So, we made "Raiders of the Golden Eyeball", where Indiana Jones would go find the Eyeball that held all sorts of great secrets about eye care. We had a great time making it, and we started a sequel just for fun, that was never completed. While I did go to film school after high school, my film career never took off due to RL crossroads and difficulties. But I still held a passion for making movies.
Recently I began immersing myself in the whole Fan Film genre, marveling at the high quality special effects and techniques that kids and adults alike were accomplishing on home computers. While I never lost the passion for making movies, I hadn't done anything significant in many years. The Fan Film genre really reawakened the desire to make movies again, no matter how little spare time I have.
Recently, I bought a new editing program in March (Sony Screenblast Movie Studio) and I needed some video to practice on, so I digitized "Raiders of the Golden Eyeball" from the 22 year old videotape.
After rewatching the old film, seeing the terrible edits, the off-cue sound effects, and NO sound effects where they should be, I began tinkering with it as I explored all the cool things Movie Studio could do. I was so pleased with the results, I began thinking about releasing a "special edition" of the movie. Then things started to get really wacky. I began thinking of inserts I could put in to help the movie over its rough spots, using new props to match the ones in the movie, and all I'd need was a faceless arm here, or leg there.
But it didn't stop there! As I was contemplating these improvements, I planned on burning DVDs of the movie, and sending them out to those that I made it with. THEN, I had a brainstorm. Since I'm doing a "special edition" DVD, why not get the old cast and crew together for "reunion" interviews to include on the DVD! The movie itself was a farce, and it would be hilarious to do such interviews with reverence to this movie!
The Cast of RAIDERS OF THE GOLDEN EYEBALL
In the Indy film we never finished, ("RAIDERS OF THE HOUSE OF DEATH") we had a big fight scene where Indy was thrown off a 2-story balcony, and had to hold on and hang there.
Rocco Garcia played several roles in the movie. His biggest was Pepe, Indy's loyal sidekick in jungles and caves of Peru.
Rocco really pulled out all the stops with playing over the top characters that got a lot of laughs. He also played Pancho, Pepe's gay brother, and reprised the role in "RAIDERS OF THE HOUSE OF DEATH"!
David was a lot of fun to work with. He was a teacher's assistant that I dragged into the movie, and he enjoyed himself. He came back for "HOUSE OF DEATH" reprising his Colonel Bob role.
There's a cave scene where Indy and Pancho search for the Golden Eyeball that was made with chicken wire and paper bags. It looked pretty damned good, too! Indy just had to make sure he didn't brush against the "rock" too much. Loya allowed us to commandeer his classroom on the weekend to build the cave and film in it. The Golden Eyeball shrine was actually in Loya's office, right on his desk!
I got lucky with finding Indiana Jones for the film. My friend and fellow Media Class member, Frank Rodriguez was a gymnast, and he was able to do a lot of cool things. In the first Indy film we did, he did a few rolls, and was dragged behind a car.
Frank was laying on a skateboard, and underneath it, I taped a smoke pot and lit it just before filming. When it began to smoke, I yelled at the driver to take off. We did it twice, and while Frank tried to keep his arms and legs up, the knees of his pants were completely ruined, and the toes of his shoes were gone. And the car was barely going 5mph! If I had to do it today, the actor would wear BMX kneepads and shin guards, and steel-toe shoes!
Frank waited for me to reposition the camera, re-do the crappy white balance on it, and he even held on with one hand at one point, as his attacker was stomping on his hands. (Simulated, of course!) After ALL that, he pulled himself back up and "threw" his attacker over the railing!
David Anderson played "Colonel Bob", of Army Intelligence. He recruits Dr. Jones to go after the Golden Eyeball before the Nazis get to it.
Other roles were played by Bill Lozano, Cindy Bibb, and my health/media teacher, Ric Loya. Mr. Loya let us run wild with our imagination. We had no budget at all; this was something to do in high school other than a extra credit essay on the colon or something! EVERYTHING was borrowed: Indy's "whip" was a school jump rope, Indy's hat was my dad's, Indy's "satchel" was an old purse, his gun was a cap gun that we put a firecracker in, the car was Mr. Loya's. (he's the driver that gets clobbered in the above clip, BTW).
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