Melanie Anne Phillips

Hey, cats and kittens!  Today I'm continuing this new year's project of organizing all my old archival material.  This includes all the music, photos, movies, writings, and even old memories that I've created and collected over the decades. Basically, I've always been so forward-focused and innovation-seeking that I've never stopped to realize I've left this rubble trail of old ideas and creations in my wake.  In fact, I'm kind of anchored to it.  You really can't escape the past, you can (at best) stay one step ahead of it.  A single slip, though, and it all piles into you from behind.  Worse, every year you live that thundering beast on your heels is getting bigger and meaner.  I'm beginning to suspect we never just die - we simply get consumed by our own history. I suppose some can just turn around, yell at their past and shout, "Get out of here - I don't love you any more!"  And others may pretend it isn't really there. ...

1976 - Futuristic Space City set. Another special effect from the same movie I made as a kid. Again, in the film the "city" is much brighter and due to the lower resolution of Super-8, it degraded the image enough to look like it was distant. Made this one with items from around the house (can't you tell?) - some of my mom's perfume bottles, some green plastic dishes from our camping set, even the flash reflector from my still camera looking like a satellite dish.

1976 - A Black Hole. Special effect from one of my early movies. Made by placing an upside down bowl on a piece of black velvet, then sprinkling around the bowl with flour and hitting the velvet with a strong light. This is actually a poor image - the one in the movie looks like brilliant white-hot stars against a pitch black background as the camera slowly zooms into the center. Keep in mind, this was before computers and CG - everything had to be mechanically created.

Click the link to read Amazon.com reviews for a horror film I directed in the 1980s.  Scroll down on the page to see one customer's video review, if you dare..... http://www.amazon.com/Strangeness-Dan-Lunham/product-reviews/B002JUP8GA/ref=cm_cr_dp_synop?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending#R1ZWBAK47791KS