Well, in this case to be a Roger Corman film maker it seems you take what bucks you are given and as a film producer you make the biggest bang with what you got. There's a great story in this series about Corman using a film tax credit to film in 1950's Puerto Rico and he assembled a are to make The Battle of Blood Island. (1960). Being a save producer he saw a way to split the costs and film a 2nd film which became Last Woman on Earth (1960). But Corman didn't stop there. Seeing that they would have some time and money left, he had his crew scramble together a third film Creature From The Haunted Sea (1961). There's another great story in how they made The Terror (1963) with Jack Nicholson and Boris Karloff. But really you have to see it to believe it. I like to think I've grown in my appreciation for Roger Corman and his impact not only on filmmaking but also cinema and pop culture as a whole. I would guess that his biggest work with the most impact was The Little Shop of Horrors (1960) which was turned into a off broadway musical in 1982 and then back into a musical film in 1986. His greatest film legacy is probably his unofficial film school: The Roger Corman Film School.
The Roger Corman Film School is what filmmakers call having worked for Roger Corman, and he's had an amazing talented group "graduate" from his studios over the years: Ron Howard, James Cameron, Joe Dante, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese just to name a basic few. And the stable of actors that has graced a Corman stage at one time or another is simply staggering.
Corman over course is best known for his low budget monster / exploitation movies and they do account for a considerable bulk of his film library but he's also done some serious pictures and even a few family movies. Over the last few weeks I've had the chance to explore the World of Corman, thanks to a bunch of documentaries on tube.tv and here are a few that stood out.
Cult-tastic: Tales From The Trenches
The Pope of Pop Cinema filmed this 13 episode series when he was 92 years old in 2018. Roger Corman's career began in 1948 and his body of work is simply incredible. Ranging from some serious films to pure exploitation of the temporal moment there is no doubt he is the master of his own creative destiny.
Each episode is divided into a theme like Sci-Fi, Criminal and Comedy and Mr. Corman and his wife Julie discuss each theme and the film involved. But really again considering their vast experiences as Hollywood filmmakers they're just really scratching the surface of their combined cinematic production knowledge.
Check it out some time, as it's a fascinating look into movie making, behind and in front of the camera.
The Roger Corman Film School is what filmmakers call having worked for Roger Corman, and he's had an amazing talented group "graduate" from his studios over the years: Ron Howard, James Cameron, Joe Dante, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese just to name a basic few. And the stable of actors that has graced a Corman stage at one time or another is simply staggering.
Corman over course is best known for his low budget monster / exploitation movies and they do account for a considerable bulk of his film library but he's also done some serious pictures and even a few family movies. Over the last few weeks I've had the chance to explore the World of Corman, thanks to a bunch of documentaries on tube.tv and here are a few that stood out.
Cult-tastic: Tales From The Trenches
The Pope of Pop Cinema filmed this 13 episode series when he was 92 years old in 2018. Roger Corman's career began in 1948 and his body of work is simply incredible. Ranging from some serious films to pure exploitation of the temporal moment there is no doubt he is the master of his own creative destiny.
Each episode is divided into a theme like Sci-Fi, Criminal and Comedy and Mr. Corman and his wife Julie discuss each theme and the film involved. But really again considering their vast experiences as Hollywood filmmakers they're just really scratching the surface of their combined cinematic production knowledge.
Check it out some time, as it's a fascinating look into movie making, behind and in front of the camera.
DOOMED! The Untold story of Roger Corman's Fantastic Four 1994 movie. (2015) documentary
Ok, to be fair this really wasn't Corman's idea, but as Corman mentions in Cult-tastic a lot of outside ides or productions were brought to him and he'd co-produce and distribute the final film. In this case Bernd Eichinger who had the movie rights to Marvel Comics Fantastic Four and the Silver Surfer brought the production to Roger Corman in the early 1990's and they made a low budget super hero movie. The filmmakers and actors are very passionate in their craft as they retell their collective experiences in making and marketing the film. Now one story that is told from the film the in order for Exchanger to retain the movie rights to the Marvel characters he had, he needed to make a film within a year of their expiration date or the character rights would return to Marvel Comics. Well, as history tells he did make the 1994 Fantastic Four movie and he would later make Fantastic Four (2005) and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) with 20th Century Fox Studios. The rights to the characters finally returned to Marvel in 2019 when Walt Disney Studios bought 20th Century Fox and returned the Fantastic Four and Marvel's The X-Men characters to Marvel which Walt Disney now owns.
Ok, to be fair this really wasn't Corman's idea, but as Corman mentions in Cult-tastic a lot of outside ides or productions were brought to him and he'd co-produce and distribute the final film. In this case Bernd Eichinger who had the movie rights to Marvel Comics Fantastic Four and the Silver Surfer brought the production to Roger Corman in the early 1990's and they made a low budget super hero movie. The filmmakers and actors are very passionate in their craft as they retell their collective experiences in making and marketing the film. Now one story that is told from the film the in order for Exchanger to retain the movie rights to the Marvel characters he had, he needed to make a film within a year of their expiration date or the character rights would return to Marvel Comics. Well, as history tells he did make the 1994 Fantastic Four movie and he would later make Fantastic Four (2005) and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) with 20th Century Fox Studios. The rights to the characters finally returned to Marvel in 2019 when Walt Disney Studios bought 20th Century Fox and returned the Fantastic Four and Marvel's The X-Men characters to Marvel which Walt Disney now owns.
The Atomic Submarine (1959)
( Not A Corman film- but it should be)
I prefer Corman's older 1950's style monster sci-fi movies and while this film isn't a Roger Corman movie it's from that era and has a similar style. I was in film school when I finally saw this, probably from a cable tv recording. I haven't watched it now in several years but I remember I edited for my own enjoyment/ experiment / practice a different version using the existing footage from my tv recording as there was something about either the pacing or a story element I didn't care for and I re-arranged several scenes in a way that I thought made it a better movie. Lol- I'll have to see if i still have that VHS tape from film school.
( Not A Corman film- but it should be)
I prefer Corman's older 1950's style monster sci-fi movies and while this film isn't a Roger Corman movie it's from that era and has a similar style. I was in film school when I finally saw this, probably from a cable tv recording. I haven't watched it now in several years but I remember I edited for my own enjoyment/ experiment / practice a different version using the existing footage from my tv recording as there was something about either the pacing or a story element I didn't care for and I re-arranged several scenes in a way that I thought made it a better movie. Lol- I'll have to see if i still have that VHS tape from film school.
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