Making DEVIL

Hey kiddies! This is my new Horror photograph, called DEVIL. After the gruesomeness of FACE and ISOLATION, I felt like doing something a little more playful.  This image was probably inspired by all of the lovely letters I’ve received telling me I’m going to Hell.

This photograph was shot in my studio.  I constructed a set with a floor that was raised three feet off of the ground.  My good friend Jason Coale, who works as a professional scenic designer, acted as supervisor. My friends Damien Vela and Matt Tady helped with all of the carpentry.  I met Damien through the Kansas City Horror Club. Matt is a fine art photographer specializing in Burlesque portraits. He shoots on a vintage Super 8 movie camera, and then prints on resin plates that he creates himself.  Demian and Matt also worked as production assistants during the actual shoot.  My best friend Kevin Sisemore worked as my first assistant during the shoot, and helped steer the enormous Hasselblad camera that was loaned to us by Digital Labrador.  

I drew out the shape of the crack on the carpet with a Sharpie pen.   Jason then cut out the crack in the floor with a jigsaw, carpet and all. The furniture was borrowed from my sister Sarah and my daughter Shiva.

To line the inside of the crack, we cut out separate cardboard rectangles and covered them with shiny red fabric. We nailed and taped the rectangles together into a position that would match the jagged contours of the crack.

Most of the toys came from my mother’s basement, and belonged to me and my sisters as kids. Others were borrowed from my daughters.  The angel drawing taped to the wall was made by my daughter Sade.

My friend Bob Barber played the Devil.  I met Bob through my Dad. Bob invited us to ring side seats at the cage fights that take place at The Whiskey Tango, just on the outskirts of town.  His amazingly thin physique, and gentle demeanor, struck me right away.  On the drive home, I told my Dad that I needed Bob to be a model in my photographs.  

I wanted my Devil to be fire-engine red, with horns, long pointy ears, and an arrowhead tail.  As archetypal as possible.  I wanted him to look like a child’s drawing come to life.  Bob proved to be completely game for anything.  I bought prosthetic appliances online for the horns, ears, and the bony nubs on his spine.  My buddy Jason Coale came in from St. Louis to apply the make-up for me.  He used an awesome air sprayer to paint Bob red.

Most people don’t realize this, but the Devil wears blue jeans.

I was counting on the fog machine to hide the fact that Bob’s fantastic make-up job did not extend below his waist.

I wrapped Bob’s waist in the same shiny red fabric that we used to line the crack of Hell.  The tail was made from a rubber snake that I swiped from my nephew Matt.  I removed the head and spray painted the body red.  I made the pointed tip of the tail out of cardboard, gaff tape, latex, and paint.  We used fishing line to puppet the tail into position.  I later erased the fishing line in Photoshop.  I still owe the boy a new snake.

When Bob and I were done with our dress rehearsal, we brought in my daughter Chloe.  It took hours to finish Bob’s makeup, style the set, and set up all of the lights.  Chloe had spent the evening in full costume, eating chocolate chip cookies, watching cartoons, and playing with Tiffany, Kevin Sisemore’s wife.  The crew kept referring to Tiffany as ‘the child whisperer’.

In this photograph you can see me giving Chloe her directions while standing in the crack of the floor.  I turned off all of the music so that Chloe would only hear my voice.  While my daughter Shiva appears in the majority of my finished works, it is Chloe that has the most number of hours clocked performing in front of my camera.  This is largely due to her starring role in my short film BLACK LULLABY. During that grueling shoot, Chloe would sometimes repeat the same shot forty or fifty times, getting it perfect.  While still a very normal kid, she has the talent and focus of a professional child actor.

Nobody on set that night had ever seen Chloe act before, except me. All evening long she had just been this silly laughing little girl, playing on the outskirts of all our hard work.  But when she came on set, she became instantly focused.  I asked her what she wanted to do. She made a face of dread.  I asked her if she could pretend to scream for me.  She nodded and said “Sure”.  I told her she needed to look absolutely horrified, and she smiled and nodded.  She got into position, where the light caught her perfectly, and cracked her knuckles.  It’s funny – that’s something she started doing when we were filming BLACK LULLABY.  Just before a take, she takes a deep breath, blows it out, and cracks her knuckles.  When she’s done, you roll.  Out of nowhere, Chloe went into this amazing pantomime of gestures, flexing her neck muscles, clawing her hands, mock screaming, even letting tears roll down her eyes from not blinking. My crew, to say the least, was floored.   As soon as I said “Good, relax”, everyone erupted into applause.  

Kevin Sisemore took this photograph of Chloe.  She is smiling in reaction to everyone in the room, Devil included, breaking out into spontaneous applause over her jaw dropping performance.

I tell you, this kid knows how good she is.

The next project is called BUBBLE BATH, and Chloe is again the star. You must come back to check it out!

---

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• My latest phone conversation
• Celtic Trail Journal: Day 3
• Slow Learner, Fast Learner
• The Biggest Loser – Red Line Circus