IFV reboots RobotMan for short
From September 9, 2006:
Strolling through the University of Illinois campus on a sunny Saturday afternoon, the average underclassman – heck, the average citizen of Champaign-Urbana – is usually hard-pressed to come upon a sight such as the one above. Or, better yet, the ones that follow.
Not having given up the ghost after spearheading the student film epic, THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS VS. A MUMMY, UIUC graduate Chris Lukeman (wearing fashionable MUMMY duds) revives an off-campus creation as a tool with which to instruct current members of the Illini Film & Video club.
Illini Film & Video (IFV) regular Michael Bach (of “Horror Stories” fame) squares off against “RobotMan,” an impressive costume constructed by Lukeman and friends in the Springfield, Illinois, area for a prior 40-minute short, ROBOTMAN.
Such public displays of mayhem are arranged by IFV president Alex Wayman as an accesible outing during which new members can see veterans at work and join in if they desire.
Echoing a policy used during the making of MUMMY, the creature is portrayed by multiple people to insure that RobotVolunteers get a break after enduring the heavy costume for multiple takes.
The plot for “Untitled RobotMan Short” involves Bach finding a gleaming automation in front of That’s Rentertainment (where else?), seemingly gift-wrapped for the taking. His interest in the seven-foot-tall freebee waxes and wanes in rapid succession as he pieces together a cardboard sign, suspiciously torn to shreds and littered about the sidewalk – not that such littering ever happens in Campustown.
Anne Shivers, current IFV secretary and “Moon Gal” in MUMMY, provides a good look at a shard of RobotMan’s enigmatic message. Has he come to Earth with a mission of peace or merely bent on bloody carnage? Fans of the earlier ROBOTMAN will probably have a good idea where this is headed.
Case in point.
– Jason Pankoke
All ROBOTMAN photos by JaPan