The EDGAR ALLAN POE Experience - The Raven Resurrected

I have always been a big fan of LOTTE REINIGER, the famous German Animator ( She created the FIRST animated feature film...a decade before Walt Disney's SNOW WHITE!) PRINCE ACHMED. Look it up on YouTube, you will be Amazed!

Her technique of "Shadow Animation" is both simple, primative and Highly Innovative. Also a very pure artist's medium which I, as an individualist find very appealing.
 PRINCE ACHMED took 3 Years to Complete!

Anyway, I thought that my treatment of THE RAVEN might work well with this technique. And so in 2009 I set about trying to figure out just how to make a film that would emulate  the Shadow Animation Style which she had created in the 1920's. These images show how I did this and if you want a more in-depth look visit:

http://www.youtube.com/user/CinefexFilms

and watch the documentary  OUT OF THE SHOEBOX which includes a section on the system I created to make THE RAVEN and Restore  DRACULA MUST BE DESTROYED!  Our final film effort.

The EDGAR ALLAN POE Experience - The Raven

OK. So, MARK EVAN WALKER and I made THE TELL-TALE HEART as our "Term Paper" for our combined History/English Class at R.L. Paschal high School in 1973. It turned out so well that we thought it might be a good idea to film  2  other POE works in the same style
 ( Silent,  Black & White  and with Shock Color Inserts) that could be combined to form a Trilogy Feature Film.

I wrote a treatment for a 5 minute adaptation of THE RAVEN, again taking place entirely within the mind of the protagonist ( so that we didn't have to find a Real raven! ) and we enlisted our co-workers from CASA MANANA, Michael Barrett and Daphne Wyche to portray POE and LENORE.

We shot the whole thing in Mark's Father's Office, which had been the office of Inspector White in DRACULA MADE ME DO IT! our first film effort in 1971, with the addition of a false "window" set piece through which the title bird made it's appearance and through which our unfortunate protagonist made his final exit at the end of the film.

For a central scene in the film we all drove to Dallas to shoot in Mark's cousin's house which featured a dramatic circular staircase.

The final shot in color was filmed by our friend RALPH ARCHENHOLD who possessed a very fine camera with a Slow-Motion feature. I did the "stunt" work of flying headfirst through the fake window, and there were several cuts of  Michael Barrett "falling" with glistening shards of glass suspended all around him...one of which ends up severing his jugular vein as he lands for a nice juicy horror close-up   and    fade out!

I describe all of this in detail because...this is the only one of our fims which NO LONGER EXISTS! The one and only print has gone missing and is probably lost forever.

In all fairness, although we spent triple the effort on this short film than we had on  THE TELL-TALE HEART, it was not one of our better efforts and neither Mark nor I were particularly happy with it as it turned out. We made some preliminary plans to film  THE BLACK CAT with other co-workers of ours from the theatre, but they never came to fruition and the whole project fell apart as we graduated from High School and went our separate ways into college.

Fast forward 35 years....to the images you see above.......

The EDGAR ALLAN POE Experience - The TELL TALE HEART final

I must admit, even though my own performance in  THE TELL-TALE HEART leaves somthing to be desired ( I do have those amazing "Eyes" which all film actors must possess in order for the camera to be in "Love" with you,   9/10ths of all film acting is through the Eyes)...our finished film is quite impressive even by today's standards.

Shot over 3 consecutive Saturdays, and on silent Super 8 mm film, with no budget and only a reel to reel taped "soundtrack" which we just barely completed prior to the first showing of the film, I think we aced this one. We all got an A at least for our efforts so.... well done!

We weren't quite through with Mr. POE just yet.......and that story spans another 30 years in all.....

Once again, if you would like to see this and the other films we made in high school + documentaries on the making and restoration of the films visit:
http://www.youtube.com/user/CinefexFilms

The EDGAR ALLAN POE Experience - THE TELL-TALE HEART 2

The TELL-TALE HEART was shot on Kodak ASA 400 Film. This Super 8 mm stock was very light sensitive and allowed us to film in low light ( some shots are even lit  ONLY  by candlight ). We had previously been bound to daylight photography or the dreaded bank of Floodlights! Not condusive to an atmospheric horror film at all.

We actually found  Black & White filmstock and shot the entire film this way to emulate the old silents and Universal Horror Films.

The one exception to this was our shock "Color Sequence" at the mid-point when the OLD MAN's body is dismembered and secreted under the floor boards of the house.

 As the knife descends and the blood drips into the "tub which caught all!" the film suddenly and un-nervingly switched to full color for 2 minutes, ending on the reflection of the LUNATIC in the tub of blood before wiping back to B & W for the finale.

There have been countless versions of this story filmed, but to date no other has used this simple device to draw the audience inside the mind of the character so horrifically. I also should mention our use of a multi-faceted glass paperweight, held against the camera lens and rotated by hand, to create the swirling "Eyes" during the madness sequences. I'm not sure if I have ever seen anything so chilling, even in the German Expressionist Cinema we were trying to emulate.

MARK EVAN WALKER, then all of 16 years old, directed & edited this little film with the skill and nuance of the Masters. His "Eye" was and still is...unequaled.....

The EDGAR ALLAN POE Experience - TELL-TALE HEART 1

So, after my play THE BELLS had been produced and foisted upon the unsuspecting public....

MARK EVAN WALKER and I found ourselves thrust into an almost communal dual History/English class called "American Culture and Thought"... a fancy advanced class for brainy kids into books and history and stuff...
We studied history in relation to the works of fiction which eminated from those times AND we were encouraged to present our "term papers' in creative ways. Marks and I chose FILM as we had been hot on that track since we made our first feature  DRACULA MADE ME DO IT!  in 1971.

Our 15 minute silent film of    EDGAR ALLAN POE'S   THE TELL-TALE HEART   was the culmination of our work as filmmakers...we still consider it our best work ever.

These frame grabs from the actual film will attest to our heightened sense of our place as young artists, in tribute to the great silent directors of 50 years previous whom we had been studying.

Yes, that is MARK as the  OLD MAN  whose "Hideous Eye" is reflected in the soup bowl...and Myself as the poor tortured  LUNATIC  with a murderous facination for "The Eye"!.....

If you care to gander at our film of   THE TELL-TALE HEART, just visit at
http://www.youtube.com/user/CinefexFilms

Where you can peruse this and the other films we shot on 8mm film back in the day.

The EDGAR ALLAN POE Experience - THE BELLS final

It is so strange to review these photos and materials from 40 years ago now.

Although my play could certainly have been better than it was, the cast of young actors really gave it their all in rehearsal and production and I personally learned a LOT about what would and would not play to an audience.

The idea of using masks when the real life characters in POE'S life assumed the personas of the characters in his stories and poems was something I had studied in drama classes and may have been the chief reason my play was chosen. There had never been another student written work performed at my High School up until then.

 I and my good friend MARK EVAN WALKER, who designed this production, soon gained a reputation as somewhat "maverick" students with the shows and films we produced over the next 4 years......

The EDGAR ALLAN POE Experience - THE BELLS

Around the same time I was beginning my professional career at CASA MANANA in 1973 I was still in high school and I also wrote my first play THE BELLS which was a sort of psychodrama taking place within the mind of EDGAR ALLAN POE. I had been doing quite a bit of research on Poe, and the parallels between his life and his work seemed very interesting to my 16 year old manchild brain.

The play is pretty dreadful, but it was chosen to be included in an evening of one-act's to be performed for the public by our drama club, THE VAGABOND PLAYERS of R. L. PASCHAL HIGH SCHOOL in Fort Worth, Texas. I was allowed to direct it myself, and so I had my first taste of staging my own adaptations, which would continue  with different companies for the next 20 years.

I staged the publicity photos which appear above, and although the faces are quite young I think the overall effect looks very professional for a High School play.