Publicity
Young filmmakers learn craft by doing
Their two-year project becomes one-hour science fiction thriller
By Michael Cronk (as printed in the San Jose Mercury News on August 17, 1983)
Budding teen-age filmmakers John Ottman and Bud Robertson decided two years ago that the best way to learn their craft was by making a movie themselves. They also knew they'd have fun doing it.
So they borrowed a super 8 movie camera, turned a garage into a movie set, enlisted friends, neighbors, and teachers to handle the acting chores, and financed the film through part-time jobs.
The movie was finished this summer. "Ultimatum" is a one-hour science fiction thriller about an alien race that attempts to introduce an infectious virus into the Earth's atmosphere and turn its human inhabitants into mindless slaves.
Ottman and Robertson co-wrote, produced, and directed the film, starting the project when they were seniors at Gunderson High School in South San Jose.
The film premiered June 25 at the high school.
"We both love science fiction," said Robertson, 18.
They are pleased with the way their space movie turned out, but they admit it has shortcomings.
"The worst scenes in the film are the ones we shot firs," said Ottman, 19. "This was a real learning experience. We learned so much from it, more than you could learn in a film class."
Both are now sophomores studying film at De Anza College in Cupertino.
They spent time every day working on the film. They even built the sets and ...
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...the movie partly explains why it took almost two years to complete. But there were other reasons, too.
They used Robertson's parents' garage for the filming and built 17 different sets.
"Some sets took two or three weeks to build, and we had to get the film back before we knew if we could tear it don or not," Ottman said. "We'd shot a scene with one set and then have the actors leaving it. The next scene they'd be going into a hallway that we had built two weeks later."
To make the movie's characters more believable, the young directors recruited "older" people. "We used anybody we could find," Ottman said. "They didn't have acting training, but they showed enthusiasm for what we were doing and they were willing to do it."
Sixty to 70 people filled the movie's 76 roles. Some of them doubled up on parts.
Four of the actors are teachers at Gunderson High. Chemistry teacher Bob Ferber played a chemist. Math teacher Victor Holob, drama teacher Betty Gardner and film and art teacher Ron Root served as extras.
A next-door neighbor, Jerry Mullins, played the evil alien spaceship commander.
Ottman and Robertson spent $3,200 to make the film and an additional print.
The commercial possibilities of super 8 film are limited, they said. They've screened "Ultimatum" at the San Jose Movie Club, of which they are members. The club, which meets once a month, allows filmmakers to screen their efforts, learn technique, and have a guaranteed audience.
"Ultimatum" is a message picture. When the people of Earth are threatened, their countries band together to fight. At the end of the film, the flags of the United States and the Soviet Union, the the flags of all the nations, are displayed.
"The message is that we are all one people," Ottman said. "We should try to be that way all the time. It's stupid to have seperate worlds on one planet.
Ottman and Robertson are working independently on film projects. Ottman, who first filmed 15- and 20-minute movies in the sixth and eighth grades, is working on a movie with a supernatural theme. Robertson describes his film as...
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