Thanks to Moira for pointing this out in the comments section in the previous post. I'd heard of Rustboy before (I think the guy behind it - Brian Taylor - may even be a friend of a friend of a friend, but I could never remember the projects title to look it up and check). Anyway, the site's got all sorts of loveliness, including concept art, test animations and this gorgeous title sequence. Title sequences, by the way, are developing into an artform all of their own, with the weird effect that a number of crappy horror film now have opening credits utterly unrelated to, and on every level superior to, the films themselves (see House on Haunted Hill*).
House of Wax has the perfect trailer - lots of jumps and scares, a genuinely creepy idea and with enough glimpses of the main characters to gently suggest there's absolutely no need to see the actual film).
I always wanted to look at Dave McKean's credit sequence for Neverwhere again to see if it's as beautiful as I remember it (all creeping ivy and ghostly faces, like a moving Sandman cover) but could never find it on its own as an mpeg, If anyone's seen it (or has the faintest idea what I'm talking about) please let me know.
People, spare rooms, laptops, cool CGI films. I really do think this might be the future.
*Or rather, don't.
11 comments:
This looks wonderful. I am much happier with animation than puppets. In fact puppets, and masks, freak me out a bit. It's the dead unmoving eyes.
One of the most scary films I have ever seen is called 'Dead of Night'and involves a ventiloquist's dummy being not nice at all to Michael Redgrave.
I really, really want to see that. It was on at the local indie cinema (la di da), but I'm fairly sure I've missed it now.
I love Michael Redgrave, on top of everything else (don't misinterpret that sentence, amusing though it may be; I don't have the energy).
Humph.
"Dead Of Night". I remember that. It was one of the very first Anthology films. A group of people find themselves invited to a house for no reason, and try and fathom things out, telling each other stories : one of which turns out to be the story of the vent act. That was later used as the basis of the film "Magic".
It was all done in tirribly tirribly Rank charm-school accents.
Ah, I was wondering if it was connected to 'Magic' in some way. Although I find A. Hopkins' flat dead eyes creepier than any puppets', which is possibly why he got the part.
The ventriloquist's story in 'Dead of Night'was the inspiration for 'Magic', but that was rubbish. The original is fantastic.
And I have never been a great fan of Anthony H, though he has an impressive voice. He seems to be at his best when playing ruthless beasts; Hannibal Lecter and that newspaper proprietor figure in David Hare's 'Pravda' at the NT. The flat dead eyes come in very useful then.
James, are you referring to the TV series of Neverwhere? In which case do you mean to say you don't have it on tape...?
Tragically, I don't. I must get round to purchasing it. But I really wanted to be able to put the intro sequence on my laptop, so I could watch it very slowly and take in all the details.
Depending on your DVD capabilities, I know there's a Region 1 version knocking about at the usual places. Otherwise I might be able to help you out with an analogue edition. Will have to check...
Well I'm reduced to looking up "viking puns" on the internet, which is maybe a sign I should Finnish.
one of my all-time favorite horror films is "The Haunting", which I found was filmed in a house not far from where I come from, in Staffordshire. The "horror" comes from the suggestivity of the sound effects, not from any visual effects. It had me climbing the walls in terror when I was 10.
It's brilliantly done, far better than the expensive remake, which totally missed the point that the things you can't see are far more horrible than the ones you can, however many computer graphic workstations you have at your disposal.
Rustboy looks great. Reminds me of Tim Burton's wonderful Stainboy flash animations from a few years back. Anyone else remember them?
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