Mickey Rooney's Strangest Role?

What can I say?  The role of B.J. Lang is easiest the strangest thing I've ever watched actor Mickey Rooney tackle.  He does an excellent job, I think, of playing the deranged make-up artist turned director in his own mind.  I say, "I think", because at times the audio in the movie is uneven and I missed quite a few lines.   At times it also just lost my interest too.  If you're not ready for a dialogue driven movie that creates suspense through isolation and the threat of violence rather than all out gore and carnage, then this isn't the flick for you.

 

B.J. Lang has taken Carlotta (Luana Anders ) hostage and is forcing her to act in a movie that is being produced in his own mind.  She is tied to a wheelchair a good portion of the time and his crew and other cast members are mostly mannequins, lightstands and empty costumes.  If you've ever worked on a truly low budget production, the director speaking to a lightstand might not strike you as strange right away.

 

Although slow moving at times the movie does occasionally manage to create some tension.  For example, we see Lang feeding Carlotta baby food and realize that, because she is tied to a chair and in an isolated warehouse, she is completely dependant on Lang for her survival.  Later, when it appears that the madman is having a heart attack or suffering some other serious ailment we realize that unless Carlotta saves him she'll slowly starve to death.  It's a gripping scene and done very well by both actors.

 

Unfortunately, the golden moments are mixed in with chase sequences that appear to have been shot entirely overcranked creating a sharp, but monotonous, slow motion effect.  The movie is about 90 minutes and easily could have played well as an 80 minute piece had one of these sequences been cut short or shot/edited at a more normal speed.   Of course, some undercranked stuff balances it all out.

 

We're also "treated" to glimpses into B.J. Lang's past through a series of surreal flashbacks that tell us a bit about the character.  But some of them are so bizarre that I missed the message they were trying to convey.  Maybe I should have had more to drink or smoked something before watching this one.

 

Keenan Wynn makes a short appearance that helps cement the danger that Carlotta is actually in at the hands of Lang.  It would have been nice to see more of Wynn.  The scene seemed rushed, but it served its purpose.

 

All in all this is an interesting look at an isolation movie being carried by dialogue, imagery and characterization.  It's a good movie for budding filmmakers to watch.  With one major location and only two leads it manages to take the audience for a 90 minute ride.   Could have been shorter.  Could have made a bit more sense at times, but as a descent into madness it definitely works. 

 

Worth seeing just for the oddity of Mickey Rooney playing such a dark, strange character.

 

P.S. The "uneven" audio is not so much bad audio as the movie switching from screaming to whispering and back again, so that some of the whispered lines were lost.  Had I turned the screams up a bit I probably wouldn't have had trouble hearing it, but I was watching this pretty early in the morning and I didn't want to wake the neighbors.

 

2 Films, 8 Bucks, Great Cause.

This is more of an announcement than a blog, but I'll roll some thoughts into it too.

"Slime City Massacre" writer/director, Greg Lamberson, is hosting his two films for a benefit film night.  Below is a posting of the information for the evening and info on how  you can contribute to the very worthy cause if you cannot make it.

>>Meet Benjamin Heppel, age 8. Benjamin has leukemia. His mother, Jen, manages the daycare my daughter Kaelin attends. Kaelin has gotten so much out of Little Angels, and my wife Tamar and I want to do what we can to repay Miss Jen for her help and attention.

For ONE NIGHT ONLY, I'm screening SLIME CITY & SLIME CITY MASSACRE as a double feature in Buffalo, where SCM was filmed. The films will play at the Market Arcade Film & Art...s Center, 639 Main Street, 7 PM - 10:30 PM; 100% of the proceeds from ticket admissions and raffles will go to Benjamin's medical fund. We'll also have swag and door prizes for Buffalo's horror fans. Admission is ONLY $8.00!

2 films, 8 bucks, 1 great cause!

You can read about Benjamin's story, or make direct contributions to his fund, and sign his guestbook, at CaringBridge: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/benjaminheppel

Facebook has made it much harder to promote events, so please help me spread the word, and I hope to see you there!

Best,
Greg Lamberson<<

In an outpouring of generosity, other writers, directors, filmmakers and artists have been contributing things for a raffle and door prizes, so it should be a fun night.  For our small part, Hocus Focus Productions is sending up 100 CD-Rom copies of "Cult Goddess Magazine" and BCinemaTV is supplying 100 pairs of 3D glasses to go with issue 8.  It seems appropriate since 3 of the 4 issues have write-ups and photos provided by the "Slime City Massacre" folks, which really helped me round out the issues last year.  If you follow me on Facebook you'll see the invitation shared in my stream every so often.

Please do consider contributing to the medical fund.  The costs involved with the treatment of child who has leukemia are staggering.  Also, spread the word.  Let's fill every seat in that theatre.

Watching people rally to help Greg do something for this family is inspiring.  It goes back to my teamwork blog.  All too often we fall into the trap of competition, but the world should not be "us" against "them".  Except for the very small segment of the population that actually wishes to do harm to other people, there is no "them" to fight against.  The majority of the people on this planet should look at each other as "us" and we'd all be a lot happier.

I'm trying to get everything to Greg sent by April 25th, so if you've got some horror swag to donate, get in touch with me or Greg and let everyone know how to get some free stuff, see some cool movies and make the world an easier place for a family that can use a little help right now.

Thanks.

A Bit on Make-Up

With how small my movie budgets are I've been fortunate to work with some very talented people and get some cool monsters, wounds and blood in front of my camera.  I've also had to do some of the work myself when time and/or budget causes a conflict and unfortunately, it often shows.

When deciding on methods to use for make-up or creature F/X budget is always a concern that pops up on low budget productions, but there other factors to take into account that need to be addressed during post production to avoid snags later on.

For creature F/X, is your creature a straight on, rampaging monster or is there a character beneath that rough exterior?  This will be important for determining how visible the eyes need to be and how flexible the facial features should be.  For "File Error" our monster is a robot.  The less expression the better.  He's an emotionless killing machine.  But if you want a werewolf that can convey pathos over a kill that causes conflict in his human soul, you'll want those eyes to be visible.

Speech is also something to take into account.  Fangs, weird tongues, or facial appendages can make understanding an actor difficult.  A full over the head mask means that all of the speech coming through the mask will sound like someone talking into a cup and your actor's breathing will likely be compromised.

How long will your actor need to suffer through this ordeal?  Make-up should never suffer for the comfort of who is inside it, but the design does need to take certain things into account, especially where safety is concerned, but adding some comfort is a nice gesture too.  Whenever possible I don the difficult suits myself.  This means I need to trust my camera operator fully.  And most of the time, full on suits are only going to be worn for a scene or two a day. 

How durable does the make-up need to be?  In "File Error" I wrote in a gag that the robot's face keeps sliding off or getting knocked off. This was mainly because at the writing stage I knew how I planned to pull of the cheap skin mask and I knew it would be too heavy to stay in place for any amount of time since it wouldn't be sculpted to the actor's actual face and is made of straight latex, not foam latex.  My Werewolves in "The Lunar Pack" had to do some running and fighting.  Tabatha Gipe put together two distinct designs that managed to stand up to one of my favorite werewolf fights ever.  A bit old style Marvel TV series, but what I was going for and pretty dang cool.  Thanks to Steven Shea we got to do some neat POV shots of the wolves jumping too.  That was a case when we did have to keep reapplying make-up due to sweat and just plain activity, but the pieces survived the ordeal.  In fact, we used them again in "Shelter" for different stages of the transformation.

What lighting will be used to shoot the make-up?  I never like to answer this one until I'm on set because things on indie movies are so "in flux" that such things can change drastically, but for "Shelter" I knew where I was shooting, when and how I was going to achieve the low budget transformation using lighting tricks.  Stuff that's going to be lit dimly can be  a little less detail oriented.  Quick edits help with that too, but on "Shelter" I did have one new obstacle.  It was only my second time shooting a complex make-up composition in High Definition.  The neck wound in "Savaged" was amazing and I wanted our creature in "Shelter" to stand up as well.  HD is more unforgiving than the naked eye, so I called on Maryanne Schultz to take Tabatha's wolf pieces (Tabatha was working on something else at the time) and put her own twist on them to make them stand up to the 1080 lines of resolution.

I think the resulting creature stood up pretty well, especially on the budget we had at the time.

We were only shooting from the front as well, so that gave us some wiggle room on the back of his head. If you can plan out camera placement it can also help save some time, at least for specific days of shooting.

So, consider character, speech, comfort, durability, lighting, camera placement and work to make all of those work as best they can within your budget.

I'm sure make-up folks have a lot more to add, but from a filmmaker's point of view those are the most important, and often overlooked due to time and budget, things to consider when using creature make-up in a movie.
Examples of not preparing for some of these things can also be seen in my movies, but you can look for those yourself.

Blood Types

Most of us know the old stand-by Corn Syrup and food coloring blood recipe.  A few even know to add blue food coloring (a few drops) to the red to deepen the color and maybe some powdered milk to make it "opaque" when putting it on a white shirt or other light colored surface, but how many fake blood recipes do you know?  There are dozens, maybe hundreds!  (Probably just dozens though unless you count tiny variations like 10 drops of red vs 9).

I was taught by some great special F/X artists, one or two who I hope will post here, how to make different kinds of blood.  In "Alien Vengeance: The First Encounter" we experimented with Corn starch and food coloring.  It made a nice thick, if not a bit Orange on camera, kind of blood.  Good for pooling n concrete, but only if you were shooting quickly.  It dried to a powdery clump after a while.  My friend, Tabitha, taught me about a good "dried blood" recipe using hair gel.  I mix a little black in to give it a flatter look and just used it yesterday in File Error.  It doesn't flow very well, but it stays in place (and stains skin)  really well.  We used it for a scene in "File Error" yesterday.

Please, feel free to use the comments to share some of your favorite blood recipes.  What "spurts" well?  What's too watery?  What looks good in the dark?  What about bright sunlight?  Anything that won't stain?  How about cheap enough to fill a bathtub?

Let's hear what ya got.

Quick Tip! Multistrips

A few blogs ago I talked about using clamp lights to fill out a lighting set or replace a more expensive floodlight in a pinch.  One of the major drawbacks of cheaper clamp lights is the lack of a switch.  At least the switch won't go bad on  you like it has on some of my cheaper professional light sets, but having to bend and unplug a light every time it isn't in use is just a pain.

I like to use multistrips with circuit breakers, switches and when possible, surge protection built in.  Don't overload them.  All six strips are not meant to be used when using things like 500 watt lights, but even putting a strip between a single light and your wall socket can save a lot of headache.  Better  you trip the breaker in the strip than the house.  Especially someone else's house.

An added bonus is most strips have switches, so you can turn the pesky "constant" lights off at the strip rather than continually pulling the plug.  If the light has a built in switch, use that, but for standard, store bought, clamp lights, this has served me well.

Always read all labels on electrical devices to make sure you're using them correctly and safely.  I'm not an electtician and this isn't meant to be elecitrical advice.  Just something to look into further and decide if it works for you.

Longest episode ever!

As discussed in a previous post, I'm sure this is a good thing, but we'll see.  Even with faster connection speeds and computers allowing people to watch video in real time and the ability to watch internet video through your TV, phone or tablet, it seems that folks just aren't too interested in watching internet based shows longer than a few minutes.

I understand that.  Normally, if I'm looking for video on the net I'm looking for something to kill the few minutes I have while I wait for something to print, send or load on my other computer.  I think people watch 2 minute videos online during commercials of network TV.

Despite the drawbacks though, some episodes just have a run time that is right for them.  My newest addition to "The Weird World of HFP" is "Inside HFP", a show that brings viewers behind the scenes, so to speak, of my past projects.  It will show the evolution of Hocus Focus Productions as a movie company from back when we shot on SVHS tapes to the HD digital age and probably through to 3D.  Some episodes will feature full short films, others will be clips from features.  I still haven't decided if I'll run full length features, but with the numbers from this episode I'll know more.

I still haven't seen how the midroll commercial works in here.  When I first post these things they tend to not have advertising yet.

Anyway, take a peek and in a few weeks I'll let you know how the experiment worked out.

Stock Footage, Don't Knock it.

I bought some very expensive, at least by standards, stock footage way back when I was working in Digital 8 and miniDV.  Even now I occasionally use some of the more impressive, hard to get, realisitic standard definition clips in my HD productions.  I think of it like the old T.V. shows that used to cut 16mm military footage into a show shot on 35mm filmstock.  The quality isn't the match I'd like, but it's the only way a $15 episode of "The Simplest Things" is going to have a convincing shot of the planet Earth from space.  Using the footage as backgrounds helps a bit too, because you can play with the focus.  A softer focus on something that isn't the focal point of  your scene works pretty well.

Lately though I've been picking up a LOT of HD stock footage from a few sources.  There are companies that give it away for "free" on DVD.  Actually they charge about 3x what shipping costs and make their money by sending you the DVDs, but it's still very affordable and useful stuff.  Mostly I get CG iconic images, particl F/X or light and energy F/X from them.  Can I do a lot of these things myself?  Probably, but to be honest, I'm not really a graphics guy, so even the stuff I can do takes me longer than it should.  If I can save 3 or 4 hours of work and have the machines rendering stuff I'm being paid for rather than some abstract HD graphic I may want down the line and all for less than 10 bucks, it's worth it to me.

I also shoot the heck out of the world around me in HD to gain as much as useful footage as possible.  You've got to be in a public place, try to keep faces and logos out of it and not cause a disturbance, but you'd be amazed at the stuff you can get, especially if you travel.  Wildlife, planes, landscapes, construction equipment at work and weather are all things to have your arsenal.  I carry a small (slightly bigger than pocket) HD camera with me at all times and download a few great clips every month.  The stuff my Dad filmed while we were on our flight lesson has already made it into two features.

This past week I was capturing footage from a company called "Videoblocks".  Short clips and under the agreement you have to "change them significantly" to use them in your project.  Basically, screening people or objects in, editing them to music and using them within a bigger project should cover you. 

I've been planning on doing a "bloody" version of our HFP logo for awhile.  It consisted of shooting syrup blood dripping onto plexi at an angle in front of a white background and keying that into the existing three frame film logo.  Or I thought about pouring fake blood onto a printed version of the logo upisde down and running it backwards to make it look as if it filled with blood.

Between client work, trying to schedule my own projects, shooting the episodes of the online shows and writing, I hadn't gotten around to that for the past 4 months or so.  Then this week I capture a cool new set of flickering film frames as stock footage.  I went through my other clips and realized I had everything I needed to make this work.

The finished product uses almost all stock elements, including library music, which we'll get to in another blog.

I thought this version worked really well, but decided some clients may not want this opening a video of their family pictures or business's last big event.  I also figured shows like "The Simplest Things", which are more family oriented shouldn't open this way, so I made a second version.  You can see that on the main page of my site: http://www.hocfocprod.com/