Tales from the Corners

Our little three-minute film productions were increasing as 1980 began. Stunted Man is one of the first of those "productions." I remember being excited about "shooting on location" -- away from our immediate neighborhood. We chose to film this one at a nearby drugstore that had a safe, an integral part of this film's story. Since my dad served as a pharmacist at that location in the late 1970s, I knew it was the place to film Stunted Man . Stunted Man is a simple story that Dan came up with during our seventh grade winter break: a superhero goes after a thief who raids the drugstore's safe. Of course, Stunted Man comes to the rescue. About two years before this film was shot, my father was held up in this very Revco store. The thieves ordered him to open up the store's safe -- not the same one shown in this film. I think that element of the story was my suggestion. Dan came up with Stunted Man's outfit,which in this film, is his late '70s ...

What does this entry have to do with travel? Plenty! As 12 and 13-year-olds, my then-filmmaking buddy Danny and I made this movie about traveling in space. December 2009 marks the 30th anniversary of our short film, "Star Lords." This was our first attempt at sci-fi filmed a few months before I purchased a Bell and Howell Soundstar camera -- which would have made a lot more sense with this film since we had an actual script. Using Danny's silent Bell and Howell camera, we were forced to make our own subtitles by actually holding them. "Star Lords" was shot in Danny's basement mainly on a ping-pong table. Sheet metal was used for some of the props. As with some of my videos, the files uploaded seemed to be a bit strange. I have a clearer version of this on my Vimeo channel: http://www.vimeo.com/3356225 Look for more 30th anniversary commentaries on this blog --just to break things up.