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Post by rawlinson on May 5, 2017 17:33:51 GMT
I have great sympathy for that. A couple of years ago I was writing for a film site and I decided to try and do an overview of horror as a monthly thing, decade by decade. I was originally planning to include everything - Novels, stories, t.v., everything I could think of as well as film, but when I started putting a timeline together I realised how huge a project it was and had to scale it back to just cinema. Since then I've tried several times to put things together to do a personal history, trying to just recreate my own timeline of discovering things, but it's just such a huge area. Even devoting yourself to one decade like you guys did must have been such a mammoth task.
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scarred
Crab On The Rampage
Posts: 63
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Post by scarred on May 5, 2017 18:27:17 GMT
I have great sympathy for that. A couple of years ago I was writing for a film site and I decided to try and do an overview of horror as a monthly thing, decade by decade. I was originally planning to include everything - Novels, stories, t.v., everything I could think of as well as film, but when I started putting a timeline together I realised how huge a project it was and had to scale it back to just cinema. Since then I've tried several times to put things together to do a personal history, trying to just recreate my own timeline of discovering things, but it's just such a huge area. Even devoting yourself to one decade like you guys did must have been such a mammoth task. Johnny Mains, the horror expert who graciously wrote our introduction, said "I can tell (in the nicest possible way) that you aren't professional writers because no professional writer would attempt what you have tried to do" so I wanted our advertising blurb to say "a work of staggering ambition by the men who didn't know it would be staggering". It didn't feel overwhelming though because it was done bit by bit, article by article over an extended period of time so we never considered the magnitude of it. It was only when we were getting proof copies and, over time, they were getting thicker and thicker that it dawned on us that, actually, we'd done a lot more than we thought.
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Post by rawlinson on May 5, 2017 19:26:11 GMT
It is a remarkable achievement though, especially as you had to condense it so heavily. I think the 70s was just one of those decades where everything came together to create the right atmosphere to give such a huge pool to draw from.
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scarred
Crab On The Rampage
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Post by scarred on May 5, 2017 22:46:35 GMT
It is a remarkable achievement though, especially as you had to condense it so heavily. I think the 70s was just one of those decades where everything came together to create the right atmosphere to give such a huge pool to draw from. Thank you. It wasn't too hard to condense because we never tried to tackle the whole decade but focussed wholly on the idea that the stuff we talked about had to fit into the remit - the programmes, comics etc had to be inappropriate, dark or have left a lingering memory. That immediately meant the public information films were in because we all remember them and the big hitters - Sapphire and Steel, The Tomorrow People - were automatically included but other stuff like Doctor Who wasn't, at least not the programme itself. The reason for this was that it was possible for Sapphire and Steel and The Tomorrow People to be talked about in terms of scenes that maybe a lot of people didn't remember e.g. everybody remembers the second Sapphire and Steel story with the soldier on the platform but fewer people remember the later stories which, arguably, have far more disturbing scenes. Doctor Who, though, must be one of the most documented TV shows in history so it was impossible to talk about the show in general without retreading a lot of ground covered by far better writers than us. Instead we focussed on memorable scenes (5 each) and the ephemera that we enjoyed. Ste wrote about the annuals, I wrote about the trump card game that, to this day, I remember my mum and dad buying for me in New Brighton, and we both wrote about the Doctor Who exhibition which was my annual pilgrimage. True story, the year we went to Blackpool and the exhibition wasn't there any more was the last time I went to Blackpool in over 30 years.
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Post by cromagnonman on May 5, 2017 23:11:36 GMT
It is a remarkable achievement though, especially as you had to condense it so heavily. I think the 70s was just one of those decades where everything came together to create the right atmosphere to give such a huge pool to draw from. Thank you. It wasn't too hard to condense because we never tried to tackle the whole decade but focussed wholly on the idea that the stuff we talked about had to fit into the remit - the programmes, comics etc had to be inappropriate, dark or have left a lingering memory. That immediately meant the public information films were in because we all remember them and the big hitters - Sapphire and Steel, The Tomorrow People - were automatically included but other stuff like Doctor Who wasn't, at least not the programme itself. The reason for this was that it was possible for Sapphire and Steel and The Tomorrow People to be talked about in terms of scenes that maybe a lot of people didn't remember e.g. everybody remembers the second Sapphire and Steel story with the soldier on the platform but fewer people remember the later stories which, arguably, have far more disturbing scenes. Doctor Who, though, must be one of the most documented TV shows in history so it was impossible to talk about the show in general without retreading a lot of ground covered by far better writers than us. Instead we focussed on memorable scenes (5 each) and the ephemera that we enjoyed. Ste wrote about the annuals, I wrote about the trump card game that, to this day, I remember my mum and dad buying for me in New Brighton, and we both wrote about the Doctor Who exhibition which was my annual pilgrimage. True story, the year we went to Blackpool and the exhibition wasn't there any more was the last time I went to Blackpool in over 30 years. Have been meaning to ask you whether or not The Changes is covered in your book. Arguably one of the most imaginative and disturbing children's tv series ever produced. Because if we're talking lingering memories then the opening episode's shots of people maniacally attacking all forms of technology remains pretty strong stuff for teatime viewing even by today's jaded standards. And that damn noise emanating from the electricity pylons: made me wary of the things for years afterwards.
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scarred
Crab On The Rampage
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Post by scarred on May 5, 2017 23:25:17 GMT
Have been meaning to ask you whether or not The Changes is covered in your book. Arguably one of the most imaginative and disturbing children's tv series ever produced. Because if we're talking lingering memories then the opening episode's shots of people manically attacking all forms of technology remains pretty strong stuff for teatime viewing even by today's jaded standards. And that damn noise emanating from the electricity pylons: made me wary of the things for years afterwards. Yes it is!
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Post by cromagnonman on May 5, 2017 23:34:33 GMT
Have been meaning to ask you whether or not The Changes is covered in your book. Arguably one of the most imaginative and disturbing children's tv series ever produced. Because if we're talking lingering memories then the opening episode's shots of people manically attacking all forms of technology remains pretty strong stuff for teatime viewing even by today's jaded standards. And that damn noise emanating from the electricity pylons: made me wary of the things for years afterwards. Yes it is! Fantastic. Thanks.
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Post by Deleted on May 7, 2017 16:53:16 GMT
Hi, I'm one of the writers of the book. Many thanks to those of you who've bought it and I hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed writing it. If any of you have particular suggestions for the 80s book let me know! I'm not sure how well-known 1983 rabid animal drama The Mad Death is. I remember very little of it myself, but its opening credits -- assorted animal faces rippling oddly while a voice whispers the words for All Creatures Great and Small -- have stuck with me through the years.
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scarred
Crab On The Rampage
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Post by scarred on May 7, 2017 19:51:36 GMT
Hi, I'm one of the writers of the book. Many thanks to those of you who've bought it and I hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed writing it. If any of you have particular suggestions for the 80s book let me know! I'm not sure how well-known 1983 rabid animal drama The Mad Death is. I remember very little of it myself, but its opening credits -- assorted animal faces rippling oddly while a voice whispers the words for All Creatures Great and Small -- have stuck with me through the years. It's definitely on our to do list.
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Post by rawlinson on May 7, 2017 22:57:50 GMT
Just thought of two music related ones, O Superman, which still terrifies me, and The Boiler, which is one of the most distressing singles ever released.
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Post by franklinmarsh on May 8, 2017 15:24:56 GMT
I'm not sure how well-known 1983 rabid animal drama The Mad Death is. I remember very little of it myself, but its opening credits -- assorted animal faces rippling oddly while a voice whispers the words for All Creatures Great and Small -- have stuck with me through the years. It's definitely on our to do list. There was a novelisation of this... vaultofevil.proboards.com/thread/3712/nigel-slater-mad-death
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scarred
Crab On The Rampage
Posts: 63
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Post by scarred on May 10, 2017 17:08:41 GMT
What's the ETA for Volume 2?! I hope you enjoy the book . As for volume 2 ETA, the first volume took us approximately 3 and a half years to write but we think (fingers crossed) that we can do the second volume in 18 months (now we've ironed out how to actually write it). So (provisionally, depending on life events) we're saying Christmas 2018.
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Post by Shrink Proof on May 10, 2017 18:10:32 GMT
Bought the Jim Henson/John Hurt series The Storyteller today and realised it would be perfect for you for the 80s volume. That one gets my vote. I taped them onto VHS back in the day but they went into the wrong cupboard and the cassettes turned to caked-up mung. I loved John Hurt's cynical dog...
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scarred
Crab On The Rampage
Posts: 63
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Post by scarred on May 10, 2017 20:46:54 GMT
Moondial, Chocky and that very Tales of the Unexpected are already on the list!
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Post by ramseycampbell on May 17, 2017 11:06:43 GMT
Dipping into my copy with relish (two bottles), I come upon a reference to Ogre Books in Liverpool. Might you even have encountered Pete Atkins or me there?
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