Suicide Demon Girl at the Beach

I'm not a beach person at all, but somehow I ended up doing two beach shoots one after the other. These ones turned out a little better than the last beach shoot, we had a little more cloud cover so the shadows weren't as harsh - no, I'm not a "professional photographer" so I don't have all the light bouncing shit and flashes and whatnot.

The makeup itself was pretty simple, just a face piece and a pair of ears, along with some yellow and orange strips and fake tattoos. The wig looked nothing like the one I'd ordered, it looked a little like crap while it sat on the headform as well, but for some reason, once Julie put it on it sort of took on a whole new shape and ended up looking like an overdone, campy 70s hairdo - which looked awesome for what we were shooting.

That's pretty much it for me being at the beach this summer, I have one more I'm hoping to do, but it's not so much on a beach as it is a small desert looking island.

Witch's Jawbone

This is one of those props I wanted to make as soon as I heard about it. I recall hearing about it a long time ago, before I made props and it just never resurfaced as an prop idea before until recently.

What makes this piece a little more creepy or weird than say a random Cthulhu statue, is that this is a real thing. It's something you could actually find - perhaps it wouldn't look exactly like this though.

The story behind it is that back when people used to hunt witches and do all manner of ridiculous, superstitious things, when a witch was killed - presumably when there was still a corpse, so probably through drowning - in order to prevent her (or I suppose him) from returning from the dead, spikes were driven through the body. There have been actual skeletons found with iron spikes driven into the bones. I thought this was just too bizarre to ignore, so I set upon creating a Witch's Jawbone.

I elaborated on the real version by supposing that if the iron spikes were to prevent the witch from returning from the dead, that they somehow locked her (or, still could be his) powers away inside their bones unable to escape or be used after death. So these Witch's Jawbones became a black market kind of item, used by either apprentice witches, wizards, warlocks and anyone dabbling in dark magic in their practices as a source of magic to enhance their own or as a magic catalyst in alchemy or supernatural devices.

I just happened to have a jawbone from a medical skeleton, so I cleaned up the seams as best I could, moulded that and cast it in clay so I could, rather than sculpt it from nothing, sculpt the damage and whatnot from the spikes and speed up the process a little bit. I was attempting to have this done last minute for a local Horror Festival, but I wasn't able to.

The sculpt turned out great. I was originally supposed to get a small supply of old blacksmithed nails, the squared off kind, but that never happened although I did get my hands on one. So I moulded and cast those in clay, altering each of the seven nails I'd use accordingly. I moulded and cast them in resin - which wasn't the best idea as they came out somewhat fragile, making this not a great idea for a limited run. I'd like the piece to be sturdy, not something you can't even handle without fear of breaking it.

But I kept going, and with very little time and even less supplies, I attempted to mould the jawbone. I did a miserable job of it and ran out of silicone halfway through so the mould itself was pitiful and probably wouldn't hold up to more than one casting. It didn't.

I managed to cast it and get it cleaned up, got the nails into the more or less right spots on the jawbone and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, but I'll definitely be using real nails I think if I try this for a limited run. How limited will depend on how many nails I can get my hands on, I don't want to order online as it'll just jack the price up on the final piece big time, so I'm on the hunt locally for a batch of nails all produced together, I don't want random sizes, it just makes fitting them too much effort in the end and again would drive the cost up.

But I have a copy for myself for now and it sits on the shelf with all the other random stuff I've made over the years. This is definitely a display piece though that I'd really like to attempt a small, limited run of, boxed up just like this as well so it's something that has a little more of a completely finished display piece for wherever or even as set decoration for a movie or tv show.

UPDATE: if you made it this far and actually read everything - first off, congratulations - and secondly, I've sourced some real antique nails, possibly even iron, so I will within the next month be doing a very limited run of only 5 of these, case included as well. No idea of the pricing at this point though.

Werewolf Red Riding Hood

While it’s not a totally unique idea to turn Little Red Riding Hood into a Werewolf, usually it’s done cute or dark, but I decided to turn her into a punkish bounty hunter.

I kept the makeup simple, as I usually do, because I didn’t want it to look like furry, more like a human in control of her wolf side and is most always partially transformed.

My Last Movie...more like fake movie trailer really.

I've been thinking about this off and on over the last few months, and nearly every time it came to mind I always thought an interview with Patton Oswalt I once heard., he was discussing his thoughts on being a successful comedian. I'll admit I don't recall some exact points, but the basic idea was that he believed in order to be a success in his business (and I think it translates to any creative business) you actually have to enjoy the work of your peers and allow yourself to appreciate their success in order to become inspired by it. I think I agree with that idea, which is why I don't think I'll ever be successful, even if I wanted to, as a filmmaker  but feel I will find success in doing special effects.

This might offend a few folks, I can't say I really care anymore - because some folks look to be offended in everything anyway, so why bother tiptoeing around the point. What it comes down to is this, I don't care about indie/amateur movies overall. I don't enjoy watching them, I can't stand people going on and on about their "awesome script". I just don't give a big, fat, wobbly ass about them. I think I did at one point, but because of so many negative experiences I've grown to kind of hate the whole idea.

There are a small select few, locally speaking, whose talent and dedication to what they do, that I respect and actually enjoy working with. And let me say it again for the cheap seats...A SMALL SELECT FEW.  I think about 4 or so, they should know who they are.

And this has nothing to do my own abilities as a filmmaker vs someone else's,  I make bad movies on purpose because it allows me to cut corners with a justification of "it's supposed to be that way", so don't read this and think this is some personal slam of my movies vs yours (or theirs), I AM NOT AND WILL NEVER BE A FILMMAKER - so let's leave it at and don't worry about it.

So the actual point of all this is why I feel I might find success doing SPFX, because I do see things being made by my peers (albeit online only since I'm the only one locally that I'm aware of) that I enjoy and find inspiring, I'm happy for their successes (even when I'm in a constant state of disappoint about my lack thereof), I enjoy talking to some of them even when we don't agree on something - to me it's a dialog about something we both love, not an argument about who sucks and why - although they do happen, but it's usually a pretty one sided conversation about an individual, or group, bent on ripping people off with crap quality. There are those who are negative and just want to tear things down, they exist everywhere and I've learned to suss them out and just sidestep or ignore them.

And even to elaborate a touch more on my whole anti-FaceOff seeming rant, I never intended it to come off like that - it's something I do enjoy watching and talking about and there are definitely some works being made on that show I find to be just amazing to look at and have even seen a few concepts here and there I've wanted to steal to incorporate into my own designs, I just don't like the idea of televised/heavily edited competition in a field I don't feel I'm into.

I'm friends on Facebook with more random makeup artists than filmmakers, and most of them added me because they somehow found my work - again, in special effects, not as a filmmaker. I've never had a random filmmaker see my work and actually comment about how they appreciated it or anything really like that, with makeup artists, it happens quite often.

I've gotten more work as an makeup artist, I've made more money, I'm less stressed (and oddly enough I enjoy the stress of it), I enjoy the collaboration with the few folks I've done with for - to be perfectly honest, I never really had any of that as a filmmaker.

So, because of all this I'm done making movies. I always said I did it for fun and when it wasn't fun anymore, there was no point in doing it. Now I've got 3 movies all shot and mostly edited that need audio work I'll probably turn out over the next year, first being Moonshine of the Damned lined up for early October, but I've one last project that's been gnawing away at me that I'd really love to do and then just drop the whole thing.

I've had this idea for an HP Lovecraft/Alfred Hitchcock movie, the concept is continually changing, but visually I can already see it in my head. I want to create an epic looking, almost Lord of the Rings Lovecraft movie with Hitchcock cinematography and plot. It's a bit of a tall order, but I think the two can actually blend together brilliantly since both heavily feature paranoia as an overall theme in their works.

The new title to the project is The Thief of Innsmouth (tentatively, it's changed so many times already). Originally the lead was to be a Demon, as I seem to love putting Demons into movies for no good reason, I'm changing that to have a lead who's a human in order to play up the horrific elements of the good townsfolks of the mob controlled town of Innsmouth. I'll borrow a lot from The Shadow Over Innsmouth story for the setting and throw in a more of a Hitchcock twist of a case of mistaken identity as a man is hired to do something (I've no idea yet what the motivation is here) to the crime lord of Innsmouth, Cthulhu himself and weird shit like that.

It's an odd twist on the whole thing. It's an incredibly expensive endeavor - which is why this project will only be a trailer. A roughly 2 - 3 minute trailer of the most awesome, epic, mutant fish people gangster/horror movie ever. And I'm not really a Gangster movie fan, it just feels like the right element to throw in there.

I'm only looking at a 2 - 3 day shoot, as many makeup FX as I can possibly muster, which will be easy since I'm already embarking on a slowly growing line of Lovecraft inspired prosthetics - so this trailer will in fact also be a commercial for all that awesomeness as well. I'll try to do some location shooting, but possibly a lot of studio/greenscreen stuff as well since we're pretty limited for really great locations for this sort of thing.

And that's it. I'm done making movies. Next spring I'm planning on one last fake movie trailer - there's always the possibility of collaborations, but only where I'm not the one pushing the project forward on my own, I'll just be following someone else's lead.

However, there is always the slightest possibility that if the trailer turns out and I can create a brilliant script, I might try the grant thing again and that is the only way I'd ever attempt to do a movie again, none of this out of pocket shit anymore. It's just not worth it.

Norse Cthulhu Effigy

I realized I really liked simple, old, worn, kind of cruddy looking artifacts. Slightly broken, chipped and just generally used looking. Not only because it lends itself to my sometimes lazy and impatient sculpting skills, but because it tends to have an air of reality about the final pieces. That's not to say I don't care for or appreciate the hard work that goes into creating something finely detailed and pristine looking, it just all depends on the look you're going for I guess - but old and cruddy tends to be more authentic feeling.

I had already done a somewhat realistic piece of Cthulhu and even a crude Mayan Totem, and I liked the idea that perhaps other cultures had encountered Cthulhu and created their own concepts of him. It's been done before, so I don't make any claims to be it being an original idea, but it's a cool concept regardless.

I knew I wanted to make a small, more affordable item - although I'll admit it's been awhile since I've had to listen to people bitching about cost when they had no interest in buying anything in the first place - and a smaller piece as well. So what I ended up with was a Norse inspired Cthulhu effigy, I spent several days searching for examples of Norse art and found most of it was pretty simple and crude - and the rest was all modern versions and way too elaborate.

The back story of the effigy is that Vikings going on long sea journeys fearing an encounter with Cthulhu would carve these effigy that were kept on the ship as a sign of respect and would supposedly allow them to sail without fear of being destroyed by Cthulhu. I wanted it to look like it was carved in bone as well.

It's about 2" wide and 3" tall, made of resin, and while this isn't a solid plan yet, once it goes online I'm looking at $20 with a limited run of 30. Not sure exactly when it'll be on the website since I'm in the midst of updating it, but anyone interested can email me at foxhenderson @ themonkeyrodeo . com.

Mummy Head prop

Another prop I've been wanting to make for ages and for some reason it just never happened was a Mummy Head. It seems like every time I have an idea for something, by the time I get around to it I see several others have already attempted it - gets a little annoying because it makes me feel like I'm copying, even though I had the idea long before I saw anyone else's attempt.

The hardest part of a Mummy Head is getting it to look decent, it's not a zombie head. I went though a couple variations, basing my sculpt off a couple actual mummy head images I found, altering where I felt it just looked better.

I has sculpted and moulded it quite some time ago, I even cast it - although it was a pretty rough attempt with a really bad, broken seam. I had brushed the latex in, using up some old tinted stuff just to get rid of it. The polyfoam was kind crap as well, it just kept collapsing, but it worked well enough to make a prototype for painting.

I pretty much did the paint job without really planning ahead. It was several layers, going from dark to light until I felt it was decent looking. The teeth were done quickly with a brush somewhere inbetween the layers on the head itself so they received a little extra "aging".

So that's it. It turned out pretty well I think for what I'd call a "budget prop". I'm planning on making about 5 or so for sale eventually and I'm planning on 1 or 2 "museum" pieces. I'd love to find a cheap bell jar to  display this under - unfortunately that's just one of those items you can't easily find in my corner of the world.

Reject Prosthetic Sale for the Entire Month of June.

MONTH LONG REJECT SALE. For the entire month of June, all rejects are 75% off - this doesn't work in conjunction with any other discount offers. Rejects are normally 50% off the retail, but I've got a lot of them so I thought I'd have sale and mark them down to 75% off until midnight June 30th, my time zone, Atlantic. So as long as I get the email in my inbox before that time, you're fine.

Rejected Full Face pieces, normally $25.00 are only $12.50. The cheapest thing I have, Small Horns are only $1.50.

If you're not sure what rejects are, they're 2nds or pieces that have minor flaws in them that I don't feel are good enough for regular sale, so if you're not too picky, just want to experiment with prosthetics or are actually somewhat good with makeup and can work around some minor flaws, you might be interested in this.

If you're interested, send me a message at themonkeyrodeo @ gmail . com. I don't have a full list of what's available, but there's around 100 random pieces, full faces, foreheads, ears, noses and horns. Until I get around to doing a proper list for viewing, you can just email me with what you're interested in.

 Payments can be made through PayPal or (only if you're in Canada) Email Interact.

More Demon photoshoots! Hellgirl and an Oonari Demon.

I came to the conclusion this week I’ve been spreading myself a little thin lately, juggling way too much. It’s not a matter of “oh, you should hire help” either, I’ve heard that before and if I did I’d only end up working to pay someone with nothing to show and then just having to work all that harder still, so that’s a shit idea.

Just seemed a massive convergence of bad coincidences that sent a few things sideways on me too. That and the “shortage” of foam latex and some other essential supplies as lead me to the conclusion, I need to take a break from work. I haven’t been working to exhaustion or anything, just too many things at once that’s caused me to lose sight of some important details.

One major oversight was on one of the two photo shoots I had this week, both of which actually turned out really well considering how badly I almost botched one of them.

The first shoot was Hellgirl. I never got a chance for a proper shoot while we were at Hal-Con and I didn’t want to wait until summer, so I asked an acquaintance if we could his greenscreen studio for the shoot. I only got a handful of pictures, but they looked awesome.

Here’s a few of them.

The close up pictures came out much better, the red makeup just didn't take in the wider shots - it looked blurry even when it wasn't. I should've realized that was a possibility, red is a hard colour to shoot with either video or stills. In any case, I'm happy with how the few turned out.

And if this is the first time you're seeing or hearing of this shoot and you're inclined to send me a message telling me I got the big stone fist on the wrong side - this isn't a genderswapped version of Hellboy, this is a totally different character, so instead of the Right Hand of Doom, she's the Left Hand of Destruction. I came up with a whole backstory to her as well.

 The second shoot was of an Oonari Demon – who are a less volatile version of Succubi. So it was another “sexy demon” kind of shoot. They’re simple and fun to do sometimes and while they haven’t yet generated as much interested as I’d hoped, they have generated some.

This is the shoot I almost totally screwed up. The idea was to have some 8 inch horns on a small-ish forehead piece. I was so pre-occupied with trying to get 3 separate orders done with only a little foam latex left I only turned out one piece and wasn’t able to test it to make sure it would work and I had no backup planned prepared either

The makeup turned out great and then when it came time for the horns, they pretty much fell off they were so heavy. Not that heavy, only 35 grams or something like that, but given the length of them they just didn’t have enough support. If I’d been at home I might been able to whip something up, but I was on location, half an hour from home, the model, Julie was already all done up so I did the only thing I could think of and just decided on CG horns

This is yet another reason I should never be on FaceOff, I’m partially lazy with a reliance on photoshop. I don’t think Glenn would buy it if I told him it’d be a partially CG character and he’d have to just imagine the rest – although that is a more realistic scenario these days

Anyhow, the shoot went great for as simple as it was and I ended up with some of the best shots I think I’ve ever taken so far.

 So there you go, a couple more Demon photo shoots down. I have a couple more lined up over the next few months, some fairly simple and I’ll be taking my time on the more elaborate ones.
Got a new prop I’m hoping to start working on soon too, I’ll be documenting the whole process once it’s done. Should be a pretty awesome piece – something I’ve been wanting to do for ages as well.

That's it for now.

No, I don't want to be on FaceOff.

I get asked this a lot, well, not really asked, but more like people telling me I should be on the show. And while that's a great compliment, especially when it's followed up with things like "your stuff is way better than anything else on that show" or "you'd totally win" - while I don't know if I agree, it's really nice of people to say. However, I've no interest in ever being on the show. No interest in the slightest. I watch the show and I enjoy the show and that's where my interest in it begins and ends, plain and simple.

I sort of feel bad when people bring it up, because they're usually so complimentary and somewhat enthusiastic, and my response is usually a negative one or I just avoid the conversation. Otherwise it just becomes this whole long, repetitive response of reasons why in order to keep them from continually making the suggestion. So what was once a positive comment ends up in a sort of negative, disappointing kind of place for them - which honestly isn't that much fun for me either. And just saying yes is bullshit, I'm not going to patronize people either.

For the record, I'm just going to say this, while it's great you think I'm of the level of talent I could go on this show and clean up, thank you, but no thanks. I hate competition, I think it brings out the worst in people and eventually just stinks of flailing desperation for approval. I hate being rushed. I've no desire to work in the movie SPFX industry. And I like doing what I do, not what someone else gives me as a half-assed, nearly ridiculously impossible to make look decent idea.

I think the challenges are a little on the ridiculous side sometimes and unrealistic as far as what might occur in the industry. I doubt the judges would be capable of anything better by times. And that there are just some design/concept combinations that just can't be done right so if they land in your lap - you're screwed, regardless of how awesome you are. You can tell someone, pick a fruit and your favourite soap opera and a design creature that represents both, but yourself at the same time! It's stupid. Okay, they've never gone that far...but close.

I don't always agree with the choices the judges make and I don't feel like my choices would always pass for them, so why put myself in that position. Of course they're successful in the industry, so they're obviously talented, but it doesn't make them 100% right and beyond doubt. I've seen them gush over makeups I thought were crap and unfortunately, I'm the sort of person who when they smell bullshit, I just walk away. Doesn't matter who you are, you can't tell me something I think is bland or crap is the way it should be done. I've no interest in dealing what that, especially in such a public forum, so I'd probably leave the show in the first 10 minutes anyway. I've got the wrong attitude to be on a show like that.

My skills are limited to my corner of the market, not to the movie industry and I'm perfectly happy where I am for the moment. I don't think I'm that good. I'm okay at best. I muddle by with a few occasional successes. There are people who think I'm good and that's great to know and I'm fine with just leaving it all at that. I don't need, or want, validation of my skills from a panel of judges (who honestly, I've never heard of until the show) on a TV show.

I don't mean this to be a slap in the face to anyone who has ever made the suggestion or has thought it but never said it, I just felt like putting it out there to avoid the very possible awkward conversation.

And that's it. To add a little, while I've no desire to be in the Hollywood end of the movie industry, I certainly wouldn't say no to the opportunity, I'm just not interested in seeking it out, as I said, I'm perfectly happy working at the level I am - so think about that if you decide to press the issue, you're basically saying that my level of happiness with my talent/success isn't good enough and that I should live up to yours instead regardless of my own person feelings. That's kind of a shitty thing to say.

Just a note: if you read this and think my point was that I believe I'm too good to be on a show like FaceOff - than you missed the point. There's some incredible talent on that show, I just don't want to be a part of it that kind of competition.

Converations with Demons is dead.

So I finally heard back from the Canada Council about the grant and it's not happening, so for anyone who was interested the mockumentary project I'd been planning (along with several others now as well), Conversations with Demons is now pretty much dead. It's too expensive a project for me to even entertain the thought of thinking I might be able to do it on my own - and even if I tried doing a little bit here and there, it's just not going to work and would be something I'd end up abandoning if it takes more than a year to do - and with no money it'd take about 4-5 years most likely.

I debating about crowdfunding, but given the hostility towards it and the amount of money needed, it's not even worth attempting. I'd need a whole crew of volunteers working a couple hours a day to promote it to even hope to come close to what I'd need.

So I just decided to move on. There were also several smaller projects tied to it that I'm pretty sure I'm giving up on as well since they all required an FX budget as well. If you follow the business on Facebook, for the last couple months I've been doing a daily "Random Demon Facts" which was going to be tied into the mockumentary and an accompanying book - I'm passing on that for the time being as well since it's an effort to come up with all this stuff to make daily posts and now there's not really much point to it, so I don't feel like wasting the energy on something that is reaching a smaller and smaller audience because Facebook seems to like to limit your posts more the more often you post. Dicks.

There were some more elaborate photo shoots I'd planned, requiring money, which are being abandoned for the moment as well. There was a lot of potential projects I was looking forward to that hinged on this grant - and while I knew not getting it was a pretty definite possibility, it's difficult not to want to think ahead and make plans on some crazy off chance it did happen.

So, I've got a couple photo shoots in the works that are a little more elaborate, however even they'll be delayed because of some commission work that fell through as well - it started off a good year and it's slowly already becoming a pretty shitty year of disappointment - BUT, it gives me time to torn towards the easier, less expensive - and probably slightly more fun projects I have in mind as well.

Case Files of Bureau 51 is an idea I had a couple years ago now for a really easy to shoot, no worries about video or sound quality and no continuity or commitment issue with actors either. So it's a definite number 1 on my list of potential projects this summer. It's basically COPS with demons and monsters and zombies and crap. Totally live action, no CG or post effects of any kind, all shot in more or less one improved take. It'll be a web series, each episode only a couple minutes, all self-contained working up to possible a final episode that ties it all together.

Ask Cthulhu will be part of my Project Cthulhu idea. I'm scaling down the whole Project Cthulhu idea to my simpler concept, where I create what I kind of described as a Buffy the Vampire Slayer version of him, which would just be Cthulhu in a business suit, not a full body suit - so I only have to create a head, hands and possibly feet, rather than the full body - which would be incredibly expensive.

The Ask Cthulhu part will be a weekly webisode, only a 30 seconds to a minute long, I don't know at this point, where "viewers" can write in to ask Cthulhu questions and advice. The best part of this is, and I don't want to give away too much, is that it can be filmed in advance to some degree and several episodes shot in a couple hours - so a few months worth can be done every so often and keep the whole thing going for some time - if there's any interest.

The downside of this is, it will require close to $1000 to do, so I'll have to find a way to raise that money in the next few months if I want to be able to do it in the fall. We'll see how that goes. At least it can be done bit by bit.

I'm still debating about my "Universal Monsters" project, the idea there was to take all the original male Universal Monsters and recreate them as if they'd been written for women - trying to keep the original descriptions, basic concepts and costumes as close to what would have been done back in the day. Most will be pretty easy, but the Gil Man (Gil Woman in this case) will be pretty expensive to pull off well.

There are a few other ideas I'm debating as well. I might take the down time to finish up a couple older movies I put on the shelf and abandoned awhile ago. For right now I'm looking to get back into Bimbo Zombie Killers: Moonshine of the Damned though, hoping to get that thing finally taken care of by early spring.

And that's it really. I was hoping to be able to attend a few of the bigger conventions it'd I'd received the grant as well, planning on doing shoots and whatnot in the areas them, but that's dead now too so I'm looking towards two smaller local cons that are happening this year. There something called, I think, HorrorFest over in Nova Scotia, although I can find any contact info about who runs it or how to get involved, the one email I found attached to it I didn't get a response from. And there's a Gothic Christmas Fair over in Halifax in November this year I'm looking forward to.

The Monkey Rodeo website is down

The title pretty much explains it. I think around Feb 15th or so was the last time it was working, I'm not sure what's wrong exactly but it has something to do with the domain and possible not transferring properly or something. I don't know, I'm very slowly dealing with my hosts support folks to figure it out.

Until then if you want to contact me, use themonkeyrodeo @ gmail.com.

10 Things I Love About Movies, Part Three.

I was hoping to keep updating this on Fridays, but this last week got away from me.

3. Visuals (Special Effects)

I already went on about the CG aspect of visuals, now I want to go on about practical effects; makeup, props and stuff that’s right there with the actors as they’re filming. This obviously hits pretty close to home for me as I’ve finally settled into working in creating this sort of stuff myself – not for film specifically, but that’s besides the point here.

Special effects makeup, prosthetic appliances, you can call them whatever you want, but the notion of taking a bit of foam latex (or whatever works I guess) and gluing it on someone’s face to transform them into something else is pretty awesome to me.

If there’s a monster in the trailer, I’ll probably be interested. It goes without saying really. However, if it’s only onscreen for 5 minutes during the whole movie while the rest is uninspired chatter and idiots wandering about in the dark – I’ll probably hate it. There’s nothing more disappointing than the promise of seeing something interesting and having to wait and wait just of catch a glimpse. Some movies can pull it off, but that’s another point for later.

For now, we’re talking makeup and stuff. A great example of everything I’ve mentioned up to now is Hellboy II: The Golden Army. You’ve got an awesome cast, some amazing CG visuals and then some really great practical effects and makeup.  This movie is going to come up a lot on this list by the way – just wanted to let you know. Not only is it filled with some amazing looking creatures, it’s well done at that. Knowing the time, effort and skill it takes to just turn out a single piece of makeup that covers a person’s face, it really makes you appreciate it more when you see a full body suit.

The whole sequence in the Troll Market was one of the coolest sequences I’ve ever seen. EVERYTHING there was made, it wasn’t an existing set, they weren’t extras who looked a little weird. It was a huge set, everything  was a makeup/costume/puppet of some sort – the effort to create this was monumental.  This is exactly the sort of imagery that I’ve always wanted to capture in a movie, so there’s no doubt it’s something that would draw me into watching it.

That’s not to say that everything with a scene of crazy creatures is going to be a favorite of mine, there still has to be a couple more elements to it than that, but it’s definitely a good starting point. There’s a lot of movie that you might be thinking right now, “Oh, he must love whatever random movie you’re thinking of.” But, you might be wrong. For instance – and I’m sure I’ll suffer nerd rage over this – not a huge Star Wars fan. I used to be when I was a kid, but as I grew older I realized it was missing something for me to really keep it in my mind as a movie I love.

Another great example are the Lord of the Rings movies. I read The Hobbit as a kid and was always aware of these books, but to be honest I had no further interest. When I saw the first movie, Fellowship if the Ring, I thought – “meh, it was alright.” I guess only because I had no idea of what to expect and never had an interest before. However, that “meh” soon changed and now I think the movies are awesome.  Especially after seeing all the production extras – all that was beyond amazing and made me really appreciate Fellowship more, and upon seeing the other two I went in with a completely different mindset. And since then the two Hobbit movies have been pretty awesome so far as well.

I guess the kind of things I like about movies are also sort of confined, generally speaking, to specific genres as well when you really think about movies with grand visual effects and loads of special effects. I’ll have to think about that for next time.

The Tariss Demon

So, I did a shoot yesterday slightly different from anything I've done up until now.The thinking behind it was to see if doing a somewhat more sexy looking Demon photo shoot might garner a little more interest - seeing as how that's pretty much how things work on average in the rest of the media.

I got the inspiration from photographer Michael Edwards series Me In My Place, I stumbled upon it some time ago through an interview with the actresss Lake Bell. They're very simple shots, but they're effective in their own way and I figured, why not try something like that with a Demon?

Of course the second half of the idea was to not just do a full face piece as usual, but to do a custom full  head piece this time and see how that worked with this concept. One of the models/actresses I've worked with a lot over the last couple years, Julie Laforest, has done shoots kind of similar to this already (although as herself) so I figured she'd be the best to go with.

 And, you can pretty much see how it all turned out here...

The prosthetic was custom made for her, so it fit pretty well, although I've yet to really get the hang of doing full head pieces like this and the edges where a little thick, plus it wasn't the best copy of the piece I could've made - but I'm not rich and something this size takes almost 3 times the amount of foam latex I usually use that can produce several full face pieces, so it had to do.

I pre-painted it beforehand, so I really only have to blend it in around her eyes, mouth and neck. I figured this would be a quicker makeup since it was all pre-painted, but it still took at least an hour or more. Ah well, at least it worked and didn't rip wide open trying to slip it on over her head - which was tricky and took about 15-20 minutes of very careful work.

I'm sure eventually I'll get a comment about doing Demon porn eventually, and just to be clear - I don't think it'll ever happen, at least not from me.

10 Things I Love About Movies - Part Two.

Admittedly the first part on the list was a little on the simple side, I think I need to go into a little more detail on some of the other ones. And, as usual, these are MY opinions on what I like about movies, I'm not interested in a debate, so you can keep that to yourself. That all said, here we go...

2. Visuals (CG-FEST!)

This is one of those things that gets a lot of people up in arms and ranting. Seems like if you were to listen to the vocal majority or minority, whatever they are - they're the vocal ones anyway - movies with an excess of CG are apparently generally hated by the movie going audience at large. To that I say, "lighten the fuck up", big deal. It's the audience that's created this "monster" as far as I'm concerned, or at the very least, perpetuated it into it's current state.

The general audience is so jaded that little movies, ones with just a couple people sitting around talking, don't cut it all the time. They're lost in a sea of multi-million dollar studio pictures. That doesn't mean exactly that these little pictures are good anyway, they're just as capable of sucking as the big ones. Each have their own audience, but the big ones are the big ones for a reason. People eat that shit up like crazy and then bitch about the FX - whether they even understand them as being good or not, they just want to rant about how their low attention span brains were disappointed somehow.

This is where folks like Michael Bay come in. I think people love to hate him, yet his movies are always big money makers. Massive explosions, over the top CG visuals and just generally there's crap flying everywhere. If people really hated CG, his movies would tank - but they don't. Explain that one too me if you think I'm wrong.

Actually, I don't care if I'm right or wrong, because personally I love CG-Fests. I'm a visual person I guess, I love to have my eyeballs entertained. That doesn't mean just because it's got an abundance of CG that I'll automatically love it - I can't bring myself to watch Avatar because it just looks so lame and at this point, there's no point, my mind's already made it, so I'll hate it regardless. In any case, I'm not interesting in movies I don't like, I'm talking about why I like the ones I do.

I love CG, I used to think it was something I wanted to do, but it's such a pain in the ass that I've moved on. However, I still love watching that stuff. I think it's because CG can create stuff you just don't see in every day life, it pushes the limit of the director's imagination, beyond what special effects can do, into a world where you can pretty much do whatever the hell you want.

The Pirates of the Caribbean movies are a good example here I think. I love those movies, I think Dead Man's Chest might be one of my favorite movies. I don't have an automatic thing for Pirate movies, so it's not just that. It's got a great cast - so that does help. The visuals though are amazing. Especially Davey Jones - that's a character that could never be really properly visualized with makeup. When I see it, I forget that it's not actually Bill Nighy onscreen, that's just a CG version of him with a octopus face. You can whine about how you didn't think it worked for you, but seriously, that's so insulting to the talent that created it. You do better if you think you know this shit so well.

It's probably one of the best representations of taking an actor and altering them so much that really only the eyes are similar, but if you're familiar with Nighy, you can see the performance is spot on. Yeah, it was motion capture, but that setup wasn't designed to capture the subtly of his performance. All his little ticks and mannerisms were 100% recreated by the animators. And it was fucking awesome. I don't care how you want to spin it, it was amazingly well done.

And yes, there's Gollum, he's well done, but nothing overly remarkable as far as I'm concerned. He's believable because the character is still overall normal looking. And while Andy Serkis is an incredibly physical actor and you can totally see his performance come though, Gollum still ranks mid-range on my top ten list of create CG characters, and that's only because it's not really pushing any boundaries - although the character would look pretty stupid as makeup I think.

See, reason I love this stuff, over the top visuals in general in movies, is because I've always done visual stuff myself. On paper, on computer, or sculpted - whatever, so part of what really draws me to movies with a big emphasis on CG visuals is because it's partially a source of inspiration, but also because it allows me shut my brain off from it's constant chatter. Movies with anything less, I find myself waiting for them to be over, not getting engrossed in them as much - unless there's something else awesome about them.

Now this is easy to say AFTER I've seen a movie, but I'm more or less looking at what draws me to the movie in the first place - so here's a good example. I just saw a trailer for the movie I, Frankenstein. One that I'm sure some people just groaning and moaning about already, but seriously - it looks FUCKING AWESOME! The trailer is nothing but over the top insane visuals, you got Aaron Eckhart and Bill Nighy, along with some other good actors, you got a new take on an old character (and actually a better one than we've previously seen for the most part), along with a bunch of other little things I can pick apart as being what draws me to thinking this movie is something I really want to see and I'm pretty confident I will love.

I'll probably use this as an example to define some of the other things I like about movies, however, it'll be awhile before I actually see it, so I can't really comment on that yet.

And again, this isn't to say that just because a movie automatically has CG in it that I'll love it, there's obviously something missing in the mix that makes those movies uninteresting to me.

10 Things I Love About Movies - Part One.

I did something like this last year, sort of around this time, 10 Things I Hate About Movies (or something like that) and I decided in the spirit of positivity and feel-goodery junk like that, I'm going to list 10 Things I Love About Movies. I think because it's not something I (or anyone else for that matter) really thinks about, we're more aware of what we don't want to see, don't want to watch, can't stand seeing in movies and what pisses us off about movies, than we are about what it is we actually like about them - basically,  what defines our taste in movies?

Some like before, there's no order, no set plan. I'm just calling it 10 things and hoping I can get that many.

1. Obvious of course, but Actors.
It's funny how we can gravitate towards certain actors and that in most cases they can do no wrong and every movie they're in we enjoy. At least that's the case for me, for instance, I'll watch anything with Thomas Jane in it, be it a comedy, horror, sc-fi, even a subtitled period romance with Tom Jane would be awesome. Why? Because he's fucking awesome.

Same for the likes of Karl Urban, who like Jane, seems to make decent choices in what they do. It's almost as if were I to actually know them, we'd probably like a lot of the same movies. And if I were in their position, I'd love to be in those type of movies, so yeah, this makes sense.

Then there's actors like Robert Downey Jr. who has done a pretty wide range of movie, not all awesome, but they're usually likeable (if you're a fan) simply because of his presence in them. There's a whole list of other actors and actresses whose very appearance in a movie makes it worth watching, but this would go on forever if I did that.

Then there are even movies that by all accounts suck ass, but because of the actors in them they've become movies that I enjoy. A really good example would be The Core - a terribly stupid premise with an unbelievably dopey plot, if you've never heard of it, check it out. The cast is pretty decent. Aaron Eckhart, Stanley Tucci, Delroy Lindo, Richard Jenkins, Bruce Greenwood, Hilary Swank - all decent, enjoyable to watch actors, especially Tucci when he plays a douchebag is usually fun to watch. Aside form the visuals, it's really the actors why I even bother with movies like this.

In closing, I will admit, on there is a massive list of other crap movies that I actually quite like because of the actors. They are usually the first thing that draws me to a movie, and this works both ways - if there's no names for me to gravitate to, the movie will usually be a letdown...Unless...more on that later.

That Last Year in Search Engine Terms.

I do this every year, sometimes twice a year when it looks interesting, but this year actually looks a little dull.

So, here's the top ten search engine terms that landed folks here over the course of 2013.

1. fake axe
2. severed finger prop
3. finger monkey
4. zombie prosthetics
5. moonshine of the damned
6. prosthetic half mask female.
7. zombie head prop
8. forehead prosthetic
9. simple clay model
10. fell off arm

I like the last one.

So here's some of the weirder ones from the year:

explain monkey rodeo
I don't know if this was directed at me or a real monkey rodeo, either way, you don't deserve an explanation

child cleans ear mould
I can't decide if this was someone looking for a clean ear mould of a child or a child who cleans ear mould?

as do latex bad tutorial
as do not understand the first part of that.

thing I hate
You just assumed the search engine would know what it was? My assumption would be a complete sentence is the thing you hate.


upper jaw zombie
Because all those lower jaw zombies are so mainstream.

severed female
I like the simplicity of this, just a severed female - doesn't matter what part or anything, so long as it's severed and female.

zombie rubber chicken
I did it first so I hope you were looking to buy one.

mace for sale
The spray kind or the kind you whack people in the face with?

fit men
???

severed toe earrings
I guess they didn't care for mine since I haven't sold too many.

old lady silicone gloves for movie
This just creeps me out for some reason.


severed head broken jaw
They like them good and mangled I guess.

hookers for sale
Why am I still seeing this? I don't have any? And quite honestly, isn't the "for sale" implied in the "hooker" part? I've never heard of hookers not for sale.


couple keychain boy
I don't get it.


crack minos
I actually looked this up because I thought it might be minotaur drugs, turns out it's just software - how dull.


50-vfe 3230
I had to look this up as well, it's an engine part? How the hell did a search for engine parts land you on my blog? Did you think, hey, demons might sell them?

And there was the usual assortment of severed this, zombie that, fake axe, blah, blah, blah among several with mangled grammar.

Severed Zombie Ear Necklace

I finally got around to getting these things finished up and I'm pretty happy with how they turned out given how simple they are.

I'd posted a while back about having the idea do my own version of these, and having seen a few other folks do them, I thought I could do a little better - I know that sounds a little arrogant, stuff like this is hard work no matter what, so all due respect to them. The reason I say that is because I decided to mould mine from real ears, not a one sided sculpt like most of the others I was seeing out. This makes them a little harder to make though, but does offer some random defects which I think make them turn out a little nicer - and ensures that each set is pretty unique.

They're cast in latex and all individually hand painted and strung together on a leather cord, although in the new year I'm planning a limited set of silicone ears which look and feel a little more realistic.

Fresh from the moulds.

Closeup of one of the ears.

They sell for $25, shipping is only $5 worldwide - unless something comes up and I can't ship them as planned, but it shouldn't be an issue. You can email me at themonkeyrodeo @ gmail.com if you're interested.