From: jittlov@gumby.cs.caltech.edu (Mike Jittlov)
 Newsgroups: alt.fan.mike-jittlov,rec.arts.movies
 Subject: My Life as a GHOST
 Date: 23 Oct 92 15:50:00 GMT


                        MY LIFE AS A GHOST

 In time for Halloween (1990) Jittlov finally answers Questions from:

 Matt Washburn (aka Squid) <0ez000939@bullwinkle.ucdavis.edu>
 Chuck A. Nicholas 
 T. Archer, @ University of Tennessee              (and others..)


 >I have a question though.  I know Jittlov was involved in "GHOST".
 >One of the guys from CWI up here mentioned at one point that his
 >job was to be a stunt stand-in.

 Originally, the "Dark Spirits" were full-size armatured skeletons, and
 stop-motion-animated to coordinate with the actor's movements.  The
 skeletal demons looked pretty fierce.  I don't recall the exact reason
 they chose me over the figures - but from my own experience on SWING
 SHIFT (my 1973 short film promotional), it can be surprisingly difficult
 to smoothly animate 6-foot armatures.  John knew from WIZARD, that I was
 expert at stop-motioning myself.  Add a full-body costume, and it just
 might make things a little easier.

 >Evidently the scene where the murderer bites it and gets dragged
 >away needed a lot of depth of field.  So what do they do?  They
 >hire Jittlov to put on an outfit and animate himself over a long
 >period of time.

   Jeez, it's wonderful how rumor can simplify history.  And it's very
 tempting to leave it at that.  But...

   John Van Vliet once animated the spirits for RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK.
 Kathy Kean once animated the spirits and witch woman for CONAN.  They
 met and married, and formed their own Burbank company - Available Light
 - gathered some of the finest artists under their roof, and are now
 justifiably reknown for their effects animation (check out HONEY I BLEW
 UP THE KID).
   We'd known each other since 1980, when John (then working at ILM)
 bought a 16mm print of the original WIZARD short from me, and showed it
 to George Lucas [that's another story].  In 1986, when I was in the throes
 of completing the WIZARD feature's 400+ special effects scenes by myself,
 with virtually no money, John let me use his rotoscope equipment.
   It was complete trust - "Here're the keys, here're the alarm codes,
 track your own hours and whatever materials you use, just make a miracle."
 Friendship like that is extremely rare in Hollywood.  Or anywhere.  I was
 very happy to get the opportunity to repay some of that, when John needed
 help on GHOST.
   Well, almost.  I read the script.  Good story, by the same guy who
 wrote BRAINSTORM.  But I was supposed to play all these shadowy things,
 called "clickers", that drag souls off to Hollywood South.
   "John...I'm sorry, but I don't do evil spirits." - "No, Mike, they're
 _not_ evil, they're more like, chauffeurs to hell, they're taking this
 _slimy, murderous, evil, business partner_ to a more appropriate place."
 (John is a wizard at knowing the right buttons to tap.)

   A small digression for background info:  in early 1986, I became aware
 of some problems in our corporate bookkeeping records.  My esteamed
 business partner, who was also our Corporate Secretary-Treasurer and CFO,
 promised that he'd put everything in order, no money was missing, there
 was nothing to worry about, I should just get back to work.  When I
 couldn't find _any_ books of account, I called our Financier and urged
 him to have his own accountant look into this.  The Financier downplayed
 it, but finally said he'd have a little talk with my e.b.p.
   A few weeks later, I got a call from a life insurance company,
 apparently to reinstate the Financier's policy on me.  I had no problem
 with that.  Fine, they just needed a token medical exam, they'd send a
 paramedic right to my house.  However, my chance question revealed the
 beneficiary of the $1,000,000 policy on my life was not the Financier.
 It was to be split between my e.b.p. and his close friend, the president
 of SGE (who would later distribute our movie without my authorization).
   Against the agent's protests, I cancelled the exam.  And I called my
 e.b.p.  His voice was shaking, he was sorry he hadn't told me about it
 first, but it had to be done, and he deserved the policy because he'd
 been working with me for so long on this project.  I said that if anyone
 deserved a million-dollar-policy on me, it was my mother.  Fine, urged
 the e.b.p., he'd be willing to negotiate, he'd even cut her in for half!
           [End digression - but things got more bizarre]

   Suffice it to say, I had no problem with my acting motivation for
 this role.  And actually, it was quite cathartic.  My spirit-shades
 were being directed by John Van Vliet to grab, rake, and otherwise
 attack this film's embezzling murderer.  And it was a great exercise
 for the imagination - because there was nothing else to work with.

 >>>>(letter lost - but someone asked for details on the
      GHOST garb, in order to make a Halloween costume)

   Ah, the costume.  First, my old black pants, a black sweater, and
 two pairs of black socks (the floor was very cold).  Then a pair of
 long black gloves, painted with white skeleton bones.  And then the
 spirit garb (fashioned by animator Beth Block) - a silk tube-robe, with
 an explosion of shredded white silk and hundreds of gauze strips hanging
 from the shoulders and arms, all attached to a stiffly-domed hood with a
 skull-mask.  (It was an aerial spirit - there were no legs - until the
 director saw the footage, changed his mind, and we had to reshoot most
 of it later.)
   It all felt very spooky, very surreal...I was wearing an isolation
 tank - completely covered, my only contact with reality through the two
 little eye-holes on the mask.  Checked a mirror - I looked more like
 Captain Jicama, or an albino Scarecrow of Oz.  And I kept singing,
 "If I only had a brain.."  Luckily, no one could hear me over the roar
 of the wind-machines.
   "What were wind machines for?", you may wonder.
   The stop-motion (pixilation, technically) was being filmed with long
 exposures - 8 seconds of open shutter, 8 seconds closed/recycle. I would
 hold my position (or move, for a needed blur), while the wind machines
 whirled the costume around me, to cause a "spirit flame" aura.  (The
 effect honestly seemed too chaotic to me - but it wasn't my film.)  I'd
 take a postion and hold still - 16 seconds - change slightly - 16 seconds
 - and so on, until the camera had filmed 4-7 seconds worth (with 24 frames
 for each movie second).
   We were filming in a large, empty warehouse (code-named "Dead Sam's")
 in Sun Valley (north of Burbank).  The cold cement floor was covered
 with black plastic.  The walls were black-backdropped.  I was acting
 without a target dummy, C-stand, or anything else to reference, to look
 at, to touch, or lean on.  I couldn't see much anyway - the skull mask
 kept slipping lower on my face, we never had time to rework it.

 >>>>So how do you know what to do? Were you touching the actor, or what?

   We never met (until later).  The production footage, of the actors
 flailing at invisible spirits, was shot in New York, and months before.
 John was on that set, noting every camera postion and detail.  And now,
 in this warehouse limbo, he had to duplicate those camera moves and set
 perspectives.  And spirit-shapes had to somehow be generated, that would
 perfectly interact with the filmed performances.
   I studied each shot of the production footage on a Moviola, and drew
 storyboards with critical gestures at certain frame numbers.  I gave
 those count-downs to John, Bill Arance, Joseph Thomas and/or Deven
 Chierighino (my feature's co-star, "David Conrad", i got him involved),
 and had the numbers shouted at me through the wind-machines' racket.
   Again, the only thing I was reacting to was my own projections - of
 every ounce and ion of anger, every frustration I'd been holding inside
 for the past 6 years, and firing them at my e.b.p. - wherever he might be.
 [I'm a Los Angeles native.  This behavior is considered normal.]
   Unknown to me, said e.b.p. was out of the country - attending MIFED in
 Milan, Italy (where does he get the $$$$$ for these trips?).  But a month
 later I got a call - had I heard what happened?  My e.b.p. had suddenly
 been attacked by one of his fellow distribution consultants, and soundly
 beaten up.  ("Coincidence?  Or Fate?  YOU be the Judge!")
             (or like, hey, his Karma just ran over his Dogma, y'know?  8>

 >And Mike had to stop when his back went out.

   No, I have a very strong back now, quite proud of it.  Though that
 wasn't the case in 1977-8, when I was diagnosed with pretty hopeless
 arthritis, and my lower spine was disintegrating.  I remember using my
 camera tripod as a crutch - I was determined to complete TIME TRIPPER,
 and got the last shot just minutes before they turned off Hollywood's
 Xmas lights.  Two doctors said I'd be lucky to walk again.  But in the
 fall of 1979, I was running 20mph, in a green robe, for the original
 WIZARD OF SPEED AND TIME filmshort.  [And that's Another Story - where
 I learned some very important lessons about healing, and subliminals,
 and the real magic of movies...and also that "M.D." doesn't stand for
 "Minor Diety".  I saw a recent x-ray, my back is perfect.]

   What happened, was a severe muscle spasm.  Allow me to illustrate:
 Hold your arm out from your body, for 5 minutes.  Does it hurt?  Every
 body feels the same thing, there's no real damage, the pain's in your
 mind.  So...keep it out there, don't relax it, and hold it for another
 5 minutes.  Just remember, "pain is certain, suffering is optional".
   Now try continuing that...for, oh...another 80 minutes.  With both
 hands and arms out.  And maybe one leg.  Eventually moving yourself a
 quarter inch, every 16 seconds, in the slowest t'ai-chi possible, in a
 simulated three-step walk over a 55-foot stretch, that when stop-motion
 filmed and projected at normal speed will look like a wraith coming out
 of the ground, and stalking forward to grab an invisible and intangible
 moving target.  And it all has to look natural.
   If you blow it, if you forget to move a finger right or arc an arm
 left, if you sneeze or itch or lose your balance, then you've just
 cost the production many hours of time, and much money.  There is not
 a little pressure on you.
   Now keep it up, for 132 hours.  After we worked out just how to do
 this, after tests, trials, takes, and director's retakes, I had enough
 wits and energy for the gaggle of geists (I was all of them) at the
 feature's finale scene.  Then (and during) I had to contend with SGE's
 plans for releasing/dumping my own feature, and then biting my pride
 for a last-ditch chance to edit the video version to a better cut.

 >I have been very impressed with your work and your integrity. I remember
 >reading about your work on Ghost in Cinefex.  The people interviewed made
 >it very clear that you were a) a true professional and b) some one of
 >sufficient integrity to not do a role of a truely evil person/spirit.
 >They also acknowledged how they almost killed you with the filming of
 >the "clicker" sequence.

 >>It says, "each ghost was shot individually, and Jittlov played them
 >>all, it was punishing work...We almost killed the guy."

   "Ghost Killed - Film at 11!"  Again, I didn't play them all.  When
 I finished the finale scene, John hired a professional mime to fill my
 shrouds.  But after two and a half weeks, it just wasn't working out.
 Animation is more than moving slowly - it is a different reality, and
 timing.  Plus, you have to sense where the changing frame of the motion
 -controled camera is, where the actor is for each frame, where all the
 furniture and props are supposed to be.  Probably drove the mime crazy.
   When pro-animator Bill Arance decided to don the Ghost garb - and
 later, John Van Vliet himself - the sequences were finally completed.
 I heard they were also both pretty much in agony, after the first day.
 Bill said he never realized i was in such good shape.  They did the Dark
 Spirits that are seen earlier in the film (who drag the street-thug away)
 - and did them perfectly (I like their moves much better than mine).

 >My problem is, as anyone who follows film gossip knows, that I
 >don't know what he did on the film.  I was told he did titles.
 >I was told by ILM he animated the shadow spirits.

 >>Were you actually playing the retribution ghosts or whatever they were
 >>called that picked up the guy and carried him away into the shadows?
 >>I thought you played both the bad guys in a lot of makeup.

   I only did what I said above.  No titles or other characters.  Just
 stop-motion-acted as seven white ghosts.  These were photographed against
 a black background, on b&w film, and the reverse image (black shadows on
 a clear film base) were bi-pack composited into the main production
 footage.  The spirits' shadowy trails were animated (and originated) by
 John and company.
   Well, actually, John also had me planned to play some of the angelic
 spirits, when Swayze walks into the heaven-ending.  They'd built some some
 beautiful miniatures in the warehouse, and shot breathtaking boiling-cloud
 backgrounds - but that sequence was then assigned to BOSS (another effects
 house) and done by computer.  Politics, time, who knows...

 >>>at CWI he stood still on camera.  Does some one know?  I would
 >>>normally just be curious, but all the different answers are
 >>>perplexing.  And I can't find the copy of Cinefex.

 Excellent article, Issue 44, pages 13-14 .  There's also a fine mention
 in American Cinematographer, December 1990, pages 77-78.

 >>I just had my daughter put it on the VCR, and fast-forward
 >>to the credits... and there you are - "Dark Ghost".

   Second credit.  Bill Arance is rightfully credited first.  Though I
 did more ghost-acting, he was much more involved in all the effects
 production, and also did some of the roto-animation.  (And there are
 a lot more people at Available Light that should be credited here...)

 Postscript:  I told John to get some publicity mileage out of this,
 it'd be a great story on ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT.  And ET was HQ'd at
 Paramount's lot.  But Paramount's PR department nixed it, stating they
 didn't want anyone to know about the special effects, or any of their
 movie's supernatural elements.  (In GHOST?  C'mon...)
   This was said the same day that A TV commercial aired in L.A., using
 the scene with my spirits hauling the villain away.  I taped the ad,
 and called John.  John called Paramount - who now said they'd already
 done a piece on the special effects weeks ago, that ET had interviewed
 ILM (which had done the easier pass-throughs), and that was good enough.
   John hired a PR man of his own, and got a reporter from a local TV
 news station to video an interview at Available Light.  And he also
 called me.  I brought some radio-control gear, put on the spook suit,
 slipped a little sound-effects toy in my glove, and sat in a chair just
 as the TV reporter and crew arrived and set up lights.  About 15 minutes
 later, she began the interview.
   John gave a great spiel, showed the many rotoscoped cels, his beautiful
 storyboards, the equipment, the detailed technology involved, and picked
 up the remote control to demonstrate the mechanical ghost.
   I slowly clicked and whirred to micro-life.  They were awed.  John
 inched a knob, my hand rotated; John moved a joy-stick, my arm racheted
 to an odd angle.  The reporter stepped closer to check out the figure.
 And nearly broke my eardrums, when I turned to say hello.
   ...They didn't air the footage.  Pity.

 ________________________________________ ___._`.*.'_._ ________
  Mike Jittlov - Wizard, etc       .   . +  * .o   o.* `.`. +.
   Hollywood, CA 90026-2714       '   *  . ' ' |\^/|  `. * .  *
 jittlov@gumby.cs.caltech.edu  (: May All Your  \V/  Good Dreams
   <& alt.fan.mike-jittlov>    and Fine Wishes  /_\  Come True:)
 ============================================= _/ \_ ===========

 (c) 1992 by Mike Jittlov (for all the protection that affords)