Monday, September 18, 2006

Ghouls and you...

Monday: 12:55 pm

I spent the day, and most of yesterday actually, getting ready for this shoot. Mainly because anything to do with prosthetic makeup kinda requires you to do it all at once - unless you're really good at it and can remove the prosthetic without ruining it. I am not that good. So all at once it is.

Given that I spent the money on this makeup and whatnot, I wanted to make sure it was really worth reshooting and making the scene better, I spent speveral hours of storyboarding and trying to find the easiest, most efficient and most effective way of shooting. If my storyboards were at all amazing looking, I'd probably post them - maybe sometime I'll do that...but not today. They kinda look like sketchy anime with a lot of arrows and junk.

Monday morning comes along, time to doublecheck everything - since this is a reshoot and I'm dying to get to some new stuff, I want to make sure nothing goes wrong. Spent an hour or so doing makeup tests - which by the way, feels really silly. And even worse still if in the middle you get unexpected company (which I didn't, but it probably wouldn't have matter anyway, I think most people expect that kind of thing if they have the nerve to just drop in on me unannounced).

After that I realized how long it takes to really ruin a shirt that's in otherwise decent condition. And now it's all done. Time to wait until the shoot tonight. Unfortunately, I don't have a photographer tonight so I probably won't have any really great shots to post, other then some stills. But, that's better then nothing.

Monday 11:24 pm

How to make a Ghoul - in a few easy steps. First...forget it, it's not easy and I really wasn't paying attention to how many steps it took.

First we start off with a fellow named Dan - it's has to be a Dan by the way, Gary and Leonard, just won't work. Originally it was supposed to be Graham Putnam playing this character - but due to some really crazy circumstances it just wasnt' possible. No hard feeling though, Graham just had a better offer and needed a beard to do it. I can't explain that last sentence if you don't know the circumstances.

Then we add some red contact lenses. I love contact lenses! Every movie I make from now on will have someone wearing contact lenses - even just correctional ones will do.And some poorly fitted fake teeth. The drool is optional - he was just getting into character...or perhaps it was all my supermodel girlfriends that came over at the time, who knows. Does this remind you of that movie Demons?And then we slap on the prosthetic. Again, a little poorly fitted, but I was in a major hurry. I wish I could organize my time better.A little makeup to blend things together...Another angle on that. I noticed the forehead and cheeks blended pretty well, the chin and mouth area was a bugger though.And some other stuff here and there...It's a little severe looking, but it was meant to be since we were shooting in low, very dramatic lighting. It does look a little bit like an evil turtle doesn't it?And back in with the fake teeth, no drool this time though.And we're done. And we had no drive down to the shoot so we had to walk, luckily it was after dark and everyone looks a little like this around here at this time of night.

I will edit the footage tomorrow, my brain is way too baked to do it right now. I have a major headache and I'm tired as hell. It came out great though, I did have a chance to look it all over and I'm really happy with it. Thanks again to everyone who showed up - I might not seem like it but I really do appreciate it. Dan, you did a great job as a crazy cannibalistic ghoul, Heather, you were awesome as usual and Graham, you may not have been a ghoul - but you're a hell of a corpse. And to City Cinema of course for letting us film in their hallway - Wendy for staying late and Derek for telling her she had to. Oh, and Dr. McGillicuddy's Fireball - you are a godsend. Sort of. Maybe a satansend, I'm not sure.