KILLER RACK Day Fiften: The (Brett) Piper
Back when I read Paul McGinnis's screenplay for KILLER RACK, I wondered if we could pull off a scene where tentacles shoot out of the killer rack, ensnare a victim, and kill him/her. The gag happenes during the already busy climax of the film, and I envisioned it taking hours to do with ractical effects, and we lack the resources to do really good CGI. Who ya gonna call?
Way back in 2004, while visiting the New Jersey hedquarters of my frequent distributor, Alternative CInema/POP CInema Studios, I met my good friend Paige Davis, who introduced me to Brett Piper, the company's in-house special effects wizard/writter/director/editor. At the time, he was surrounded by stop motion animation puppets, and we got a "tour" of the spaceship set for SHOCK-O-RAMA! A few years later I interviewed him for my book CHEAP SCARES: LOW BUDGET HORROR FILMMAKERS SHARE THEIR SECRETS, which featured many awesome pics of Brett working with monsters he created fr his mini-epics. When Sam Qualiana needed someone to edit SNOW SHARK:ANCIENT SNOW BEAST, I hired Brett and his collaborator Mark Polonbia, and they did a great job. But I wanted more, I wanted stop motion animation!
KILLER RACK's tit tentacles posed the need, and Brett had the solutions. While we're being fairly secretive about a lot of our special make-up effects, we posted concept art of the tentacles scene early to help raise funds, so I don't mind spilling the details. Paul and I cast Kathy Murphy as our victim. Like Paul, Kathy had been an extra in SLIME CITY MASSACRE, and she proved her mettle in a big role in SNOW SHARK. I cast her in a big role in DRY BOES (coming to DVD in five weeks!), and I wanted to feature her in KR somewhere. I storyboarded the scene by shooting photos of my daughter's dolls and sent them to Brett. The plan was simply to shoot the necessary elements, some of them gren screen, and send then to him in PA to work his magic. He surprised and pleased me by volunterring to drive out here for the shoot (inevitably saving hmself time fixing any mistakes we made on our end). I scheduled the green screen room at Pierce Arrow Film Arts Center, our production facility, and last weekend, while filming the first half of our climax in the alley behind Pierce Arrow, we shot helive action elements of Kathy with our leading actress, Jessica Zwolak. This has been a well planned, relativly problem free shoot, so what could go wrong?
Shooiting on Fridays is tough because I have my daughter fter school and have to pick up my wife from work. I was only worried about having my daughter because she'd been sick all week, and I arranged for Paul to pick up my wife, who works out in Getzville.
Facebook post rom Paul:
"Really? Car needs to pick right NOW to not start... Because I'm certainly not making a freaking movie right now and can afford to wait..."
Followed by:
"Phone went dead (natch) and needed to get home from mechanic ASAP, so did a quick inventory of what I needed from my car. Script, charger, and two important pieces of clothing. Then I started running home. It's about a half an hour, so I was going at a hefty pace. I ran by an old woman waiting for the bus and needed to stop and catch my breath.
"Excuse me, young man, you dropped something." I looked back and realized with horror what it was as the poor woman leaned down to get it.
Two big old bras.
I could tell be the look on her face she immediately knew what they were.
I smiled my thanks, knowing that if I said anything, being out of breath wouldn't help my case..."
Poor Paul. Rod Durick left early - something we had already ruled out as being difficult - and picked up Tamar, and I took Kaelin to Pierce Arrow, where SFX artists Arick Szymecki and Stacey Book, set photographer/assistant editor/fill-in-sound mixer/visual effects artist Chris Cosgrave, 1st AD Sam Qualiana and our PA Dave Carapetyan were waiting. Our DP, Chris Rados, let us into the green screen room, and the crew started setting up lights to supplement those above the green screen. This is a much better setup than draping a wrinkled cloth screen in my living room.
Before long, Brett notified us he had experienced directional difficulties and would be late, but I had plenty of other shots to grab, so he didn't set us back at all. In the big scene, Jessica Zwolak storms around in massive monster boobs which Arick and Stacey attached to a sports bra. I think these creatures are their best work, and we shot them last week. But the fang filled monsters need to move - they have to chew, spit and spray - so they built puppet versions as well. So,. Fucking. Cool. Look, I do this because I love monsters, and the Killer Rack is now the coolest monster I've sirected. These thinbgs look hideous when they're not moving, but when they are moving - serious fucking magic. We're making a character driven comedy that turns into a horror film at the end, and jeez, these look great. We shot them from every conceivably angle, relieving the burden of pickups we need when we return to the alley tonight to finish shooting the climax. For one shot we needed to see Betty's arms on either side of the puppet. Jessica provided one and I pressed Tamar into service as the other, and each woman used her free hand to operate her breast.
Paul and Brett arrived at roughly te same time. However many hours the trip was from PA to Buffalo for Brett, tack on two hours for his unplanned detour. He showed up with energy and ready to work, with an assistant. Rod was driving around like crazy taking care of things, including getting pizzas for thecrew. We really only had a few shots to get involving Brett. The first setup involved a full size tentacle wrapping around Kathy's neck, and then her waist, and we tried different methods - reverse motion, rod puppets, whatever worked best for each deal. It was fun seeing Arick and Stacey work with Brett. The tentacle whacked Kathy in the face a few times, but she was a geat sport.
After those shots, I turned the reins over to Brett, who directed various shots of Kathy "in the air" for the big effect. We didn't break for our meal, but ate pizza on the sidelines. And then we wrapped. Our four hour day becamne five, but that's still less than half a day on mpost shoots, and we got so much production value, and so many shots of the creatures to play with when we start editing. Brett and his assistant headed back the same night.
And now we go back to the alley for another all night shoot, but with fewer extras. It's supposed to rain today but only be cloudy tonight, but the temperature will drop to 47 degrees.
Way back in 2004, while visiting the New Jersey hedquarters of my frequent distributor, Alternative CInema/POP CInema Studios, I met my good friend Paige Davis, who introduced me to Brett Piper, the company's in-house special effects wizard/writter/director/editor. At the time, he was surrounded by stop motion animation puppets, and we got a "tour" of the spaceship set for SHOCK-O-RAMA! A few years later I interviewed him for my book CHEAP SCARES: LOW BUDGET HORROR FILMMAKERS SHARE THEIR SECRETS, which featured many awesome pics of Brett working with monsters he created fr his mini-epics. When Sam Qualiana needed someone to edit SNOW SHARK:ANCIENT SNOW BEAST, I hired Brett and his collaborator Mark Polonbia, and they did a great job. But I wanted more, I wanted stop motion animation!
KILLER RACK's tit tentacles posed the need, and Brett had the solutions. While we're being fairly secretive about a lot of our special make-up effects, we posted concept art of the tentacles scene early to help raise funds, so I don't mind spilling the details. Paul and I cast Kathy Murphy as our victim. Like Paul, Kathy had been an extra in SLIME CITY MASSACRE, and she proved her mettle in a big role in SNOW SHARK. I cast her in a big role in DRY BOES (coming to DVD in five weeks!), and I wanted to feature her in KR somewhere. I storyboarded the scene by shooting photos of my daughter's dolls and sent them to Brett. The plan was simply to shoot the necessary elements, some of them gren screen, and send then to him in PA to work his magic. He surprised and pleased me by volunterring to drive out here for the shoot (inevitably saving hmself time fixing any mistakes we made on our end). I scheduled the green screen room at Pierce Arrow Film Arts Center, our production facility, and last weekend, while filming the first half of our climax in the alley behind Pierce Arrow, we shot helive action elements of Kathy with our leading actress, Jessica Zwolak. This has been a well planned, relativly problem free shoot, so what could go wrong?
Shooiting on Fridays is tough because I have my daughter fter school and have to pick up my wife from work. I was only worried about having my daughter because she'd been sick all week, and I arranged for Paul to pick up my wife, who works out in Getzville.
Facebook post rom Paul:
"Really? Car needs to pick right NOW to not start... Because I'm certainly not making a freaking movie right now and can afford to wait..."
Followed by:
"Phone went dead (natch) and needed to get home from mechanic ASAP, so did a quick inventory of what I needed from my car. Script, charger, and two important pieces of clothing. Then I started running home. It's about a half an hour, so I was going at a hefty pace. I ran by an old woman waiting for the bus and needed to stop and catch my breath.
"Excuse me, young man, you dropped something." I looked back and realized with horror what it was as the poor woman leaned down to get it.
Two big old bras.
I could tell be the look on her face she immediately knew what they were.
I smiled my thanks, knowing that if I said anything, being out of breath wouldn't help my case..."
Poor Paul. Rod Durick left early - something we had already ruled out as being difficult - and picked up Tamar, and I took Kaelin to Pierce Arrow, where SFX artists Arick Szymecki and Stacey Book, set photographer/assistant editor/fill-in-sound mixer/visual effects artist Chris Cosgrave, 1st AD Sam Qualiana and our PA Dave Carapetyan were waiting. Our DP, Chris Rados, let us into the green screen room, and the crew started setting up lights to supplement those above the green screen. This is a much better setup than draping a wrinkled cloth screen in my living room.
Before long, Brett notified us he had experienced directional difficulties and would be late, but I had plenty of other shots to grab, so he didn't set us back at all. In the big scene, Jessica Zwolak storms around in massive monster boobs which Arick and Stacey attached to a sports bra. I think these creatures are their best work, and we shot them last week. But the fang filled monsters need to move - they have to chew, spit and spray - so they built puppet versions as well. So,. Fucking. Cool. Look, I do this because I love monsters, and the Killer Rack is now the coolest monster I've sirected. These thinbgs look hideous when they're not moving, but when they are moving - serious fucking magic. We're making a character driven comedy that turns into a horror film at the end, and jeez, these look great. We shot them from every conceivably angle, relieving the burden of pickups we need when we return to the alley tonight to finish shooting the climax. For one shot we needed to see Betty's arms on either side of the puppet. Jessica provided one and I pressed Tamar into service as the other, and each woman used her free hand to operate her breast.
Paul and Brett arrived at roughly te same time. However many hours the trip was from PA to Buffalo for Brett, tack on two hours for his unplanned detour. He showed up with energy and ready to work, with an assistant. Rod was driving around like crazy taking care of things, including getting pizzas for thecrew. We really only had a few shots to get involving Brett. The first setup involved a full size tentacle wrapping around Kathy's neck, and then her waist, and we tried different methods - reverse motion, rod puppets, whatever worked best for each deal. It was fun seeing Arick and Stacey work with Brett. The tentacle whacked Kathy in the face a few times, but she was a geat sport.
After those shots, I turned the reins over to Brett, who directed various shots of Kathy "in the air" for the big effect. We didn't break for our meal, but ate pizza on the sidelines. And then we wrapped. Our four hour day becamne five, but that's still less than half a day on mpost shoots, and we got so much production value, and so many shots of the creatures to play with when we start editing. Brett and his assistant headed back the same night.
And now we go back to the alley for another all night shoot, but with fewer extras. It's supposed to rain today but only be cloudy tonight, but the temperature will drop to 47 degrees.
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