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Welcome to the Tomas Howie Film Page! I fell in love with film as a child. I saved some money and bought a super 8 camera when I was in High school and started making films - mostly Python-esque bits of silliness. My friend Glenn and I had a small rivalry going. We would each make a film then screen it to our friends at a big party. I went to film school, but the pressures to move into stable work forced me into television production as a career. |
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Super8 films when I was in High School. These were very "stream of
consciousness"-type stuff, patterned after Monty Python's Flying Circus,
which my friends and I were rather fanatical about. Glenn and I would each
make seperate films and screen them once a year at a big party at his house.
My first film, made with my friend Joby, was called THE BOX. A rather charming bit of silliness, it chronicled the exploits of a bunch of young fellows who keep losing parts of their group through vanishings! The lost ones are found at the end in a Box that is sold to the guys by a wizard (in a Top Hat sitting behind a desk in a field). Lots of Python-esque animation and silliness punctuate the escapades. Glenn's first film was called STUCK and was a hilarious little tale of what happens to different folks who are stuck in an elevator. Both films were shown to an appreciative crowd. My second (and, as it turned out, last) super8 film was a rambling epic (45 minutes!) called Yohimbe - no connection to the herb, I'll have you know! It was divided into three parts: part 1 was a psudo-documentary on the Yohimbes: a tribe of native Northern Boys who live off the wild, hunt the wild and terrible Wildebeest, and worship the frisbee as a way of life. Part 2, a little one-reeler called "The Joy of Frisbee", amounted to the Lord of Frisbee imparting his frisbee wisdom on the first Yohimbes. Part 3, "The Induction", chronicles the efforts of two youths who go through Yohimbe "hazing". Bill, one of the initiates, is killed by the Evil Von Duncap, sworn enemy of Yohimbes. Through the avenging of the Bill by Joby in a series of battle sequences, Joby finally gaines Yohimbe-hood. Glenn's answer to this was another hilarious docu-drama called BAFFLED BY BIGFOOT. Unfortunately, Glenn's films didn't survive.
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 Super8
Filmmaking
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I went to film school at Northern in Marquette, Michigan. Three semesters on beautiful Lake Superior. Don't crack any winter jokes around me - you haven't lived in winter until you've lived in the Upper Penninsula of Michigan. 230+ inches of snow a winter is considered normal during its eight-month run. These pics are from two films I did in college. Gone were the silly notions. It was on to "serious" topics, like redemption (ADAM AGAIN) and eternal judgement (THE INTERVIEW)! I should have stuck with the silly stuff. That's Michael with a cell from his animated film NOBODY NOSE. |
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American
Cinematographer
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| Stanley
Kubrick
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While there
are many fine filmmakers in the world, for my money Kubrick stands apart
as one of the best living practitioners of the medium. His sense of form,
narrative, pacing, and vision are unequalled. Most directors direct actors
and use the camera strictly as a recording medium. Kubrick directs
the camera as an actor, making it another element through which he delivers
narrative material.
There are many resources for Kubrick studies on the web. One is presented here. Others can be found by clicking the Link icon above (in the "Career Links" page).
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