I have been battling this short movie clip for months. It was created in an obsolete .MOV format and I figured it was gone for good. This morning I uploaded it to youtube and see if that would convert it into something watchable. It worked. Sure, it's only 3 seconds long and shot with a super 8mm camera in the 80s and then converted to VHS tape and then to digital, but it's still pretty neat to watch.
I've blogged about her before, but this Witch prop was the first significant prop that my brother and I built. He was up in the top window releasing the prop upon unsuspecting kids and parents on the sidewalk below. Despite the other end of the cord being attached to a lamp post, and despite the cords being bright white, you'd be surprised how invisible the support lines were. Then, silently and suddenly, a Witch would swoop down and race towards her victims. He got quite good at this effect and people must have thought they were about to be nailed by this angry creature on a broom. But she'd suddenly stop as though she changed her mind... and up she'd go again. She would rest flat against the bricks below the windowsill, like Dracula scaling his castle.
Small crowds would form to watch it happen again and again, but they always seemed to have the sense to move out of the way and they'd act like they weren't a waiting crowd. So the gag wouldn't be wasted or revealed to new victims. Without fail, people would scream and run. After all, it's not every day a real Witch dive-bombs out of the darkness.
Man, was it neat.
Click below for three simple seconds of some super wonderful memories.
