h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: 'The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms' - the Film - A87826486
Author: Bluebottle - U43530

I'd like to dedicate this article to Wowbagger, who has very kindly drawn 3 Harryhausen-related pictures for me in the last year or so.

<BB<

Good entry Bluebottle. Not too long.

Your use of "masterpiece" is outdated and won't be easily understood. Instead of "undisputed masterpiece" I'd say "masterpiece in the original sense of the word".

Brontosaurus - add footnote "As the Apatosaurus was called at that time"

Was it The Foghorn or The Fog Horn?

Rhedosaurus - and the first syllable is pronounced "Ray".

The Beast from or The Beast From?

Paleaosaurus --> Palaeosaurus

Please reword the following to remove repitition:

Following this test...
...did not know what the monster...
...frame-by-frame...

...with the actor...
...cinema screens larger...

First sentence of Legacy section repeats ladt sentence of previous section.

Typos and grammar can be handled by the sub.

Thanks for the thorough read through – I thought I'd try to write without the waffle for once

I've amended the article taking into account all your suggestions, and feel I only need to comment on these:

Was it The Foghorn or The Fog Horn?
Ray Bradbury's short story about the foghorn was called 'The Fog Horn', so I've changed the title to 'Fog Horn' while descriptions of the noise-making device are two words.

Rhedosaurus - and the first syllable is pronounced "Ray".
Good point added to the entry!

The Beast from or The Beast From?
The posters, my DVD etc all say 'From' so we'll stick to From.

<BB<

OK. Some more.

You have both 'Dietz' and 'Deitz'.

The section:

"Rather than taking place during a foggy day, the film shows the lighthouse at night, shot in silhouette to be menacing and atmospheric. The story in the Saturday Evening Post had been accompanied by a glorious full-colour picture of the dinosaur attacking it in bright daylight. The effect combined a model lighthouse, stock footage of the sea crashing over rocks as well as the attacking dinosaur, and is one of the highlights of the film before the climax in New York."

This would be clearer if you moved the sentence "The story in..." to before the sentence "Rather than...".

Tweaked

<BB<

This is excellent, Bluebottle. Do you know, I think that you've got the hang of this writing business.

What, me?

Don't say that, it'll go right to me head.

<BB<

Another good Film Entry

The only bit I was puzzled by was Dynamation " a matte line used to split the screen into foreground and background" - I'm clear about using film as the backdrop, frame by frame, but I can't visualise what the matte line does

Okay, I've added a little bit to explain a bit more about the matte line - hopefully it makes more sense now

<BB<

Sorry BB, I still don't get it...

The creature is in the foreground, but the lines make it so the creature is behind the foreground

Sounds like a fascinating film, but as you can tell, I've never seen it...

Let's tweak again, like we did last summer
Yeah, let's tweak again, like we did last year.
Do you remember when, Peer Review was really hummin',
Yeah, let's tweak again, tweakin' time is here!
Ooh round and round and up and down the article'll go
Oh, SashaQ, make me know you love the article's tweak so
It's tweaked again, like I did last summer
Yeah, let's tweak again, like we did last year.

(Erm, I tweaked it slightly....)

<BB<

Ooo hahaha... (good job I'm not at work - they'd wonder what was going on!)

*wipes eyes*

Ahem...

Thanks - I understand the matte lines now

What is counter matte, though?

A counter matte is an opposite to a matte. So if a screen is matted on the left side of the screen and not on the right, the counter-matte would matte the right side of the screen and not the left. Do you feel that this should be mentioned in the article? There's quite a lot of technical stuff that could be mentioned that I'm hoping to leave out and summarise.

<BB<

I have to admit that I don't understand the current explanation, but I think it is OK, because it sounds as if you yourself understand it. I don't think it is appropriate to get into a long technical explanation. The techniques of mattes and counter-mattes could fill another entry by the sound of it.

Ah... I thought I understood the matte lines, but now I don't understand again...

You're right not to get technical. I like your example of how the matte lines are used, but the mention of counter matte confused things...

What is matte? Is it that another film is superimposed on part of the film of the creature?