Churchly Pron Video Caps

I learned a bunch of new video editing stuff and have been copying old
analog SubGenius video masters, such as they are, to digital for
safekeeping, such as it is. The video still frame grabbing capabilities
are much better these days than what I was used to before I upgraded.

It was about ten years ago that we made this 1 minute "music video"
"SubGenius ad" for MTV for $17,000.

I still have the Ken-headed GI Joe that is seen in this frame, shot in
my kitchen. I knew Ray harryhausen, and I, sir, am no Ray Harryhausen.

L 2 R foreground: Will O'Dobbs, Sivet Stang, Popess Cecelia, El Diablo

Lab coats borrowed from the DEA, no shit

3
These girls looked so fucking good all body-painted red and with devil
horns, I couldn't hardly believe it.

A tall skinny woman was the only person who properly fit into the
rather narrow Dobbshead mask, which was made from the Hellswami
Satellite Weavers Dobbs life-bust, a sculpture not intended especially
for mask making.

The tall skinny woman could not see out of the mask and had to teeter
blind atop that pyramid of devils.

Show biz.

4
The actress was someone the cameraman, Bert Guthrie, knew. Bert also
shot "LET'S VISIT THE WORLD OF THE FUTURE" and is the Bert refered to
in pamphlet #1 regarding dreams of giant face zits bursting open or
something.

Although you can't tell it here, this shot was all set up with the
cameras and actors tilted at a 45 degree angle, so that the JUGGLER in
the BACKGROUND would subliminally be seen all out of gravity kilter. We
did this in 3 of the shots, making backgrounds defy gravity (by jacking
with the camera and foreground tilt).

DW Griffith level camera antics, in other words.

5
Corn starch aka oobleck is demonstrated as a Slack Manifestation in
this impressionistic miniature shot. St. Joe Reilly created the
rotating barrel background road, which was like the Dobbs bust hung
upside down in my kitchen. The camera likewise was upside down so that
in the final shot the dripping shit appeared to be blowing up over
Dobbs' face, rather than being dribbled onto his upside down chin by me
on a ladder, as it really happened. We did three takes, and in one, a
tree fell off -- it appears to levitate in the final version which we
used in other SubG video projection loops.

Cornstarch as a psychotool was discovered by Princess Wei R. Doe -- she
was demonstrating it at Starwood in 1990 when I first met her.

6
Here we see the ruins of the old Smith family. L2R -- Sivet Stang,
someone else, me, Ydnax Stang. Ydnax is the same kid seen in High
Weirdness. The kids are grown ups now. The former Mrs. Stang no longer
has to live in this rubble.

Joe Reilly of Dallas did the foreground miniatures of the skeleton,
mailbox, car and telephone pole, and supplied the smoke cakes for the
Fort Worth wrecked stockyards location. DNA Productions of Dallas
supplied the matte-painting like background buildings.

7
The comedian from Dallas known as "Reverend Bob" played the Everyman.
People in Dallas used to confuse his popular "Rev. Bob" comedy club
schtick with our one true religion, and I thought having him play the
hapless SubGenius bound under Con slavery would confuse the issue even
further.

--
8
My son Ydnax (now in his 20s and a quirky film-maker in his own
unright) is in the foreground. He and the other 2 kids are holding onto
chains offscreen so that they can stand at a 45 degree tilt, like the
camera and tripod are set -- thus the background Marching Zombies
appear to be moving against gravity.

A lot of fucking trouble to go to for something that lasts a half a
second, but, that's commercials.

I used to work on REAL filmed commercials, local ones, when I was a
young man. I was the assistant cameraman, assistant gaffer, assistant
sound man and ass't grip, all at once. Century Studios, under the late
SF "Brownie" Brownrigg. (Director of "Don't Look In the Basement") We
had dexedrine in them days, bags of it. In my 20s. Not when we were
doing the MTV thing in the 90s. I was a good boy by then. Thanks to my
fucked up liver.

Popess Lilith is somewhere in the background of these shots, also Rev.
Zafod, and Trixter and Cecelia of Weeping Cyclops. Some of our lurkers
might remember the fine Weeping Cyclops Dobbsware products.

9
Winged Clock and Dagger original by Robert Williams (the one who's a
famous painter now), logo text by St. Kenneth Huey, computer animation
by Ken Goff.

10
St. Joe Reilly drew the skull from my stick-figure design in this
cross-dissolve that shows a "Pink" (played by a local Dallas male model
who danced at male strip joints) in time lapse decay.

11
You would think that getting to star in and direct an MTV "video" would
make one feel like a god, but I only felt like more of a poebucker
yeoman craftsman while we were struggling to finish this damn thing on
a shoestring and some snot. I wasn't just the director, I was also the
production manager, which is actually a much much more demanding job.
Sort of like being a contractor.

The make up man, David White, died in a car wreck a year after the
shoot. While we were working he intimated to me that, working as a make
up man in commercial and movie shoots, and being hetero, he got more
Conspiracy style made-up model pussy than he ever would have dreamed
possible. I believed him. He was just a regular guy, but when you work
real real close to a person's face they tend to fixate on you. (I
worked with a cute Russian make up girl once, that's how I know).

--
12
Rev Bob tries to finish the spreadsheet while the 3 NHGH masks look
down. Joe Reilly and I codesigned the NHGH mask. It was my idea
originally to have a Smile Face brought into physical existence, like a
real live primate, but Joe was the one who sculpted the actual form and
made the mask molds. I believe he can STILL make these.

The NHGH on the right is played by Larry Lankford, who ran the huge
Dallas Fantasy Fair sci fi and comics coventions for a decade. Those
conventions are where I first met such worthies as Popess Lilith,
Sister Decadence, and Will O'Dobbs.

13
I have several rendered this 1-minute movie into several formats:
Quicktime MOV, RealMedia, and MPEG. I'm gonna post both my biggest MOV
version and my RM version.

Ya'll SugDeemies let me know if you CAN'T view these fine video
compressions. 'Cause I have a MIGHTY SHIT-LOAD MORE of this kind of
stuff, and, even better, some Abbott and Costello, so, I am wanting to
know which is generally most agreeable these days to the a-b-s-fux:
Quicktime, or RM, or what, and how.

14
Please let me know if ya'll are "getting" these. Tell me if you like RM
or MOV better. I could make 'em into MPEGs also. I want to stay down to
file sizes of under 10 mb, and 3 minute clips. I figure, heck, I
download 5 mb music files all the time, and the occasional 10 mb porno
or sickness movie. But that's only since I got cable.

Edfred posted a 65 mb MPG video which I not only got fine, but I have
since blown it up to DV and given it a new soundtrack -- it was "Bob"
Vs the Zombies but now it's "Planet X or Bust" with El Queso All Stars
music. It came out GREAT and I was wanted to post the 15 mb RM version
-- but I wanted to make sure the Windows decks are getting my
Mac-originated multimedia okay.

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Original file name: MTV-Blowup Comments.txt - converted on Friday, 13 June 2003, 22:42