FILMOGRAPHY
FILMOGRAPHY
#1 - 50 | #51 - 100 | #101 - 150 | #151 - 200 | #201 - 250
as "SILLY FILMS INC."
1989
1. Jimmy Rolfe Versus the Punching Bag
approx. 15 minutes
A movie about the clumsiest and youngest boxer in the world who was so stupid,
he couldn't even defeat his own punching bag.
1991
2. Escape From Monster Island (puppets)
approx. 15 minutes
A King Kong rip-off about a group of characters traveling to an island and encountering
bizarre creatures.
1992
3. Return to Monster Island (puppets)
approx. 10 minutes
The survivors from the first one, return to the island in search of something
that they left behind in this dumb monotonous sequel.
4. Spirit
approx. 2 hours long!
Ambitious but brainless production about child Ghostbusters who must combat
evil spirits. Nice ideas and high energy, but overlong with barely any story
structure. Production days were scattered over 6 months and I moved to a new
neighborhood in the middle of it, so not only the locations change halfway through
the movie, but so does the entire cast! The ghosts were created using a special
trick of mine. Drawing them and superimposing them through the camera's title
display function. It was weird.
1993
5. Batman Returns Again (puppets)
Approx. 25 minutes
Inspired by Tim Burton's two Batman movies, I decided to make the next sequel
on my own using Batman figures. This movie is just as much fun as watching a
little kid playing with toys, whichever way you want to look at that.
6. Smogo (puppets)
26 minutes
Heavily inspired by Godzilla, I decided to make a monsterseries on my own. I
used a dinosaur figure with a movable jaw and limbs as my star. The plot again
revolved around people who venture to a mysterious island and take back a monster
that goes on a rampage.
7. Smogo versus Tucker (puppets)
19 minutes
When Smogo returns again to threaten humanity, the same group of people responsible
for discovering him travel to another island to find a good creature, a turtle
called Tucker to confront him. Battleships are also brought in to fight Smogo.
8. Smogo versus Trico (puppets)
24 minutes
Smogo returns to demolish the city again, along with three other monsters, until
a good creature convinces him to become a hero. Just like Godzilla, Smogo fights
off the other beasts and saves civilization. What's funny is that Smogo talks.
9. Son of Smogo (puppets)
15 minutes
In this fourth and final chapter in the Smogo series, Smogo is given a son and
together they must battle a monster made of Rocks who wants to take over the
island and become king. Interestingly, each Smogo movie was shot in one day.
The four days were consecutive.
10. Giganga (puppets)
30 minutes
A boring survival story about four people stranded out at sea while an enormous
reptilian creature attacks their boat. Inspired by the second half of "Jaws."
This movie sucks and I wish I never made it.
11. Giganga 2 (puppets)
approx. 15 minutes
Dumb sequel. This time it takes place on the beach. Again a "Jaws"
rip-off.
12. Snix
29 minutes,
later cut to 22, then to 15, and finally to 6 minutes in its
10 year anniversary edition
A friend of mine, Phil, was over my house, so I decided to have him act in a
quick improvised movie. The plot involved a demonic mask that is found harboring
the soul of an ancient warlock who died in the year 1693. Now, three centuries
later, he possesses Phil's body once he wears the mask. Phil had to go home,
so I cloned him with a hand-puppet and finished the movie all by myself. See
also: 29. SNIX: THE RETURN, 37. SNIX AGAIN, 52. ROTTEN CORPSE OF SNIX, 53. POSSESSED
MASK OF SNIX and 54. EVIL SPIRIT OF SNIX.
13. The Green Monster That Walked Into My House
9 minutes
My thirteenth movie made when I became thirteen years of age holds true to the
unlucky number thirteen. It's the worst piece of shit I've ever made. It's so
bad that I dont know whether to rank it as my absolute worst or best, because
it is so damn hilarious! What's the plot? A retarded kid is home alone who spends
all his time punching himself in the face and dancing like a chicken. Then,
a green slimey monster comes into the house and tries to eat him, but he makes
monkey noises at it, hits it with a whiffle ball, and then knocks its head off
by ramming it with a boxing glove taped to the end of a stick.
14. House of Horror
approx. 1 hour
I was so enthused about Halloween, I put together this boring disorganized mess
to explore the holiday's various themes and try to get people into the spirit.
It contains some mini-movies such as one where I am trapped inside a pumpkin.
(a closeup of my fingers wiggling out of the jack-o-lantern's mouth) Other segments
include some footage of my Halloween party, myself babbling on about classic
horror films, footage of my annual Haunted House exhibit, and a music video
for "Monster Mash" which actually isn't too bad. I animated several
Halloween scenes such as a witch flying on her broomstick across the full moon
and a Frankenstein monster rising from a laboratory table. They were all done
on the Super NES Mario Paint program and to get the music on them, I had to
play back everything I recorded and videotape the TV screen while playing the
song on my audio tape player. I should have stacked the camera up on some books,
(or a tripod!) but for some reason which is unknown to me today, I held the
camera and it shakes like hell.
15. DinoMen From D-4
10 minutes
This is the first time I was serious about making a movie. I wrote a script,
gathered props and casted all of my friends from the neighborhood to make this
moralistic horror/sci-fi b-movie about a scientist that brings back the dinosaurs
from another dimension where they supposedly departed to. My friends were not
serious about acting and all they did was play around. Soon, nobody was interested
in making this movie at all and it was left unfinished. I thought I'd quit making
movies with live actors forever, because they'd never cooperate.
16. Frankenstein's Monster (puppets)
28 minutes
I decided to go back to my puppets. When I made my remake of the classic horror
tale, I stuck close to the original 1818 novel by Mary Shelley and suprisingly
not the 1931 movie.
17. James Rolfe's Animation Creations (animated)
approx. 6 minutes
I took some Saturday animation classes at the University of the Arts and made
a series of cut-out cartoons which featured people fleeing from dinosaurs, knights
sword-fighting through castles and castaways exploring dangerous jungles. Though
they're rushed and choppy-looking, they're fun to watch.
1994
18. Curse of the Wolf Man (illustrated)
12 minutes
This marked the beginning of a new way to make movies without actors. I had
no figures, toys or puppets that looked like The Wolf Man, so I just drew the
whole story on paper in sequential panels like a comic book and videotaped them
while playing music in the background and narrating the story. I also spoke
the dialogue of all the characters, just like in all my puppet/figure films.
19. Deadly Dreams (illustrated)
20 minutes
Tale of a boy who is chosen by an evil wizard to bring forth the destruction
of the world. A black spell is cast while he sleeps which causes all of his
dreams to come true. Unfortunatley, he can't help but dream of monsters that
kill people. This is my best "illustrated" or "still" movie.
(meaning it's more like a comic book that's being read for you. I draw everything
and do all the voices and sound effects.)
20. The Twilight Zone
3 minutes
Self made nighmarish sequence which shows me wandering about my house encountering
bizarre apparitions at every turn. Bares no relation to the classic TV series,
but uses the music. This is the first movie in which I added music after the
video was shot. I played the movie with my camera pointing toward the TV screen
and re-recorded it while my tape player played the music next to the camera.
21. Godzilla: Monster of the Rising Sun (puppets)
26 minutes
I had a 1 foot tall Godzilla figure, so I couldn't resist making a remake of
the 1954 Japanese classic monster movie. I built a city, using old toys, complete
with miniature toy cars for Godzilla to pick up in his mouth and plenty of buildings
for him to knock over. For the final scene where Godzilla is blown to bits,
I threw in a wooden model T-rex skeleton.
22. Invasion of the Sticky Stuff (puppets)
20 minutes
A remake of the 1958 horror classic "The Blob" but with a totally
different storyline about a guy who vows to turn into a blob after he dies if
anybody invades his grave. I bought this slimy substance called "gak"
and used it for this movie. It was fun devouring human figures with it.
23. The Loch Ness Monster (illustrations, photos,
& film clips)
12 minutes
I was highly interested in cryptozoology, the search for animals unknown to
science, so I made this documentary about Nessie. My mission here was to get
people to be more open minded and realize that there exist species that have
not yet been verified. This documentary was put together well, but I should
have scripted my narration. My improvisational speeches sounded very weak.
24. The Giant Movie Director (puppets)
24 minutes
This is probably my best figure/puppet film, because the plot is appropriate
for toys, because it's about toys that come to life. They awaken from my closet,
without any memory of who they are, and explore my house. Along the way, they
are confronted by my cat, other figures and myself. At the end, I snatch them
all and put them back inside the closet. I'm the giant movie director and I
use them to act in my movies, but their memory is erased each time the movie
is finished. The theme of small people has been done in films like "Dr.
Cyclops", "The Incredible Shrinking Man" or "Honey, I Shrunk
the Kids." It's that sort of movie.
25. Terrorsaur From Outer Space (puppets)
20 minutes
Aliens from outer space abduct a dinosaur egg, keep it alive and dormant for
billions of years and then send it back to Earth, during the present time, where
it's discovered by a scientific exhibition. The egg hatches and a baby velociraptor
comes out and kills off the scientists. It escapes the lab and runs amuck in
the city while it grows larger. There were three phases to its size. I had a
baby Jurassic Park raptor figure for the infant. For the second phase, I used
an adult sized raptor. For the third and final stage, I used a raptor mask and
claws which were supposed to be used in the unfinished "DinoMen From D-4."
I only showed the head and claws, obviously, to suggest an enormous sized creature
which picks up people off the streets and eats them.
26. Dumbo and Dunky
9 minutes
A real stupid movie about an idiotic comedy duo who wears underwear over their
heads and hits each other with plastic baseball bats, arguing over who is more
dumb.
as "J.R. PRODUCTIONS"
1996
27. Transylvania 1996
4 minutes
A fake documentary of myself as a tourist in Transylvania, exploring the woods,
and stumbling upon the ruins of Dracula's castle. It actually took place in
the woods behind my house in New Jersey. where there was an old stone building
that was crumbling away, with vines and trees growing all around it. It's sort
of a Blair-Witch kind of movie, but this was years before it.
28. A Night of Total Terror
29 minutes
My classic about a thief on the run who is stalked by a mysterious gang of thugs
who dress up like monsters. This is the movie that got my friends to act for
me again, for the first time in two years and is the one and only accomplishment
of mine which truly got me started on my new path of movie making! This movie...This
day was the turning point of my life! This is the film that made me realize
that I was destined to become a director and since then, I have been making
movies non-stop. The plot has been remade three times as "The Spread of
Malevolence", "A New Night of Total Terror" and finally "Curse
of the Cat Lover's Grave".
29. Snix: The Return
48 minutes (later cut to 29, then to 9)
I watched all of my old movies and my favorite was "Snix." To me,
it was a classic, so as a joke, I decided to make its sequel after three years.
I grew a lot in the past year and looked completely different, but still played
the same role. I used the same mask from the original which was faded, crinkled
and torn. As well as it being the return of Snix, it was also the return of
me, making movies again like the old days.
30. The Making of A Night of Total Terror
19 minutes
The title speaks for itself. It's a documentary about the movie that changed
my life.
31. Warriors of the Trampoline
approx. 2 hours
All of my friends from the neighborhood used to have wrestling matches on a
trampoline in their backyard. It was lots of fun, so I began videotaping the
fights. The competitors became more dramatic and intense when the camera was
on them. At the end of the summer, I edited a greatest "hits" (all
the best punches, kicks, slams, etc.) music video with the song "Eye of
the Tiger." It was the FIRST EDITING JOB I've ever done! (done using two
regular vcr's)
32. Mighty Joe Rampage (Parts 1 and 2)
17 minutes
I was hanging out in my next door neighbors' backyard one day and they said
they were in the mood to be in another movie, so we made this quick improvised
crime/comedy about two dumb, lazy, undercover cops who are in search of an insane,
hyperactive, equally stupid, masked serial killer who's running around shooting
people while hooked on a terrible potion, which he's invented to give him power.
The killer stands four feet tall wearing a paper mask and sombrero! It was so
funny, we had to make a sequel the next day. Both are 8 minutes long and run
back to back. They're both usually referred to as the same movie. I now had
an audio dubbing remote control for my camera, so this is the first movie where
I dubbed in music and experimented with post-production sound effects and voices.
33. Crazy Carnage (Parts 1 and 2) unfinished
12 minutes
The killer character from "Mighty Joe Rampage" was so funny that we
had to make another sequel. It begins with him escaping from a mental institution
screaming his head off. Then, he goes back home, drinks his potion and goes
even crazier. Just like the first movie, a second part was added. This is when
another killer is introduced who wants to steal his beloved potion. The movie
stopped here, because everybody was complaining about how cold the weather was.
My favorite part was when Joe climbs up a chimney and then falls off!
34. Monster Music Videos (assembled footage)
13 minutes
The Halloween season was approaching, so I decided to make a series of music
videos, using footage from existing monster movies. I edited them primitively
using two ordinary vcr's, while playing the songs repeatedly to try and choreograph
them with the film clips. After I had all my footage edited, I dubbed the songs
over the footage, using my audio dubbing remote control. I did music videos
for "The Monster Mash", "Ghostbusters", "The Blob",
"Creature From the Black Lagoon", "The Green Slime" and
an instrumental horror theme from a video game, Killer Instinct. The results
are really fun to watch, considering how primitive my techniques were. People
were actually in disbelief that I made this all by myself without any professional
video equipment. See also 42. FEELING OF TERROR
35. An Evening of Real Supernatural Horror
28 minutes
I left my audiences of "A Night of Total Terror" with an open ending.
I wanted to leave it this way, so people could use their imagination to decide
what happens next, but months later, I could not resist the temptation of making
this sequel. I devised a more careful storyline and was ready to make my greatest
movie yet, but my co-star was always unavailable, so I deleted his scenes and
filmed the movie with only myself, as both the actor and camera operator. As
a result, the action suffers because of no camera movement and the plot became
tasteless. After this, I vowed never to make a sequel again. (besides the six
"Snix" flicks) The only thing superior about this sequel is the visual
side of it. I used my annual Halloween haunted house exhibit as the set and
experimented with blacklights, strobe lights and a severe red floodlight to
suggest the fires of hell. The shot of me crawling cross-eyed through a tunnel,
covered with spiders and snakes, was classic. Another advancement in this film
was my use of sound. Instead of dubbing in any music, I concentrated on spooky
sound effects, such as wolves howling, coffins creaking and ghosts moaning to
support what was taking place on screen. I tried my best, using two different
audio tapes, playing simultaneously, to blend the sounds together and try to
give them a seemingly natural flow throughout the film.
1997
36.
I'm Galileo
2 minutes
In my history class, we had to pick a philosopher, write a report and present
a "visual", such as a poster, to the class. My family's background
is Italian, so I chose Galilieo and made a video. I wore a beard and renascence
hat to portray myself as Galileo while I spoke of my theory of gravity and
threw things out my window. I added stock footage of the leaning tower of
Pisa, titles, and renascence music. It was real stupid, but when we screened
it in class, everybody loved it and was surprised because nobody knew I made
movies.
37. Snix Again
45 minutes (later cut down to 27 and then to 14
minutes)
I was so pleased with "Snix: The Return" that I decided to do one
more sequel, so I could call the whole thing "The Snix Trilogy".
I tried to make this one the grand finale, however I put too much thought
into it. The story was too complex and had to broken up into four more sequels
which I eventually called The Six Snix Flicks. (See 98 filmography for
Rotten Corpse of Snix, Possessed Mask of Snix and finally The Evil Spirit
of Snix.)
38. WorldWide Panic (compilation using clips
from monster movies)
5 minutes
There's a lot of famous landmarks being destroyed or climbed in monster movies.
Using footage from some of these films, I edited a little compilation, using
two vcrs and dubbed my narration over it. Scenes I used included "The
Deadly Mantis" climbing the Washington Monument, "King Kong"
climbing the Empire State Building, alien invaders from "Earth Vs. The
Flying Saucers" destroying the famous governmental buildings of Washington
DC, and the creature Gorosaurus tearing apart the Arc De Triump in "Destroy
All Monsters."
39. The Herbivore
5 minutes
One day, my friend Brian was so bored, he picked a cluster of flowers off
a tree and shoved the whole thing down his throat. Immediately, the idea for
this movie came about. If he didn't mind eating those flowers, I was sure
he wouldn't mind munching on some more. "The Herbivore" has no plot
and no purpose, except to depict a peaceful day in the life of a human herbivore
who dwells in the forest and eats weeds, leaves and flowers. A trilogy was
planned, "The Carnivore" and "The Omnivore", but neither
were filmed.
40. Bicycle Speed
4 minutes
Another spontaneous film of mine. Joe and Ed from the neighborhood were hanging
out at my back porch, bored out of their minds, so I decided to have them
act in a quick spoof of "Speed"(the 1994 action thriller where a
bomb is programmed on a bus to explode if the bus travels any slower than
50 mph). In "Bicycle Speed", two stupid kids are threatened by a
bomb on an exercise bike that can't go above 25 mph. If they simply stop pedaling
and get off the bike, they'll be safe, but they're too stupid to realize it.
The "Timmy" and "Jimmy" characters they invented are hilarious.
I wanted to make a series of sequels, using this comedy duo, but only one
sequel was finished: 49. TIMMY AND JIMMY PLAY BASKETBALL.
41. Rumble in the Jungle
20 minutes (later cut down to 12 minutes)
A group of people are stranded on a jungle island where a harmful mixture
of chemicals was dropped by a plane. As a result of this accident, strange
radiation takes possession of the island and transforms the animals into monsters.
The group is attacked by flesh eating snakes and giant wasps, but their worst
enemy is a vicious werewolf. The movie is full of clichés. For example,
Joe keeps tripping when he's running from the wolf, just like victims in slasher
films always do. It was all meant to be stupid. The wolf was just a kid wearing
a mask.
42. The Feeling of Terror (music video edited
from horror movie clips)
3 minutes
While taking some summer video production classes at the University of the
Arts, I got to use some analog editing gear for my first time and edited a
remake of one of my "Monster Music Videos" (filmography 96). This
time, I was able to get the cuts just right and time it precisely with the
music, the same way I envisioned it in my mind. It's chilling! This video
is important to my career, because it marked the end of my amateurish in-camera
editing method. Even though I had no editing gear of my own, two vcr's had
to do.
43. Red Zombie (unfinished)
19 minutes
Inspired by zombie horror classics such as "Night of the Living Dead"
and "Dawn of the Dead", I wrote a script, casted my friends and
made my own classic. The simplistic plot revolves around a guy who witnesses
an evil sorcerer resurrect some corpses from a graveyard. Struck with fear,
he runs away from this terrifying scene, but the sorcerer sends the zombies
after him. The chase lasts throughout the film as he finds different weapons.
He shoves a pool stick through the body of one zombie and crushes another
under a garage door. "Red Zombie" was meant to be a comedy, so I
exaggerated the amount of blood tremendously. For example, there's a scene
where Mike lifts a zombie up to a ceiling fan. First, we see a shot of the
zombie's head going up near the fan. In the next shot, we see a close-up of
Mike's face grimacing as gallons of blood begin to pour all over him. We had
a lot of fun making this movie, but the star lost interest halfway through
production, so this movie was never finished. As a side note, it's the first
movie that I shot raw and edited on my two vcr's. The title is a spoof of
the 1932 Bela Lugosi cult classic "White Zombie."
44. The Spread of Malevolence unfinished
15 minutes
This is a remake of my classic "A Night of Total Terror" with a
revised script, more attention given to lighting and editing and better cinematography.
It was going to be good and I was looking forward to shooting the cemetery
battle climax, but my co-star was never available and this movie was never
completed.
45. When The Shadows Lay Darkest
2 minutes
A short improvised thriller about a kid who is confronted by unknown terrors
of the dark. Very vague and mysterious with a poetic narration. Background
sound effects, night shooting and serious attitude gave this little movie
a chilling mood, but funny at the same time, making it a Cinemassacre cult
classic.
46. When The Shadows Lay Darkest (animated on
computer)
approx. 20 minutes
I had a computer program called "3D Movie Maker" where you can select
characters, pick locations and program them to walk about and do as you command
to tell a story. I ended up making an epic action horror film which is somewhat
of a remake of Red Zombie. It shares the same title as the improv, but bears
no resemblance to it.
47. Chaos at the Video Store
2 minutes
I play a guy who owns a video store full of horror movies. A masked psychopath
calls up and asks if I have a movie called "Bouncing Bears From Heaven."
I tell him no, but then he arrives at my door and kills me by repeatedly smashing
by head into the wall.
48. Game of the Masters
3 minutes
A music video about two kids who get so excited over a game of chess, they
begin fighting with each other. The song is "Eye of the Tiger",
but I changed the lyrics to describe how intense chess can be.
49. Freaky Freak Show
12 minutes
"There's this old man who's dying and he wants one last entertainment
before he goes. So he gathers together all his friends, all the freaks, to
give him one last big show. It's a Freaky Freak-Show!" This was the opening
narration for this three-act music video. Each of the three songs served as
the beginning, middle and end for the story. It was the easiest movie to act
in. Just wear a weird mask, dress up weird and dance around my backyard. My
only cast were all my neighborhood friends who were always busy, so unfortunately,
It took me a couple months to finish this simple idea and I never got more
than three "freaks" together at the same time. That includes myself.
The whole movie shows mostly individual freaks by theirselves, so I had to
cut everything together to try and create a feeling that the whole yard is
full of 50 freaks. I didn't capture the insane party atmosphere as I hoped,
but it's still an entertaining feast for the eyes.
1998
50.
Timmy and Jimmy Play Basketball
4 minutes
In this sequel to "Bicycle Speed", Timmy and Jimmy try to have a nice
game of basketball, but it turns into a childish battle of name calling and
face slapping. The improvised dialogue was hilarious. Joe's line "I wanna
clean your mom's butt with a toothpick and thread", was so funny that you
can hear me choking back my laughter. This was my first movie shot using my
new VHS camera. I also found that using it as a vcr, I could make clean looking
cuts with it, though they were still tricky to time, if you know what I mean.
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