We Started Filming Today. :)

We started filming today. :)

Eyeless Mina and about 5% of my tools.

Sara and Jim, setting up the shot.

Little Mina could use some friends.

And that's a wrap! I can't even believe it. I mean...we're done? Seriously?

It's amazing how much better we got as we went along. By the time we were done, I was almost tempted to go back and reshoot the first scenes.

Almost.

The film has a completion deadline of December 1, which means the final product will be done in the next couple of weeks. I can't wait to see it! I also can't wait to finally get some sleep, which would be a nice change of pace at this point.

Here's Mina, waiting in the clovers for her big scene.

Thanks for all the moral support, everyone. And thanks especially to Dayna and Sean, who actually got their hands dirty with me on a couple of occasions. It made a huge difference!

Super Sculpey, Laguna clay, GM foam latex, armature wire, PAX paint, and Hydrocal, ~100 hours

In which I describe why there will suddenly be a lot more posts and why all of them will seem so similar.

Zzzzzzzzz...

It's 2am and I'm still not done for the night. But that's ok, just a few more days and all this will be over. Shooting starts on Saturday morning, bright and early, which means it would be nice if...oh, I don't know...my puppets actually had heads by then.

Because they don't.

So I spent 6:30-1:30 at the studio, patching and painting the puppets. I finished three of the nine completely, two more just need heads (a minor detail), and the other four need one more coat of paint before they catch up to their headless brethren. Which means that now, I'm going to sit here and catch up on House while I sculpt a half-dozen heads as fast as my little hands can go.

Oh, and here's Marion and Monster #1 for my mom, because I promised a picture days ago but didn't finish until now:

There were three things John Watson loved in this world: a good pipe, Sherlock Holmes, and their bull-pup Gladstone.

Super Sculpey, ~30 min.

Phew, what a day.

I finished painting Marion (she's fully sighted now, thank you very much) and actually managed to make one latex puppet today. YES. I KNOW. I was thrilled, too. It's far from finished--there's all the patching and trimming and fur-gluing and skin-painting to do--but at least I've proven that my molds can actually create puppets. So there's that.

To illustrate how time-consuming this process is (3.5 hours, just to do the part shown below), I've made a little photoseries:

After the figure is sculpted, the mold made and dusted with mold release, and the latex mixed (according to the particular warmth and humidity of your studio), you can finally pour the mix.

When both sides are full and the armature is in place, take a deep breath and squish the two sides together before it hardens/spills out the side.

Let it bake for 2.5 hours, then pry it apart with a crowbar or a screwdriver. Or, if you're hardcore like me, your bare hands. Before waiting for it to cool. (Ouch.)

Gently peel the latex off the mold. Swatting your friend's hands away when she tries to help is optional.

Trim off the excess latex with a pair of mustache scissors. Yes, that's really what those are. Yes, the latex fumes made that a lot funnier than it should have been.

And then you're done! Haha, just kidding. You're never done. But you do have something resembling the photo up at the top. Voila!