Saturday, June 18, 2022

CATLEN: The Movie!


I've been digitizing old family movies-- When I was 13, I made up a superhero named “Catlen.” (I merely put a “t” in my last name. I thought cats were cool.) Growing up in the county, the character gave me something of my own to draw.

As I aged, I decided to make a movie with our family’s wind-up 8mm movie camera. I was 16 or 17. The quality is very varied. My mom could have filmed it properly, but instead I asked a cute girl to do it. Too bad. You can't tell a spinning car wheel is actually off the ground in one scene.

There's no sound, so I added captions with iMovie. It’s 5 minutes long, complete with “special effects!”

You might suspect that the cape and metal disks were inspired by Thor. But actually, I though Nomad looked cool.


I used the tops off Quick containers for the disks on my costume.


And, no, I wasn't supposed to break the glass on the screen door. Oops.


4 comments:

Luca Lorenzon said...

You were quite acrobatic! Almost a stuntman in some scenes, which seem a little dangerous. The special effects are stunning, they remind me of Meliès' esperiments, only more coherent.

Unknown said...

I really enjoyed reading the story through captions like a silent movie and the special effects were amazing!

Anonymous said...

Your mom wouldn't have let you do some of those stunts, but the cute girl did! Loved the film!

Kerry Callen said...

Ha ha! You're probably right.