First 2009 prop in progress

I finally got around to starting my first prop today. I hope it will come out the way I am seeing it in my mind, I drew a sketch of what I wanted it to look like but it is already morphing into something completely different. It's a scarecrow type prop with a lot of influences from... who else... Pumpkinrot. I hope I am able to do his work some sort of justice with this prop, which is kind of borrowing several ideas from several different props. I don't think it will be too hard or take too long to complete, but I don't want to post any pictures until it is just right. Hopefully I'll have some up in about a week or so.

I keep wanting to use the word "Pumpkinrotish", maybe we can all get that one into the dictionary one of these days.

Friday the 13th on DVD

I finally got around to watching the new Friday the 13th movie the other day. I have to say it was pretty disappointing. I don't know why I was expecting anything other than that since it seems like most of these remakes have been the same lately. Oh well, at least all the annoying characters died.

Finally

The creative juices are finally flowing, and I'm about to start working on some new props starting Friday. I've been sketching some ideas, and making plans for this years haunt as they come to me. I'll just say that it's going to be a lot darker this year, which will be fitting for the name I have come up with. I shot some video of last years haunt, but never got around to putting it together and posting it. I hope to make a video for that haunt, and make a really good one for this year too. I'm only about six months behind schedule, but still think I will be able to pull off good things. Our new baby will probably be arriving sometime around the middle of October, so the haunt is going to have to be sort of low maintenance this year, but I still think it is going to be the best one yet. It feels good to be excited again.

Pinkerton FX

A friend of mine sent me a link to this place, and I thought they had some pretty cool looking work. It's a little cartoonish, but the more I look at some of it the more I like it.

I really like this "Horseman Skull".


Link to PinkertonFX

Motivation

O.k., o.k., I know I haven't done anything in a long time on here. I've had a lot of stuff going on since the beginning of the year that has kept me from posting anything on this blog, or building any props so far this year. Lots of work, training, kid's baseball games, school work, stuff like that. The biggest news is that we found out on Valentine's day that we will be having another child sometime around October 22nd. There were some complications at first so we didn't tell anyone because the doctor told us there was a less than 50% chance that the baby would make it. Long story short, everything is o.k. now and hopefully things will stay that way.

Needless to say, I haven't been very motivated as far as Halloween things go, but all it takes is an occasional visit to Pumpkinrot's What's Brewing Page to give me that kick in the rear to get started. Also, I visited my friend Ross over the weekend who runs the other big haunt (The Homestead Haunt) in our neighborhood and saw what all he had been building. Let's just say he has been very busy and I absolutely cannot wait to post some pictures of his work. I think today I might get in the workshop and at least get some materials together to start something and after that, who knows?

Hauntcast.net and "Gourdie"

I got an e-mail today from one of the guys over at Hauntcast.net today who wanted to feature "Grim" on the Mad Props segment of the podcast. Needless to say I was flattered that they would want to feature my prop, especially since I haven't been haunting but a couple of years so far. I thought you had to haunt for at least five years or so before an opportunity like this came along, ha ha. I was also glad to see that Chris Baker had made his own version of Grim, and actually had a video posted of it. I thought his prop turned out awesome and wanted to re post his video here. Thanks Chris, keep up the good work!


If you haven't checked out Hauntcast, you should!
Hauntcast.net

Procrastinating

So here it is a week into February, and I am already behind on my "one prop a month" plan that I was trying to do. I am starting to get that urge to build things again, but still need to finish organizing my garage/workshop. I don't know what it is, but before I can start any project everything has to be organized and in it's place. Once that is done, I get really motivated and proceed to start work and mess up the shop again in the process. It's just one of the peculiar things that goes on in this life of mine.

I am looking forward to future scenes like this one in the shop. This is another picture of my "Grim" prop when it was under construction...