A Few Words On Nutrition

Woke up this morning feeling terrible, and it took me a moment to remember why. I determined that I must not have eaten anything yesterday, being far too preoccupied with KW2 matters. Completely forgot. I worked all day and night and nary a peep from my guts.

What was I doing all day?

In the morning I logged footage, Tape 051417, and wasn't that a blast. When I first started logging tapes 3 months ago, it was fun to watch the raw dailies because it was like finally being a part of the shoots. (As mentioned in the Production Report, I returned to L.A. after filming my few scenes.) But a man can only take so much rewinding and fastforwarding. I'm now intimately acquainted with every scene, every take, every mannerism and expression on record. And I took notes. Luckily, that was the last of our 18 tapes.

The next thing needs a little explaining. I ended my logging and moved directly into constructing a torso. When Chris gets here, one of the things on our to do list is filming a small gore supplement involving the slitting of duplicate prop necks. Correct, months back I scuplted these necks and fitted them with internal tubes from which blood should gush. The torso is simply a foundation for the necks, which are interchangeable.

Fashioning the torso basically meant combining found objects. The base is an applebox, the midriff a milk jug, and the rest is wire armature layered in bubble wrap. And it's scary convincing. Example:

Walked into my living room today and startled on seeing a short, hooded George W. Bush staring at me from the corner. In my weakened state I'd forgotten that Scott mounted the mask on the headless chest, leaving an eyeless and bloated Dubya looking like he just came from a Weezer concert.

So making the torso took a while, but not as long as you'd think. Working with metal gave me the itch to build another armature, so after consulting with Scott I shifted to creating a chimera. This is quite plainly a hood put over lights which, when combined with thick diffusion, soften shadows on actors. I made one way back early December '04 when we were starting production, but it stayed in Tuscaloosa. Since we're filming more than a couple gore pickups over Thanksgiving, and will continue to do so, I thought I'd better get a jump on it.

Well, what I must have got was more like a gravity-defying kung fu flying leap on it, because lo and behold, come 6 a.m. I was done. I'm not sure if it's because the new chimera is smaller than its predecessor or if it's because the wire is extra malleable or what, but it took 2 days less than last time.

Maybe last time I stopped to eat.

Matt

There's Something About Merritt

A lot has been going on. I've spent the last week or so alternating between the behind-the-scenes editing and Poppet construction. Editing's been met with a litany of obstacles, mainly software issues. A lot of solid sound mixing has been lost to export and playback issues. Countless hours wasted negotiating with the damn thing, lucky to get even 45 seconds onto these compilation tapes I'm making.

The compilation tapes, which are filled with raw outtakes, documentary footage and sweetened splices alike, will eventually be the source tapes for the actual DVD extras. Soon, all full composite tapes will be dubbed off and logged as a time-saver for Chris and I when it comes to the real-deal edit.

You heard right, director Chris Merritt's visit to our modest office/barracks begins next Wednesday Nov 23. He's chomping at the bit, naturally, since he has seen little to none of the existing movie. Scott's got the meat of the thing in-pocket, and the parts he'll let me see are nothing short of butt-shattering.

But although he'll lend a fresh eye and make some notes, where Chris may come in most useful is in helping me structure this behind-the-scenes garbage. By the time he arrives, I'll have done all the needed paperwork to make this thing cruise right along.

Matt

Red Team Go!

Post is humming along smoothly. I've passed the halfway mark editing the film, with a lot of the remaining tidbits consisting of shorter scenes and scenes that draw on material from KW1. All that remains then is to complete the matte work on the composites, render the effects shots, color time the scenes, and mix the audio. That last part is fun because it includes us recording foley effects in our living room with Chris Merritt over Thanksgiving. Send fruit.

As Matt has mentioned, our premiere date got thrown off a bit and we were forced to re-evaluate our time frame. The bright side of that is that it gives us some extra time to spend in post. I wish I could cut KW2 for a living, but fortunately for me I'm working a pretty grueling work schedule these days. Everyone involved in posting KW2 works in post-production professionally, by the way, which means they deserve mad props for sacrificing their spare time to make this a kick ass flick. I should mention Todd Beabout, who is the Combustion artist helping us do matte work. And who could forget Burke miles, motion graphics sensei and title sequence designer. And, of course, our very own Matt Stewart, who as you all know is tirelessly compiling making of sequences and gag reels to pepper the DVD with special features.

Who knows if Bill Moses will ever bother with a post-production addendum to the production report. Given the length of that depraved document, I can't say as I'd blame him. So I just wanted to introduce/thank the post production crew and update everyone on the progress. Trailer soon.

scott

Savor Our Flavor

Work matters have left me unable to concentrate as fully on puppet-making as I'd like. Grafting the clay onto the head form is a delicate process, requiring astute attention and countless hours of free time. Haven't had the energy for all-nighters, so the Pope puppet was shelved for a few days. It wasn't until the weekend rolled around that I sat down with it again, building up the cheeks and forehead.

Oddly enough, my return to work affords me an opportunity to initiate processes on the Luke puppet. There are enough stalls in the workday to where I can sneak away and carve out an eye socket before going back in to be exploited by the man. Still a long way to go on Luke, as is apparent with how long Pope is taking.

One thing I seem able to do at night after the long day's slog but before the hellish onset of sleep: Editing. Remember I'm compiling selected bloopers for Scott to tack on at the end of the movie. And I'm doing the same for a very thin behind the scenes reel. So I've spent a lot of time cobbling together the usable bits, trimming out the dreck and rearranging audio, making sure we only see and hear a minimum of what went on. I'm well aware that no one really cares how many tries it took to get a given shot, or how difficult a fake stabbing can be, so it's been a constant battle between what will connect to the average viewer and what I personally find interesting.

The latter category is getting unwieldy. As a vested participant in this ridiculous affair, I never tire of seeing all our hard work on display. But pecking away at it every night or so, it's becoming crazy apparent that displaying our hard work is hard work in and of itself.

Matt

Clarification on the KW2 Premiere

Didn't want to broach the topic until I knew more, but it's time to come clean about plans to debut the movie. Just weeks ago, my associates and I settled on what we thought would be the perfect date for premiering "Killer Weed II": January 6, 2006. This is the date posted on our website.

We arrived at this date after receiving some misinformation about when spring classes would start at the University of Alabama. Seeing as no one will be in town until almost a full week after the approved date, we've been forced to reconsider. Since Scott, Bill and I live on the west coast, and we can't justify spending a stretch in Alabama from pre-Christmas all the way to January middle, we've elected to chuck our original plans for the 6th.

Mind you, this doesn't mean nothing will take place on the 6th, only that the bonafide premiere will be closer to March when WMP can make it back to Tuscaloosa and do this thing right. Simply put, we're not content to pop this in the VCR for a slew of relatives or disinterested Philistines. We hope for nothing less than a potentially full fanbase. We want our crowd to be there.

The wait should be worth it; the extra prep will allow Chris to really go whole hog on ancillary stuff like door prizes and memorabilia. I'll have time to do right by the behind-the-scenes bits. And maybe, just maybe, Scott will have time to burn off saleable DVDs.

It's better this way.

Matt

Potatoes For Everyone

I've made considerable headway on the Pope puppet in the past several days. Finished the hair tonight, and it looks stunning if I may say so. Hundreds of individually applied strands of brown and gray clay went into the completed doo, blended into the fleshtone mask. Indeed, the whole face is now covered in pinkish skin, carefully rounded at the point where the jaw will connect.

At this point I'm clocking over a hundred hours working on this thing and am wondering how much longer my life will be devoted to reproducing Drew Tompkins' upper body.

Happily, my time is somewhat metered among the various divisions here at Wm. Moses Prods. Between sculpting and making prop necks (more on this later), I'm editing & writing. I've volunteered to assemble the outtakes and behind the scenes materials for the KW2 DVD, which so far has been sheer tedium. Also, look for more website content to come, like character and talent bios, loglines and much much more!

Matt

Clay Tastes Good

Now that I've got the simple mechanics of the Pope puppet up & running, I've started in with cosmetic alterations. The interior of the head consists entirely of styrofoam, which I carved down to the basic shape of actor Drew Tompkins' enormous noggin. I then sealed the styrofoam with mutliple layers of gesso, waiting 'til they dried before sanding to a smooth texture. After I had this shape and foundation I struggled to make the moving mouth. Now it's a matter of adding the 'skin' and 'hair'.

As unlikely as it sounds, I'm using oven-bake clay as my medium of choice for adding these outwardmost layers. Yes, I'm aware I can't stick a styrofoam head in the oven, no matter how much clay I've glopped onto it. I've allowed for this, and yesterday bought an embossing heat gun for hardening the paper-thin flesh-tone clay from a safe distance. Works great.

The end result for all of these dolls should be a smooth ceramic finish, complete with miniature costumes sewn with love by the sultry Karolyn Mayo.

Matt

Puppet Design for Dummies

This puppet-making business is slow-going. After a slate of trial & error I finally managed to secure the mouth in its socket, complete with a wire mechanism for moving it up & down. The original idea I had for this involved rubber bands and tiny hooks plus an independent lever for pulling against the mouth, but I found it impossible to insert the hooks while preserving the tautness of the rubber bands. So I arrived at the lever solution, with one end situated inside of the movable mouth and a fulcrum inserted inside the back jaw. The other end is manipulated at the back of the neck, via wire. Pulling down on the wire makes the puppet 'talk'.

I can't believe I have to make two more of these silly things.

Matt

Keen of you to join us...

Early pre-vis work on sc 22 [8TJ observation lounge].

Pastor of Muppets

Some photos to chart Matt's progress on the Pope puppet...
If memory serves, these first two were taken about a week ago.





























These two were taken this evening.
Matt rigging the mouth mechanism...




































scott