BERMUDA TRIANGLE
(1981)
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Unfinished animation model awaiting
painting and final detailing.
Camera rig.
Miniature ship graveyard set.
Note camera rig on right side of image.
Finished animation model resting on a
shelf at Wisdom Manufacturing.
THE ASTRO-LINER
Your ticket to the Bermuda Triangle.
Astro-Liner blueprints.
PLOT
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Your sister ship, the Poseidon is lost somewhere in the vicinity of the Bermuda Triangle. Your mission is to locate her and bring her back!!! |
| DIRECTOR: | John Davis |
| ANIMATOR: | John Davis |
| CREATURE CONSTRUCTION: | Stanley M. Strawn |
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By Stanley M. Strawn It was around 1980 so I would have been 21 or 22 years old and deeply under Ray Harryhausen's spell. Barely surviving and living in a one bedroom apartment in Englewood Colorado (bastion of special effects film opportunities) with my new bride and without a even a ride. I had met a fellow named Kevin Atkins at a sci-fi convention, he was doing lectures on Special FX and worked at the Denver Planetarium. Kevin introduced me to John Davis who brought me into a T. V. commercial job where we animated wine bottles for a Liquor store ad. As we worked he told me about the Astro-liner films he was working on for Wisdom manufacturing (Located in Sterling Colorado). And that they were going to do a new one where they'd fly down to a prehistoric planet and buzz a T-Rex. Cool! I immediately told him I could build the Stop Motion model. I started my research at the Natural History museum and looking at Charles R. Knight drawing books. I'd never made a Stop Motion model with a ball & socket armature before, so I assembled some rag tag tools and started experimenting with hardware store stuff. I finally came up with threaded brass balls that are made for light fixtures, and brass hinges for the sleeves. I cut the hinges apart (at the vice that was clamped to our kitchen table! No garage or basement, you see). One day I ran down to the gas station to call John (we didn't even have a phone!) to tell him what I'd been doing and to ask when we'd be starting on the film. BAD NEWS; he said they'd dropped the idea (I think because the guys in California where doing "Monster Planet"). And they'd changed the idea to an underwater thing where there'd be no Stop Motion monster but maybe a hand puppet sea serpent that would briefly poke it's head out of some rocks and growl at the space-ship-sub thing. So I let him know how bummed I was and "couldn't they use a Stop Motion sea monster?" I told him I'd sculpt a clay prototype and send a picture for consideration. I walked back home in a March snow storm depressed but with still a glimmer of hope. I went right to work, sent the pictures, they loved it and I got the job! I cast the creature in Hydro-stone, But without the head, hands, fins or gills (they seemed too complicated to mold at the time). I found the address for R&D latex in a Cinemagic Mag. I built the armature to the wrist joints and to where the neck would attach. This, arms, shoulders and neck base where ball & socket, but I just twisted some copper (plastic coated) wire for the length of it's eel like body. The design was based on the Frank Frazetta painting with the skin diver at the treasure chest. My wife and I found an electric mixer at a thrift store, and we mixed up the foam and spooned it into the two halves of the mold (I'd already carefully aligned the armature inside). Well, we had a couple of failures. But once I got some info on separation material (1 part rubbing alcohol, 3 parts baby powder), we baked it again and we had a success! Next I added the rest of the neck and head and wrist-hand assemblies. I made the fingers with little wires and made some slush molds for the fins and gills. I just used regular liquid latex for these. I used the build-up method for the hands (webbed) and head. I found some fish eyes at a taxidermy place. For the teeth I used real shark teeth! There was a place a few blocks away that sold sea shells and nets and stuff (decorative). They had these little shark jaws hanging around so I bought one and boiled the cartilage away and glued the teeth into my critter. John Davis (who did the animation) said he cut his fingers on them, don't try this at home! Well, the monster was finally almost ready; a little paint and some extra texture on the creatures back (built up with latex and flour) and ready for John! They sent John to Hawaii where he filmed the crashing into the sea stuff. He built a rig out of a back pack and strapped it to his chest and filmed as he walked quickly towards the Pacific. I think Wisdom made or rented an underwater camera housing for the first shots underwater (real fish swimming around!) he did. Back in Golden Colorado (where Coors beer is made!) John had a great set in his basement built using cool rocks left over from the "Space Wars" Astro-liner films. To this he added some aquarium wrecked ship models that he dressed up with glue, tissue paper and paint to make them look more real. They had a track made for the camera and John built an incredible "snorkel lens'' out of p.c. pipe and little tiny mirrors to give things a larger wide angle look. He mounted his trusty Bolex to some other home made contraption that attached to the track that was marked incrementally and went to town. Using Creature from the Black lagoon as his guide for the monsters swimming stroke Mr. Davis brought my critter to life. The film was and maybe is still seen in amusement parks all over the world. And what was really great was the fact that the ride itself looked like a Jules Verne design! Well, that's the story... back to work on my latest dream "Big Trouble From Outer Space". |
All images © 1981 Wisdom Manufacturing, Inc.
Website design and graphics © 2005 Pharos Productions. All Rights Reserved.
