{"id":6046,"date":"2010-02-21T16:10:47","date_gmt":"2010-02-21T05:10:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/roberthood.net\/blog\/?p=6046"},"modified":"2011-03-14T11:44:31","modified_gmt":"2011-03-14T00:44:31","slug":"bizarre-life-institute-the-trilogy-part-2-the-blood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/roberthood.net\/blog\/index.php\/2010\/02\/21\/bizarre-life-institute-the-trilogy-part-2-the-blood\/","title":{"rendered":"Bizarre Life Institute: The Trilogy \u2014 Part 2: The Blood"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Bizarre Life Institute: The Trilogy — Part 1<\/strong>.<\/a><\/p>\n

Images of Harconia:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Harconia-1.\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Harconia-2small\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In mid-January Undead Backbrain introduced you to the work of Peter Montgomery, specifically an ambitious project called the Bizarre Life Institute<\/em> (B.L.I.)<\/strong> — three films set in an alternate history in which life on Earth has been twisted into monstrous forms and an organisation known as the B.L.I. is all that stands between humanity and utter annihilation. The setting is post-apocalyptic (the images above, for example, are of Harconia — the Land of the Strange) and the creatures are weird. Before continuing with this Part 2, make sure you’ve checked out Part 1<\/a>, which provides synopses of all three films with copious illustrations by way of concept art, screen shots and film clips.<\/p>\n

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One of the remarkable things about these ambitious films is that the technical and directorial aspects of the film — as well as some of the acting — are the work of one man.<\/p>\n

\"Peter\"<\/a>The Creator:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Born in Scotland in 1977, Peter Andrew Montgomery<\/strong> developed a passion for film-making early on.\u00a0 “I have had an interest in film since I was about four years old,” he told Undead Backbrain. “Having no camera then, of course, I entertained myself with the films and special effects of Ray Harryhausen. As I got older I copied his creatures from the Clash of the Titans<\/em> movie in plasticine and brought them into school one day to show them to my enthusiastic classmates. I often got told off by teachers for drawing in my school maths books but continued to do it anyway.”<\/p>\n

He continued:<\/p>\n

“Some years later, about 1989, I got my first camera a bulky VHS one and thus equipped I made a movie with a group of friends which I called Troll<\/em> using the \u2018rancour\u2019 monster from Return of the Jedi<\/em> as the main beast. We would take turns on camera and operating the plastic toy just in front of the lens to make it look massive.<\/p>\n

“Over the years I taught myself my craft and I found more and more effective ways of shooting films and creating special effects. They got bigger and better and in 1997 I won an award for an animated short called \u2018The Mine\u2019 and got two broadcast credits for that film also. The films continued and began to look more and more professional as the years went on.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Soon enough Montgomery found himself engrossed in the epic tale of the B.L.I.<\/p>\n

“In 2002 I remade an old movie of mine called \u2018Surreal Specimen\u2019 and renamed it \u2018The People from B.L.I.’ (The B.L.I.<\/em> came in later as an established institute to form the foundation of these pictures, 3 in total — 2 in pre production) and rely on stop-motion with a motion blur effect that I discovered that produces astonishing results (see previous article). It took eight years to make as we shot it on very expensive 16mm film.<\/p>\n

“I wrote, produced, directed, acted in and created the monsters from scratch using metal L brackets for the plates and chrome balls from shower caddies to create ball and socket joints and the build up technique to give them \u2018skin\u2019. Taxidermy was also used to give the bird creature or drone its look.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The second the films — The People From the B.L.I.<\/em> — is completed, with work ongoing on the others, B.L.I. 3 being the main focus (see previous article for a synopsis). “The People from the B.L.I.<\/em> took eight years to make as we shot on 16mm film at \u00a35000 on Technicolour processing costs. The rest of the film was entirely my work. I now use Adobe Premier Pro CS3 and After Effects after a dear friend and award winning film maker; Ronnie Goodwin convinced me of it\u2019s advantages. I use it in conjunction with practical effects and shoot on HDV Canon HV-30 widescreen.”<\/p>\n

Animatic of B.L.I. 3: B.L.I. Mission to the Black Mountains:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Montgomery comments on this sequence:<\/p>\n

This illustrates the fight between the bipedal spider and the angler bull fish. The party have landed on the island and are trapped as the huge monsters battle one another. This is a section of storyboard I’ve computer animated as an animatic with full audio and camera motion to carry along what I’m going for in this sequence. The entire thing isn’t here, but you get the idea. The creatures will be created with stop-motion animation on a BIG miniature set and motion blur added for super realism. The cast will be composited into the footage with Keylight shot green-screen outdoors for the perfect, undetectable key.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Creepy monster sound effects are by Montgomery. Listen to them below.<\/p>\n