Making LAST STAND Part 1

Hi kiddies!  While I am saving the debut of my big zombie photograph LAST STAND until the Last Rites Gallery opening in NYC on Memorial Day Weekend, here are some fun making-of pics from last week’s photo-shoot.

We built our set at the 3rd St. Asylum Haunted House in Bonner Springs, Kansas.  My cousins Jerry and Steve Hoffine did all of the carpentry and construction.

Bill Rose and his girlfriend Michelle stayed up late one night to wallpaper my set for me.

Here you can see Steve and Bill measuring the shag carpet.

I filled the set with my gathered props.  Jerry Hoffine and Mike Clouse destroyed the door by jumping on it.

Here you can see me talking with J. Anthony Kosar, who drove in from Chicago to lead the make-up team.  Beside me is my regular assistant Demian Vela, and behind us is Colin, one of my drafted zombie models.

Kosar’s sculpted appliances were marvelous.

Meagan Hester from FACE/OFF Season 4 flew in from NYC to help Kosar with the make-up effects.

Kansas City make-up artist Jeff Sisson also came down to help.  Here you can see him working on my regular assistant Demian Vela, who was excited to finally be on the other side of the camera.

My lovely bride Jen Hoffine, who played the title role in LADY BATHORY, also played a zombie.

My favorite model Bob Barber is feeling better and came in to be a zombie as well.

Brian Wendling, the man walking the tightrope in my early photograph DEATH, played one of the zombies attacking my daughter Sadie.  Look how good Kosar did with his make-up.  Anthony is the man.

Brenna and her mom Rita work for 3rd St. Asylum and also helped with the make-up.

Demian with Kosar and Meagan, loving it.

My producer Justin Gardner.

My star A. Michael Baldwin on set, having fun.

Me with Brian and my daughter Sadie on set.

My brother-in-law Felix helping run camera.

My friend Erica Kauffman played the Mother character.  Here you can see Davis biting her arm as she reaches for her pistol.  And yes, that is a dinosaur.

Right now, for a limited time, you can pre-order prints of LAST STAND through my online store.  11X14 and 13X19 inch prints available for 20% OFF their regular price.  Act fast while the offer lasts.

And finally, a special thank you to our sponsors at Mehron Make-up, who generously provided make-up and blood for our little art project.

More about LAST STAND coming soon!

Photos courtesy of Anna Perry.

Corpse Bride

Hey kiddies.  I shot this for fun the other day.  My children have dubbed it ‘The Corpse Bride’.

I rented the corpse from BJ Winslow and dressed it up in a wedding dress that I found at a thrift-store.  I aged the dress and veil with Lipton tea. I rented the coffin from my friend Jerry at Have Guns Will Rent.  I borrowed the ring from my sister. I photographed my Corpse Bride in the garage, with black fabric as a backdrop, a single soft-box as the light source, and white foam-core to bounce light into my shadow areas. Here you can see me getting things set up:

It was fun to shoot something so uncomplicated.

Making JACK THE RIPPER

Hey kiddies!  This is the first part of my new project JACK THE RIPPER.

Conceived as a 2-panel diptych, JACK THE RIPPER depicts the moments “just before” and “just after” a grisly alleyway murder.  What makes Jack the Ripper so compelling to me is that nothing is known about him.  Because he was never caught, we have no actual information about who he was or why he committed his gruesome crimes.  What we have is not a historical or biographical portrait, but a communally imagined idea of Jack the Ripper as an aristocratic predator.  As a boogeyman, he graphically symbolizes the idea of the wealthy and powerful preying on the poor.

Unable to find an appropriate alleyway in Kansas City, I decided to build a set.  The walls were made from large sheets of styrofoam that we carved and sculpted to look like brick using a hot-knife and heat gun.

My cousins Steve Hoffine and his brother Jerry Hoffine help run a Haunted House called 3rd Street Asylum in Bonner Springs, a small town just outside of Kansas City.  They were kind enough to allow me to build my set inside an unused hallway in their Haunted House.

The part of Jack the Ripper was played by my friend Chad Hawks.  With his heavy brow and swarthy good looks, I thought he would be the perfect model.  And despite what he looks like in my photograph, Chad is one of the kindest, sweetest people you will ever meet.  He grew out his own muttonchops for the role, and flew himself in from Chicago to help me with my project.

The part of Jack’s victim was played by Celine Collins.  Celine is, in many ways, the real hero of this project.  She owns Monkey Wrench Clothing, and I originally drafted her to help make the elaborate costumes that I needed. She was already doing all of this costume work for free when I asked her if she would be willing to play the part of the victim as well.  Despite her shyness, Celine agreed, and gave me an absolutely marvelous performance.   Monkey Wrench Clothing specializes in corsets and steam-punk attire and shares storefront space with Retro Vixen on 39th Street in Kansas City.  You should definitely check her out.

Celine’s wig was styled by Ruby Von Blush.  Her make-up, for good or ill, was done by me.

My regular assistant Demian Vela was back to help me with this photo-shoot, as was my beautiful and talented wife Jen Hoffine.  She helped Celine add wire to Jack’s coat so that it would hold it’s position without the use of a windmachine.

Steve and Jerry Hoffine, as well as their friend Mike Clouse, came down on the night of the shoot to help run fog machines and spray atmospheric mist over my set.  The rats were plastic toys that I repainted.  I added whiskers made out of fishing line.  And lastly, the all-important top hat was loaned to us by my super-talented friend Damian Blake, who had previously played the part of Thurber the patron in last year’s project PICKMAN’S MASTERPIECE.

On October 1st I will release the second half of my project: JACK THE RIPPER 2.  It is by far the goriest image I have ever made.  I hope you can check it out!

See you next time!

Making PERSEPHONE

Hey kiddies!  This is my new project called PERSEPHONE, named after a figure from Greek mythology.  Persephone was a nature goddess who became Queen of the Underworld after being abducted by Hades.  The myth of her abduction represents her role as the personification of vegetation – which shoots forth in spring and withdraws into the earth in autumn.  When she is in the Underworld we experience winter.  And when she visits the world she brings with her spring, flowers, and the resurrection of life.  As both a Goddess of Spring, and the Queen of the Underworld – she exemplifies the tension between life and death.

My lovely bride Jen (Lady Bathory) returned as my assistant for this project, as well as my faithful friend Demian Vela.  We also worked with some new collaborators.  Rebekah Whitt played the part of Persephone, and her make-up was done by Shawn Shelton with Bandersnatch Studios.

The walls and archway of the set were made from plastic VacuForm panels that we painted to look like stone.  We built the set inside a factory near Robert Kurtzman’s studio in Ohio.  Kurtzman is a legendary make-up FX artist and the founder of KNB EFX.  He also wrote the original story for the movie FROM DUSK TIL DAWN and was the director of WISHMASTER.  Kurtzman introduced us to David Greathouse (House) – who created all of the foam latex vines that we wired and glued to the walls of the set.

Kurtzman also introduced us to Beki Ingram, who turned out to be the real hero of the project.  Jen, Demian and I were all enormously impressed as she spearheaded the enormous task of dressing the set walls with fake foliage and roses, which were meticulously glued to the walls, one flower at a time.

Beki has recently become a TV celebrity.  She is one of the leading contestants on the hit reality show FACE/OFF, which features up-and-coming special-effects make-up artists in a winner-takes-all competition.  The program airs on Wednesday nights on the SyFy Channel, and each week we are glued to our TV sets rooting for our friend.

Demian took a week off of work and drove 800 miles to Ohio to help with this project.  I think he was excited by the prospect of hanging out with Robert Kurtzman.

Me with our half-finished set walls.

We needed more space for our lights so we moved to another part of the factory to finish our set dressing.  Here you can see Beki, Demian, and Jen slowly dressing the set walls with green foliage.

We stole grass and sod from Kurtzman’s backyard and hauled it to the factory in the back of my mini-van.  I inserted fake arms (minus the hands) into the set floor.   I would have used the hands as well but they looked so fake that I cut them off.  We hung giant sheets of black velvet behind the set.  Black velvet and a fog machine are all we had to hide the fact that our set was built inside a factory.

Here is a lighting test with fog.

Two interns from Kurtzman’s studio came by to help on the day of the shoot.  Beki painted their hands and arms to match the prop arms on set.  I shot their hands separately and used Photoshop to graft them onto the fake arms that I photographed on set.  The out-of-focus hands in the foreground of the final image were photographed live in front of the camera, with the interns kneeling beneath the lens of my camera like puppeteers.

See you next time!

Making PICKMAN’S MASTERPIECE

Hey kiddies!  This is a recent project I photographed for Famous Monsters of Filmland Magazine called PICKMAN’S MASTERPIECE.

This sequence of images is based on a short story by H.P. Lovecraft called PICKMAN’S MODEL.  This story was originally published in 1927 in Weird Tales.  I was attracted to this project because of the character of Pickman – who in Lovecraft’s mythology is a brilliant but marginalized artist notorious for his horrifying artwork.  Due to the graphic and disturbing nature of his work,  he is shunned by his fellow artists.

All of this struck me as eerily familiar.

With limited time and budget, I chose to focus on the moment in the story when Pickman brings Thurber, the narrator, into his underground studio to show him his Masterpiece – his greatest and worst work – the one that can never be shown in public.

Instead of creating one heroic image, I wanted to create a sequence of images as if they were shots from a scene in an old Hammer movie.

The character of Thurber was played by Damian Blake, a talented performer and professional Charlie Chaplin impersonator.  He was able to provide his own vintage wardrobe and grew a handlebar moustache just for this project.  Here you can see Damian standing in for a lighting test while still wearing his coat.  The basement location was very cold.

The character of Pickman was played by my friend and regular actor Bob Barber.

My friend and regular assistant Demien Vela, as well as my lovely bride Jen Cogar (who played the lead in LADY BATHORY) acted as crew.  Here you can see Demien running the fog machine and moving the sheet into position using fishing line.

Pickman’s artwork was provided by fellow Horror Photographer Chad Michael Ward.  To see more examples of his work (which ranges from Horror to Erotica) check out his website at DigitalApocalypse.com

Thank you to Phil Kim at Famous Monsters for inviting me to shoot this project.  See you next time!

Making ROBOT

Hey kiddies! This is my new photograph called ROBOT. This time the theme is addiction and dependence, especially as it pertains to technology.

I began this project by acquiring the materials necessary to build a life-size Robot. I consulted with a local Steam Punk artist named Cliff Robinson, who helped oversee construction. Cliff taught me how to paint plastic objects so that they looked like metal. The body of the Robot was made from a baby bicycle seat and a diaper genie I found at a thrift store.

I spent weeks rummaging through thrift stores and flea markets looking for potential body parts. I used pieces from Tonka trucks and golf carts, grape juice bottles, tripods, plastic plumbing elements, flashlights, toy lightsabers, and knitting needles. Rivets were made by spray painting ‘googly eyes’ and then glueing them onto the body.

The head was made from an air humidifier, radio antennaes, and different Star Wars ships pieced together. We placed a small LED flashlight inside the eye so that it would glow. It was important to me that my Robot have one red glowing eye like HAL in 2001.

I recruited my friend and frequent model Bob Barber to play the part of the Robot’s willing victim. Bob has played the villain in several of my photographs, including DEVIL, BABYSITTER, and most recently KEYHOLE. But this is the first time he’s been cast to play the victim in one of my images.

We glued latex appliances onto Bob’s arms to create the oversized junky track marks.

I used eye shadow to accentuate Bob’s gaunt features and bulging veins. I used black clown make-up on his shirt so that we would appear to be covered in engine oil.

We attached metal rods to the Robot’s arms so that my assistants Matt Tady and Demian Vela could puppet them into position.

We used Fullers Earth to create the atmosphere of steam. Demian and I made a rig with an air compressor to blast it into the air. The grit and texture of the Fullers Earth looked more like steam than the smooth fog I usually use.

After placing Bob into position, my only directions to him were to look as if he were in a state of religious ecstasy. I removed the puppet rods using Photoshop.

I also used Photoshop to replace the yellow plastic syringes with actual glass containers of fluid – in this case Barq’s rootbeer. I did this separately so that I would be able to backlight the fluid and highlight the air bubbles inside.

After photographing Bob with the main Robot body, we photographed the Robot legs. Here you can see Demian positioning a leg with heavy guage fishing line. The leg was made from a weedeater, a Star Wars lightsaber, part of a tripod, an old fishtank purifier, and bicycle sprockets. By this point I had run out of money, so I made only one leg and photographed it in four different positions, adjusting the lights as we went along. I added the legs to the original photograph in Photoshop, completing the insect-like Robot design I was aiming for.

See you next time!

Making KEYHOLE

Hey kiddies! This is my new Horror photograph, called KEYHOLE.

What if you look through your keyhole and discover an axe murderer right on the other side of your door?

And he catches you looking?

For me, this image is about the mechanics of Horror. I wanted to create an image that would cast you – the viewer – as a character in the scene. I centered on the idea of having the camera look through a keyhole, believing that this device would establish an implicit P.O.V. perspective for the viewer. This image is about voyeurism, about seeing something that you shouldn’t, and worse – being caught in the act. In this image you – the viewer – are the incumbent victim.

This photograph was shot on location in the home of my friends Jon and Ron McGee, who were kind enough to allow me to splash their walls with fake blood, and leave indelible pink stains on their unfinished floors.

I made an oversized keyhole for the camera to look through out of foamcore, copper paint, and sculpey.

My friend Bob Barber played the part of the axe murderer. I had most recently used Bob as the escaped lunatic in my photograph BABYSITTER. My friend Patricia Castillo, who helped me with the make-up on BABYSITTER, returned to do Bob’s make-up once again. I had her shave Bob’s head so that he would look more like a business man, or maybe a banker, gone berserk. I gave him sock garters.

My stalwart friends Matt Tady and Demian Vela returned to work as my assistants. Here you can see our keyhole rig and some of our lighting. I placed a large softbox on the floor as my main light source. I placed a small hot light in front of the softbox to add a brighter, harsher light to Bob’s face. I used two clip-on desk lamps to light the rim of the keyhole prop.

I also placed small hot lights in both of the rooms behind Bob, and used a fog machine to add a little bit of atmosphere.

Matt Tady’s girlfriend Danielle played the part of the victim’s body, a thankless job. Luckily, there was plenty of wine on hand. She stretched out on the floor and then scrunched down inside the nightgown to make room for a severed neck stump that I stuffed inside with her. I then sprayed her down with fake blood. From the camera’s position, the illusion worked.

My sister Becky played the part of the victim’s head. Creating a replica head of Becky was beyond my resources, so I started out with an inexpensive prop head with a missing eye. I placed the prop head into position on my set, dressed it with fake blood, and shot it alongside my actors.

Knowing the face on the prop head was not nearly believable enough, I then photographed Becky as well. After matching the original shot in terms of lens, distance, and lighting – I splashed her with fake blood and had her act out different faces of death. I combined the two shots in Photoshop for the final image. The bottom part of the face, the shadow on the floor, the missing eye, the neck stump – those elements are from the prop head on set. The remaining eye and bloodied face are my sister.

See you next time!

Making BABYSITTER

Hey kiddies! This is my new Horror photograph, called BABYSITTER.

My friend Bob Barber, who played the title role in DEVIL, returned to play the part of the homicidal lunatic escaped from a mental hospital.

My friend Patricia Castillo came in to apply Bob’s make-up. I told her that I wanted a big gnarly lobotomy scar on the side of his head, held shut with metal staples.

She exaggerated the lines in Bob’s face, and whitened his skin until he was wraithlike and ashen, like a person who hadn’t seen sunlight in years.

She also added bruising and lacerations to his wrists for the broken handcuffs.

My friend Demian Vela was on hand once again to help me with the lighting.

My regular cohort Matt Tady helped me as well.

This photograph marks the debut of my eldest daughter Arinna, who plays the part of the babysitter. Arinna is 13 years old, and an amazing girl. She is charming, precocious, exceedingly bright, and a natural leader.

Arinna was a frequent model during my early years as a photographer. When I began making Horror photographs, it was her younger and more vulnerable sister Shiva that I used as my main model. As Shiva grew older, the role went to their younger sister Chloe. Arinna has always helped me behind the scenes, but this is the first time she has played a victim in one of my photographs.

The baby in the photograph is my niece Thea, who was also the baby in my photograph SNAKE.

The concept of the escaped lunatic appears in at least three of my favorite Horror films: BLACK XMAS, HALLOWEEN, and WHEN A STRANGER CALLS. There is something very vulnerable about the teenage babysitter – no longer a child, but not yet an adult – attempting to shoulder grown-up responsibilities.

Ultimately though, this photograph focuses on just one thing – what if something awful was waiting for you right around the corner?

See you next time!

Making LADY BATHORY

Hey kiddies! This is my new photograph, called LADY BATHORY.

Lady Elizabeth Bathory was an actual person. She was a Hungarian countess in the 16th century, and one of the most prolific serial killers in history. Apocryphally, she bathed in the blood of virgins to retain her youth and beauty.

The story of Lady Bathory serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of vanity, and comments on the current preoccupation with youth and beauty in our contemporary society – from the mainstreaming of plastic surgery and botox injections, to body waxing and even piercing and tattoos.

I wanted to create a contemporary version of the Lady Bathory legend. In my photograph, the bloodletting is depicted as a kind of spa treatment, with Lady Bathory wearing a green mud mask and cucumbers on her eyes.

This photograph was staged at The Foundation, an architectural salvage business in the West Bottoms of Kansas City. Patrick, the owner, donated an antique bathtub to use, and made this image possible by allowing us to build our large set in his space.

My beautiful girlfriend Strychnine Jen played the part of Lady Bathory. She was also an active member of my production crew, and spearheaded the enormous task of painting and scraping the dried blood grout lines on 2,420 pieces of white tile.

My friends and regular crew members Matt Tady and Demian Vela helped erect the walls of my set.

Here you can see Jen relaxing in the bathtub as I position the overhead light.

The more difficult role of Lady Bathory’s virginal victim was played by my friend Andee Hindery. She is an aerial fabric acrobat, and the only friend I have that could physically handle being hogtied and suspended from the ceiling. Andee’s roommate Rachel, also an acrobat (and a dominatrix), came in to teach us the complicated knots necessary to suspend Andee.

Here you can see Matt and Demian trying to figure out how to hoist Andee into position.

Once Andee was in position, we quickly brought in Jen and began shooting.

Although we had made a rig out of surgical tubing and an air compressor to pump blood through Andee’s slashed throat (a latex appliance), it failed to deliver the geyser of blood I wanted, so I decided to shoot the blood separately.

Here you can see Jen hard at work mixing gallons and gallons of fake blood. We got the recipe from a special feature on the movie SLITHER: dark Karo syrup, Hershey’s chocolate, and red food coloring.

I taped a mark on the tile wall to show where Andee’s neck had been, and then had Demian and Matt pour blood in countless different ways, trying to get the perfect blood pour.

Because the blood was photographed on my actual set, the lighting and the focus were a perfect match, so it was relatively easy to combine the frames in Photoshop. Although I admit, cutting it out took me a long, long time.

See you next time!

Making DEVIL

Hey kiddies! This is my new Horror photograph, called DEVIL.

This photograph was shot in my studio. I constructed a set with a floor that was raised three feet off of the ground. My 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 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, and then cut out the crack in the floor with a jigsaw, carpet and all. The furniture was borrowed from my sister Sarah.

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 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.  I bought prosthetic appliances for the horns, ears, and the bony nubs on his spine. My friend Jason Coale applied the make-up for me. He used an 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 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. 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.

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.

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 performance.

See you next time!