The biggest FX element I'm trying to get through is the Zombie Eater. It's the most elaborate character I've put together for a movie, some of the photo shoots have had more going on in the costume department, but as far as a character in a movie it's the most work.
The biggest and most worrisome aspect is the head. I've got it all sculpted, the teeth ready to go and finally got to moulding it yesterday. I really hate that part. You spend so much time on something and then you have to destroy and if you're really lucky it's not permanently gone.
I originally thought of just a full head prosthetic, so I'm going with an Ultracal 30 mould. It felt like it went alright - even though it took the better part of a day to do. However when it came time to cracking open the mould I wasn't too happy. The back half pretty much fell away in a couple seconds. The front half no so much. I left it and came back later, having made a make shift pulley, the first attempt did exactly what I suspected it would (why I went through with it, I don't know) and just ripped through the back of the head (the positive mould, so not a total loss) and the second attempt just pulled it out in a couple seconds perfectly.
There weren't too many issue with the surface, nothing that anyone who didn't know would even notice really. So I can't complain there. It's a little thinner than I would have liked, but that might prove to be a benefit in some way - better than too thick and end up with a heavy useless piece.
So, instead of just jumping right into a foam latex piece - I still have to finish the oven anyway today - I decided to go with a couple backup plans. Before anything else is run through the mould, I'm going to try making a silicone mask - not the best method, but given my limitations on this, it can't hurt even if it doesn't turn out. Then I'll try just a regular old latex mask - not the best option to put on screen, but I will if I have to, it's better than nothing. And finally I'll try the prosthetic version.
I'm hoping one will pan out decently enough to use and that the Zombie Eater won't go through too many looks onscreen. If the silicone works, I'll be using that for sure. The mask, maybe if I have to get a stand-in or for long distance reshoots. I'm really hoping the prosthetic version turns out - and it's more contingent on my oven not being a disaster - so we'll see what happens in the next few days. All three should be done by this time next week.
There's also a couple other aspects to the Zombie Eater I've never gone into too much detail about here and I probably won't. I'm putting a sort of black out from here on to the final release of the movie on any images of the Zombie Eater. I'll be taking lots myself, but nothing will be featured on this blog or Facebook or anywhere. Aside from one little teaser image perhaps.
I'm really hoping it works out, it's been a lot of work and the whole project really rides on me being able to pull off this one effect. Without it, the movie doesn't have the same impact. They've always been fairly low key as far as FX goes and I really want the last one to go beyond the expectations of what I've set in place so far with the first two BZK! movies
And if the full head prosthetic works, it marks a bit of a change in some of the things I might be doing in the future. Time and money will tell.
So for now, I'm scheduling shoots as best I can and working on the last remaining FX elements and hoping to hell we pull it all off this time.
No comments:
Post a Comment