Spook Central: The Ghostbusters Companion

Ghostbusters 1 & 2 Stock Footage

spookcentral — Wed, 09 May 2012 02:54:17 +0000

Stock footage, or archive footage as it is sometimes called, is basically video of a location that is not taken for a specific production, but is instead cataloged in a studio's stock footage library to be used on an as-needed basis. Footage that has actually been used in a specific production can also wind up in a stock footage library, as is the case with the Ghostbusters films. Using stock footage is much cheaper for a production than actually sending a crew out to shoot establishing shots of each different locale needed for a particular show or movie.

To give you a real example of the concept, take a look at this shot of a red brick house. Can you guess what television show this was filmed for?

If you guessed The King of Queens, you're dead wrong. Although this shot of this particular house may be well known from its use over nine seasons as the Heffernan's house, it was actually filmed in 1991 (seven years before The King of Queens premiered) for a little-known television series called Sibs starring Jami Gertz and Dan "Homer Simpson" Castellaneta. Not a single person on the The King of Queens production staff even knew where the house was until a fan did an exhausting amount of research. The King of Queens production staff just simply pulled footage of this house from the Sony Pictures stock footage library and that's how it came to be known as the Heffernan House. It even appears on many of the DVD boxes!

As expected, Sony has footage from both Ghostbusters movies in their stock footage library, and I have cataloged it to the best of my ability on the new Ghostbusters stock footage and Ghostbusters II stock footage pages here on Spook Central. What you'll find are different takes and camera angles of various shots and scenes, almost all in their original uncut form. What you won't find is footage of the actors or anything that couldn't be passed off as "generic" footage.

We've already had our first instance of Ghostbusters footage appearing in another production when I spotted this digitally-altered shot in the Monk episode "Mr. Monk and the Voodoo Curse" a few years ago:

There's a little bit of unused footage from a few scenes, and even some footage from deleted scenes, amongst all of the stock footage. All of the deleted scene footage is listed at the bottom of each page. Here are some unused Ectomobile shots from both films, and the exterior of the Parkview Hospital from the second film (where we would have met Sherman Tully), to whet your appetite. (In the third shot, you can see the top of the Ecto-1A at the bottom of the shot, and the front of the car reflected in the window.)

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Ghostbusters Merchandise

spookcentral — Fri, 04 May 2012 03:30:00 +0000

Just wanted to make a quick post to let everyone know about some Ghostbusters merchandise currently available for sale from various individuals.

The first individual is ME! I have over 450 items for sale on eBay, of which there are seven Ghostbusters items, including a rare Real Ghostbusters Fox Family Channel promo photo. I still have a few Spook Central patches left, though when they're gone; that's it! This is my last ditch effort to sell most of this stuff before I donate a lot of it to a charactable organization, whilst I find other ways to raise money to pay for a new boiler I need to have installed in my home. So if you see something that interests you, get it now while I still have it.

Someone else who has a few Ghostbusters items for sale is Lee Taylor. Below is the list he gave me, which is linked to the photos he took of the items. If you have any questions, or you'd like to submit your best offer, you can contact Lee at l5taylor@btinternet.com. When considering postage costs, remember that Lee is located in the U.K. I bought some items from Lee last week and they arrived super quick - less than a week from the U.K. to me in New York. I've had items that shipped *within* the U.S. that took longer! Everything was in great condition and I couldn't be happier.

• Ray Parker Jr. Ghostbusters Special Edition Record Single
• Run-DMC Ghostbusters Record Single
• Johnny Lighting Ecto-1A Diecast Car from Ghostbusters II (Factory-Sealed)
• Neca Gozer Figure (Factory-Sealed)
• Kenner The Real Ghostbusters GhostZapper (more info on the item)
• The Real Ghostbusters Board Game (by Triatoys, UK) (additional image #1, additional image #2)
• The Real Ghostbusters Cord-Linked Communicators (additional image)
• The Real Ghostbusters Dinner Tray (additional image)
• Lee also has the Kenner Real Ghostbusters Firehouse playset, but it's missing some parts, and it's rather too bulky to send to the U.S.
END

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Ghostbusters PDF eBook Preservation Project - Ghostbusters II UK Theater Campaign Book

spookcentral — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 03:50:00 +0000

A bit of a rarity has been preserved this time around. On the Ghostbusters II Books page you can now find the Ghostbusters II UK Theater Campaign Book in PDF ebook form. This was a book given out to theater owners in the United Kingdom to help them maximize the exposure of their showings of the movie. It has suggestions for newspaper features (dig those crazy faux ads), contests for the kiddies, and prize giveaways (no balloons or thermal mugs, sadly), plus a list of merchandise producers and various theater accoutrements (posters, standees, etc.) that could be ordered. Obviously, this book was never given out to the general public, so I highly suspect that most of you have never seen it before. I certainly haven't.

Mucho thanks to Lee Taylor for providing the scans from his book and, as always, Matthew Jordan for the clean-up and restoration of the scans. Oh, yeah, for those playing along at home... Richard Roy now has up to issue #24 (TWENTY-FOUR!) of NOW's The Real Ghostbusters comic books in the Ectocontainment's Comics section. So go check that out when you're done here.

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Titanic 100th Anniversary

spookcentral — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 03:40:00 +0000

The RMS Titanic, the world's largest and most luxurious ocean liner, left on its maiden voyage on April 10, 1912 from Southampton, England to New York City, carrying everyone from plutocrats to penniless emigrants. Titanic had an estimated 2,224 people on board when she struck an iceberg in the north Atlantic Ocean at 11:40 PM (ship's time; 9:40 PM EST) on Sunday, April 14, 1912. She sank two hours and forty minutes later at 2:20 AM (12:20 EST) on Monday, April 15th, resulting in the deaths of 1,514 people, making it one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history.

The wreck of Titanic remains on the seabed, gradually disintegrating at a depth of 12,415 feet (3,784 m). Since its rediscovery in 1985, thousands of artifacts have been recovered from the sea bed and put on display at museums around the world. Titanic has become one of the most famous ships in history, her memory kept alive by numerous books, films, exhibits and memorials.

She makes a brief appearance in Ghostbusters II (photo above), as the spectral ship finally arrives at its New York City destination, with its ghostly passengers disembarking to, presumably, finally be at peace. Meant to be a humorous sight gag in the film, its actually a rather solemn happening if you stop and think about it. Although Ghostbusters II was filmed after the discovery of the remains of the actual RMS Titanic in 1985, the specific nature of the ship's iceberg collision and overall appearance is inaccurate. The spectral ship appears to have a giant, gaping hole in its bow when docked, when in fact the actual vessel suffered several dozen small impacts along much of the starboard body and, by and large, broke off into two large pieces.

As I write this, it is 100 years ago to the minute that the ship sank and all of those lives were lost. We've all grown up with the legend of the Titanic, and it feels a little strange to realize that it's, just now, a full century since the tragic event took place. It always seemed so "long ago", but it really wasn't until now.

FURTHER READING
• NY Daily News - Photos: On Board The Titanic Before It Sank
• NY Daily News - Photos: Titanic Artifacts
• Wikipedia - Photo: Titanic Voyage Map
• Miami Herald - Titanic: The Moral Of A 100-Year-Old Story by Leonard Pitts Jr.
• NY Daily News - Events Around The World To Mark The Shipwreck's 100-Year Anniversary
• BBC News - Titanic 100
• CBC News - Titanic's Sinking Commemorated in Halifax
• Titanic in Nova Scotia
• Encyclopaedia Britannica Presents Titanic: The Unsinkable Ship
• Encyclopedia Titanica
• Titanic Facts
• Titanic.com
• RMS Titanic, Inc. Offical Site
• Ghostbusters Wiki

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IDW Ghostbusters Monthly Comic #11 Solicitation

spookcentral — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 03:30:00 +0000

IDW just sent along the following solicitation for the Ghostbusters monthly comic series, issue #11, which comes out in July. Below that is the solicitation for the Volume 2 trade paperback. which also comes out in July. You can pre-order any of the regular issues at Ghostbusters Fans (though not all covers are available), and you can order the Volume 1 trade paperback (containing issues 1-4) and pre-order the Volume 2 trade paperback (containing issues 5-8) at Amazon.

Ghostbusters #11 (July 2012)
Erik Burnham (w) * Dan Schoening (a) * Schoening, Tristan Jones (c)
Continuing west on their cross-country caper, the Ghostbusters head from the mouth of the Mississippi to the Chihuahuan desert, and the city of Roswell. Ray's in heaven with the proliferation of ET attractions in the UFO capital of New Mexico, but will he have time to enjoy it while the ghosts of little green men attack? Haunted America, the Ghostbusters event of the summer, continues here!
FC * 32 pages * $3.99

Variant Covers:
Variant Mike Henderson cover!

Bullet Points:
• Each issue contains a back-up Ghostbusters story by Tristan Jones! "Who Killed Laura Parr?" will run in all 4 issues of Haunted America!
• The Ghostbusters leave New York! On the road for the first time in comics!
• Four Dan Schoening covers connect to make a unified National map, each featuring a different Ghostbuster! Four Tristan Jones covers featuring a haunted tourist postcard theme!

The four Dan Schoening map covers can be seen in their connected form over at Proton Charging and Ghostbusters News. As for the four Tristan Jones postcard covers, issues #9 (Detroit), #10 (New Orleans), and #11 (Roswell) have all been released by Tristan on his Deviant Art account, but not #12 yet.

Ghostbusters, Vol. 2: The Most Magical Place On Earth (July 2012)
Erik Burnham (w) * Dan Schoening (a) * Nick Runge (c)
The smash-hit ongoing series continues in this second story arc! Thanks to the contract they signed, the Ghostbusters are temporarily barred by Walter Peck from taking any work (without his express permission) in New York City. The Ghostbusters skirt the edict by taking a job in Schenectady. It's a simple haunted amusement park upstate - what could possibly go wrong?
TPB * FC * $17.99 * 104 pages * ISBN 978-1-61377-279-9

Offered Again!
Ghostbusters Ongoing Vol. 1 * FC * $17.99 * ISBN: 978-1-61377-157-0
Ghostbusters Displaced Aggression TPB * FC * $17.99 * ISBN: 978-1-60010-610-1
Ghostbusters Haunted Holidays TPB * FC * $17.99 * ISBN: 978-1-60010-778-8
Ghostbusters The Other Side TPB * FC * $17.99 * ISBN: 978-1-60010-426-8

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Shot On Site - A Look Into The Future

spookcentral — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 09:17:22 +0000

This isn't a regular Shot On Site article, so I'm not going to tag it as such. This is really a look into the future of the Shot On Site feature here at Spook Central, as well as a few odds and ends that wouldn't fit as regular SOS articles.

Let's talk about sound stages. As you may know, both movies were filmed on a few sound stages at The Burbank Studios (now Warner Bros. Studios). I really was going to totally ignore the sound stages on my Filming Locations page, because I was just going to concentrate on locations that were shown in the film as they really exist (in a manner of speaking) in the real world, which people could actually visit. Yeah, you could tour the Warner lot, and you can (maybe) even see inside some of the stages, but all you'd see is an empty stage. You wouldn't see any of the Ghostbusters sets. However, after some careful consideration, I decided to create a Burbank Studios page here on Spook Central.

Let's get out the crystal ball and look into the future. Matthew Jordan from the Ghostbusters Wiki has been on a crusade to identify every single location on my Unidentified Filming Locations page. Incredibly enough, he's actually been getting some of the extremely hard to find locations identified. Okay, in all fairness, Matthew isn't the only source of some new IDs. Two of them I got all by myself, one was (in a really weird way) a joint effort by Matthew and myself, and two were ID'ed by other folks online. The rest were all Matthew. And what are these new locations you may ask? Well, here's what you have to look forward to over the coming months: GB1 Chinatown, GB1 Flipped Driving, GB1 Jogging, GB1 Ray With Trap, GB1 Reporter, GB1 Undead Cabbie, GB1 Wandering Louis, GB2 Gracie Mansion, and GB2 Orrefors.

You ever find something that, if you had found it earlier, would have made your life a whole lot easier? That happened to me today. While watching the Ghostbusters II Electronic Press Kit looking for behind the scenes sound stage shots for the Burbank Studios page, I saw a shot that I must not have paid too much attention to when I first watched the EPK a few years ago:

Here we see the guys taking the santa hat promo photo in front of the clearly-marked Record Explosion store. You know, the Record Explosion store the guys run out of with smoking trap in hand in the film. The same Record Explosion store that I painstakingly identified using some fan-taken behind the scenes photos and Google Maps last year. Had I noticed this shot in the EPK years ago, it would have been a whole lot easier to identify the location :-)

Finally, I leave you with Entertainment Tonight's brief behind the scenes look at Ghostbusters II from 1989. I didn't record this or originally upload this. I think it came from the old Megadownload thread at the Ghostbusters Message Board on Ghostbusters.net, but I could be wrong about that. Anyway... ENJOY!

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Ghostbusters 3 Hellbent Script To Appear In IDW's Comic Book Series

spookcentral — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 20:53:31 +0000

Comic artist Tristan Jones, who designed the rotating series of Spook Central banners you see atop this site, has let me in on a little secret. Dan Aykroyd's Ghostbusters 3: Hellbent script will be adapted into comic book form starting in Ghostbusters issue #13, and continuing to issue #16. The details are still being finalized, so there isn't much to report right now, but he did tell me that the first issue will have a whopping THIRTEEN variant covers. A rather unlucky number for those of us with small wallets. Expect a formal press release from IDW in the coming days, but in the meantime, if you don't tell anyone, you can view a preliminary rough of Tristan's variant cover by CLICKING HERE.

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IDW Ghostbusters Monthly Comic #10 Solicitation

spookcentral — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 00:30:31 +0000

IDW just sent along the following solicitation for the Ghostbusters monthly comic series, issue #10, which comes out in June. You can pre-order any of the regular issues at Ghostbusters Fans (though not all covers are available), and you can pre-order the Volume 1 (containing issues 1-4) and Volume 2 (containing issues 5-8) trade paperbacks at Amazon.

Ghostbusters #10 (June 2012)
Erik Burnham (w) * Dan Schoening (a) * Schoening, Tristan Jones (c)
It's one haunted hotspot down and three to go as the Ghostbusters head south, leaving the Motor City for the Big Easy. But ain't nothin' gonna be easy down Louisiana way for the boys in gray - Marie Laveau is back in the Quarter and lookin' to stick around! Join us as Haunted America continues... in New Orleans!
FC * 32 pages * $3.99

Variant Covers:
Variant Mike Henderson cover!

Bullet Points:
• Each issue contains a back-up Ghostbusters story by Tristan Jones! "Who Killed Laura Parr?" will run in all 4 issues of Haunted America!
• The Ghostbusters leave New York! On the road for the first time in comics!
• Four Dan Schoening covers connect to make a unified National map, each featuring a different Ghostbuster! Four Tristan Jones covers featuring a haunted tourist postcard theme!

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Ghostbusters PDF eBook Preservation Project - Starburst Magazine

spookcentral — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 10:49:25 +0000

A nice vintage magazine has been preserved this time around. On the Ghostbusters Books page you can now find a PDF ebook containing all of the Ghostbusters articles from the December 1984 issue of Starburst magazine. All of the "Making of Ghostbusters" articles were written by Randy and Jean-Marc Lofficier. If those names sound familiar, that's because they would later write The Real Ghostbusters episodes "The Headless Motorcyclist" and "The Ghostbusters In Paris".

Mucho thanks to Lee Taylor for providing the scans from his magazine (it took me three years and four months, but I finally got it on the site) and, as always, Matthew Jordan for the clean-up and restoration of the scans. Oh, yeah, for those playing along at home... Richard Roy now has up to issue #11 (ELEVEN!) of NOW's The Real Ghostbusters comic books in the Ectocontainment's Comics section. So go check that out when you're done here.

Finally, there are four images from this issue of Starburst magazine that I thought were worth uploading separately from the magazine to the Spook Central Facebook page. Some of the old-timers will recognize some of these from when Bill Emkow had them on his site. Yes, that's adult film legend Ron Jeremy on the left in the second image. Yes, a pornstar appears in an official Ghostbusters production photo :-)

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Shot On Site - Taking The Scenic Route To The Museum

spookcentral — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 04:30:00 +0000

Well, how about that? Two Shot on Site articles in one year! It's about time I started picking up the pace. This was an easy one because the movie itself actual gives away half of the location! Read more »

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