Ernie Fosselius
Ernie Fosselius | |
---|---|
Born | San Francisco, California, United States | October 23, 1945
Occupation(s) | Film director, screenwriter, film producer, animator, Foley editor |
Years active | 1970s–present |
Carl Ernst Fosselius (born October 23, 1945), better known as Ernie Fosselius, is an American filmmaker. He is best known for his satirical spoofs of popular films, including the Star Wars parody Hardware Wars.
Film career
Fosselius' film career began in the early 1970s when he co-created 20 original animated films for Sesame Street.[1][2]
Fosselius is known for his satirical short films. The first one appeared in 1976 in burst into flames over New Jersey while a radio announcer (voiced by Fosselius) emotionally sobbed: "Oh, the humanity, Oh, the cheese!"
Porklips Now was a send-up of Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now which starred Billy Gray of TV's Father Knows Best.
Fosselius was hired by
Fosselius continued to write screenplays (11 scripts that never went into production, including the Zippy the Pinhead movie) and work in the movie business as a director of "industrial" shorts, a special effects fabricator (including for RoboCop 2), an actor, sound editor, and voice actor.
Fosselius directed the Eegah episode of Cinema Insomnia with Mr. Lobo and, staying true to his directing technique, also created many of the props. In 2009, Fosselius created a tribute to Ed Wood with his short film, Plan 9.1 from Outer Space, which featured hand-carved wooden puppets of the characters from Ed Wood's film, Plan 9 from Outer Space.[5] The puppets acted out the scenes along with the edited soundtrack of the original film.
Hardware Wars
Fosselius' biggest hit was his 1978 parody Hardware Wars,[4] a 13-minute parody of Hollywood coming attractions that took on the cultural juggernaut that was Star Wars.
Complete with cardboard sets and visible wires holding up ships which were various household appliances, the film was shot over 4 days with a budget of around $8,000. When released, the film became a hit on its own, grossing close to three million dollars over its lifetime, making it one of the most popular and profitable short films of all time, but Fosselius netted very little of that profit.
In later years, George Lucas called it his favorite Star Wars parody. Fosselius was honored by Lucasfilm when Hardware Wars was given the Pioneer Award at the 2003 Official Star Wars Fan Film Awards.
When Hardware Wars was re-released in 1997 with new special effects in a "Special Edition" to spoof the
Musical career
In the mid-sixties Fosselius performed with the San Francisco band Earth Mother and the Final Solution. He was also a founding member of the band The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, for whom he wrote the song "Hipsters on Parade".
Other works
Fosselius has continued to whittle mechanically animated carved caricatures and automata which he displays in traveling galleries called the "Marvelous Mechalodeon" and the "Crankabout Mechanical Theater", an entirely human-powered exhibit.[2][6][7]
Fosselius was contracted by Earl Vickers of Atari to do the voices for the video arcade game Gauntlet.[8]
References
- ^ "Ernie Fosselius Biography". TheCrippledMasters.com. Archived from the original on January 30, 2012. Retrieved 9 October 2010.
- ^ a b "Artist: Ernie Fosselius - from Renga Arts". Renga Arts. Archived from the original on June 4, 2012. Retrieved 9 October 2010.
- ^ "NTW Mother's Little Network". WGBH-TV. Retrieved 9 October 2010.
- ^ a b Bob Calhoun (21 May 2002). ""Hardware Wars": The movie, the legend, the household appliances". Salon.com. Retrieved 9 October 2010.
- ^ "Plan 9.1 from Outer Space (2009) - The Hunt for Edward D. Wood, Jr". Ed Wood Online. Retrieved 9 October 2010.
- ^ David Pescovitz (14 September 2006). "Ernie Fosselius's amazing hand-whittled automata". Boing Boing. Retrieved 9 October 2010.
- ^ "Ernie Fosselius and his Mechalodeon". blip.tv. Archived from the original on 18 April 2013. Retrieved 9 October 2010.
- ^ "Gauntlet Postmortem". GDC.
External links
- Official website[dead link]
- Ernie Fosselius at IMDb
- Interview about wood sculpture for Make magazine