Continuing with a list of productions that I’ve worked on in the past, we’re at the Video-related stuff:
1988 – The Mira Loma High School Video Yearbook 1988 – Cameo and Special Thanks to.
From 1984 to 1988 (ages 14 to 18), I went to Mira Loma High School in Sacramento, California. I had worked on the printed Yearbook for my graduating year (1987-1988), which in turn had lead to a near career in journalism (more on that in another post or two… or more… aka It’s complicated!!).
It should be noted though, I (and the rest of the ML Yearbook staff) won the San Juan Unified School District CERTIFICATE OF RECOGNITION WRITERS’ FAIR – FIRST PLACE AWARD – For Writing Excellence in the 1988 Writers’ Fair. The actual certificate with my name on it resides within my personal copy of the actual ’87/’88 annual.
Ironically enough, I had actually taken yearbook class in my senior year for reasons that had little to do with becoming a writer (I wanted to do science-fiction/fantasy and comic book super-hero tales… I had actually done my year-long freshman English class “daily journal” (with my English teacher, Mrs. Lattimer’s permission) as a series of Doctor Who adventures (this was during 1984-85, during the Sixth Doctor’s televised adventures) the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker, long multi-colured scarf, “teeth and curls” – as his past self would say in The Five Doctors) with his companions Roman II (played by Lalla Ward in the actual TV series) and robot dog K-9 mark II (voiced mainly by John Leeson on TV). Needless to say, I got A’s for that on-going Time Lord tales. It would be barely a year later, that I wrote Sixth Doctor stories for myself… maybe those tales will show themselves in the future…?).
The main reason that I took Year Book class for my senior year was that in the previous yearbook, for my junior year, my main picture near my name in my class was not of me, but another student (who looked NOTHING like me at all!) that had LEFT the school not even half-way through the year! W… t… F…?!?
Needless to say, I was NOT going to let that shit happen for my senior year!
*LOL* So, taking the class was to ENSURE that such a screw-up would not mar my senior pictorial experience! My interest in movies, however, allowed me to write the movie page for the annual tome. *LOL* That in itself lead to a near career in writing, but that story will have to wait for now…
In an ironic twist, I ended up not only writing several pages of the Yearbook, I also ended up appearing in several pictures on pages that I didn’t write! *LOL* Especially the LARGE pic of me [will be adding more details here soon!]
A classmate of mine, Mike Hine, was the main driving force for the Video Yearbook and I had helped out with distributing the fliers and co-manning the sales table in the quad (hence, the Special Thanks in the end credits). I can be seen (likely at age 18 and totally beardless, though I DID grow one early on, my mom didn’t like the older look it gave me and compelled me to shave it! Grrrr! About a year or two later, I let it grow out into a “Commander Riker“. *LOL*) very briefly at about 4:19-4:23/4:24 into the youtube copy of it above that someone had posted after finding a copy back in 2010.
The release of the Video Yearbook, though popular with some students, proved to a bit controversial with parents at the time, due to some of the subjects (drugs in particular) discussed. I had told Mike about the eneviable backlash I foresaw (though I liked the iconoclastness of it), he thought not to worry about it. Still, it stands as a snapshot of the class of 1988 on VHS and now, thanks to a found copy decades later, viewable on youtube!
If you thought the cover art to the VHS as seen in the flier above looked somewhat familiar, you’re right! It’s a homage of The Lost Boys (1987) movie poster! It’s signed R. Parks ’87… in-between the cameraman’s hair and jacket collar along the viewers’ left side of the picture. I’ll have to figure out who that is…
The main soundtrack heard in the ML Vid Yeabook is, in order of appearance:
- “Revolution” by The Beatles
- “My Generation” by The Who
- “40” by UB40
- “Can’t Explain” by The Who
Some famous (and at least one infamous, get to that one a bit later *eak!*) alums include: John Powell (graduated in 1965; an Olympic track and field athlete who holds a world record for discus throwing); Sam J. Jones (graduated in 1968; known for playing the title character in the 1980 movie Flash Gordon and more recently for portraying a version of himself in Seth MacFarlane‘s Ted movies), James House (grad in 1973; a country music musician and writer, he has two albums, a Top 10 hit (“This Is Me Missing You“) and has written songs for Diamond Rio, Martina McBride and Dwight Yoakam); Dalton James (actor, see below); Alex Honnold (grad: 2003; a noted record holding mountain free climber).
For a close-up of Dalton James, we were at Mira Loma at the same time, though I think that he was in my sister’s graduation class. My sister knew him better than I did (I think she was friends with his then-girlfriend).
Dalton became an actor and has appeared on TV series including Sisters, Crossroads (an excellent, but short-lived series with Robert Urich), Beverly Hills, 90210 (as “Mark Reece”), Passions (as “Hank Bennett”), the TV movie The Substitute (co-starring Amanda Donohoe of Lair of the White Worm and L.A. Law fame and Mark Wahlberg (credited back then as “Marky Mark”) and written by David S. Goyer (the films Dark City, the second and third Blade movies Christopher Nolan’s Batman / Dark Knight trilogy, Man of Steel, Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, the TV series Da Vinci’s Demons and Constantine – just to name a few!) under a pseudonym) and the films Encino Man and My Father the Hero (co-starring as the romantic male lead opposite Katherine Heigl with Gérard Depardieu as her father) and Thrill Kill.
One day, in 1991 or 1992, my sister told me that Dalton was going to be in one of my favorite TV shows… At first I thought, Star Trek: The Next Generation?!? *Cool* But, noooooo, my other fave show at the time: McGyver! McGyver starred Richard Dean Anderson (later of Stargate: SG-1 fame – another fave show of mine!). She didn’t know what character he was gonna play though, at the time…! When the episode aired, it was the series finale – “The Stringer” (7.13, #139, from 1992) – and WOW what a BIG role to play! *NO SPOILERS*
You can check it out and wonder as I have, as to why Dalton‘s character wasn’t in the two post-series McGyver TV movies that followed – The Lost Treasure of Atlantis (with Brian Blessed – Sam J. Jones’ co-star in the 1980 film Flash Gordon) and Trail to Doomsday – both from 1994…
Post-script note: Although “The Stringer” (which aired April 25, 1992) is the actual series finale, another episode, “The Mountain of Youth” (featuring Mac’s recurring air pilot buddy, “Jack Dalton“, played by Bruce McGill of Animal House and Rizzoli & Isles fame) that occurs chronologically well BEFORE the finale aired later on May 21, 1992.
For a truly infamous alumni, there was unfortunately also Richard Chase (grad: 1968; a schizophrenic blood-drinking cannibalistic serial killer and former mental patient dubbed “The Vampire Killer“. Chase went on a month-long crime spree that included six murders, drinking the blood and even eating some of his victims (he had previously drank the blood and ate the organs of various animals, hence the vampire/Dracula names being used to describe him and his crimes) and necrophilia from December 1977 to January 1979. He committed suicide in prison in 1980.
On television, the CSI season 1 (2000-2001) episode “Justice Is Served” (1.21, #21, from 2001) and the Criminal Minds season 1 (2005-2006) episode “Blood Hungry” (1.11, #11, from 2005) are both based upon his crimes.
The 1987 feature film Rampage, directed by William Friedkin (of The French Connection and The Exorcist fame) and starring Michael Biehn, (The Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, Tombstone, The Rock, Planet Terror), Alex MacArthur (Knots Landing, the Desperado TV movies, Conspiracy Theory, Kiss the Girls and “the boyfriend” in Madonna’s “Papa Don’t Preach” music video) and Nicholas Campbell (The Spy Who Loved Me, The Brood, The Dead Zone, Diamonds, Da Vinci’s Inquest / Da Vinci’s City Hall, Cinderella Man) was loosely based upon Chase‘s crimes. The original ending of Rampage had the fictional “Charles Reece” (McArthur) commit suicide in prison like Chase actually had, but after the film’s American wide release became delayed (the distributor DEG had gone bankrupt), director Friedkin created an alternate ending in which “Reece” is sent to a mental hospital and is said to be up for parole hearing (can you hear the “DENIED!”?). European video versions usually feature the original ending. Location filming for Rampage was done in nearby Stockton instead of Sacramento.
Okay, I really went deep, deep, deeeeeep into interconnected trivia relating to my alma mater, so now back to video projects that I had worked on…
2009 – Premiere Night Featurette -As myself (director/actor/writer, etc. of The Undoing).
A short featurette (the 2010 edit runs about 6:12) about the premiere night (Wednesday, October 28, 2009) of the short film The Undoing.
Directed by Mike Bustillos and recorded by Ira Williams III. A slightly new version (with some different footage) was edited by David Perkins in 2010 for the DVD release of The Undoing. Trevor R. Todd‘s “Scathing Indictment” (from his 2007 album Scathing Indictment of the Righteous) was used as the background music.
The Undoing played to a full house and the after party at Marilyn’s on K – where star/writer/musician Trevor R. Todd and his then-actual band Seven Foot Fetish (so named as he’s 6-foot 10!) played (as you can see in the featurette). Marilyn’s on K has sadly now closed, but was featured greatly in The Undoing‘s climatic finale (you can see the marque of Marilyn’s in the featurette with Trevor as “Jessie” and his crew walk towards the bar)!
2009 – The Undoing Outtakes (2:37) – The blooper reel!
Fun stuff on a sometimes tense set… Check out the framed picture falling off the wall, microphones dropping into frame and and Trevor’s notorious (and accidental) “nip-slip”! *LOL* We seem to have a problem with gravity here… Well, it was pretty funny to cast and crew at the time! *heh heh*
There are actually two different cast and crew script read-throughs that weren’t on the video release of The Undoing that were somewhat funny as well…
VIDEO and things like it, to be continued…