Thankful

I am very thankful. For my life, for the ability to breathe, move, think, see, hear, and to just be.  I'm so thankful for a roof over my head, and walls to shield me from the outside elements. A bed to sleep in. A bathroom with a functioning toilet and a clean shower. A kitchen I can cook in.  My car.  My computer.  Electricity. Water. I'm thankful for family, and friends.  I'm so very thankful for my wife, my pal, my best friend.  I'm thankful I have her to lean on, to live with, love with, and just be myself with.  When I hold her I always feel like I'm home, and I'm so very thankful I have her.  I'm also thankful that she is so supportive of me and my crazy efforts to make movies.

I'm so thankful for this amazing opportunity I have to make my dreams happen. I'm thankful to be alive, and to understand and comprehend how fortunate I am to do what I'm able to do. I'm so thankful for the freedoms I have to pursue these goals.  It's mind blowing what it took to make me realize that all that I needed to accomplish my goals, I already have.  I have heart and soul, desire and skill, and a wife who believes in me.  Put that with my freedom and I have everything I need to create something truly amazing.

So our typical Thanksgiving events involved, cooking dinner, eating dinner, conversations about space travel and Star Trek, random house cleaning, and then me in the ice cold garage spray painting a Werewolf head.  All of this narrated by FX's Home Alone marathon.  I really love that movie.

I used different shades of fur and felt, I needed to paint him to even out all the colors.  Also I wanted a darker used look, like he'd been running out in the wild for a while.  Also needed to color black around the eyes to help accentuate the glowing red eyes.

The hair needs more work. I need more spray paint and fur, and then it'll be all about the legs and the body.  I hope to do some test shots this Tuesday and or Wednesday.  I'll also try out the new camera crane as well.

The body I'm still trying to figure out.  I can't afford enough fur to cover an entire body, especially since this guy is going to be a giant.  I'm going to have to cheat and give him some kind of clothing.  A robe perhaps with some sort of torn baggy pants.  Nothing so generic as a T-shirt and jeans. I am going to clone this guy into an army in After Effects.  Some sort of cloth, toga, or monks robe, or something along those lines.  I'll have a better understanding when I see the mask and hands on an actor.

I still need to finish my Snicker's Ad.  I really need to pick a day next week and just knock that out.

Even Closer

Went out and bought the materials I needed to continue on the wolf. Felt, Craft Fur, Plastic Table cloth. Again, I'll go more in depth in the VLog, but for now here's a pic of where I'm at with the Wolf Head.

My inspirations for this wolf came from the classic wolf fantasy flick In The Company Of Wolves, but also Rob Bottin's FX work in The Howling, as well as Stan Winston's work in Predator.  And as with anything I create, props, costume, or FX wise, I always get inspiration from Jim Henson.

Gotta give it a bit more fur, then give it a once over with some spray paint, then it's on to the body, and then the legs and stilts.  So far I've spent about 35$ on this. I'm hoping to keep the costs low, but I do expect the final cost of this build to be around $50 to $60.

Still need to make time to work on that Snicker's Ad.  More later.

Closer

Was thinking of shooting a few scenes for Monster Cops this week, but it looks like I'm going to spend this Thanksgiving week, finishing up the giant Werewolf costume for REDD. Once I have that complete it will be easier to figure out exactly how these shots are going to go.

Gotta do some shopping this week. I've never been so excited to purchase fake fur, table cloth, duct tape, and pvc pipe. Unless I come up with something less expensive to make the rest of the Wolf's body out of. I'm quite proud that I've been able to make this out of things I already had, and have spent very little money on it. I've spent about $15 on duct tape so far. Everything else is from my collection of stuff that I've picked up and said "Hmm I think I can make something out of that." I have a huge bin full of card board tubes, plastic pieces, materials left from opened packages, anything I at one point thought I could use to help build a prop.

It's called, making it with no money, and this Werewolf is certainly no exception.

Started with a cardboard structure.

Gave it a layer of duct tape to help mold out the shape I wanted. Also built in a bicycle helmet with a strap. This way it can attach comfortably to the actor's head. I am aiming for this thing to be about 7ft or more. Which means I'm gonna have to make some stilts.

And here's where I'm at now. A bit of hair added to it, it's giant hands are ready to go. Now we move on to the fur, paint, and full body.










I'll be going into deeper details with a Video Blog describing the whole process, including the LED powered glowing red eyes, and how I'm doing the hair. And there will also be a VLog about the DIY Camera Crane I built.

These are great examples of how far I'm willing to go to make this production truly great. I want the Werewolf to be hulking and impressive. I want to utilize majestic and sweeping crane shots to really express that cinematic feel. I want it to look like we spent alot of money without actually spending the money. I know we can do it. Every week we get closer and closer to a production date.

After Midnight

Can't sleep. Late night snack. Walnuts and grapes.

Also feel the need to blog about what I've done since my last post.

Built a werewolf head, and just completed the prosthetic hands tonight.

Fixed and readjusted my DIY camera crane and Jib. Most of it made from cardboard poster tubes, duck tape, and magic. ;) Everything's going fine so far. I feel like if I can get the Werewolf costume to look more than decent, we'll have a solid shot at doing something extremely high concept. Also, it would be nice to have a giant Werewolf on hand for Monster Cops.

I've got script pages to write and re-write. Packages to send off, and somewhere in there I need to make time to workout.

I feel I've got quite a bit done. Let's see if I can continue to be productive.