Grab Bag

Gore pickup for Scene 10. Shot in LA over Thxgiving.
Click here for video.













I had my cameo as "L.C." in the infomercial.

Check out "Killer War", the main KW2 theme,
by our man Joe. Look for more cuts from the
KW2 soundtrack over the coming weeks...

Busy times, indeed. Good times...

Dripping With Draper

Another busy few days here. Last night we shot a behind-the-scenes interview with Scott for the DVD doc, and it went painlessly. Scott took a list of talking points and responded to my prompts from there. May I just say that his insights were informative and well-spoken. No doubt his experience as an editor has turned him off to talking heads blithering uncontrollably for minutes at a time, then blindly stumbling towards something resembling an answer. Kudos.

I can't wait to hack into my existing edit and add his gracious contributions, which is why I spent today transcribing the dubbed tape and later digitizing the good bits. Problem is, they're all good bits. In the next week I begin splicing into my timeline and improving the movie tenfold.

One thing stood out as I shot it and watched it and typed it and rewatched it and dig'd it: Scott enjoys talking about our movie. He enjoys the sense of authorship and oversight. He likes shepherding Chris and I through the spiritual wilderness that is post-production. He likes the element of chance, "the jazz" as Mr. T would call it. And I think that's why I like Scott.

From our earliest collaborations with Bill Moses on, from the Hillbilly sketches on up through 'Dude, Where's My Boat?', Scott's never wavered when faced with a project that's at once time-consuming and profit-averse. He's never needed a reason to do it, which is why we make a perfect fit.

Asked in interview why he works these silly movies, Scott said: "Every time I pull out, (Matt) pulls me back in." Well, I would remind my friend that it was he who pulled me in this time. But who am I kidding; he just beat me to it. We've always seized on a mutual gravitational draw, like two binary stars spinning in formation, each waiting for the other to burn out.

Matt

KW2 Headlines

Update time. A lot has happened in the last few weeks, including holiday travel to and from Alabama, but now it's back to business as usual at the Wm. Moses H.Q. in sunny SoCal.

Scott Draper spent a lot of time in December working with an old colleague to punch out effects shots, mainly keying backgrounds. A lot of technical mish-mash, and time-consuming.

Elsewhere, Chris Merritt and I were coordinating a run of custom stickers for advertising purposes. Special thanks to his parents for footing the cash.

Costume honeypot Karolyn Mayo singlehandedly sewed a miniature version of the Pope wardrobe. This of course is intended for our littlest star, the Pope puppet (Poppet), and my, does he look dashing.

Speaking of dummies, I'm in the middle phases of completing one more, marking a change of plans. I've scrapped my initial notion of reproducing all three principals/puppets in favor of a funnier (and easier) solution. For now I'm keeping the specifics to myself.

Otherwise, I've spent my time editing, and of course writing on other projects. If it was ever in doubt, the "very thin behind-the-scenes reel" (as I've called it in an earlier post) has slowly become this sprawling gargantuan love letter to everyone involved. So, yes, it keeps me up nights.

Scott is in the next room massaging the real movie with even more tender loving care. Something tells me he likes to edit naked.

He outsourced one scene of the film to me for rough editing, and I was kind of nervous I'd screw it up. Worked extra hard on it. Pretty much passed it over to Scott yesterday, and am glad to be rid of it. So far so good.

And the last item: KW2 illustrations are now 90% complete and scanned. It took me a day to do all this, if you count the scans I did for...

"8-Toe'd Joe & The Army of Toes!!!" -- That's right! Making its triumphant return in a special retouched second printing, it's my 2001 comic book all about the real-life 8-Toe'd Joe and Pope and their absurd encounter with the Toe Army as led by Der Fuhrer Toe! Details later...

Matt

Doppelganger Powers, Activate!

Thanksgiving went by in a blink. Chris Merritt arrived one day earlier, and we wasted no time strapping on the work boots. When we finally got back to the William Moses Office Park (my apartment), I barely knew where to begin. So much to show and tell.

Chris took his first look at the now complete Poppet head, saw drawings, read logs, watched splices, and, with due enthusiasm, viewed the rough-rough cut of Killer Weed 2.

See, editor Scott cobbled together the existing scenes and plopped them onto DVD for Chris to keep and review. Chris beamed as he watched it, his gaze locked into the screen, and at the end, when he finally turned away, there was a definite fire in his eyes.

Over the holiday weekend we set out to accomplish a number of things:
1) a sound effects recording session
2) filming the slicing open of 2 blood-filled prop necks
3) a Chris Merrit interview for the behind-the-scenes DVD movie

We did the sound effects first, going to the grocery store for food to stab, chop, slice and dice and otherwise mutilate. That was Thanksgiving Day. At the end of it all, we three looked around and realized we'd pulverized every piece of grub in the house. And so, we had to go back to the grocery store, and again brave the long lines just so we wouldn't have to eat gum paste for dinner.

The neck-slicing was less cut and dry, as the whole ordeal from inception was experimental at best. Chris and I spent the better part of Day 2 dressing the neck and torso, mixing blood and generally getting things ready. Come showtime, the three of us bickered over the exact approach and probably spent a whole hour just staring at it. All in all, the neck sliced nicely and the blood spewed freely and everyone seemed happy.

One other gore pickup made the list, albeit on short order. An early scene in KW2 features zombies yanking entrails from some unlucky schmo. Though not absolutely necessary, we decided to pad this with an insert shot of a ripped-open belly, complete with ghoul hands poking around inside.

Unlike the necks (which were the product of months-long work and makeshift science) the belly-rip came together in the fever of a single day. I simply made a layer of liquid latex skin; added crimson cotton muscle tissue; then blood-filled condom organs; folded the skin over; and voila: one gut burrito. Chris taped it to my abdomen. Soon thereafter he and some volunteers ripped into the sucker for the camera.

Chris Merritt's last full day saw us switch modes entirely, from KW2 itself to the featurette. He helped me organize segments along a flow chart by category (makeup, cast, etc.). From there we built a loose structure, enabling us to visualize it as a whole and acknowledge the holes. The purpose of the interviews is to plug the holes.

Chris and I dressed a one wall set and before long he was rolling off sound bites. The interview played like a formal conversation under familar tones. And a great way to spend my waning hours with Chris without actually having to be social. I find non-Killer Weed matters trivial, and I was tired of hearing about his man-rash.

Matt

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