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SUMMER MOVIES SCHOOL PROJECTS OTHER VIDEOS
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The Space Show SYNOPSIS: Two spacemen come upon an eclectic array of beings as they commence on an odyssey through the cosmos. HISTORY: Throughout a significant part of our time at elementary school, nearly every day at lunch and recess Eric and I would continue our epic series The Space Show. He played the mighty captain and I played the navigator of the ship the D.F. Horowitz. As we matured (e.g. reached the fifth grade), our stories developed and we incorporated more characters into the episodes. However, like any classic series, we could always fall back on our good old usual routines (such as being sucked out of the ship's ever-open hatch). As elementary school drew to a close, our characters had gone through a number of changes, and we had amassed a slew of other regular characters as well. There was Jon, the rogue pilot who turned out to be a robot. There was Larry, the doctor who turned into a ghost. There was Abe the frog and his father Saro. David had become a were-fly, and Eric had become a demi-god. The summer after the fifth grade (the last grade in our elementary school), it was decided that The Space Show needed to go out with a bang, as it were. Thus, six of us got together in my front yard one summer day with my mom filming us. We created what could be considered the first Summer Movie (although I don't consider as part of the more recent Summer Movie series). YEAR: 1992 PRODUCTION COST: $5 FORMAT: VHS EDITING: in-camera LOCATIONS: my front yard STARRING: Eric Horowitz, David Frankel and Abe Williams |
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Bad Fellows SYNOPSIS: Two gangsters feel the need for revenge when their friend is killed by the police. Meanwhile, a rookie cop is thrown into the fray and forced to decide between honor and justice. HISTORY: I went through a cops and robbers movie phase once. Rebecca and I (and sometimes a variable third person) made a series of movies featuring the two detectives Aztec and Comp. The movie that started this trend (though it did not feature Aztec and Comp) was Bad Fellows, made with talented actor John Clark. This movie may have been one of my first to feature highly developed characters. YEAR: 1993? PRODUCTION COST: $0 FORMAT: VHS EDITING: in-camera LOCATIONS: my house and front yard STARRING: Rebecca Forsythe, John Clark and David Frankel |
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Assassins SYNOPSIS: A construction worker in search of donuts joins forces with a pair of cyborg bounty hunter/assassins. After defeating Mumfred the Evil and his two henchman, the assassins complete their objective of slaying the leader of the Polaroid company and the construction worker brings donuts to her co-workers. HISTORY: It was around the end of middle school when I realized how much I love long black coats. This love first manifested itself in the re-creation of Joe the Ninja Assassin -- sent from Bolivia with a liscense to kill. When Joe first appeared in one of my movies, he was a tee shirt and headband-wearing dude who got slaughtered by my cousin Debbie next to the dresser in my room. When next he appeared in a movie, he wore a long, black leather coat and carried a ninja sword through which he could channel lightning. This is a movie in which Colin (armed with a banana) and I fought against the clone of Dr. Jack Kavorkian. This is also the first movie in which I used computer graphics effects ("effects"). Colin's and my characters reappeared a movie with Rebecca. More of the same assassin madness, but this time more than twice as many characters (though not twice as many actors). It was when my father likened our video to a movie he'd recently seen which he claimed was super-saturated with violence (Pulp Fiction) that I realized just how beneficial violence can be to making a damn cool movie. This realization may have somewhat fit in with a middle school mentality, but it still helped to progress my movies to a higher level. After all, my movies tended to suffer from a lack of action of any kind. And since none of my friends were professional actors, our videos tended to be boring and in worst-case scenarios, it was almost a chore to watch them. It was in these amateur circumstances that I realized that a little violence can go a long way. YEAR: 1995 PRODUCTION COST: $0 FORMAT: VHS EDITING: in-camera LOCATIONS: my house STARRING: Colin Barry, David Frankel and Rebecca Forsythe |
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Teriyaki versus the World SYNOPSIS: Two enemies each hire an assassin to rid the world of their foe. After Teriyaki is brought in from Japan, everyone ends up dying -- including Teriyaki himself. HISTORY: The summer after the ninth grade, I wanted to make the movie Robin Wood. When not everyone showed up and we were running short on time, it became apparent that the movie was not destined to be made that summer. But as those of us present were standing around my backyard with a video camera and nothing to do, we decided to make some movie. This movie wouldn't be all that significant if it weren't for the fact that it is one of my first movies to have something resembling a musical soundtrack (Chaos's theme from Battle Arena Toshinden 2). YEAR: 1996 PRODUCTION COST: $0 FORMAT: VHS EDITING: in-camera LOCATIONS: my back yard STARRING: Alex Camelio, Peter Hurley, Jonathan Stering, and Saro Darian as "Wanda" |
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Death of a Japanese Ambassador SYNOPSIS: After the Japanese ambassador in America is killed, a young Japanese martial artist leaves his master and travels to seek out the murderer and avenge the death. The martial artist finally finds his prey, only to be fatally wounded as he discovers that said prey is a deadly alien with a mission to take over Earth. After being healed by a mysterious doctor, our hero learns of the alien's one weak point and wins the day in a karate match against his foe. HISTORY: I look back on this movie I still remember it being a high quality work. The plot is straight-forward, but the hero's road to victory is riddled with an assortment various characters and obstacles. For example: the master does not believe his student (the protagonist) is ready to go on such a dangerous mission of vengeance, and so the student must first prove his strength right in his own dojo. And then on the airplane to America, the hero hears a rumor that there is a passenger who knows a secret pertaining to his quest. However, this passenger happens to be the reigning champion of the on-plane video game tournament, and he will not talk unless he is beaten in Toshinden 2. This movie was made immediately after we finished filming Teriyaki versus the World. It maintains much of the wackiness (or "absurdity") that was present in Teriyaki versus the World, but said wackiness is fit within the structured framework of a planned and straight-forward plotline. All things considered, I think this is a movie that "worked". YEAR: 1996 PRODUCTION COST: $0 FORMAT: VHS EDITING: in-camera LOCATIONS: my house and front yard STARRING: Jonathan Stering, David Frankel and Saro Darian |
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Robin Wood SYNOPSIS: Robin of Locksley is on the run from the Sheriff of Nottingham after hunting said sheriff's deer. In Sherwood Forest, Robin encounters various men who also sense an injust power structure at work in England. Joining forces, new friends as well as old enemies form the band of Merry Men, whose mission it is to "rob from the rich and give to the poor". Stakes are raised, however, when the sheriff calls upon reinforcements of his own, and Much of the Merry Men is killed. The Merry Men seize the day when Robin defeats the sheriff in a boxing duel. However, the war is far from over. HISTORY: There was a time when young David (me) wanted nothing more than to star in a play or movie as the brave Sir Robin of Locksley. I satisfied this desire by making my own Robin Hood movie. Planning and research began around the end of the ninth grade (when I was fifteen years old), but the movie was not made until the summer after the tenth grade. It became the first in a series of Summer Movies. My primary sources were pages on the World Wide Web, though my inspiration was fueled by my ninth grade world history course as well as the movie Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. I used the name Wood rather than Hood in the movie because when I read The Sword in the Stone, I learned that in fact Wood was proper, but people mistook it for Hood because of the way the Merry Men pronounced the name with their thick English accents. Technically, my home-made movies had always been quite primitive. I rarely tried anything innovative in terms of camera work or post-production. It wasn't until the Summer Movies that the platform was raised. In terms of camera work and editing (or lack thereof), Robin Wood still fit more or less into the same category of pre-Summer Movie home videos. It was the first movie I made, though, for which a thought-out and complete script was written. And it was my first movie in years to have a cast of more than three people. Robin Wood was a group effort, and I could not have done it without the help of my loyal friends. Saro and Alex added character and life to the script while Jon helped out immensely from the beginning of planning to end of filming. The official Robin Wood homepage contains at least part of the original script. YEAR: 1997 PRODUCTION COST: $20 FORMAT: VHS EDITING: in-camera LOCATIONS: my house and back yard; Garfield Woods STARRING: David Frankel, Jonathan Stering and Peter Hurley |
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Scorched SYNOPSIS: A young man living in Russia is invited by an old friend of his to come to Los Angeles and enter a martial arts tournament. As the two men progress through the tourney, they begin to sense that evil is at work. HISTORY: Jon and I never finished this movie. Unfortunately, we were making it at a time when my obsession with strange fetishes and vampires was at a peak, and as Jon was never big on such things, we could not seem to agree on an ending. In hindsight, I respect that he was able to put up with me and a few of my odd ideas. ANYWAY... as it is in its incomplete form, this movie is essentially a bunch of fight scenes strung together, highlighted by interesting and off-beat characters. The two heroes were nothing more than our usual, generic characters. But there was a good deal of imagination involved in creating their opponents at the tournament. With a range from my old geezer janitor to Jon's German arm-wrestler, the movie would be fun enough to watch if just to see the characters and their interactions with one another. However, there is another key element of the movie which I think even now makes it enjoyable to watch. Sure, the movie consists primarily of fight scenes with little in the way of plot. However, that means that there is constant action throughout the movie. (Action is something that a number of my older movies lacked entirely.) And a few of the fight scenes were actually pretty damn good. There was no camera work -- we just propped it up and let it record us. But the fights were clean and fast paced. We used what martial arts experience we had to its full potential, and combined with a bit of choreography, we created a nice movie. YEAR: 1998 PRODUCTION COST: $0 FORMAT: VHS EDITING: in-camera LOCATIONS: my house and back yard STARRING: Jonathan Stering, David Frankel |
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MeBad: The Potion Saga SYNOPSIS: In episode 1, a certain potion is sought after by two opposing tribes. In episode 2, a psychotic bachelor discovers a strange potion inside a rubber chicken. He uses the potion to become mighty and to slay his neighbor. HISTORY: One memory I have from the later part of the eleventh grade is of Ryan, Jeremy and I leaving the school Fridays at chilly dusk after Computer Club. Those were the days of Sailor Stars and Anime Parties, Winterfest and high school theater, Urotsukidoji and fun-with-subcultures, JARAD, strengthening old friendships and making new ones. It was the summer before Fire Road Destiny, and Jeremy and Ryan and I decided to make a movie together. The three of us had only made one movie together before -- that was with Whitney after Sukkot the year before. MeBad was a fun little story set in my parents' bedroom. Technically, it is significant because I made a music video out of the first episode. This was my first music video, and it was my first significant non-in-camera edit (as far as I can remember). YEAR: 1998 PRODUCTION COST: $0 FORMAT: VHS; .mov EDITING: in-camera; DIVA Video Shop LOCATIONS: my parents' bedroom STARRING: Jeremy Smoler, Ryan Collins and David Frankel |
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Fire Road Destiny (a.k.a. Hell's Fortune over a Purple Sea) SYNOPSIS: Somewhere in the Badlands of Amerika... A demonic martial arts gothic cult is in search of a certain mystical crystal. The cult hires an Australian bounty hunter to retrieve the crystal from the eccentric high school student who happened to find it. The bounty hunter delivers the crystal to his employer and dumps the eccentric high school student in the dreaded Wasteland. With the crystal and a young human sacrifice, the cult's leader Darren DarkStalker will be able to summon the long-dead warlock and necromancer: Mordicum Diablo. Meanwhile in Suburbia, martial arts instructor Li's wife disappeared over a decade ago when she went off to slay Shigeru, her cousin and the master of a demonic martial arts school. She is presumed dead. Li's son's best friend is kidnapped after being chosen by the cult to be their sacrificial victim. Li sends his son Francis (along with one or two of his other martial arts disciples) to the Wasteland to retrieve the sacrificial victim... however, it is too late. The sacrifice is complete and Mordicum Diablo has risen. Francis and his companion grab the mystical crystal and flee from the lair of the cult, only to be attacked by the Psycho Nomad Raiders (now led by the eccentric high school student) who dwell in the Wasteland. After fending off the Raiders, the martial artists make their way back stage at a rock concert. The band members analyze the crystal and determine that it is pure Evil. With this information, Francis returns to the lair of the cult for the final showdown with his cousin and arch-enemy: Darren Darkstalker. Just when it seems neither Francis nor Darren DarkStalker can win the duel, Li's wife Lila steps out of the shadows and slays her son's enemy. She proclaims: "At last, Shigeru, it is over. Finally over." HISTORY: Why stop with Robin Wood? Another Summer Movie should be made. Let's make a tradition out of it. And so it came to pass that fire road destiny would be made. Initial inspirations for fire road destiny included Army of Darkness, LHS's Globefest production Kindred (specifically: the Gothic mentality that it helped to create for me), Alex Sterzin's suggestion to make a rock music documentary like Spinal Tap, and the background story of Blade of the Immortal. fire road destiny (spelled using lower-case because that's the way it appears on the title card) was more ambitious than Robin Wood. It was the first movie wherein I did any significant editing (editing that lasted for more than 10 seconds -- covering the whole movie). Indeed, it was the longest movie I had ever made (approximately 45 minutes). This movie was very ambitious for me and didn't quite work on all technical levels. As I had had no experience with an analog editing system (that's not completely true -- I had taken a course at MassArt... but that was different), my tape got "eaten"... or something. I always blamed that on the fact that I was using 20-year-old equipment, but to be honest I think it had more to do with the fact that I didn't exactly know what I was doing and I had forgotten to lay down a black timecode track on my blank tapes. Also, due in part to the low quality of the equipment we used in filming, the sound quality (and picture quality) was bad. At the begining of the movie there is music. That music cuts off as the picture changes from the title screen to a picture of me holding a crystal. However, during that transition the sound volume does not change at all. The background noise in the movie is just as loud as the hard rock soundtrack. On a less technical level, I love this movie. It has a soul, and it has fire. It was a crazy ride I will never forget. It was the only Summer Movie - with the exception of The Space Show - based on which I made a genuine effort to create a comicbook (with Colin, in this case). The movie was supposed to represent the three aspects of my life at the time -- the martial arts, the Goth, and the Psycho Desert Nomad Raiders. And maybe hindsight is causing an unwarranted optimism, but I think we really put a lot of ourselves into making the movie. And I think I'm right, because I know we had fun planning for it and making it. I will never forget my excitement when Scarlett said she wanted to be a part of the movie, or the day Alex and Jon and I went to Ryan's house and we all worked on the script, or Adam and Scott playing a concert in my dining room, or walking to the dump with a few friends to film the Wasteland, or Jeremy saying "is he really gonna", or the mere presence of the Great Ma, or playing Pokémon on my Gameboy as my mother drove me to her work-place so that I could edit. A final note: I have complete confidence in saying that as confusing and twisted as the movie may be, there is in fact not a single hole in the plot as it is presented in the movie (which ended up being significantly different from the full version of the script). Of course, to actually understand what's going on when watching the movie for the first time, one would probably need a pen and notebook, and a remote to rewind and playback every other minute. But then... that would miss the point. The official Fire Road Destiny homepage contains the full version of the script, several character designs, and a great deal of background information. YEAR: 1998 PRODUCTION COST: $5 FORMAT: VHS EDITING: analog LOCATIONS: my house, my neighborhood, Garfield Park STARRING: Jonathan Stering, David Frankel and Jeremy Smoler |
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Jaime Live: Men... Who Think They're Women SYNOPSIS: In today's episode of the infamous talk show Jaime Live, Jaime and the psychiatrist try to help two men who think they're women. Other guests include lesbian and geriatric lovers, and a woman who dated her boyfriend's father. HISTORY: The first time my cousins and I made an episode of Jaime Live (back around the ninth grade), Colin and I were averse to the girls' suggestion to make a show about men who think they're women. This time, Jon and I took on the task whole-heartedly. Speaking for myself, I think this was perhaps the time I most successfully acted as a woman (or at least as a drag queen). I have no idea how Jon feels about his part, but I think he did well. YEAR: 1998 PRODUCTION COST: $0 FORMAT: VHS EDITING: in-camera LOCATIONS: my parents' bedroom STARRING: Jaime Delisle, Debbie Delisle, Jonathan Stering and David Frankel |
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The Ketchup Hour Spectacular SYNOPSIS: Alex steals away with Dave's Ketchup. Years pass. Dave comes upon Alex in the woods. Alex, now a savage with Ketchup, grunts and runs away. Dave utters "so that's where my catsoup has been." HISTORY: It is undeniable that this momentous work of art and beauty will be passed down through the generations and bring us into a new epoch of human civilization. And that's all I have to say about that. YEAR: 1999 PRODUCTION COST: $0 FORMAT: VHS EDITING: in-camera LOCATIONS: my house, my neighborhood, Garfield Woods STARRING: Alex Camelio and David Frankel |
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Basil Warriors SYNOPSIS: HISTORY: YEAR: PRODUCTION COST: FORMAT: EDITING: LOCATIONS: STARRING: |
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The Azokiad SYNOPSIS: HISTORY: YEAR: PRODUCTION COST: FORMAT: EDITING: LOCATIONS: STARRING: For now, go here. |
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La Hellequine SYNOPSIS: HISTORY: YEAR: PRODUCTION COST: FORMAT: EDITING: LOCATIONS: STARRING: |
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Hero Tale SYNOPSIS: HISTORY: YEAR: PRODUCTION COST: FORMAT: EDITING: LOCATIONS: STARRING: |
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Lighting Assignment SYNOPSIS: HISTORY: YEAR: PRODUCTION COST: FORMAT: EDITING: LOCATIONS: STARRING: |
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The Curse from Beyond SYNOPSIS: HISTORY: YEAR: PRODUCTION COST: FORMAT: EDITING: LOCATIONS: STARRING: |
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Demon Hunter X: Final Episode SYNOPSIS: HISTORY: YEAR: PRODUCTION COST: FORMAT: EDITING: LOCATIONS: STARRING: |
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Revelations SYNOPSIS: HISTORY: YEAR: PRODUCTION COST: FORMAT: EDITING: LOCATIONS: STARRING: |
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?????? SYNOPSIS: HISTORY: YEAR: PRODUCTION COST: FORMAT: EDITING: LOCATIONS: STARRING: For now, go here. |
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