The behind-the-scenes making of a James Bond Fan Film.
by Stuart Basinger
What could be better than seeing a James Bond movie? How about making one? Of course you could not sell it and make a profit from it. The lawyers from Eon Productions would put a stop to that faster than you could say Pussy Galore. But you could learn a great deal about filmmaking and acting plus have some fun at the same time.
I did just that in the summer of 1978. Having just graduated from high school, I decided to do an epic 8mm silent film version of Ian Fleming's MOONRAKER. It was the only novel that had yet to be made into a film and it was one of my favorites. For years I pondered what Eon Productions would do with that novel. Now, I had a chance to do my own version.
Working on a shoe-string budget, I first wrote up an outline of a potential shooting script. Since the film was going to be shot without sound (8mm film cameras were usually silent), there was no need to write dialogue. To help keep the production cost down, any elaborate sets or models were financially out of the question, but through the magic of filmmaking, I was going to learn how to make the impossible possible.
The original Ian Fleming story takes place in England. Since I lived in the Washington D.C. area, my production was going to have to change locations and plot devices in order to keep cost down. I chose to update the story by changing Moonraker from a nuclear rocket to a killer satellite orbiting the moon. Sir Hugo Drax who created and financed the Moonraker satellite program through a joint co-op with the British and the Americans, has now hijacked it and plans to destroy several major cities around the globe including London and Washington. With the help of special agent Gala Brand and NASA scientist Jack Ryan (long before Tom Clancy's famed character), Bond must uncover the secret behind Moonraker.
James Bond battles to the death in the surf.
My ideas began to borrow strongly from Bond classics such as You Only Live Twice with its space capsule hijacking and On Her Majesty's Secret Service with its beach fight. I also borrowed the scene where Karl Stromberg destroys his helicopter from The Spy Who Loved Me. Armed with my 8mm Canon movie camera, two roles of kodachrome film and a motorized model helicopter I proceeded to call my friend and fellow amateur filmmaker Trey (Star Wars: Pink Five) Stokes. "Trey," I said with enthusiasm, "How would you like to blow up a helicopter?"
"I'll be right there," said an elated Trey. Of course this was a ploy on my part to get him involved, since he did not want to be bogged down with any film projects. He was entering the University of Southern California in the fall as a film student and he wanted to have a quiet summer. Obviously blowing up a model helicopter did not fall into this category.
Trey Stokes prepares to blow up the model helicopter on our first day of shooting.
We spent the Saturday afternoon filming the demise of this small plastic helicopter. Packing flash powder by the spoonful into the cockpit of the model and igniting it with a cable connected to a 'D' size battery. The results were less than spectacular since the model helicopter looked exactly like . . . a model helicopter.
Afterwards we filled up a large fish tank with water and rocks to create the villain's underwater lair. A submarine model was built and weighted with stones so it would not float. Fishing wire was used to create a puppetry effect as the submarine navigated through the rocks. We even placed an Alka-Seltzer tablet on the rear side of the model to create the bubble effect of a damaged submarine. Hours were spent that day but unfortunately all of the footage was useless since the effects were not realistic. The problem with most 8mm cameras back then was that they were incapable of doing slow-motion effects which is crucial to filming any size models.
The unused submarine scene. Our camera was not efficient enough to make this effect work.
But that was not going to deter us. With Trey fully involved with the film and our creative juices flowing we were ready to create the ultimate amateur OO7 film. As the weeks passed by, I had encouraged other high school friends to be a part of this extravaganza. We had our villain, Sir Hugo Drax, played by John Matthews. Our henchman, Horror, played by Tim Gill. And our Bond girl, Gala Brand, played by Ellen Miller. Now we needed to find set pieces and beautiful locations near our homes. My friend John Matthews offered his father's beach home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware as a potential location. The house was designed by his father and was perfect for the world of OO7 and the villain's home.
Bond stands beside his sports car and Drax's beach front estate.
Evil mastermind Sir Hugo Drax (John Matthews) plots earth's demise.
OO7 teams up with special agent Gala Brand (Ellen Miller).
We than proceeded to film a fight scene between Bond and Drax's demented henchman 'Horror'. Discovering a creek area with large boulders, Trey and I worked out the shot details of our first exciting action scene. During this scene Bond is to meet a fellow agent only to discover he has been murdered by Horror. Bond chases after Horror on top of large boulders high above a raging river. The two struggle until one falls to his doom. It took two days to film the scene and the results are no less than spectacular.
Horror (Tim Gill) prepares to liquidate agent Mike Peters (Tom Cole)
Near the creek was another house offered as an interior set for our villain (Actually, four homes and their interiors were used as set pieces for Drax's hideout. Many parents were patient with us as we invaded their humble abodes for several hours). It would be here where Bond finally uncovers the real mastermind behind the hijacking of the Moonraker satellite. Trey and I must have filmed a total of five separate days at one home. We were discovering that we needed another shot or scene to tie together another shot or scene so that the film would worked. When you are limited to a silent film sometimes you need to be more creative to explain what is going on.
One scene that worked really well was Q-Branch. The scene was shot in my backyard and the actor we got to play the part was perfect. John Hall was a neighbor friend of mine and also good friends with Trey. He conveyed the typical frustration of "Q" while he explains the latest gadgets to OO7.
Bond examines a high tech bazooka while Q (John Hall) tells him to put it down.
One hazardous action scene takes place at a crowded street corner. An area known as Layhill Road and with only two lanes of bumper to bumper traffic. At the corner of this road was an old general store with a phone booth. It is here where Gala Brand is kidnapped by Drax's henchmen. Little did I know at the time our actress, Ellen Miller, was recuperating from wisdom teeth extractions. Her jaws were so swollen we had to film her in wide angle so not to show off her face. The scene has Bond receiving a phone call but is knocked out while a car speeds off with Gala. People driving in their cars, going about their daily routines were stopping to watch the filming. This made it difficult at times because I relied on the traffic to be part of the scene.
Our most ambitious scene in the film was where Bond infiltrates Drax's Columbite Metal Factory. A scene that required us to film at the University of Maryland's Heating Plant and with an army of actors. But the most difficult part was trying to find enough actors to play Drax's henchmen. We needed an army of guys to pull off a large scale battle scene. It was then my friend, Ray Whitten, who plays both a henchman and the submarine commander, who gave us the idea. At the time Ray was working at a local BP gas station and had to wear green jumpsuits when he worked. We borrowed approximately six jump suits from the station and with baseball caps and sunglasses we came up with Drax's 'army of clones'. It was conceivable to have the same three actors, played by Bruce Whitten, Steven Lebowitz, and Ray, running from different directions in the scene and make it look like there were hundreds of clones. The end results produced a gratifying and exciting scene. The idea of Drax having the ability to produce a clone army helped eliminate the need to assemble many people for other scenes as well. Trey and I incorporated this plot device into the story and we added a separate scene where evil scientists are working with embryos.
Bond fights for his life in the Columbite Metal Factory. Notice the flash cube effect illuminating from the Clone's machine gun. An inexpensive effect which looks great on film.
One of Sir Hugo Drax's murderous clones stands guard.
Our biggest problem during production was the ability to build and shoot model sets with a camera that can shoot in slow-motion. I was fortunate to meet another amateur filmmaker, Matt Greenfield, who had an 8mm camera capable of shooting at 48 frames per second. More than twice the speed we were filming with my camera. This was crucial when it came to the Moonraker satellite model. We needed to show it rotating and orbiting the earth in a realistic way. Matt, and his friend Russell Whiting, both worked at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt Maryland. From time to time Matt would acquire a poster or prop from the facility and used it for his filmmaking. One of those items was a huge poster showing 1/4 of the earth from orbit. This poster helped create some of the most outstanding effects in the film. Both Matt and Russell deserve high praises for their ingenuity.
The original concept for the outer space scenes was to have a space ship capture the Moonraker satellite in Earth's orbit. Trey had built a rocket ship from an old robotic armature toy and made it into a satellite swallowing spacecraft. After several test shots the scene was not working according to my plans and we ended up tossing out the idea. Instead, the final film has the Moonraker satellite, operating under a mysterious power, heading back from the moon to destroy Earth.
Russell Whiting (left) makes adjustments to the satellite swallowing spacecraft. Notice the giant poster of the earth on the wall.
The Moonraker satellite prepares to destroy its target.
Meanwhile, Trey and I were reaching newer heights in our special effects knowledge. The villain no longer had an underwater lair but a three foot tall by six foot wide model island. This is where the final battle scene will take place. We spent an entire night building this monstrosity out of chicken wire and clay. It was the most impressive model in the entire film but once again we were limited to the technology of the day. It was impossible to film it, blow it up, and make it look like it was on the ocean. The technology in 1978 was not advance enough for us to film this model.
The most ambitious model in the film was Drax's Crater Island.
IMPORTANT - PLEASE READ: Amateur filmmaking can be exciting at times. Perhaps too exciting. There were a few dangerous moments while making this film. My friends and I were eighteen year olds and not too experience with getting permission to film an action scene with toy pistols. Several times during production we were stopped by the local police and lectured on how the guns looked very realistic from a distance and that we could have been shot. It is very important, especially nowadays, to get clearance from the authorities. Do not assume that police officers or neighbors are going to know you are just making a movie.
Bad guys come in all sorts of sizes. Here henchman, Snickers (Richard Berenter), captures a surprised Bond.
In late August, Trey, Ray Whitten and I drove to Ocean City, Maryland to film various scenes including the Boardwalk scenes in and around "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" museum, and the beach fight which was the opening scene of the pre-credit sequence. Bond is first seen with a beautiful woman laying out on the sand. Our main villain John Matthews, stunt driver Bob Bell, and villainous Krebs played by Brad Krupsaw, made arrangements to meet up with us later in the week. I asked them to convince one of our girlfriends to come up for the day to be our mysterious double agent who lures Bond into an ocean front assassination. Unfortunately, everyone made it to the beach except the mysterious girl.
"Now what do we do?" I said, while Trey surveyed the beach for the best shots.
Ray and Brad said they would be right back and they headed down to a crowded part of the beach. Within ten minutes they were running back with huge smiles on their faces and laughing over their accomplishment.
"Stuart!" said Brad as he ran up to me. "We just found the most beautiful girl for the scene. She and her friends will be here in a few minutes."
Skeptical I began to wonder just who did they find. A few moments later a very attractive brunette came jogging up the sand. She was tall, tanned, slender and wore a one piece black swim suit. She was somewhat shy, nervous, and giggling with her other two girl friends, who accompanied her to the location. Overall, she was perfect.
James Bond enjoys a brief moment with a mysterious brunette.
I asked Ray how did he convince her to come and do the scene. "Oh, that was easy." said Ray. "Brad and I stood in front of her while she was sunbathing and pretended to be film producers. We then asked her if she wanted to be in a movie and she said yes." Pick-up lines were never easier.
Later on that day we drove to a private boat dock where John Matthew's father had a speedboat. Unfortunately, John forgot the key to the boat so our scene where Bond escapes from his captors was in danger of being cut. As we sat and pondered the fate of the scene, a family of four on a similar speedboat was coming home into the dock. With my bravura in check, I politely asked the owner of the boat if he would like to play the part of James Bond and zip his boat from the dock out into the lake and beyond. Expecting a rejecting 'no', the owner was more than happy to lend out his boat for our climatic opening scene. Trey and I spent the next 45 minutes filming this person's boat with close-ups of me faking the steering while the owner is driving the boat off frame. A great way to end the pre-credit sequence and begin the opening credits.
OO7 escapes his captors by purloining a speedboat.
James Bond credit sequences usually consist of several elements. Beautiful half naked women, Helvetica fonts spelling out the cast and crews, and a catchy song. None of which I had access to. However, Trey had a simple plan to build a screen with an old bed sheet, some color gels, and an overhead projector with clear transparent cells that had everyone's name printed on them. He than had an old girlfriend stand behind the screen in silhouette while the overhead projector shot the names and title onto the front of the screen. The effect was great but it had its limitations. The most obvious was the transitions between titles. Bond titles should fade on and off not cut on and off. The credit sequence was temporarily discontinued until I could find a better way.
By early September, time was running out for our production and many of our crew and actors were moving onto college and their future lives. Leaving me with nearly 60 minutes of an unfinished film. A car chase was partially filmed where Bond and Gala are chased by Drax's clone. Our budget was too small for the traditional Lotus Esprit and black Mercedes, so we filmed some shots of Bond's Toyota Celica (driven by Bob Bell) being chased by Ray Whitten's orange Ford Pinto down a narrow country road. Being careful not to break the speed limit and having another scene with the local police, I under cranked the camera which makes the film travel slower through the shutter. This was successful on a few shots, but others shots made it look like a sped up scene from a Charlie Chaplin silent movie.
In the final part of the chase, Bond leaps his car over a collapsed bridge while the clone's car careens into the abyss. For this part of the chase we needed a miniature of a broken bridge and two model cars. Ray's Pinto was easy to build as a miniature model since you could find a conventional kit at any hobby shop. However, there was no Toyota Celica model kits. So we substituted a Porsche model instead.
The model collapsed bridge was built with a concealed sled that would propel Bond's car across the miniature ravine. Unfortunately, we could never successfully get the car to land on the other side of the ravine without it bouncing upside down. After literally dozens of attempts we eventually abandoned the car chase and worked on other scenes. The car chase was eventually dropped all together from the film since it looked silly that Bond's car was being chased by a Ford Pinto.
Trey moved out to the University of California in late September. However, he was willing to film some added scenes in Los Angeles while I was continuing to work on the outer space scenes. By Christmas, we still had some major shots to film. By this time I was in college and recruiting actors from the theater department to play henchmen and sailors for the final battle scene. I was using the auditorium of my former high school as the set piece for the final battle. After months and months of shooting actors throwing hand grenades and firing machine guns, I suddenly became frustrated that I was not going to finish the film Trey and I had envisioned. By late summer of 1979, I reluctantly walked away from the production and concentrated on my college classes.
Commander Pendersen (Ray Whitten), fights off three clones during the climatic battle scene.
As the years passed, Moonraker '78 remained unfinished and left in my closet. Occasionally I would pull it out and show it to some friends at a party but on the whole it was an unfinished mess. It would be another 12 years when I was working for a television post-production facility that I was able to fill in the missing scenes. Using stock footage I was able to create the needed effects and transfer the film to videotape. I also added a music soundtrack and a credit sequence that could rival some of Maurice Binder's work.
It would be another twelve years later when a credit sequence was added.
The year 2003 brought the 25th anniversary of this film and yet another facelift. Newer music and sound effects were added with additional optical effects. At 36 minutes long, Moonraker '78 looked better than ever. Several members of the cast were handed a DVD copy of the film recently. All of them have given it the thumbs up saying it was a pleasure working on it.
With the help of home computers, Drax's island was finally inserted into the film for the 2003 release.
Many of those who worked on this film went into filmmaking, radio or television. Our director, Trey Stokes is a special effects specialist and filmmaker in Hollywood. His credits include THE ABYSS, STARSHIP TROOPERS, and THE POLAR EXPRESS. He also directed the Star Wars parody series titled PINK FIVE, PINK FIVE STRIKES BACK, and RETURN OF PINK FIVE Vol.1, 2, and 3. PINK FIVE won the George Lucas Award in 2003.
Our villain, John Matthews, is a news director for a major radio station in Washington D.C. (perhaps he should have played the part of Elliot Carver in Tomorrow Never Dies).
Matt Greenfield went on to directing anime films in Houston with his company A.D. Vision (commonly referred to as ADV).
Brad Krupsaw is living is Buenos Aires and is a professional stage and screen actor. He can be seen as one of the bad guys in a film called LEFT FOR DEAD.
As for myself, I chose a career as a digital video editor. I have produced and edited commercials, music videos, and documentaries. I currently work for the Fox News Channel in Washington, D.C.
A promotional poster for our epic production.
Which brings us to the end of this story. The real savior of our 8mm film is technology. Because of the home computer and my connections in the television industry. I was able to transfer the 8mm film to videotape and finish the scenes by creating the needed effects plus add sound effects and music. The movie still lacks dialogue but in this case - action speaks louder than words. Now, more than a quarter of a century later, MOONRAKER '78 is finished.
To see this fan film just click here: MOONRAKER '78. It will take approximately 25 minutes with DSL to download it. It is a WMV file so please use Windows Media Player or the equivalent.
In 2007, I decided to upload MOONRAKER '78 to YouTube. It was divided up into four separate segments due to the 10 minute limitations YouTube offers. For over one year the film entertained many viewers with over 16,000 views.
Here is a sample of some of the comments from various viewers:
"Congratulations, this fan film is genius!" - zwan2 - You Tube
"This is damn cool especially considering it was shot in 1978. The 8mm [film] look is terrific, and the "no diving" sign after he chucks the assailant into the river, and the fights are nearly up there with Peter Hunt's stuff. Brilliant and the shooting of the bloke off the tree, John Woo couldn't have done it better! I'd go further by saying it's not just excellent for it's time, it's excellent full stop. So much better than the majority, if not all modern day fan films, which have the huge technological advantages but just nowhere near the same skill in the overall execution" - Lazenby - MI6
This is terrific. From the editing of old footage to the splicing in of scenes from The Spy Who Loved Me, it's all great work." - Vectronics - You Tube
"Best 007 fan film ever. Hard to see another similar. Congratulations by your work and story." - edecildo - You Tube
"That's the best Bond fan film I have seen." - Paz Oz Productions
"As an enthusiastically made homage to every film with an ounce of the fantastic in it between 1967 and 1979, it's a masterpiece." - dangale - You Tube
"Stuart Basinger and his friends worked hard on this...and we have to congratulate them for it. The film footage looks good and the efforts made to shoot the special effects later finalized on video are commendable. The silent acting was great as we understand every character motivation. The locations, the costumes, the vehicles, the props and the smart use of the stock footage are a testimony of the commitment of these persons to doing this film." - Shamelord - MI6
"Amazing! I love the 8mm look and the action is very well shot. It's 3000 times better than a lot of the lame Bond knock-offs that got national distribution (i.e. "Ginger"). Thanks for posting it. Good fun!" - JAOgc161- You Tube
"This is awesome! Especially with the classic John Barry James Bond music from the 60s and 70s added." - beerdogfood - You Tube
In closing, I would like to encourage anyone out there who has a similar dream of making a fan film. If you have the camera, a computer with editing capabilities, and the gung-ho to do it, then by all means do it. You may never make it to Hollywood, but the memories will remain with you forever.