Sort of. It's a local cable channel just starting up called Hill Country Network out of New Albany, Mississippi. One of their new shows is a horror hosted show called Hill Country Drive Inn Horror Show where they do skits at local abandoned drive ins before during and after showing a horror movie. My daughter and I were enlisted as special effects artists because of the work we do for the Tupelo zombie run and they were short of actors. I'm no actor and it shows but I play a psychiatrist in it and my daughter a zombie. Here is how the night of filming went.
This was a freaking amazing experience. Mike knew more than I figured at first because he seemed so scatterbrained but that was hiding the genius and I enjoyed the hell out of it. I got there late. I was on my way and realized I hadn't shaved and turned around. Not bad late and at least I wasn't bleeding from the quick shave. I threw on a lab coat and tie and I was going to play it like professor Liloman from High Anxiety but he wanted Rodney Dangerfield. Christ, I can hardly be myself on camera. While they set up the lights I took pics. I was to be documentarian also. So we went through our scenes and I felt we were both hamming it up but he wanted bigger and more and really put yourself into it this time. Now one from this angle. Now a closeup. Now say it this way. Somehow we got it in twenty minutes and stayed on schedule.
Nobody has to tell me I was the worst actor there. I felt like I was talking too loud and words I would never say. It felt awkward. But I enjoyed the hell out of Shenans all in performance. He was great. I lost my pace marveling at his face as he said his lines. We made fast friends. I guess you kind of have to when one of you has black makeup on his finger shoving it up your nose. I tried to be gentle. If you want to be a werewolf you have to darken a few buggers.
Then it was on to the outside where I did my daughters back in shades of green and yellow and purple. I'm rather proud of my decaying spine colors and the bruising. But Samantha showed out. The girls she did were off the wall. Got some good pics of that. Always take pics of my beautiful daughter more than anything else but dang that hanging flesh was awesome. We gathered for some group photos of cast and crew and I'll post a pic or two at some point if anyone is interested. Amanda looks like she has her hand on my crotch in one of them. Great. I hope my wife doesn't notice. She did not have her hand there. She was real friendly though.
It's hard to describe the chaotic energy that makes you get things done in a hurry. I told him an hour for Hairy Larry but got thirty minutes and did it. He kept giving you impossible stuff and somehow you did it. It was that way with everyone. I also found I had to change heads last minute. Mary was no longer reddish brown like her facebook photo. Run to truck, yank another by the hair, hammer off the plastic bottom, hack up with razor blade, and make spine fit into styrofoam neck interior. Can't paint. No time. Zombie blood tubes to the rescue. That stuff comes in real handy so I keep a lot of it in my tackle box that will never hold a fishing lure. Looked better than the first. Slippery though. That would figure in later.
Can't shoot the car scene without at least a black felt blanket covering the side window and Mike forgot the blue filter anyway. Damn I had a black felt one back at the house. Load coffin and Mike (the director) takes off in it with Larry and wicked witch Amanda Kill to the drive in. Then a kid comes up missing and everyone left there is looking for him. After about 15 minutes he is found asleep on an upstairs bed and we burn rubber.
At the drive in we get the waiver of responsibility signed by everyone and they go to setting up lights. I just take shots of whatever looks cool and near everything does. The concession/projection house isn't long for the world with holes in the roof and walls you cannot lean against. I nearly pushed one over thinking I could lean on it and take some pics. It worked really cool for this purpose though. Perfect in fact. No wonder the liability waiver though.
Filming starts. I'm outside trying to cool Shenan by waving a block of styrofoam but Christ it's Mississippi and hot. We just skipped spring this year and I'm feeling guilty as hell for putting him in all that fur. We skipped the change scene entirely so that was good but he is sweating buckets. The spirit gum is holding for now but no way it will for long. I asked Mike if I could take off the head piece but he said no. The whole reason I chose it is because it is easy to take on and off but he won't hear it. I think he was mad I didn't go with the Universal look but that was freaking latex and hair and your skin can't breath. Later I talked with him about it and **** he just wanted the makeup as I had done the face. I didn't think that was cool enough looks wise and now Shenan was suffering. I felt bad about that. It won't happen next time. I'm just going to widows peak, teeth, bushy eyebrows and makeup. That little goatee I thought was so neat wouldn't stick enough on his beard stubble and it kept leaning out. Live and learn. I might use gold streaks of eye shadow with a paint brush.
Anyway, the story board started to make sense. It wasn't linear and there were many different takes in different ways and angles and most wouldn't even be used. My daughter had done her zombies like a champ and they all played their parts like a champ. I was in and out doing whatever I could. More blood here, this needs to glisten, clear nail polish on the werewolf nails and blood on the palm for the close up of his hand stealthy slipping in the door and gliding along the wall. In all that rushing in and out I knocked my Nikon off my makeup case and set it somewhere else never knowing I had knocked the SD card loose. I didn't know it would do that. Damn rubber port covers on the Nikon where it didn't matter but hard ones with slack where it actually counted. So many wonderful pics it was showing me that didn't transfer to the memory. It makes me heart sick. I even got Amanda swatting Mike's rear with the large reel of film. Only I didn't and I wouldn't find out till the following morning.
That night though was a blast. Mike promised a shoot till ten but we were there till two in the morn. Great stuff shot and I was so full of adrenaline it took me an hour to go to sleep and then I got right back up at four to relive it through my pics and discovered I only had 58 shots. Oh god. Mike was consoling and said at least those were good but I was just sick. Still am.
My favorite scene though was the head pulling off scene as Hairy Larry burst in the door and struggled with Mary. It was also the most difficult. I had Mary in a white shirt tied at the waist the way they did in the early eighties when the movie place closed. I had already made up my fake neck and shoulders and clothed it that way. Mike wouldn't have it. He wanted her in a dress as the other girls were and I couldn't argue. She looked good in one. So I had to reset my rig and clothe it in her dress for that scene only she didn't have any pants so she had to stand behind a wall while she gave me the dress. It was a small dress. It was a complicated double layered dress and had barely enough room for my contraption much less me.
See, the way I built it was neck and shoulders that sat on my head via wire hanger wrangled with stretchy pony tail thing to give room to take it on and off but it was not comfortable. I hadn't time for that. I made it in three hours out of PVC pipe, pool noodle, newspaper, wire hanger, cardboard back and tape. I had to kneel on that spongy moldy dirt and push the dress up so I could see. In one hand was the dress edge and squirt gun full of blood mixture and in the other was the bloody neck I had to hold by the spine. It was slippery and limber and hard to hold. I dropped it three times. But we pulled it off. Literally for wolf dude. He pulled it out and tossed it aside then struggled with Mary only it was my daughters arms because Mary couldn't come out in her panties. Didn't matter from that angle it looked like the arms were connected to my fake torso.
Then we went on to the throwing the head on the floor scene. I was tossing it light because it was a close up but Mike wanted to do it so he did one. Camera dude told him let me do it as his was way off mark. We got lot's of shots landing different ways. Mary (back in her dress now) came in for the crawling on the floor feeling for her head and finding it part. We didn't film the putting the head back on the dummy part and just went with her adjusting her real head now with blood line. She was damned good at improvisation. Everyone was damned good. I was freaking amazed at how good. Every damn body there rose to the occasion and I was proud to be a part of it. It may come off a little kitschy but that too is horror.
I'm also proud to be a part of bringing back the horror shows of old. I grew up on Sivad and reveled in Elvira. There was a line in it where Amanda has been attacked by the zombies and the Mary zombie speaks about how she thinks they are from MTV and that was what killed the drive in and Amanda laughs and says how MTV doesn't even play music anymore. I don't know what killed the drive in but I do know I miss it and all the horror shows and hosts of old. I was honored to be a part of trying to make it come back no matter if it fails or succeeds. I wonder what he has planned for the next episode and I hope he will include me. I will work like hell again and gladly. I love this ****.
The cast and crew with me in the "Take the cookies" T-
Amanda honey, take your hand away from there or my wife will break it.
This was a freaking amazing experience. Mike knew more than I figured at first because he seemed so scatterbrained but that was hiding the genius and I enjoyed the hell out of it. I got there late. I was on my way and realized I hadn't shaved and turned around. Not bad late and at least I wasn't bleeding from the quick shave. I threw on a lab coat and tie and I was going to play it like professor Liloman from High Anxiety but he wanted Rodney Dangerfield. Christ, I can hardly be myself on camera. While they set up the lights I took pics. I was to be documentarian also. So we went through our scenes and I felt we were both hamming it up but he wanted bigger and more and really put yourself into it this time. Now one from this angle. Now a closeup. Now say it this way. Somehow we got it in twenty minutes and stayed on schedule.
Nobody has to tell me I was the worst actor there. I felt like I was talking too loud and words I would never say. It felt awkward. But I enjoyed the hell out of Shenans all in performance. He was great. I lost my pace marveling at his face as he said his lines. We made fast friends. I guess you kind of have to when one of you has black makeup on his finger shoving it up your nose. I tried to be gentle. If you want to be a werewolf you have to darken a few buggers.
Then it was on to the outside where I did my daughters back in shades of green and yellow and purple. I'm rather proud of my decaying spine colors and the bruising. But Samantha showed out. The girls she did were off the wall. Got some good pics of that. Always take pics of my beautiful daughter more than anything else but dang that hanging flesh was awesome. We gathered for some group photos of cast and crew and I'll post a pic or two at some point if anyone is interested. Amanda looks like she has her hand on my crotch in one of them. Great. I hope my wife doesn't notice. She did not have her hand there. She was real friendly though.
It's hard to describe the chaotic energy that makes you get things done in a hurry. I told him an hour for Hairy Larry but got thirty minutes and did it. He kept giving you impossible stuff and somehow you did it. It was that way with everyone. I also found I had to change heads last minute. Mary was no longer reddish brown like her facebook photo. Run to truck, yank another by the hair, hammer off the plastic bottom, hack up with razor blade, and make spine fit into styrofoam neck interior. Can't paint. No time. Zombie blood tubes to the rescue. That stuff comes in real handy so I keep a lot of it in my tackle box that will never hold a fishing lure. Looked better than the first. Slippery though. That would figure in later.
Can't shoot the car scene without at least a black felt blanket covering the side window and Mike forgot the blue filter anyway. Damn I had a black felt one back at the house. Load coffin and Mike (the director) takes off in it with Larry and wicked witch Amanda Kill to the drive in. Then a kid comes up missing and everyone left there is looking for him. After about 15 minutes he is found asleep on an upstairs bed and we burn rubber.
At the drive in we get the waiver of responsibility signed by everyone and they go to setting up lights. I just take shots of whatever looks cool and near everything does. The concession/projection house isn't long for the world with holes in the roof and walls you cannot lean against. I nearly pushed one over thinking I could lean on it and take some pics. It worked really cool for this purpose though. Perfect in fact. No wonder the liability waiver though.
Filming starts. I'm outside trying to cool Shenan by waving a block of styrofoam but Christ it's Mississippi and hot. We just skipped spring this year and I'm feeling guilty as hell for putting him in all that fur. We skipped the change scene entirely so that was good but he is sweating buckets. The spirit gum is holding for now but no way it will for long. I asked Mike if I could take off the head piece but he said no. The whole reason I chose it is because it is easy to take on and off but he won't hear it. I think he was mad I didn't go with the Universal look but that was freaking latex and hair and your skin can't breath. Later I talked with him about it and **** he just wanted the makeup as I had done the face. I didn't think that was cool enough looks wise and now Shenan was suffering. I felt bad about that. It won't happen next time. I'm just going to widows peak, teeth, bushy eyebrows and makeup. That little goatee I thought was so neat wouldn't stick enough on his beard stubble and it kept leaning out. Live and learn. I might use gold streaks of eye shadow with a paint brush.
Anyway, the story board started to make sense. It wasn't linear and there were many different takes in different ways and angles and most wouldn't even be used. My daughter had done her zombies like a champ and they all played their parts like a champ. I was in and out doing whatever I could. More blood here, this needs to glisten, clear nail polish on the werewolf nails and blood on the palm for the close up of his hand stealthy slipping in the door and gliding along the wall. In all that rushing in and out I knocked my Nikon off my makeup case and set it somewhere else never knowing I had knocked the SD card loose. I didn't know it would do that. Damn rubber port covers on the Nikon where it didn't matter but hard ones with slack where it actually counted. So many wonderful pics it was showing me that didn't transfer to the memory. It makes me heart sick. I even got Amanda swatting Mike's rear with the large reel of film. Only I didn't and I wouldn't find out till the following morning.
That night though was a blast. Mike promised a shoot till ten but we were there till two in the morn. Great stuff shot and I was so full of adrenaline it took me an hour to go to sleep and then I got right back up at four to relive it through my pics and discovered I only had 58 shots. Oh god. Mike was consoling and said at least those were good but I was just sick. Still am.
My favorite scene though was the head pulling off scene as Hairy Larry burst in the door and struggled with Mary. It was also the most difficult. I had Mary in a white shirt tied at the waist the way they did in the early eighties when the movie place closed. I had already made up my fake neck and shoulders and clothed it that way. Mike wouldn't have it. He wanted her in a dress as the other girls were and I couldn't argue. She looked good in one. So I had to reset my rig and clothe it in her dress for that scene only she didn't have any pants so she had to stand behind a wall while she gave me the dress. It was a small dress. It was a complicated double layered dress and had barely enough room for my contraption much less me.
See, the way I built it was neck and shoulders that sat on my head via wire hanger wrangled with stretchy pony tail thing to give room to take it on and off but it was not comfortable. I hadn't time for that. I made it in three hours out of PVC pipe, pool noodle, newspaper, wire hanger, cardboard back and tape. I had to kneel on that spongy moldy dirt and push the dress up so I could see. In one hand was the dress edge and squirt gun full of blood mixture and in the other was the bloody neck I had to hold by the spine. It was slippery and limber and hard to hold. I dropped it three times. But we pulled it off. Literally for wolf dude. He pulled it out and tossed it aside then struggled with Mary only it was my daughters arms because Mary couldn't come out in her panties. Didn't matter from that angle it looked like the arms were connected to my fake torso.
Then we went on to the throwing the head on the floor scene. I was tossing it light because it was a close up but Mike wanted to do it so he did one. Camera dude told him let me do it as his was way off mark. We got lot's of shots landing different ways. Mary (back in her dress now) came in for the crawling on the floor feeling for her head and finding it part. We didn't film the putting the head back on the dummy part and just went with her adjusting her real head now with blood line. She was damned good at improvisation. Everyone was damned good. I was freaking amazed at how good. Every damn body there rose to the occasion and I was proud to be a part of it. It may come off a little kitschy but that too is horror.
I'm also proud to be a part of bringing back the horror shows of old. I grew up on Sivad and reveled in Elvira. There was a line in it where Amanda has been attacked by the zombies and the Mary zombie speaks about how she thinks they are from MTV and that was what killed the drive in and Amanda laughs and says how MTV doesn't even play music anymore. I don't know what killed the drive in but I do know I miss it and all the horror shows and hosts of old. I was honored to be a part of trying to make it come back no matter if it fails or succeeds. I wonder what he has planned for the next episode and I hope he will include me. I will work like hell again and gladly. I love this ****.
The cast and crew with me in the "Take the cookies" T-
Amanda honey, take your hand away from there or my wife will break it.
