Highrise,1980 - Alien space ship steals Rhodes Tower from Columbus, Ohio - Unseen/Rare Short Film!!!

[ottoskidoo]

Been wanting to see this since the article in CINEMAGIC!

[kezadrone]

I working with him on Sinbad the fifth voyage just now. Mark Sullivan that is. Along with Ron Cole.

[Kohntarkosz]

Thanks for posting this. I've never seen it before. Looks like the kinda stuff HBO used to show between movies back in the early 80's. Always loved seeing things like this.

[EricSchwin22]

Yea, this is a pretty cool video, but at the same time it makes me wonder too.

Who knows? Maybe one day a real Alien Space Craft will take the White House to the moon...wouldn't surprise me if the Government knew about this all along.

[jasnishirlin68]

nice piece..

[SFVAfilms]

I just found a cool article about the making of this film in an old magazine download. It was in Cinamagic #23. It is a free download.

[TK42138]

This is superb. As someone brought up on the original Star Wars movies, Harryhausen, etc, just love the traditional 'old skool' effects. Even Tim Burton when he made 'Mars Attacks' tried to make the CGI look 'old skool'

This short is the real deal!

[kezadrone]

Really great for 1980 on a near zero budget.

[stu741zyphia158]

1:33 wow i never knew there were cacti on other planets.

[KASPLARFO]

If that space monster dropped that building, it would fall at the speed of gravity, ... just like the World Trade Center on 9/11 during the Controlled Demolition Inside Job.

[NeuterSkooter]

Gay

[wacnac1]

@wacnac1 YOURE STUPID!

[wacnac1]

*LOL* 

[ytfjordan]

Im being completely serious when I say that this is kinnda sucks :( That building that tipped near the end looked so fake, it looked like melting butter. Those laser/lighting effects look terrible. Ive seen SO MUCH better from the 80's. And why does everybody love this? What is there to love? How is there only one man on that planet if that machine keeps taking buldings over there with people in it?! This just sucks all around...sorry, no offense. :(

[seanseng61]

wow why cant people make movies look so realistic anymore the 80s ROCK!!!

[2020wonderbred]

Thanks for uploading - guess the aliens wanted to drop the guy a soda machine but didn't know how to detach it from the tower lobby.

[motile2]

didn't think I would but...yep, loved it

[TohriTheLoneOne]

Drop. Smash. Dammit who put butter on the spaceship's claw fingers e.e?

[Eddyles]

I can't help but find this hilarious but incredibly inspiring at the same time, thanks for uploading.

[LassoProductions]

@Eddyles

Very well put! That really sums it up!

[TheTLTLHeadquarters]

This is amazing work, we want a copy.

[waggabiggadoo]

PRETTY FUCKING AWESOME!

[greenwhitespartan]

Columbus back then was very pergressive, now that city sucks. old people in Columbus, the baby boom are cool. But my generation age less than 46 years old group there are unwelcoming in that city. I like the art effects. I live in that city a few years and few years too long.

[Replay54321]

why would they do that?

[SFVAfilms]

I loved it. This is definately a stop motion short masterpiece! Thanks for posting it!!

[moiriv415]

alien nigga stole my highrise

[FeastedUpon]

Cool, but what is the point of the taking of a building just to merely move it?

[kastanienbaum007]

Lmao!! the transporter

[JillyWill1]

ive actually seen this, mark sullivan showed it to our elect. illustration class. he's a great concept artist

[MrSirMrSirMr]

I presume Mark Sullivan is "Mark Sullivan (I)" on imdb?

[hobbang2]

at the end.. wow

We need that technology now!!

We need a building that will bounce off when it smashes int other object!!

This is a discovery!!!!

:(

[Playtime00]

great find :) and the visual effects are pretty good too

[Backin2time]

...Great sound EFXS!!!

[wilburn78]

i grew up in columbus ohio and thats the first time i seen this vid that was awsome.

[kirk92270]

check out my video california dreamin in columbus ohio thanks.

[beerwolf1]

I work in the Rhodes tower. Pretty funny to see it stolen by Aliens!

[darowick]

Wonderful! Absolutely makes no sense but wonderful! Love it!

[majornanook]

I think the alien thing was trying to smash the guy with the skyskrapers

[mcorivervsaf]

Great short film! I first saw this on cable TV a long time ago! It might have been on The Movie Channel (TMC) for filler material in between movies, but I'm not 100% sure. It might have been MTV's Liquid Television for all I know. Anyone else remember seeing this on cable TV? The weird thing about this short is that I only saw it ONCE, and never again until I saw it up here! Thanks for the upload, LassoProductions!

[Bidil6]

Not bad for A science fiction home made film. I would of liked to have seen more of it for character analysis but what I saw was good. Good job!

[resington]

pretty gud for 1980

[meowza3k]

i too borrowed this from the library in the early 90's. Probably saw it at a Drexel sci-fi movie marathon or on Night Flight too.

great stuff!

[Bacardicus]

Wow. I remember seeing clips of this short on one of the numerous MTV-style late night LA area video programs hosted by then-DJ Frasier Smith around 1981 and the image of the insect-like spacecraft dropping the building on (actually near) the guy in the desert always stuck in my head. For years I wondered if those clips were from some obscure full length movie. Thanks for all the work to get this short posted here.

[animatorIsomer]

Awesome Work! The matte paintings are incredibly beautiful. This copy of the film looks like it could use a digital remastering even though it's still in pretty good shape, it would worth cleaning up even further because quite frankly - I would consider this film to be a landmark low budget film to be preserved for the ages.

Kudos also to the other name on the credits - Kenneth Walker is a dude I haven't heard from in ages. If you're out there somewhere Kenny, Helloooo! Please get in touch!

[LassoProductions]

I agree totally! Actually I already did quite a bit of "digital remastering". As I said I made a video copy of a 16mm print from a library 20 years ago. The library got rid of all films shortly there after. This copy had some sproket damage at the end. What you see here is much better than what I had. I don't know it there are any other film copies of this anywhere???

[kuhnigget]

I wondered about that Kenneth Walker name. He's the same guy who did the music for Don Dohler's Alien Factor, isn't he? I remember an article on the construction of a model spaceship he made in another issue of Cinemagic.

[animatorIsomer]

Ken Walker is a multitalented guy, he did the music for a number of productions including The Deadly Spawn. But I mostly knew him as a great machinist who created the mechanics for a bunch of live action creature puppets and stop motion puppets as well.

[MattBL]

Wow that is awesome!

[StopMoWorks]

Us ol' schoolers in home brew Stop Motion animation and Special Effects, originally read about HighRise in an old magazine, CINEMAGIC. I still have issue #23 and Mark describes overview of methods used to create all the effects. This was before Computers & tons of software tools now. HighRise shot with Bolex 16mm Reflex movie camera and Mark used old classic cinema special effects techniques. Hard to believe, this was done almost 30 years ago. This is really a treat to finally be able to see.

[Honestinwilkesbarre]

I remember reading and rereading the article on HighRise. This is the first time I've actually seen it.

CINEMAGIC, loved that mag. It was The original "Indy Mogul", way back before there was a World Wide Web.

Wish I could get hold of scans of those mags.

[kuhnigget]

They pop up on eBay every now and then.

[hugh1959]

Holy moses! I work in that building! I first saw this film in the 80s. When I saw it today, I just had to show it to some of my coworkers in the Rhodes Tower.

[LassoProductions]

Cool! I'm curious - where did you see this film in the 80's?

[simple11q]

This is great! concept, idea, and execution!

[gideonse]

Amazing, on so many levels.