Post by Primemovermithrax Pejorative on Dec 5, 2017 1:55:30 GMT
A film director who started out doing features and then was exclusively working in television. I think the last tv film he did that had any kind of blip on the radar was a tv version of Frankenstein from 2004 however he remains busy. Directing a couple of tv movies a year.
His earliest output is most interesting for cult movie fans:
1981 Goliath Awaits (tv)
1980 Motel Hell
1979 Arabian Adventure
1978 Warlords of the Deep
1977 The People That Time Forgot
1976 At the Earth's Core
1975 The Land That Time Forgot
1974 From Beyond the Grave (first credit)
I haven't seen Goliath Awaits or Motel Hell in a long time, but of the others, Arabian Adventure is his weakest. The leads have no chemistry (though Emma Samms looks the best in the harem girl costume since Caroline Munro in Golden Voyage of Sinbad) and it is hampered by flying carpet spfx that are just too archaic for post-Star Wars cinema. being shot almost entirely indoors doesn't help.
An aspect that struck me in watching At the Earth's Core recently which you never see in spfx-themed movies of a later time-(or even a Harryhausen movie)-there's a sequence where Doug McClure explores a cave and climbs around sleeping winged dino-gods, and it occurs at a very slow pace.
I cant think of any movie with creature fx that doesn't dial up the soundtrack and resort to choppy editing or action when dealing with a supernatural or monster element. Very rare to allow one time to smell the Jurassic roses.
In the CGI era it is even less likely to happen due to the computationally expensive nature of the process-I can think fo films where they speed up the shots or compromise the drama just to get the FX out of the way, but since the Core creatures were just fellows in uncomfortable rubber costumes they weren't burning any technology costs other than film stock.
Another thing about his adventure films is that the humor in them are in character, while the scenario is taken seriously.
We are never supposed to laugh at the fantasy world itself, unless the art direction is too primitive for one to suspend disbelief or there is an unintentionally funny line (one that always gets me to laugh out loud is when someone in ATEC says "There is something else you should know, she's a princess.").
Several of Connor's films from this time features the dinosaur puppet work of UK-based film fx technician Roger Dicken--who did various freelancing on UK-made films through the 70s (I believe he also helped sculpt the lunar surface set for 2001 A Space Odyssey).
His earliest output is most interesting for cult movie fans:
1981 Goliath Awaits (tv)
1980 Motel Hell
1979 Arabian Adventure
1978 Warlords of the Deep
1977 The People That Time Forgot
1976 At the Earth's Core
1975 The Land That Time Forgot
1974 From Beyond the Grave (first credit)
I haven't seen Goliath Awaits or Motel Hell in a long time, but of the others, Arabian Adventure is his weakest. The leads have no chemistry (though Emma Samms looks the best in the harem girl costume since Caroline Munro in Golden Voyage of Sinbad) and it is hampered by flying carpet spfx that are just too archaic for post-Star Wars cinema. being shot almost entirely indoors doesn't help.
An aspect that struck me in watching At the Earth's Core recently which you never see in spfx-themed movies of a later time-(or even a Harryhausen movie)-there's a sequence where Doug McClure explores a cave and climbs around sleeping winged dino-gods, and it occurs at a very slow pace.
I cant think of any movie with creature fx that doesn't dial up the soundtrack and resort to choppy editing or action when dealing with a supernatural or monster element. Very rare to allow one time to smell the Jurassic roses.
In the CGI era it is even less likely to happen due to the computationally expensive nature of the process-I can think fo films where they speed up the shots or compromise the drama just to get the FX out of the way, but since the Core creatures were just fellows in uncomfortable rubber costumes they weren't burning any technology costs other than film stock.
Another thing about his adventure films is that the humor in them are in character, while the scenario is taken seriously.
We are never supposed to laugh at the fantasy world itself, unless the art direction is too primitive for one to suspend disbelief or there is an unintentionally funny line (one that always gets me to laugh out loud is when someone in ATEC says "There is something else you should know, she's a princess.").
Several of Connor's films from this time features the dinosaur puppet work of UK-based film fx technician Roger Dicken--who did various freelancing on UK-made films through the 70s (I believe he also helped sculpt the lunar surface set for 2001 A Space Odyssey).