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

Many years ago local libraries had 16mm film collections. I found this film at the Grandview Library in Columbus, Ohio. I loved this short film and transfered it to video. I always wondered who made it. Well recently, I finally put it all together. This film was made by Mark Sullivan while I believe he was still attending Columbus College of Art and Design. Mark went on to become one of the best matte painters in Hollywood. I recently emailed Mark and told him that others need to see this film. He gave me permission to post this on You Tube. More about Mark's accomplishments follow. Mark's website: www.digitalmatte.com


Mark Sullivant: Matte painter and special effects supervisor at ILM who entered American film with SAHARA (1983). Other notable credits include ALLAN QUARTERMAIN AND THE LOST CITY OF GOLD (1986), NADINE, THROW MOMMA FROM THE TRAIN, WHO'S THAT GIRL and MY DEMON LOVER (all 1987), RAIN MAN (1988), INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE, GHOSTBUSTERS II and THE ABYSS (all 1989), AKIRA KUROSAWA'S DREAMS (1990, also special effects supervisor), THE DOORS, BACKDRAFT, THE ROCKETEER, HOOK and BUGSY (all 1991), TOYS (1992), THE HUDSUCKER PROXY and WYATT EARP (both 1994), NIXON (1995), PLEASANTVILLE and ANTZ (both 1998), THE MUMMY and STAR WARS: EPISODE I - THE PHANTOM MENACE (both 1999), TO EASE THE LOSS (2001), STAR WARS: EPISODE II - ATTACK OF THE CLONES (2002), THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST (2004) and APCALYPTO (2006).
 Nominated for Achievement in Visual Effects 1991: HOOK (w. Eric Brevig, Harley Jessup & Michael Lantieri)
1 nomination


Here is what Mark had to say about his early years:

The swirling aura of artistic aspiration suffused my juvenile noggin upon my first viewing of the 1933 uberclassic, King Kong. The handcrafted mighty ape moving within layers of meticulously painted panes of glass, representing the nearly infinitely vine encrusted environs of Skull Island, seized my imagination like nothing else. My enthusiasm for those black and white single frame animated tableaus fueled futile attempts of recreating the glorious scenes with clay dinosaurs animated in Super 8 millimeter, in front of my own crudely painted scenic backgrounds. Several years of this hobby pursuit spawned an abiding interest in painting, animation, and motion picture visual effects, and led me into a career path that allowed me the opportunity of working such diverse film projects as House, House 2, Bugsy, The Hudsucker Proxy, Pleasantville, and Starship Troopers.
I studied painting at the Columbus College of Art and Design, and have worked for Chiodo Bros. Productions, Jim Danforth, Dreamquest Images, Industrial Light and Magic, and independently.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• alien
• space
• ship
• animation
• film
• Mark
• Sullivan
• matte
• painter
• columbus
• ohio
• rhodes
• tower
• unseen
• rare
• cool
• awesome
• short
• 1980
• lassoproductions

[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!

[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???

[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?

[gideonse]

Amazing, on so many levels.

[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.

[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.