Chapter Twenty-Nine Equinox

Chapter Twenty-Nine
Equinox

I first met Dennis Muren when he was a student at Pasadena City College. He and a couple of his friends were putting together a movie in 16mm. They had already shot most of the film both live action and animation with models of monsters. The special effects with the monsters was Dennis’ focus, but as far as I could see he was the driving force behind making the film. He came to White Productions because they had shot the live action footage without sound and Dale had a rudimentary film/sound sync system. So we helped Dennis and his actors to lay down a sound track. Dennis also made a deal with a music instructor at PCC to compose and orchestrate a music track. The way I remember this coming about Truman Fisher had a summer music camp up near Carmel and he had a full orchestra play for the track. White Productions’ film/sound sync system was used for recording the music. I went up to run the sync system which took a couple of days. Sue was able to go along with me and as I remember Brad had seen the light of day by then coming along with us. So, we were able to make it a bit of a vacation at the same time.

After we had finished our work on Dennis’ film, he started his marketing of the film. I remember meeting Dennis in Hollywood once during this period at a studio where he was working on educational films and commercials. One of the commercials he worked on was an early version of the Pillsbury Doughboy. It took awhile before he sold an indie producer, Jack Harris, on the film. Jack Harris had a reputation of buying into small budget films, shooting some additional footage and then putting the biggest part of the budget into marketing the film. This is what he did with Equinox. In the new version the film starts off with one of the male lead actors in a mental asylum. Well, the interior of White Productions studio had these stone, block-like walls which they thought would work well for the mental asylum interior. Dale asked me to sort of baby-sit the film group while they shot in our studio. They had a scene where the character was to be rolled down the asylum corridor to a padded cell. They only had one person lined up to be a hospital orderly and needed a second orderly. So they asked me to do it. I said “sure!” We had to restrain him on the gurney. They also used our padded sound booth to be a padded cell. So, we had a scene in there restraining him. There were a couple of add-lib lines and that was that.

Once they got it ready for release to the theatres, they had a showing of the film in a theatre in Hollywood. So the family and I (Dad, Sue and Ginger – at least that’s what I remember) went to see it. Much to my surprise shortly into the opening credits there was my name. I had no idea I was going to get screen credits.

Now time goes bye and Dennis wins several Oscars and other awards for his special effects work on movies like “ET”, “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”, “Innerspace”, “Abyss”, “Terminator 2: Judgement Day” and “Jurasic Park”. (to see more on Dennis’ awards click here) Now Brock deShane enters stage left. Brock produces a restored DVD version of “Equinox” including interviews with Dennis and other notables in the SciFi world.

At times I would wonder if I ever tried to call Dennis would he remember me? One day I receive a call from Dennis and he’s inviting me to be a part of a premiering of the DVD of “Equinox” that they were having at the Egyptian theatre in Hollywood. It gets better. He also invites Ann and I to an intimate dinner of twenty to thirty crew and cast of “Equinox” at a hotel on Sunset before the premiere. We met Dennis’ wife Zara and their daughter. Everyone at the dinner was very gracious. Later at the premiere after the showing of the movie they had a Q&A session with the audience and they had me join the others up front. So it was a night of mini-celebs for Ann and I.

Dennis was a key part of the original team when Industrial Light and Magic was formed. ILM has been a leader in special effects since its founding in 1975 and have created their magic for over two hundred films.
Dennis told me that he had withdrawn from the daily activities at ILM and works as a consultant now.

There were four main characters in “Equinox”. They were all college age and friends that go for a picnic in the nearby mountains. There was Edward Connell as David Fielding (the one who was a patient in the mental asylum), Barbara Hewitt as Susan Turner, Frank Boers, Jr. as Jim Hudson and Robin Christopher as Vicki. Barbara Hewitt was the Queen of the 78th Tournament of Roses. Only Frank, who later changed his acting name to Frank Bonner, went on to making a name for himself in TV and films. He still is working in TV and films, but his part as Herb on the TV series “WKRP in Cincinati” (1978 – 1982) was his shinning moment.

Before moving on to breaking away from White Productions to form our own industrial film company, in the next chapter I’ll talk more about the family.