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.

Plus it

It was sort of Walt Disney's motto. While working on any project, he always asked, how can we plus it? Meaning, what else can we do to make it even better? It's a way to turn things from satisfactory to good, and from good to great. I don't want to work on anything I don't feel I can turn into somthing great. I think we've got a good episode, but a whole lot of work needs to be done to hit greatness.

The one thing on my brain is monsters, of course. If I really work at it, and work to plus it, I can make a goofy little short filled with dialogue and comedy, turn into something REALLY great. We can put some people in make up, sure, but what else can I do to plus it.

Here's an amazing example. I found this video 2 years ago. I drooled over it and ponder it often, always wondering how and when I can attempt such a feat. This is a great example of plusing it, as well as the kind of grandiose type creature I'm looking to include in Monster Cops.



Here's what the description reads:
This Stone Golem was constructed using about 5 foam mattresses, over 50 sticks of hot melt glue, and 8 cans of grey and black spray paint. The foam is glued in large thick sheets (approx 20cm thick) to a fabric bodysuit, and the deep cracks are carved into the foam surface. The bodysuit has a zip up the back to allow the wearer to enter it, and the zip is concealed by abutting foam. The soles of the feet are made of corflute that has been sliced in half to expose corrugations that act as grip. The arms are about twice the length of the wearer\'s arms, and act as swinging weapons made entirely of soft foam. The golem took about 100 hours of work to construct, between 3 people. On its first appearance, the Stone Golem sent twenty bold adventurers into a hasty retreat without so much as touching them.

This along with the previous posts, are examples of what I need to accomplish to get to where this episode needs to be.

So I need to find me some mattress foam. LOL.

Working it.

Figured I'd post some pics of what's been going down for the past month or so. Next I'll post the first Monster Cops Video Blog.

I'm still in the middle of casting, but below are pics of some of the actors that have for sure been cast.

Brandon White, showing off in one of the new costume pieces.


The Adorable Nicole Nastazzio


Comedian Greg Romeo


Doug Hanks, who is also loaning us the use of his guns as well as gun expertise and a location to fire these guns at. Thank you so much Doug.


Danielle Motley has been cast in the much sought after role of Greenly. Yes Danielle I'm using your headshot, and yes I stole it off your myspace, get over it.

And if you're one of the many actors who were looking to audition for the role of Greenly I'm sorry, but I am still actively looking to fill other female roles and will continue to keep in contact with all of the actors who have been emailing me.

Others cast but not pictured:
John Burcham
Lisa Molenda
Will Atwood
Jamie Bertman
more to come.

Secured almost all of the locations. Special thanks to Kelly Emerson for giving us her ranch to shoot at, which has an amazing backwoods area. She also put me in touch with the person who can get us in to shoot at this massive warehouse in downtown Winston.


Kelly's been a real Godsend, she's also contributing some possible props/costumes as well as giving us an in to a Helicopter.

I've been hard at work at creating one of the prop guns for the movie. I felt the Monster Cops needed a specialized weapon, not unlike the Ghostbusters proton pack, or the Plasma Rifle from Aliens. I took my inspiration from Indy Mogul. Everytime I see empty bottles now, I just see gun parts. A full video on how I'm making this will be done later.



Here it is with a final paint job, but still without the final parts and accessories added.


Here's our Special FX guy William Stine working on the Werewolf FX. I'm not going to post too many photos of it just yet, don't want to completely give it away. William you're doing an amazing job.





Still going through casting, still looking at locations, alot is still up in the air, but so much has fallen into place. Can't wait to shoot this one.

Building a Lycan

Thank God for the internet, Thank God for Halloween, and Thank God for INSTRUCTABLES. I'm constantly looking online for someone else out there interested in building a Werewolf costume, just to see if there are any tips and techniques I can pick up for my own Lycanthropic Endeavor (Yeah I said it.)

Not only have I found gryphern's tutorial on YouTube, but thankfully someone on Instructables.com has posted their how to on their Lycan. Thank you so much for this missmonster.

http://www.instructables.com/id/realistic-werewolf-costume/

This is a whole lot closer to the look I'm going for. Love the teeth and the claws for sure. The lessons here have really put me in the right direction. Saves me alot of experimentation (too late.)

Just in time too. I'm going through the budget and I've just hit the cost of Werewolf FX. Looks like I'll be saving some money.

Now if you'll excuse me I now go to look at this tutorial on making an infrared digital camera.