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ADAMSTAR PICTURES
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The Early Films: Pem-Day
The following are some of the many films and videos Mark Adams made while attending the Pembroke Hill School (formally the Pembroke-Country Day School)
The following are excerpts about his experiences making films while at Pem-Day (The Pembroke Country Day School) from his book TRULY INDEPENDENT FILMMAKING; “I can't remember a time when you were not interested in video/filmmaking. You are one of the rare people I know (perhaps the only) who seems to always have known what they wanted to do and that interest has not changed over time.” – Roger Kitterman
Now remember, this was 1982, and home video cameras were still considered brand new. VHS VCRs were introduced to the public as a new concept, providing the ability to not only record home movies, but also programs from broadcast television onto a videocassette. They had the big, bulky tube camera (bulky by today’s camcorder standards) that plugged into a portable VHS deck. During Christmas vacation of 1982 my father was able to check out the one and only camera from the Pembroke Country Day School, and I spent all of my time at home shooting some of the worst videos…but loving every minute of it. I would take the equipment over to Andy Battmer’s house and we would shoot comedy skits in his basement with his younger brother Brady and his friends. Since this was video we could play the footage back immediately. The only TV in the basement was a small black-and-white portable that would only play the video with no audio. (I assumed that it was an older TV that wasn’t made to accept a VCR input.) So, we essentially made silent black-and-white films, and we would shoot in this way not worrying about the sound, although I kept these earliest videos and, of course, they are in color and have their original audio. The Battmer basement turned out to be a perfect filming location, although Andy explained it as this, “It really isn’t a very good shooting studio, (laughs) but it was the ONLY shooting studio. And it worked well for our purposes.”
The earliest video that I have is a comedy called THE POOL GAME (1982) about a fight scene at a pool table after someone cheats, where one person would start to hit the other. We would cut while everyone froze in place, and start again with a ‘stunt man’ that looked completely different than the actor taking the punch, and cut back to the original actor back in the shot getting up. It was a good way to learn about editing and continuity, while making fun of all of those films and TV shows that couldn’t hide the obvious use of stunt men in action scenes. After other short comedies like CHANNEL 13 (1982) and a spoof of WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS (1982), we progressed to more advanced short films like horror film spoofs, such as CLASSIC HORROR (1982) and HALLOWEEN 27 (1982), where we would go back and add titles, sound effects and music. But ultimately we didn’t have a second VCR for editing, so we had to shoot it in chronological order and edit in camera. The record deck had audio and video dubbing buttons that allowed us to go back and change or add the music or sounds. We never wrote a script; we would just meet the day of the shoot and come up with the story, then make it up as we went along. These were some wonderful days of filmmaking, where creative energies were flowing and no one worried about making a mistake, and we would spend hours and hours shooting a video by brainstorming ideas and trying new things. We learned something new everyday, and had fun learning.
“(In CLASSIC HORROR and HALLOWEEN 27, we had) a lot of punches to the groin and things like that. Which is one of our trademark moves. Well, actually we learned it from Benny Hill. Actually that (HALLOWEEN 27) was when we made our first move out of the basement - that was a big step for us. Once we got out of this basement there was no stopping us. Our jokes were a little over the head of most people. The average audience member did not catch the hanger joke (in HALLOWEEN 27. Near the end of John Carpenter’s HALLOWEEN, Jamie Lee Curtis pokes Michael Myers in the eye with a wire hanger. As a spoof, a wooden hanger was thrown to Brady Battmer, but he was unable to pull it apart. So he just hit the killer, played by Andy Battmer, on the side of his head to knock him out. What actually made the joke funny was the fact that Brady really whacked Andy hard on the side of his head, and no acting was involved when the killer seem to stumble around in pain.) But I think it still worked, you know, we were going for the most sophisticated humor. I think it worked. I’m glad we did it. It was risky but it worked. (HALLOWEEN 27) was a prelude, a build up to THE UNKNOWN HORROR. All of these horror films were one step toward the final destination of THE UNKNOWN HORROR…that was sort of our crescendo.” – Andy Battmer
Next I wanted to try my hand at creating an original story with new characters. The best example of this was a serious attempt at a horror film called THE UNKNOWN HORROR (1983). Andy Battmer’s parents owned a farm in nearby Smithville, Missouri and we would spend many weekends there. The 10-minute horror film followed three lost hunters (Andy Battmer, Brady Battmer and Michael Lee) who find the empty farm and stay in the barn for the night. But there is an evil killer (Mark Adams) on the loose, who murders one of the hunters with a sickle and then hangs him in the basement. Another gets caught in a trap and is rescued by the third, shooting and killing the killer in the process. But they discover he isn’t dead at all, and can’t be killed. To my experienced director’s eye, to watch it now it’s not really an outstanding film, but I find some good moments. I used POV, or Point Of View shots, to create tension and mystery in a scene. I started to experiment with using sound, or the lack of it, as a way to draw the viewer into the story, and then scare them with a visual and audio burst. As a side note, the weekend we shot this horror film we originally started shooting a comedy called RAIDERS OF THE LOST SACRED CHEST SUPPOSEDLY HOLDING THE BROKEN PIECES OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS REPRESENTING TO THE HEBREWS THE PRESENCE OF GOD. (That’s the definition directly from the dictionary for the Ark, in case you didn’t figure it out...) Although we rewound the tape and recorded over this with the more original and ultimately better THE UNKNOWN HORROR, I wish we had kept the original spoof.
“(THE UNKNOWN HORROR) was our first full length, go-at-it real movie…and I think it was really one of our most popular films at the time. (In THE UNKNOWN HORROR) didn’t we actually hang Michael Lee? But he was so damn light back then it didn’t hurt him? (Laughs) I remember…yeah, it was pretty much a flawless movie. It came together really well, the whole story…I remember one thing; we were always tying Brady up. Brady was actually the one doing all of the stunts. So we actually did tie him up by his legs from the ceiling, and hung him there. I remember him complaining about the pain in his ankles - the intense pain as the rope constricted his ankles. But of course we never cared. We just kept going. (Laughs) And he always dealt with it perfectly well. He’s OK, his ankles are OK today.” – Andy Battmer With the success of THE UNKNOWN HORROR is was inevitable that we tried to make the sequel; THE UNKNOWN HORROR Part II (1985). We began shooting one night at the Battmer Farm with Andy and Brady reprising their roles, as well as their youngest brother Jamie joining them and Brady's friend Peter Nichols - who had appeared with Brady in an earlier Adamstar production called THE KARATE TWINS (1983). The last half of THE UNKNOWN HORROR Part II was shot first, and the plan was to shoot the beginning the next day. But after I made the mistake of showing the actors the footage we shot, unfortunately with my video camera that was terrible in low-lighting situations, everyone became disappointed with the results and lost interest in finishing the film. One year later Andy and I tried to make THE UNKNOWN HORROR Part III (1986) at his house in Kansas City and not at the Battmer farm. The idea was that Andy's character was having nightmares about his experiences at the farm, told in flashbacks using footage from Parts I and II, and somehow the 'evil' followed him to his home in KC. But only two scenes were shot, and again somehow we lost interest in the project and it was never completed. I wrote a script in the mid-90's for THE UNKNOWN HORROR Part IV, again trying to incorporate footage from the previous three films in order to not feel like Parts II and III were a waste of time, and be able to shoot it using much better quality video equipment I had access to at the time. But I was never able to make the film in between the yearly movies I was making at Barton County Community College. In 2002 Andy and I returned to the Battmer farm to shoot another horror film called MINDS OF TERROR (2003). It was also called LOST SOULS, or LOST SOULS AND EVIL THOUGHTS. With Andy's appearance in the film, it could also be considered as THE UNKNOWN HORROR Part IV. Since I did not use footage from Parts I, II & III in MINDS OF TERROR/LOST SOULS, someday I may still make THE UNKNOWN HORROR Part V and finally fulfill my dream of bringing all of the footage into one story. For more information on MINDS OF TERROR/LOST SOULS click here
Images Just images Sights and sounds created in the mind to tease the senses A journey since the birth of Man A search with no end A reality from a vision A dream come true - Introduction to DREAMFLIGHT (1983)
The first actual script that I wrote was for a film called DREAMFLIGHT (1983). It was more of an outline than a script, since there was no dialogue. But it was the first time I planned the production ahead of time. In the end, it was a 20-minute film complete with credits, music and sound effects. In the film you see me in my room looking at all of the spaceship models and sci-fi posters, then I fall asleep and have a dream of flying in space. It’s basically an experiment in special effects using the various models from STAR WARS, STAR TREK, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and BUCK ROGERS, plus some of my own creations. I built in my basement a special effects studio, complete with a backlit panoramic star field, overhead and underneath track system and special lighting effects. I even had a space laser battle, using a glass plate and reflections of a STAR WARS Light Saber for the laser effects. I don’t show the film anymore, again because it’s not really very good as a whole. But the one sequence I do show is the Enterprise in drydock. Greatly influenced by the scene from STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE, I built my own drydock from scratch and took the scene a step further by showing the old Enterprise being dismantled, followed by the refitted Enterprise newly completed. I had also shot two previous films called DRYDOCK ONE and Prelude to DREAMFLIGHT, which where basically excuses to practice shooting the Enterprise in drydock models.
“You did (DRYDOCK ONE in the art room at Pem-Day and DREAMFLIGHT) downstairs too with that black backdrop, shooting lights in it (to create the star field). Yeah, and you did a lot of stuff where you ran your tripod across the floor on wheels (to simulate dolly moves) – good creative stuff. I was happy to see you do that. I like to think of video now as an art medium and to me it always has been. It’s always been a vehicle for visual art.” – Donald Adams
There were no film or video-making classes at Pem-Day back in the 1980’s, so most of my filmmaking experience was with friends at our homes. One year an English teacher, Mr. Bob Del Greco, offered a filmmaking class during Mini-Courses. This was another unique approach at my private school; for two weeks after Christmas vacation Pem-Day and Sunset Hill offered special courses or Mini-Courses on both campuses, which allowed the male and female students to take a wide variety of coed classes on subjects like Space Exploration, Dance and The History of Rock & Roll. Mr. Del Greco offered filmmaking, trying to approach it from the script writing emphasis. We used my equipment and Johnny Johntz’s video camera (it actually belonged to his parents - I don’t think they ever knew how much we borrowed it) to shoot REALITY ISLAND (1985), a spoof of the original FANTASY ISLAND. Mr. Wreck (David Leonard) and Birthmark (again David Leonard) welcome two guests: Boris (Andrew Steiner) and Dave (Mark Adams). Boris is looking for his long lost love Courtney (Hatch McCray), but discovers she’s had a sex change operation. Dave dreams of being a rock star, and during a rehearsal with his band (Johnny Johntz on drums, Andrew Steiner on guitar, and Adam Leatherwood on bass) they sound great. But during the actual concert reality rears its ugly head as the camera man (David Leonard) yells out at the end; “You Suck!” (I’m not sure if he was in character, or really finding our performance that bad.) Thus each guest learns that you can’t escape reality.
“I can remember I brought my drum set, and I was always just a crappy drummer. And so this was an opportunity to play in front of some people. I was the only one who I think played an instrument and I certainly didn’t play it well. And so we needed an audience of people and we only had five or six other people who were shooting this with us, and so they started acting wild when we started playing. But it was just unbelievably crappy! Oh God, I just…I truly cringe when I think back to that stuff we were doing.” – Johnny Johntz
Mr. Del Greco had never done this before and didn’t expect the time it took to write and shoot a scene, or how much a group of high school kids could truly waste time and screw things up. The band’s rehearsal was shot with us lip singing to a pre-recorded song; Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way”. But at the time I did not know the words, so I had to hide my face in a keyboard and pretend to say “watermelon” over and over during the scene (Johnny taught me that trick). When we messed up at one point we told the camera operator to stop recording, but he didn’t press the button hard enough to stop the tape. So from then on when he pushed the button to start recording, he was actually stopping the tape and visa versa. Although we didn’t get the scene recorded because of this goof-up, we did record a very funny behind-the-scenes moment where the school’s music director John Lovstad shows up to kick us out in order to lock up the building at the end of the day. We shot the final concert on the big auditorium stage at Pem-Day, with a handful of students lined up along the first row in a pathetic attempt to make it look like a live concert. This was the first time I ever shot a scene using two cameras, and our ‘band’ actually tried to play their instruments as I sang a song; Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock & Roll”. Now keep in mind we were trying to be bad, since this was the way the scene was written. But we were REALLY bad. Johnny knew how to play drums so he sounded the best, but had trouble keeping up with everyone else. (Or we had trouble keeping up with him.) Andrew Steiner could play guitar (at least in his own mind), but was off playing a completely different song, I think. Adam Leatherwood’s bass wasn’t even plugged in, and my singing was comparable to a dog’s howl. We ended up running out of time and couldn’t complete all of the scenes for REALITY ISLAND, and only after ten years did I take the footage and edit the film together. In the final scene, after the final shot, you can hear Mr. Del Greco summing up his experience by saying “So we’re done with that segment? Thank God!” Click here to see "Reality Island" on youtube.com Looking back on this early film experience, Johnny Johntz commented, “You know Mark, I really didn’t learn much from that class. I mean no one did. (Laughs) Well I think one thing you realize is that you’ve got to put forth a serious effort. There’s no doubt that filmmaking takes discipline and that’s why so many creative people who want to get involved in film don’t ever go anywhere with it; because they don’t have the discipline to do it. To actually sit down, map out what you’re going to do and follow through with the whole process. And certainly in that class we did not have the discipline to do it. We were just all over the place. You were probably the one organized person and there were enough people there to sabotage anything. But we had a crappy concept to begin with so it was kind of doomed from the out set.”
Adam Leatherwood didn’t remember the film as well, “I’m not sure that was me, to tell you the truth. I remember none of shooting (REALITY ISLAND). I do not remember making that at all. However from watching the outtakes; what surprised me about the entire process is how many times it would takes to get something that was in a form that we would be able to use in a finished product. And it seems to me that we had so much fun, that we would goof it up on purpose so we would have the outtakes to be able to watch. Which no one laughed but us, and that’s fine. We were the only ones to find that stuff funny. And in fact, a lot of the first films – we were the only ones that laughed at it. But they were an awful lot of fun to make. It is interesting to me that you did have the role of ‘the front man’ (of the band). And I feel like for 20 years, I’ve just been following behind you trying to vie for a little bit better position, a little bit better role in the next production. And I still fall short. (Dramatic pause) I’ve been jealous of you since we first started making movies. The roles that you would write for yourself - when you grabbed that one gal’s ass. I think that was in (1989’s) WAR, DEATH & PIZZA. It seems to me that the entire plot revolved around that one particular scene. I’ve been in therapy. I’m working through it. (Smiles because he is kidding. I think he’s kidding.) But that’s what I remember from that particular production.”
By my senior year I had made many narrative videos with several friends, including Andy Battmer, Johnny Johntz and Roger Kitterman. It was, for me, a time of great friendships and creative collaborations, when we came together to create a film and have some fun. I was the only person seriously interested in filmmaking, although Johnny became more interested in learning and experiencing the process in front and behind the camera. Others would join us in a circle of friends that I felt a part of, and in awe of, at the same time. Adam Leatherwood, David Leonard, John Lynch, David O’Connor, Ali Rezaee and Andrew Hoffman were the kind of friends who not only helped me by acting in the films, but influenced me in a way they never knew about. I felt that I was lucky to be surrounded by very creative people, whose intelligence and wit became channeled into the video projects we were making. They were some of the best people I knew and they included me as their friend, even though I sometimes felt like I wasn’t as smart as my peers. It wasn’t because they made me feel that way by looking down on me, but I would listen to their conversations, jokes and improvisations during our video shoots and feel like I was in the presence of future successful writers, authors, doctors, intellects, political and business leaders. And here I was, an aspiring filmmaker making a video about my cat.
For more information about the Pembroke Hill School click here “You did (AND THE GLORY OF THE LORD, a music video incorporating footage of nature and people in public parks set to the song from Handel’s Messiah) as a video art project (for my drawing and painting class – in place of the painting assignment). We could see by then your strong interest was in a film mode. And I never wanted to discourage that because it incorporated exactly what you could do. You could write; you had good skills at just writing stories, and you had a good way of seeing stories in pictorial form. You were writing in script form even back then, I think. And the video medium simply gave you the tool for your art form.” – Donald Adams
During our final semester at Pem-Day, we started making a murder mystery tentatively titled MURDER SHE PRINTED (1985). It was a story about a man (Mark Adams) who discovers a counterfeit money ring, but is murdered while trying to copy some of the evidence. A detective (David O’Connor) starts investigating the death and finally exposes the counterfeiters (David Leonard and John Lynch). Unfortunately, we only shot two scenes: my death scene and the detective’s discovery of the printing room. We were trying to finish our last semester at school and simply ran out of time and interest to complete the film. I wish we had completed the film, which could have run as long as 30 minutes. My co-director, Roger Kitterman, remembered, “I think the original idea was mine for the murder scene, beyond that it was a collaboration. It originated with an idea for one scene - the murder scene. The rest of the plot then had to be built from there - unfortunately we never really executed. The fundamental part of the murder scene was, in the darkness, snapping a pencil in two to simulate the sound of a neck snapping. The other plot elements there were the power going out – on purpose – so that the murderer could suddenly be seen as a candle was lit. The print shop was to represent one room in my father's factory where the counterfeiting was taking place. This was a story with a beginning and an end but no middle. I'm not sure we ever even knew what to have. The plot flowed from an idea and the settings we had available, rather than a cohesive story. Definitely a disappointment in my mind - even the murder scene that we had fairly well thought out. I thought it could be more chilling than it was. Never really matched what I had in my mind's eye.”
But in those two scenes that we did shoot, I was able to experiment with fluid camera movement with our homemade version of a dolly, and direct a film that wasn’t a spoof of another movie. Don’t get me wrong, making a spoof of a film that you like is not only a lot of fun, but educational for aspiring filmmakers. In the process of examining the film to be spoofed, you can learn how certain shots and scenes were put together, and use this as a guide for your own version. Then the actual hands-on experience of shooting your own spoof gives you a fun and creative environment to learn filmmaking. But by this point we had done spoofs of everything from HALLOWEEN and RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK to James Bond and STAR WARS, and I was ready to try more original stories. I was fascinated with the thought of making an audience laugh because of a character or joke that I wrote, not something based on someone else’s idea or a previously seen film. This was the next step that I wanted to take in learning how to make movies. “We always told you, Mark, to find a career that you enjoy doing and don’t just get into it for the money. That you wouldn’t be happy doing anything (just for the money so) even if it doesn’t pay a great deal of money, as long as you enjoy doing it. But you showed an interest in cameras and video, so that’s when we decided to encourage you to go ahead and do something that you enjoyed doing.” – Loras Adams There were many other films that I made during my beginning phase in high school, some good, and some bad…most are embarrassing to show to anyone. But it was a great learning experience, a time to experiment and learn with the freedom and low cost of home video. My parents were quickly recognizing my interest in film and gave me a choice; they could only afford to buy one of the following; a computer (this was the ‘Pre-Windows’ era, and I would have received an Apple IIe clone from Radio Shack), a used car or a video camera & VHS deck. I chose the video equipment, and I have never regretted it. Click here to see FLASHBACK: a special tribute on youtube.com |
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