oskar Werner, who had starred in Truffaut’s Jules and Jim, forced the director to re-write it. Werner played the lead role of Montag the fireman.
Bradbury revealed there is a new movie version of the novel in the works with a script by Frank Darabont, the director of The Shawshank Redemption. He said there are talks going on with Mel Gibson to produce the film.

Bradbury is one of this country’s most popular writers – there are over five million copies of Fahrenheit 451 alone currently in print – and among his 30 novels are The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, Something Wicked this Way Comes and Dandelion Wine. He has also written 600 short stories.

He has been active in making movies himself. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his animated film Icarus Montgolfier Wright and received an Emmy for his script for The Halloween Tree.

Besides scripting Moby Dick, Bradbury wrote the 64 scripts for his own television series Ray Bradbury Theater. He said that he writes his books in such style that they are easy to adapt.

He recounted that director Sam Peckinpah wanted to film one of his books. When Bradbury asked how Peckipah would adapt the novel, Peckinpah responded that he would tear pages out of the book and stuff them into the camera.”

In 2000, he received the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

Out of everything he has written does he have a favorite?

“All of my books are my children and I love them all,” he said.

“I’ve had a jolly time, a great life,” the 85 year-old writer added...

On Sunday I had the opportunity of seeing a program at the Academy of Music Theater in Northampton, MA, titled “The Unseen Orson Welles.”

Presented by his friend and cinematographer Gary Graver, the three-hour program was produced by Larry Jackson, the former manager of the Orson Welles Cinemas in Cambridge, MA, another friend of the later actor and director.

Graver is associated with Welles’ protégé Oja Kodar. Welles bequeathed his films to Kodar and the materials are stored at Filmmuseum München in Germany.

Except, I suppose for the material Graver presented this weekend, which he said comes from his Orson Welles Archives. While some of it was entertaining and exciting to see, Graver’s rambling unprepared introductions did not put the films and clips into a context that they needed.

Graver said he started his relationship with Welles when he learned in 1970 that he was in Los Angeles and managed to talk with him on the phone. He shot some test footage for Welles, which he approved, and he “was in.”

For a person such as myself who has a number of Welles’ films, have read books and articles on the man – I even had the chance to interview Barbara Leaming who wrote a great bio of Welles – a lot of what Graver said was material I already knew.

The problem is that he didn’t say enough for the folks who were casual film fans there to see something rare.

The program included:

The original trailer for Citizen Kane – not a very rare item.

The 1998 re-issue trailer for Touch of Evil – also not so rare.

About ten minutes of a television production of Merchant of Venice, in which Welles starred as Shylock and shot in Venice and London. This clip was a visual stunner, but the bad sound equipment at the theater rendered the dialogue, especially Welles’ lines, almost incomprehensible. Graver gave no date for the production and Leaming doesn’t mention it in her book. British actor Charles Grey was a co-star.

The 1956 television pilot for the planed Orson Welles Presents series was next. The Fountain of Youth was a delight. Welles used still photos, silent footage and sound footage to create this story of a romantic triangle. It won a Peabody Award for Excellence, but the networks passed on it.

There were a group of television commercials from Japan from the 1970s in which Welles shilled for G&G Whiskey. Graver said that by this time Welles had stopped drinking anything but wine and they used iced tea in the glasses. The spots are funny because one could tell Welles was not the least sincere in his delivery of the product the producers had him describe as “ a glass of happiness.”

There were promo reels for The Deep (which was later made, not by Welles, as Dead Calm) and The Dreamers. These were shot so Welles could raise money from investors. Frankly neither was very interesting and one could only imagine how Welles would use these clips to try to get funding. Could you imagine a pitch meeting with someone like Welles with that physical presence and voice?

There was a clip from an on-going project called The Magic Show, which was filmed by Graver and showed Welles performing a magic trick.

A short clip from the American Film Institute’s tribute to Welles was also shown. Welles is seen giving part of his acceptance speech. The irony that Graver didn’t tell people is that Welles showed a clip from The Other Side of the Wind after his speech as a way of trying to raise money to complete the film.

The Other Side of the Wind was the finale of the program. There was about 40 minutes of scenes Welles had edited from this last film. One or two of these scenes were ones that had been seen before and the quality of the images was fair to poor. Graver explained this was a work-print and the condition wasn’t very good. He said that the original elements were at the Munich archives and that Kodar was making arrangements for the film to be assembled and released.

The scenes weren’t helped by less that sharp digital projection.

He noted that he shouldn’t even be showing them at this time.

Without a proper set-up, the scenes didn’t make a lot of sense. There were several scenes of the birthday party has-been director Jake Hannaford (played by John Huston) was having and the scene in which Hannaford’s stooge is trying to explain what the film is about to a studio executive who is watching scenes in a screening room.

Then there were several sequences of the movie within the movie, which Graver said were “a little sexy.” They feature Kodar in various stages of undress running and walking endlessly through a deserted cityscape and a studio back lot with another actor.

It was only after the show ended during an informal Q& A period that Graver said those scenes were a parody of Michelangelo Antonioni’s style. Welles apparently hated Antonioni’s films.

This little tidbit would have been helpful to people to understand what they saw.

Graver shared anecdotes about Welles during the show, none of which were particularly insightful. He did seem to genuinely miss the man with whom he worked for 15 years.

I asked Graver what it was like to work with drive-in and direct-to directors and then switch gears to Welles. He didn’t really respond and by his expression he didn’t really what to discuss his career with the likes of Fred Olen Ray. At no time did anyone mention Graver’s career out of his Welles context.

Undoubtedly scraping along on a low budget and a tight schedule was good experience for working with a filmmaker such as Welles. I wanted to know, though, how a guy like Welles operated on a low budget: what was different.

While the show was interesting, its flaws made the three-hours seem like an awfully long time.

This was a demanding week at work, hence the lack of blogging. I am one reporter down thanks to budget cuts and two members of the news staff were in the Mojave Desert doing a story about how Massachusetts Marines train for duty in Iraq.

I feel comfortable in making public that BearManor Media will be publishing my first book on animation history in 2007. The tentative title is "Going Mainstream: How Animation Escaped the Kiddie Ghetto." The book is a collection of the pieces I've written on animation for both Animato and Animation Planet – magazines I published and edited – and articles from other places as well.

Each piece has been updated and arranged to tell how animation was able to find its way out of the horrors that were the 1970s and '80s and into greater acceptance.

I would have loved to have included some of the articles written by other contributors, but there was no budget for buying second publication rights.

The book is scheduled to be printed next year.

I have one new project, which I will announce then the deal is set, and I will be tackling my Max Fleischer book once more. Hopefully, since Richard Fleischer's memoir of his father was so limited in scope, there will be interest in something more in depth.

***
observations of a small town editor, continued....

To paraphrase the Bard, "the story's the thing." There's no purpose in publishing a story unless it's correct, attractive or useful to the reader.

That's why I hate doing puff pieces on businesses, because I doubt anyone cares.

Reviews are just as bad. Everyone wants to be a critic, just like everyone wants to be a columnist. Too many newspapers fall to the siren's song of running reviews because some editor thinks that readers want them.

Readers only want reviews if they are of purpose to them. Here's a case in point: The Republican, our daily in Springfield, ran a review of the Motley Crue concert that took place recently.

The concert was on a Tuesday – a one-night stand – and the review ran on Friday. What was the point? Isn't a review designed to give consumers some educated guidance about something? Isn't it "news you can use?" What is the use of this kind of review?

Well, it filled space and allowed the paper to run a photo that resembled soft-core porn.

Reviewing traveling shows that give a single performance and move on doesn't do the readers a bit of good, but many papers publish these pieces. Perhaps they aspire to be "newspapers of record." Perhaps they want to seem hip and cool. They want to capture that younger demographic.

Piffle.

They just want to eat up space with something locally written that didn't cost very much to produce.

Anything one publishes has to serve the needs of readers, rather than the needs of the newspaper's budget. Otherwise, sooner or later, you won't have any readers.

To be continued...

Every now and then I'm going to write about the press. I know the world is full of media critics, but few of them actually seem to be members of the working press, much less in the trenches where I am.

Let me know what you think

I was at the Chicopee Colleen pageant the other night and I realized how this little story summed up so much of what is wrong in American media today.

Chicopee is a city of about 50,000 in western Massachusetts. It’s a blue-collar community that was settled by Polish, French Canadian and Irish immigrants among others. It has managed to re-gain a new industrial base after the demise of its first generation of factories and is considered to be a safe, stable place to raise a family.

One of its biggest civic events is its participation in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in neighboring Holyoke. The parade is the second largest in the nation – only New York’s is larger – and Chicopee is one of the many local communities that have a large contingent in the parade.

For many years, Chicopee – like Holyoke and Springfield – has presented a Colleen contest. Unlike other Colleen competitions, Chicopee doesn’t require the participants to have any Irish heritage. There is something nicely American about a contest to celebrate a particular ethnic group that is open to all.

For Chicopee, this is a fairly big “soft” news story. It’s a feel good story. It reflects some of the lifestyles and values of the community, which I understand is supposed to be our jobs.

For weeks preceding the event I publish photos of the contestants in our weekly newspaper serving Chicopee, The Herald. The culmination is the contest itself and someone on the staff must sacrifice a chunk of a Saturday night to make sure we have the name of the winner, her court, and photos for the edition that will be distributed on Wednesday.

It’s not a great assignment. The time at which the organizers tell you the decision will be made is never accurate. There’s nowhere to sit, generally and not even a place to stash your coat. So you stand and wait.

The heart-breaking part is when the five finalists are picked out of a group of 30 or more young women. To see their faces and to realize just how controlled they’re trying to be as they’re returning to sit at the tables with their families is a detail of the story that is seldom reported.

So I had the cover the story this year as because of budget cuts we have lost a reporter and since I’m on salary – and because I’m the boss – I have to do it.

Now at the event there were the three television stations, the editor of the competing weekly in Chicopee, and a photographer from the daily ‘paper, The Republican to cover it.

It was a nice turnout all right. It was the weekend, which is notoriously slow for “real” news. I advise many non-profit groups to stage their events on the weekend because television is hungry for material at that time.

The three TV stations left before the winner was announced. How could you leave before the climax, the purpose of the story, unfolded?

The Republican opted not to send a reporter this year. Undoubtedly they will have a reporter call one of the organizers and do something after the fact.

Only myself, the photographer of The Republican and the editor of the Chicopee Register remained until the end.

Now the organizers had done something that they thought would ensure them proper television coverage – they had asked one of the local TV weathermen to be a judge. That ploy, however, did not keep the videographer there for the entire event.

The problem is that the event went on too late. The Colleen wasn’t announced until after 10 p.m. The TV crews had to get back to the stations, where I’m sure they handed a producer a telephone number where someone could call to get the name of the Colleen.

That’s missing both the point of the story and the advantage of the medium: to capture the emotion of the moment on tape.

The sad truth is if the Colleen contest producers had wanted the TV crews to be presenting at the crowning, they needed to be sure the winner was announced at 8 p.m.

So instead of the media reporting the news, the newsmakers must make their event media-friendly to ensure the story is presented correctly.

It’s all about money. It’s better to go cheap and shoot some footage of the contest and supplement it with a voice-over than to do the story correctly.

Same thing goes with the daily newspaper. It’s better to send a photographer to grab a shot and hold it until someone can do a story by talking with someone after the fact.

This is how you meet the lowered expectations of your audience.

There’s no profit these days in raising the bar. Media owners don’t want to give audiences more than their competitor. They simply want to get by with as little as possible.

The Springfield television market is about 104th or 109th in the national rankings of size. It’s a mid-size market. The NBC and ABC affiliates have a 90-minute evening broadcast Monday through Friday that repeats the same major stories and weather forecasts every half-hour. They do not have the budget to produce a solid 90 minutes of local news. They could do a great 30 minutes or an okay hour, but 90 minutes is way beyond their capacity.

What is within their ability is a promotional effort telling audiences over and over that they “are working for you.” They’re not, of course. They’re working for the advertisers trying to create a product that will attract viewers to watch the ads.

I try to be honest when I’m talking to people about the reality of the news business for our newspapers. We have a small operation and can’t be everywhere people want us to be.

Television wants to perpetuate this myth and generally fails in trying to cover a broadcast market. However the vanity element of “being on television” is very seductive and many people court TV for coverage much more than the print outlets because of 30 seconds of fame.

In the meantime, the story is lost.

It’s all smoke and mirrors and these attitudes get worse as the media outlet gets larger.

To be continued…

I was transfixed by magic and ventriloquism as a kid. Paul Winchell with his dummy Jerry Mahoney was a must-see on television every week, as was magician Mark Wilson.

My favorite segments of such shows were the rare ones in which a little of the techniques behind the illusions were revealed. I know I wasn't the only kid in my generation who wanted to amaze friends and break ice at parties with astounding sleight of hand tricks or throw my voice for similar reasons.

So since my earliest years I've been fascinated by behind the scenes stuff. Give me the opportunity to see or learn something that isn't general knowledge and I'm a happy camper.

I thought I would share a little of what really happens at a press event with you this week. I know that you understand that what you read or see is a fraction of what really went on. For completely legitimate reasons, no media outlet can afford to present everything, nor do they discuss the process.

I'm going to draw the curtain a bit to the side so you can see what happens back stage.

I received a press release that stated that State Senator Stephen Buoniconti would be announcing his bid for re-election on March 1 at 2 p.m. at the Basketball Hall of Fame and that State Senate President Robert Travaglini would accompany him.

No offense to Steve, who is a nice guy and capable legislator, but the big news here for reporters in western Massachusetts was to have a little face time with Travaglini.

So I arrive at the Hall at 2 p.m., which is actually a little late. Amanda Raus of CBS 3 was there as well as John "Don't call me 'Binky'" Baibak of WHYN. A few moments after I arrived, Mary Ellen Lowney of The Republican arrived.

There were plenty of reporters but a noticeable lack of politicians. So we did what reporters are apt to do: trade insults (John and myself) and generally gossip and complain about working conditions and politicians who don't turn up at their own press events on time.

I said my one question to Travaglini would be whether or not he needed a road map to find Springfield. I was still smarting from inviting him to lunch and not hearing back from him a few weeks ago.

About 2:10 p.m. one of Steve's aides came up to the group and announced that Steve was anticipated in about 20 minutes. Mary Ellen asked her if Travaglini needed a map and the aide said they did give him one. Apparently this nugget might wind up as a "Cries and Whispers" item.

I'll send them an invoice.

Twenty minutes, though, is a major pain, as we all had another assignment. Something like that can throw off your entire day. But we all persevered.

I noticed that there were two TV stations missing and I was told that one said it didn't cover re-election announcements by incumbents and the other wouldn't commit.

The one thing no one teaches in journalism classes is creative waiting. It's a skill you learn on the job.

Finally the pair of politicians turned up. They schmoozed their supporters who had gathered and we all started urging them under our breath to get this thing rolling. They asked their supporters to stand behind them as a statement of support - something for television.

About 15 minutes later it was pretty much over. I was back in my car heading through the South End at 3 p.m.

Forty minutes of waiting for 15 minutes of substance is a debatable cost to pay, but considering that two television stations, WFCR and the weeklies that compete with us didn't get a shot at a Travaglini quote tipped the enterprise to the profit side of the ledger for me.

Ah, little victories are the sweetest.

The media lesson for today is that most elected officials will be late. (There are exceptions: Charlie Ryan is always on time). So, be prepared to amuse yourself and don't schedule something too close to a political event.

A flawed documentary, a great assortment of Buster Keaton items and a visually arresting film are the offerings in this week's DVD column.

Pornography: The Secret History of Civilization

This 1999 five hour documentary originally made for British television had the potential for being a fairly comprehensive look at a subject that rarely gets a sober treatment on television.

In this country if something to do with pornography turns up on a TV news program it will undoubtedly be as sensational as possible and also carry some sort of moral message to it.

The premise of the series is to show that what we now call "pornography" has with us for centuries, although the social context has been radically different from culture to culture.

The first segment dealing with the discovery of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii and how Victorians in Great Britain reacted to what they found is among the best episodes.

The second episode, which dealt with how the printing press affected adult materials and the subsequent reaction from authorities, was also quite good.

However the remaining four episodes had some major flaws. In the segment on the impact of photography and the rise of "men's magazines," the filmmakers never mentioned Hugh Hefner or Playboy, an inconceivable omission in a production such as this one.

In the episode on motion pictures, huge chunks of film history are left out. The result is a very misinformed look at that part of the story.

The filmmakers make a leap from the start of the Production Code in 1934 to Deep Throat in 1972. By doing so they are implying that Deep Throat started the cinematic porn revolution.

No one can deny the influences of Deep Throat on society, much less the porn industry, but Deep Throat would never have come about without the following events:

The adults only movies of the 1930s and ‘40s by road show producers such as Kroger Babb, Dan Sonney, Dwain Esper and the like certainly planted the seeds of more sexually explicit material on the screen.

The Production Code was fatally weakened with the release of The Moon is Blue without its seal of approval. Before then, films could not be exhibited without that approval. Audiences made it a hit.

The rise of the burlesque films in the 1950s and the emergence of filmmakers such as Russ Meyer and his nudie movies pushed more envelopes.

The growing number of Hollywood films with “mature” content coupled with the release of the imported I Am Curious Yellow in 1969 brought on the MPPA rating system.

The rating system gave filmmakers a partial defense against certain criticism. The X rating spelled out for audiences that some people might be offended by a film’s contents. They had fair warning.

The last two episodes, which cover the advent of videotape and the Internet, seemed padded, with experts repeating the variations of the same message that technology pushes pornography to new boundaries.

What is missing is an explanation why people are drawn to adult entertainment; if it has positive or negative social effects; and how pornography is a lightening rod for controversy even in these times. I would also like to have seen a discussion whether or not the acceptance of pornography in our society had made other forms of entertainment cruder.

The program is fairly explicit - the Brits don't mind sexual material as much as they do violence - so be warned.

For more information, log onto www.kochvision.com.

Industrial Strength Keaton

Buster Keaton is one of my cinematic gods. I know that Charles Chaplin supposedly set the mark for silent comedy and that Harold Lloyd was probably more popular than Buster at the box office. Neither comic made films that seem to hold up as well as Keaton did in his prime.

And his prime was the 1920s. Losing his independence as a producer, a bad marriage and an addiction to alcohol all contributed to Keaton's fall from grace in the early 1930s.

He was able to sober up and return to films, although he was never able to reach the pinnacle he once had. He had a successful final act in his life in which he appeared a numerous television shows, made commercials and industrial films, performed in European circuses and saw his silent films embraced by a new generation of movie fan.

This collection is like a Keaton scrapbook collected by Keaton fans and scholars. If you want to see Buster at his best, find a copy of Sherlock Jr., The Cameraman or The Navigator, among others and then watch these two discs.

Two of Keaton's sound features are included in the collection, Parlor, Bedroom and Bath and An Old Spanish Custom. Neither is among his best sound outings, but they're interesting to watch. There are some silent rarities, as well, including a restored version of Keaton’s great short, The Playhouse.

The revelations are the commercials and industrial films in the collection. They are a treat.

No Keaton fans should be without this two-disc set.

For more information, log onto www.mackinacmedia.com

Mirrormask

Comic book artist David McKean teamed up with his frequent collaborator writer Neil Gaimen on this kind of, sort of children's film that made its debut at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.

The good news is McKean was able to translate his arresting visual style to the screen through the use of props, Muppets (the film was co-produced by the Jim Henson Company) and computer effects and animation.

The bad news is the film's story is pretty derivative and doesn't really involve the viewer.

The story revolves around a 15 year-old girl Helena (Stephanie Leonidas) whose parents run a small circus in Great Britain. She's a bit rebellious, but those feelings subside when her mother develops a life-threatening medical condition. Now the kid feels guilty and when she falls asleep she finds her self trapped in an alternative universe.

There she find she resembles the daughter of a dark queen (played by the same actress who plays her mother, Gina McKee) and discovers that if she wants to escape and return she must wake the Queen of Light (played once again McKee) with the Mirrormask.

This movie falls into the same sub-genre as The Wizard of Oz, Labyrinth and Spirited Away in which a teenage girl finds herself in a strange fantastical land and must master some task in order to go home.

While McKean's visual style contributes much to the film, the plot does not.

For more information, log onto www.sonypictures.com.

Our local daily, The Republican, ran a story in its national briefs section in its Sunday edition about a woman in Texas who was on trial for murdering her 10-month-old daughter by cutting off both her arms. A mistrial had been declared.

Now there is no local connection to this case. The three other briefs in the section were stories on how a roll of quarters in Texas tested positive for ricin, a deadly poison; a study on prostrate cancer treatments; and how Google’s latest legal volley in its fight to keep certain Internet record private.

The publishing of the other three items does make news sense. We all use quarters, prostrate cancer is a serious problem and many of us do not want the Bush Administration to peek into our private on-line lives.
But why publish the hideous child murder piece?

It’s a great example of how a “respectable” broadsheet uses classic tabloid techniques.

Big city tabs were well known throughout most of their history to compete with one another for crime stories that would grab the public’s attention. In this country sex might sell, but one has to be careful just what kinds of sex story will be acceptable.

With sex, context is everything.

Newspapers that call themselves “family” publications know that a sexual story might enrage some readers and perhaps even some advertisers. Crime stories do not generate that kind of reaction.

The folks that might be shocked at the inclusion of a “Page Three Girl” to draw readers probably are not the ones who shy away from such crime stories as the one from Texas.

There is no moral in the Texas story. We learn nothing other than a woman who was undoubtedly unhinged took her child’s life in an incredibly hideous way.

If there is no local angle and if the story doesn’t provide some information that could prevent a similar crime from taking place, then why did the editor charged with making up that section run it?

I’m not a mind reader, but I’m sure that editor thought it would create a little water cooler buzz for readers. It’s something so horrendous, it will be memorable and provide the fodder for idle conversation.

Another thing to consider is that this newspaper has little daily local competition. It didn’t need to run the piece because it needed to beat some competing newspaper.

No, this little gem ran because someone thought it provided entertainment value.

Now I will readily admit being entertained by material some would say is in bad taste. The difference is that material is not real. It’s made-up.

I find nothing but profound sadness in such a story – a futile sadness because there is nothing I as a reader can go about the situation.

Except stop reading the Sunday Republican.

My friend Marty Langford has made that great leap that all film nuts hope to take one day – from being a fan to being a film maker. He and his creative partner Warren Amerman just signed a deal with Heretic Films to distribute their science fiction thriller Magdalena's Brain.

I'm jealous!

I've had the pleasure and privilege to write three stories about this accomplished low-budget production and I thought I'd post them in chronological order.

Other folks here in western Massachusetts are making movie as well, and I'll post their stories as well.

July 8, 2004

It’s in the mid-afternoon of the fourth day of shooting and the director of photography is carefully lining up and rehearsing what appears to be a simple shot. The camera is to glide through a set of computer equipment with the lead character walking in the background. One person carefully guided the dolly on which the camera is mounted while two others keep the wires attached to the camera out of the path of the dolly’s track.

After trying several variations of the camera movement, the director positions the actress, gives her instructions and quietly said, “Action!” Peering into a video monitor enclosed in black shroud, the director said that the movement is too fast, while another take it is too slow. After a few more moments, though, the desired shot – lasting only a few seconds – is achieved.

Marty Langford, producer and co-writer of Magdalena’s Brain, whispers to me, “Look at the light pouring through the window. This is going to look great.”

The crew quickly breaks down the camera and goes to an adjacent part of the set for the next shot. The continuity person makes notes to be used to match this shot with others, and the make-up artist is finishing shaving the side of actor Sanjiban Sellew’s head.

This isn’t Hollywood, but if Langford gets his wish, the Pioneer Valley will become a center for independent film production.

The set is on the third floor of Mill #2 of the Open Square complex in Holyoke and will be the hub of activity for Glowing Screen Inc. for most of the month. The fledging production company is shooting a script written by Langford and Warren Amerman. Amerman is directing and Langford is producing.

And while this is the company’s first feature film, the crew is all film production veterans. Langford, an Agawam resident, is a hardcore movie fan who went into the business. He is a producer at Veritech in East Longmeadow working on commercial and business films and he also teaches a screen-writing course at Westfield State College.

Amerman, a musician who runs the Rotary Records recording studio in East Longmeadow, has directed short films in the past. The rest of the crew has professional experience behind the camera and hails from western Massachusetts communities such as Chicopee, Springfield, Monson and Tolland.

Langford said that he and Amerman wanted to write a script that was feasible to shoot on a low budget, so they devised this dramatic story with science fiction undertones about a once promising brain surgeon who has retreated from society after an accident that nearly killed her husband.

The husband had been working on a device that transfers memories from one person to another, but something horribly gone wrong and is now bound to a wheelchair unable to communicate, except for an electronic device that he wears around his throat. She is continuing his work, though, in an abandoned factory building.

“This is a real moody piece, a dark moody piece,” said Langford.

Langford and his crew have set up shop on the un-restored third floor of the mill building. Along one wall is a make-up area and the sets are built on the opposite end. There is a lounge for the cast and crew on the next floor.

Langford said that about half of the $25,000 budget goes to rent the camera and to pay for the lead of the film, Los Angeles-based actress Amy Shelton-White. The rest of the cast and crew are donating their services or deferring their payments because they want to work on the feature. Open Square owner John Aubin has donated the use of the space.

If he had to pay for everything, Langford estimated the budget would be between $125,000 to $150,000.

“Everyone has been so cool and helpful,” said Langford.

Shelton-White came to Langford and Amerman’s attention thanks to Springfield native Mark Sikes, who has been a casting director in Los Angeles for a number of years. Langford and Amerman went through many audition tapes of actresses on both coasts before settling on Shelton-White. The actress has had numerous roles in independent films and on television productions and said that she is attracted to productions where there are “people of quality.”

Later in the week, there will be location shooting at a robotics lab at UMass, a local hospital and outdoor locations. Too much traveling can tax the resources of a low budget production, Langford noted.

Langford said the shooting schedule allows the crew to be flexible and to take their time, unlike many independent productions, which by financial necessity must rush from one camera set-up to another. Technical quality is very important to the company and the rented camera is the same model used by George Lucas to film the last two Stars Wars films.

Langford and Amerman’s immediate goal is to have the film ready in September to enter it in festival such as Sundance. They want to get the film in a number of festivals later this year and next year in order to increase its exposure and to find a suitable distributor.

“I’m confident we can get this film on the shelves,” he said as two different camera operators buzzed around the set with their own cameras shooting footage that undoubtedly could become a “making-of” feature for a DVD release.

The long-term goal, though, is to make one or two features a year and build a film making community in Western Massachusetts, explained Langford. Although mainstream films ranging from Cider House Rules to Malice to Stanley and Iris have been shot in the Valley, Langford envisions a group of local filmmakers who could provide a talent pool for each other and utilize the area’s scenic resources.

Looking at the crew work, Langford, beamed “This is what I’ve wanted to do my entire life.”

Oct. 6, 2004

Local film makers Marty Langford and Warren Amerman are now hard to work putting the finishing touches on their first feature-length film Magdelena’s Brain.

As previously reported in this newspaper, principal photography took place this summer in locations in Holyoke and Chicopee. Langford, the producer, and Amerman, the director, are now working on the final version of the film, including the musical score and final sound effects. The two men co-wrote the screenplay.

They are preparing a final version for an invitation-only premiere at the Basketball Hall of Fame theatre later this month. They are also submitting their film to several film festivals, including Sundance and Slamdance, which is their first step in marketing their production.

The team invited this reporter for an advance look at the film and for a discussion on how their first feature turned out.

The film is an under-stated but involving character study of a young woman whose husband has suffered a debilitating accident while during a medical experiment. With several significant twists and turns, this film bridges the gap between a drama and a thriller and has a science fiction undertone that plays very realistically.

Amerman’s style as a director is to eschew the kind of camera tricks and editing stunts that characterize many films today. The stylishly composed photography and the crisp editing keep the emphasis on the film’s story and performances.

Shot with the same kind of high definition digital camera used by director George Lucas for his last two Star Wars films, Magdelena’s Brain has a sharper image that many low-budget film are able to achieve.

The photography and production design doesn’t betray the tight budget – under $30,000 – and the 14-day shooting schedule. The biggest expense, Langford said with a smile was feeding the cast and crew.

“The shoot went well,” said Amerman. “Many disasters could have happened, but there were no knock-out blows.”

“We all had to wear many other hats,” said Langford. He added that his biggest job on the film was making sure that Ameran could focus on the actual shoot. In turn, Amerman said his biggest challenge was to know when to “move on” from one scene to the next.

Both men heaped praise on the film’s lead Amy Shelton-White whom they hired from Los Angeles, CA. While they said the supporting cast of local actors were fine, that Shelton-White “brought everyone else up,” said Langford.

Amerman said that she would stay in character “until she heard the word ‘cut’” even if the action in the scene was over. “She was wonderful,” he added.

In order to build a reputation for the film, Langford and Ameran are researching film festivals in order to decide which would help advance their marketing campaign. They said there are literally hundreds of festivals and the issue is to find out what significant movies have appeared in the past at which festivals.
“We both like the idea of a successful festival run,” said Langford.

Feb. 22, 2006

In a digital-editing suite at Veritech Corporation, Marty Langford is editing footage from his science fiction thriller Magdalena’s Brain. Langford isn’t working on the feature itself – he’s preparing deleted footage for the extras section of the film’s national DVD release.

Langford and his partner, Warren Amerman, recently signed an agreement with Heretic Films, a San Francisco-based distributor. Their locally produced feature should be at retail outlets such as Best Buy, Amazon.com, Sun Coast and Virgin for sale and for rent at Hollywood Video in July.

With a North American distribution deal set, the team has set their sights at exploring foreign distribution deals and domestic and foreign television sales.

Magdelena’s Brain was shot in the summer of 2004 in several locations in Hampden County, but primarily at Open Square in Holyoke. Langford produced the film and Amerman directed it. They collaborated on the script.

Starring Amy Shelton-White, the film is a story about an experiment in artificial intelligence gone terribly wrong and the toil that it takes on one woman.

Prior to the interview, Langford was working on amending the credits of the film and preparing a group of deleted scenes. The distributor had requested that Langford and Amerman produce a group of extras and Langford noted that there weren’t many scenes not used in the low-budget film.

He showed one scene in which Amerman shot two different versions with different actors. At first, the team thought the first actor was the problem in the scene; however, with the second version, they realized that the scene as written was the problem, not the performers. Langford noted that deleted scenes were not included in the final cut of a movie for a reason.

Langford and Amerman recently recorded a commentary for the film and he said it was a fast-moving experience. Neither man had seen the movie for several months and they sat in Amerman’s recording studio with a bottle of wine.

Langford said, “no one cares about me or Warren on a personal level,” so they didn’t focus their commentary on stories that would come across as self-indulgent. Instead they used the commentary track as an opportunity to share some of the lessons they learned during the shoot.

“We talked about how to work around restrictions,” Langford said. He added that the recording period sped by and they were tempted to do another track to include more information for fledgling filmmakers.

The two men found their distributor by soliciting companies that had a catalog that included films similar to theirs. They sent out a number of copies of the film and two companies expressed interest. Eventually, they signed on with Heretic.

Langford and Amerman are now considering their second feature. Langford noted that many directors break into the business with a horror film because horror fans are the “least discriminating.” As long as a director includes the story elements that please the fans, its audience can deem his or her film a success. Langford said this with a smile, as he is a fan of horror films, himself.

Their next feature will be a heist movie, a genre both men enjoy. Langford described it as “a group of everymen with no specialties who must work together.”

I've gone to the Toy Fair in New York City for five or six years now and like all trade show, it's a great peek at what 's coming up in a particular field.

The following story was written for the newspapers I edit so there is a western Mass. angle to it. I hope it will still be of interest to a wider audience.

NEW YORK, NY – Western Massachusetts toy companies came to the American International Toy Fair last week with a positive message about the state of their business.

Representatives from Hasbro Games of East Longmeadow, Omniglow of West Springfield and LEGO Group from bordering Enfield, Conn., all had good things to say not only about their new lines of products, but about the financial state of the industry at the American International Toy Fair that took place from Feb. 12 through 15.

According to the Toy Industry Association’s most recent annual report on toy sales, there was a five percent decline in overall sales from November 2003 to October 2004. The decline, according to the report could be attributed to a variety of factors including “age compression” – in which children are being interested in more sophisticated toys at increasingly younger ages – to the lack of trendy licensed products.

In two categories important to the region, building sets went from $706.5 million in sales during November 2002 to Oct. 2004 to $614.8 million from November 2003 to October 2004. During the same two periods games and puzzles went from $2.5 billion to $2.3 billion.

More recent statements show that in 2005, local companies were on the rebound. According to a press release issued in October 2005, Hasbro reported, “Revenues in the games segment were $252.9 million for the [third] quarter compared to $236.5 million a year ago,” the release reported. The increase was seen due to strength in both board and electronic games.

A press release dated Feb. 15 from the LEGO Group corporate office in Denmark cited, “The LEGO Group’s results before tax have improved considerably from a loss of DKK 1,688 million in 2004 to a profit of DKK 702 million in 2005.

“Also the Group’s financial resources (cash at bank and in hand less short-term debt) have improved considerably from a negative DKK 82 million to a positive DKK 2,604 million at Dec, 31, 2005.”

All representatives of the three companies reported a good response from the attendees of the annual trade show, despite the fact that the record-setting snowfall on the first day of the show cancelled flights and tied up traffic for several days. The Fair draws distributors and retail buyers from around the world.

The Fair is conducted in two locations in the city – the “Toy District” and the Jacob Javits Convention Center. There was far less security at the toy showroom buildings at the intersection of 25th and Broadway than in previous years and there less ballyhoo efforts as well. In past years, costumed characters handing out promotional items were common in front of the showroom buildings. This year there were none and many of the showroom themselves were not occupied.

At the Javits Center there were much fewer samples and give-aways than this reporter noticed in the past five years of covering the Fair.

LEGO Group

Julie Stern, who works in brand marketing for the construction toy company, said that 2005 was an “amazing year” for the company and said the company has new additions to its line that should build on its recent successes.

The Creator series is one of the new additions. Designed for children aged six and up, the series features kits in which from three to eight models can be built. The X-Pod line, which is now in the third year, carries on the theme of multiple choices in a smaller package designed to for children on the go. Each X-Pod has the material for three different models per kit – robots, dinosaurs, helicopters and cars are among the subjects.

Stern pointed out additions to the Technics lines for skilled builders aged eight and up that included a tow truck featuring 1,831 pieces and a motor box to power the model.

Another older line with new additions is the City line and among them is a 401-piece airplane model complete with pilot and ground crew.

Licensing plays an important role at LEGO, and the company introduced a new Batman line of construction toys at the show. Stern said the license includes characters and images from the comic books, the recent animated television series and the movies. Kits include several different Batmobiles, the Batwing plane and a Batcave playscape.

Nickelodeon also plays a major role in the new LEGO line. The company secured the rights to the entire catalog of Nickelodeon properties and has come out with a SpongeBob Squarepants group of toys among its initial effort. Children can build the Krusty Krab, as well as SpongeBob himself.

The other brand in the Nickelodeon line several kits based on the series Avatar the Last Airbender.

Stern said that 2005 was “huge” for the company’s Star War toys and that LEGO has extended its license until 2011. Among the new kits are Jabba the Hutt’s Sail Barge, complete with eight Star Wars mini-figures.

Bionicle is returning for a sixth year, Stern said, with the characters coming in new packaging featuring a different story line and swords that light up.

Imagine building a computerized toy that can be programmed for tasks as complex as sorting M&M candies by color? Mindstorms NXT is an updated version of a LEGO kit that has been sold since 1998. Stern explained that the kit has been completed updated so that a child can use his or her PC or Mac computer to download through a USB cable a program into one of thousands of model possibilities. The robots have ultrasonic, light, touch and sound sensors. The kit also is Bluetooth enabled. The kit is designed for children aged 10 and up.

A new initiative for the company is through its LEGO Builders of Tomorrow program. Children are encouraged to donate one or more of their LEGO bricks and send drawings, photos or notes describing something they think would help New Orleans become a strong city again. Each child who donates one or more of their bricks will receive a LEGO-studded rubber bracelet to recognize their contribution to the cause.

In a recent press release, Michael McNally, senior brand relations manager, LEGO Systems, said, “We are thrilled to launch a program that supports one of the largest and most important rebuilding efforts in contemporary American history. Of the 117 public schools in New Orleans, only 15 of them are currently open. We want to inspire children and families everywhere to stay mindful of this massive undertaking, but also to contribute in a playful way to a program that provides opportunities for children in New Orleans to imagine, learn and have fun, all the while knowing their peers across the country care about their well being.”

For additional details on how to participate in the program, log onto http://www.legobuildersoftomorrow.com/be.html.

Hasbro
Toy-making giant Hasbro’s 2005 line-up features old favorites in new incarnations, plus a blend of both high and low technology.

For instance, Mr. Potato Head is coming in an Easter edition. The light bulb has been replaced with a heating element in the E-Z Bake Oven, and SpongeBob Squarepants has a Monopoly set to call his own.

The company is celebrating two birthdays as well. Play-doh is 50 years old and the venerable card game Rooke has reached the century mark.

Plus the company has answered the prayers of every girl who wanted a pony but couldn’t with Butterscotch.

Butterscotch” is a new member of the company’s Furreal Friends line, explained Patricia Riso, the vice president of public relations for Hasbro Games. Unlike the other electronic plush toys in the brand, Butterscotch is big – about one third the size of a real pony. It features moving eyes, ears and head, soft fur coat and a swishing tail as well as the ability for her to “feel” when she is being groomed. She will whinny or snort her approval. Children can even “feed” her and she will support up to 200 pounds.

Butterscotch runs on batteries and will be available this fall at a suggested price of $299.99.

The best part of Butterscotch is there is nothing to clean up.

Riso noted the company believes that “tween” girls – those ages between 10 and 13 – has been under-served in the game world and the company developed several new products for them.

That’s So Raven is a licensed board game from the popular Disney Channel television series in Raven herself gives advice.

Designer’s World is a video game that allows the players to create their own fashions, select their models and present a fashion show. They also have to face the critics!

Although not just aimed at tweens, the new “Twister Dance DVD” is designed to replicate video arcade dancing games. Players try to re-create the dance steps they see on the DVD on a mat. The game gets kids up and active, Riso said.

The new Twister game requires good memory skills, as does the new version of the electronic favorite Simon. Simon Trickster just doesn’t require players to repeat a musical sequence. It will change the rules of the game as play goes along.

Cosmic Catch is an electronic catching game in which the ball tells you to whom it should be thrown.

The long-time board and dice game Yahtzee has also seen a big change with a new edition, Yahtzee Turbo.

The goal of these changes is to create games with “faster, more robust game play,” Riso explained. Another example of a high-tech overhaul is that Clue now has a DVD edition that provides visual clues.

Hasbro Games is the largest producers of puzzles in the world, Riso said, and the company is introducing a new division that will place puzzle-making kiosks in amusement parks and malls across the country. An adult or child can select one of several backgrounds, sit for a digital photograph and then two minutes later have a personalized puzzle. The company expects to roll out 50 of the kiosks in the first year of the program.

There is now both a junior and adult line of Quizzles, puzzles that combine a quiz with a puzzle challenge and additions to the company’s three-dimensional puzzles of great buildings.

For the generation lost in the 1980s, there will be a new edition of Trivial Pursuit with four collectable‘80s tokens – The Trapper Keeper, Compact Disc, Care Bear, and Rubik Cub – as well as 2,400 questions about the decade.

Omniglow

The West Springfield-based world leader in glow stick technology has come to the Toy Fair in past years with novelties that center around several times of the year – Halloween and Fourth of July – as well as some items designed for parties.

This year, though, the company’s line has changed dramatically, Randy Weinstein, executive director of Omniparty, explained that the acquisition of a party goods company.

Weinstein was brought in to develop a new product line that would combine the assets of both companies. The result is a line of party goods and novelties that are “now more everyday,” he said.

Now along with the company’s glow cups, leis, jewelry, necklaces, and sticks are balloons, candles and novelty packs.

The glow technology has been added to such new products as congratulation ribbons. Weinstein said the new items feature “spot glow” – the liquid glow technology in a non-glass casing. The spot glow technology is also used in a line of light-up lollipops as well.

Weinstein said the company also coordinated its packaging for a more uniform look.

The company was demonstrating two items that are not yet on sale at the Fair as well. Weinstein pointed a plastic gun in the air and with a pull of a trigger there was an explosion of confetti that flat through the air. He said the gun uses cartridges of confetti that consumers will be able to buy.

The other product, which will be on say in 2007, is glow in the dark bubbles. Children will be able to blow bubbles that they can see in a darkened room. Weinstein said that the bubble liquid is non-toxic and non-staining.

Sweet Cred

Ira Leemon, the chairman of Omniglow, is also heading up a separate new business from Omniglow’s West Springfield location. Leemon is now the American distributor for a line of candy and toys from Great Britain called Sweet Cred.

Stephanie Lepsch, the operations officer of the new business, explained that Sweet Cred – a play on the phrase “street credibility” – packages toys and candy together at an affordable price point. She said the thrust of the distribution would be convenience stores.

The Sweet Cred brand features a variety of toy and candy combinations. Lepsch demonstrated one in which a tube of candy is topped by a small remote car complete with batteries. It will retail for $2.99.

Jackpot Bags are the company’s more expensive item. These contain toys and candy centered on a play theme and there is a line for girls and another for boys. They will sell for $4.99.

Another item is Wristlickers, a snap-on bracelet with a lollipop-style hard candy under a plastic dome. The dome protects the candy in between licks and once the candy is eaten there is a light than can be turned on for additional play value.

Western Massachusetts inspirations

Eric Carle, the children’s book artist whose museum is in Amherst, was fairly prominent at the Toy Fair with seven different companies carrying his books, games and toys.

Dr. Seuss was also represented with a number of products including a line of hats from Elope. The new hats include a Oh The Places You Will Go inspired graduation mortarboard and several hats featuring Horton the elephant.

Springfield’s own GeeBee racing planes from the 1930s are the subject of detailed wooden models from Toys Models Corporation. The mahogany planes are hand-carved in the Philippines and the company was offering two different GeeBees in its current catalog.

A major pleasure, an interesting import and something very, very bad are featured in this week’s DVD column.

The Dick Cavett Show: Comic Legends

This themed collection from the 1970s Dick Cavett Show is my favorite so far because it features Cavett interviewing some of the most significant comics of the last century. They include Groucho Marx, Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Woody Allen, Bill Cosby and Jack Benny.

The strength of Cavett’s interviewing style comes out with these shows. Cavett is clearly a fan, a colleague – he wrote and performed comedy before his talk show – and generally noisy. He switches gears quite often with his guests. At one point they may be doing schtick which he encourages, but then he will lead them someplace more serious and more interesting.

And Cavett had the daring to devote his 90 minutes to a single guest, something his peers at the time didn’t want to do. The result was these programs transcended the normal talk show and became more of a special event.

His program with Bob Hope is a great example. Hope was the smoothest most professional figure in show business. He was a veteran interview subject who knew what to say to sell whatever project he was promoting. With Cavett, though, he actually relaxed a bit and viewers saw more of the “real” Bob Hope.

As a Marx Brothers fan, the shows with Groucho are particularly fun. These are the programs in which Cavett gives up the reins a bit and allows Groucho to dominate and drive the conversation. Since Groucho was still mentally sharp, these shows are a treat. Groucho’s rendition of the song “Father’s Day” is worth the price of the set alone.

This is great stuff with interesting introductions that Cavett recently taped.

For more information, log onto www.shoutfactory.com.

The Jolly Boys Last Stand

Fantasy film fans know of actor Andy Serkis because of his performance as Gollem in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and his CGI modeling for the title character in King Kong.

Now they will actually get the chance to see him without make-up in this low budget British comedy that was made in 2000 and just now coming to this shore.
Director and writer Christopher Payne’s comedy looks at a soccer club named the Jolly Boys and how the members’ way of life is being threatened by its leader’s decision (Serkis) to get married and settle down.

Part improvised, part scripted and filmed apparently in locations without permission, this film cost about $11,000. Although it received good reviews, it didn’t get widespread release in Great Britain and is now finding an audience through its DVD release.

I liked the film. It mines a pretty familiar vein – man-children being forced to come of age – but unlike Hollywood movies of the same genre, this movie’s mock documentary approach lends a realism that adds to the humor, as well as the pathetic quality of grown men hitting strangers with large fish for laughs.

For more information, log onto www.spiritlevelfilms.com.

Terror in the Tropics

Now, this is a difficult review to write. It’s tough to knock amateurs who think they’ve turned out a technically competent, clever little movie. Terror in the Tropics, despite its best intentions is a difficult film to watch.

Writer and director A. Susan Svehla took the format of the Carl Reiner/Steve Martin comedy Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid of mixing old footage with new footage. Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid succeeded because of a witty script and a seamless technical blending of the new and old material.

Terror in the Tropics, on the other hand, has an unnecessarily convoluted script that ultimately makes little sense and the technical aspects are lacking. Svehla takes movies featuring Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff and Lon Chaney, Jr. and weaves that footage around a story involving a reading of a will – sort of.

Because the stock footage comes from different films of varying conditions, the older footage sticks out like a sore thumb. Svehla uses Lugosi footage the most and we get to see Lugosi at different times of his life, although that doesn’t match the context of the film.

Svehla also uses a significant chunk of footage from The Most Dangerous Game but did little to match the hair and costumes of her actors to those in the older footage.

The performances of her cast vary widely. Some seem to know what they’re doing, while others blow their lines on camera.

In the extras, we learn that the film was only supposed to be shot in one day, but shooting extended to four, and that Svehla’s intent was to replicate the cheesiness of the low-budget horror shows of the 1930s and ’40s. That’s a tricky thing to do and she doesn’t succeed.

Now if you want to see a truly funny homage to bad film making, check out The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra.

I understand that a sequel has been planned. I hope they reconsider or actually try to do something good.

For more information, log onto www.oldies.com.

Perhaps one of the worst things that can happen to a writer is for someone to have beaten him or her to the punch.

You have an idea, you do research and then you find out that someone else has published material on the same subject.

It’s happened twice to me and both times it left a mark.

I write the following in the spirit of full disclosure before I critique the new book The Tom Tyler Story.

I became seriously interested in film in junior high school when I was drawn to the very films from which my well-meaning mother had shielded me ¬– horror movies. Through late night horror movie shows on local television, I discovered, the great gods of classic horror Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. My interest in film snowballed when I would watch Karloff in a non-horror film and find other actors I liked. I read every movie magazine I could find, but especially Famous Monsters of Filmland and the obscure Larry Ivie’s Monsters and Heroes. I bought edited and excerpted 8mm versions of classic Hollywood to watch over and over at home.

My favorite in the collection was an edited version of the first chapter of The Adventures of Captain Marvel. I had seen serials on television and had even seen a chapter or two of the 1943 Batman serial as part of my own Saturday matinees.

But these viewing experiences hadn’t prepared me for what the sepia image on my home screen gave me. The version I had may have been missing a soundtrack and eight or so minute of footage, but little of the sense of wonder of the 1941 Republic Studios production was gone.

Who was this guy who played Captain Marvel? Oh, my God, he’s the one who played Kharis in one of the mummy movies! And Monsters and Heroes said he was also a cowboy star.

As my interest in film grew, so did my interest in this cowboy actor named Tom Tyler who wasn’t just a cowboy actor. As I learned more I found a story that was truly American – ¬the son of immigrants who left behind the automobile plants of Detroit to follow a dream of stardom in the movies; a man who bucked the odds and succeeded where so many failed.
Tyler, like so many other cowboy heroes could have drifted into obscurity once his moment in the spotlight had ended, but he continued acting. Despite a crippling disease that changed his appearance, Tyler held onto the dream.

The story hooked me way back in 1972.

I rented as many of his films I could afford from non-theatrical firms. I tracked down a boyhood friend and corresponded with his sister. I asked a number of people about him from “Big” Jim Pierce to Buster Crabbe to Col. Tim McCoy.
Over the years, I collected his films on video, bought stills and lobby cards and chipped away at the idea of writing something in depth on the man and his unique career.

No other B-western star did what Tyler did, other than Bob Steele. Tyler was able to break out of the sagebrush ghetto to appear in supporting roles in major “A” productions.

With the revolution of e publishing, books on demand and specialty publishing I had contacted one publisher with the idea of a Tyler book in 2005. Just my luck, though, that someone else had contacted Tyler’s relatives before I did and had secured their cooperation for a book.

The Tom Tyler Story by Mike Chapman with Bobby Copeland is a well-intentioned look at Tyler’s life and career. It succeeds in bringing to light the fact that Tyler suffered from sclerodema a crippling disease that tightens and hardens the skin. This serious ailment accounts for the dramatic change in Tyler’s looks about 1949.

The book also covers his weight-lifting career in a fair amount of depth and carries a number of family photos including several with his wife Jeanne Martel.

Where the book does not succeed is placing Tyler’s film career into its proper context. For example, there is little effort to explain the significant career fall Tyler suffered when he was dropped from F.B.O. when it was transformed into RKO.

The authors were unaware that Tyler actually wanted to change his stage name in order to start out fresh in non-Western roles.

Tyler was actually actively considered by the company bankrolling F.W. Murnau’s Tabu as the lead for that picture.

The book never explains just how lousy so many of Tyler’s B-westerns were and why and how this didn’t do his career any good. Nor does it address the better ones adequately.

I got the sense that the authors hadn’t seen many of his films. Fore instance, they wrote that the serial Phantom of the Air is a “lost” film. It isn’t. Clancy of the Mounted and Jungle Mystery apparently are missing.

Tyler’s voice is described at one point as being “high and a bit squeaky at times.” There was nothing high or squeaky about Tyler’s voice. A number of writers have noted his effectiveness in playing villains because in part due to his piercing eyes and a shadow, ominous voice.

The book relies far too heavily on Don Miler’s Hollywood’s Corral, Alan Barbour’s The Thrill of it All and Days of Thrills and Adventures and other books on westerns and serials and too little original research. For western or serial fans these frequent references to books that are probably in their libraries are a little annoying.

There are still too many unanswered questions about Tyler. I wonder what he did to support himself when he just doing a handful or roles each year in the mid-late 1940s. What was the bond between John Ford and Tyler? In the early 1950s when Tyler made appearances on TV westerns was he cast because people were trying to help him out?

I caught a Hedda Hopper Hollywood short one night on TCM. In it, the gossip columnist was taking the viewer around to Hollywood nightspots. At one club, Tyler was at the same table as Desi Arnez! The two were laughing it up. Was it for the camera or were they friends?

The best part of doing research is finding answers to questions. The worst thing is the list of questions one still has at the end of the day.

Perhaps there’s still room for another book on Tyler.

I received a letter at work from Edward J. Spellacy Jr., of East Longmeadow and wanted to share it with you..

“I'm writing to say that, as a member of the media in a free society, you have a RESPONSIBILITY to publish the controversial cartoons on Islamofascism.

“I can understand the indignation of having your religion, and your religious leaders, portrayed in unflattering, even blasphemous, ways by secularists in the mainstream media. It happens to Christians ALL THE TIME in America and Europe.

“But indignation is NEVER an excuse for violence. And threats of violence need to be resisted in free nations. And the best form of resistance to Islamofascist threats here? PUBLISH THE CARTOONS.

“As freedom-loving people, we need to resist the Islamofascists on ALL fronts. In solidarity with the people of free Europe and in support of the concept of freedom of the press, you need to PUBLISH the Danish cartoons.

“Thank you.”

While I appreciate Mr. Spellacy’s concerns, I’m not going to reproduce the cartoons here and these are my reasons:

• I don’t believe that sacred religious figures such as the Prophet Muhammad should be the subjects of such type of criticism. That includes Jesus, Buddha, the Hindu gods, etc.

Now, contemporary human beings acting in the name of faith are completely fair game for cartoons. Ministers, priests, and rabbis who are in the news are fodder for the opinion mill.

• I believe the Danish newspapers were irresponsible in publishing something any decent newspaper person would have understood had a good chance of inciting violence. If news reports are correct there has been one death associated with the violence the cartoons caused. That is a tragedy. The message of the cartoons could have been portrayed in a different but less offensive way.

• The audience for our four weeklies includes American Muslims who are not in support of the terrorists who kill in the name of religion. There is no reason to publish the cartoons locally. They provide no relevant commentary. They would only insult good and loyal citizens and there is no reason to do that.

I support freedom of speech, but I also support common sense.