Seeing Andy's Victorian dinosaur reminded me of this cool sail-back monster in the old 50's movie Journey to the Centre of the Earth.
I've read that the actual lizard was a rhinocerus iguana as seen below. It had its sail glued on, poor sod.
There are other dinosaurs in the film, notably this red beast at the film's volcanic finale. I remember it making a startling trumpet like sound. How did they do that? A tuba?
The beast itself was actually a Tegu lizard like this but painted red.
Ultimately the red beast perishes under the lava of the Atlantean eruption at the film's close [I do hope the lizard didn't actually perish].
IMdB informs us that the lava in this scene was most likely oatmeal.
It suggests that it was used in the Time Machine's movie eruption as well.
I've no idea how they turned oatmeal into lava other than perhaps colouring it red. Do you?
For more information about the cinematography and matte effects in both Journey to the Centre of the Earth and The Time Machine then check out the amazingly comprehensive Matte Shot blog. Just click on the films' names above.
Which movie dinosaurs do you like?
Oatmeal is great for lava effects. Back in the 80's, we needed lava for the title sequence of our 16 mm short film. A baking tray full of loose oatmeal, heated from below and filmed from above at double speed. With film slowed down, a very nice effect of thick lava eruptions.
ReplyDeleteah, someone whos done it! Cheers Arto. What happened to the film?
DeleteBuried deep in the vault for films with too much enthusiams and too little talent.
ReplyDeleteThe title sequence was very ambitious however. It involved a revolving title, with lava shining through the letters whilst rotating. A computer was programmed to do the rotating, and then every move (24/sec) was printed on an individual cardboard, then cut by hand to hollow out the letters. The hollowed-out masks were then photographed one-by-one, a bit like individual cells of an animated film. This was then joined with lava effect (in other words, oatmeal) in an optical printer.
This was in 1985. It took for the printer the whole night to draw the individual plaques, even for a few second's worth of rotation.
ha ha, sounds like a lost masterpeice Arto! Has it ever been shown anywhere. Your efforts remind me of the young American film makers who gave us the monster classic Equinox.
Delete